“Sanctify them {to live in accordance with} in the Truth. Your Word is truth” – {John 17;17}
The Word “sanctify,”…”consecrate,” setting apart, is used of the Father setting aside the Lord Jesus for His mission in John 10:36. And the believers are set aside, sanctified, a word used for setting aside from the common, mundane, by God, to God, for God’s exclusive use. It is a privilege to be set aside by God not from the world but to be in the world for Him and His use! He uses His Word for our good, equipped by His Word to achieve His end! The Holy Spirit “Guides us” in His truth, illuminates it so we understand, empowers us so we can APPLY it and be being changing, conformed to the image of Christ and to daily live it out, being about His business…to Glorify Jesus Christ! -{Read John 16:13-14}!
God’s Word is our friend, yet the fight that goes on to keep us from it.
1.THE FIGHT FROM WITHIN US;
Such as spiritual laziness, or thoughts such as “you can’t understand it.” And “no,” we cannot in ourselves,“But God,…” who has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, enables us so that we can because of the Holy Spirit our residing Teacher within us, who “Guides us into all truth!” -{John 16:13}; Reminds us of Truth -{Read John 14:26;} He Inspires and Empowers us -{Read Phil 2:13}. We are not on our own! The evil one attacks our mind with thoughts of fear, anxiety, condemnation, accusation and always seeking to tempt you to turn inward and downward emotionally, spiritually if he can tempt, convince you to look at yourself and not at all you are “In Christ.” Read Ephesians 1:3-13 and note the phrases “In Christ,”… “In Whom,”… “In Him” and see what He says about you how He has blessed you and then you in turn can bless, praise “speak well of ” Him as is the call in Ephesians 1:3.
Answer the lie with Truth. Speak to yourself from the Word of Truth! That’s one way even now, you are using “The Sword of The Spirit.” His Truth. Good Job!- {Read John 16:13; 1 Peter 1:3; Ephesians 6:13}.
2. THE FIGHT FROM WITHOUT;
SEEKING TO SEDUCE US. The world’s system that is opposed to the Lord Jesus,and seeks to convince you to buy into their temporal values as of the highest goal for living! Jesus prayed to the Father, “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.“
Note, the Lord Jesus imparts the Father’s WORD to them and He imparts JOY to them, while the world imparts HATRED towards them. To His own He imparts His Word, His Joy to you and the world still responds the same imparting hatred! Understand the world, those without Christ hate you, they may tolerate you, but will hate who you are, what you stand for, because they are not His! Ephesians 2:1-3 says we too once were like that as are those now without Christ of their spiritual condition, “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”-{Eph 2:1-3}! They now, as we once were, are spiritual prisoners, in bondage to sin, spiritually dead in sins, deceived by the world’s system and dominated by the evil one, controlled, disobedient to God!
Jesus goes on to pray that the believers not be taken out from the world but kept, preserved and indeed empowered by His Word for the mission they are on in the world! Be encouraged He has prayed for you. Note- Jesus Imparts -The Father’s Word; His Joy; And Himself as He was on His way to the cross for them and you and me! And as a result of His resurrection, He imparts His Word, His Joy and His Spirit to you! {Read John 16:13-14}. You have all you need for the Divine Mission you are on! The Fight within, self. The Fight without- The world’s system. and…
3. THE FIGHT WITH AN EVIL FOE.
Seeking to kill, steal and destroy us. That is his agenda. Jesus said,“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”-{John 10:10}. The fight originates from the devil, who hates God, and opposed to anything of God and especially the souls of people! Hatred is evil and desires and designs evil against others! Though he fights, he is not “God,” he is not in control, he is a defeated foe! For the LORD Jesus defeated him on the cross and His resurrection proves it. He has given His Word AS YOUR WEAPON,”The Sword of the Spirit”-{Read Eph 6:13} for the spiritual battle, and He has shown you HOW He overcame the evil one. As a Man, The God- Man, when tempted, responded by using the Word, “It is written…it is written…it is written.” -{Matt 4:4-10}. The evil one sought to deceive Him to tempt Him to disobey the Father, by distorting, misrepresenting His Word. But we see Jesus handles the Word accurately and again uses the Word in the battle to defeat the evil one and temptation to act independent of His Father and sin against Him. And if He had sinned He could not have saved us as God demanded a sinless sacrifice to take our Place!
Jesus overcame using the Word of God. He shows us how we are to handle temptation to sin against God and overcome! Paul told Timothy, “Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the Word of Truth.“-{2 Tim 2:15}.
4. The Fight is a FIGHT OF FAITH!
But Be encouraged we fight from victory. The Victory of The Lord Jesus Christ,
“…seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us His by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.“-{2 Peter 1:3-4}
“And do not be conformed to this world, but BE {BEING} transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. ” – {Romans 12:2-3}
The means to being transformed, changed more and more in the likeness of Christ in our thinking and doings is through hearing and applying the Word of God, the Truth!
“Oh, the joys of those who do not
follow the advice of the wicked,
or stand around with sinners,
or join in with mockers.
But they delight in the law of the Lord,
meditating on it day and night.“-{Psalm 1:1-2- NLT}.
TRUTH TRANSFORMS… THINK ON HIS WORD,… YIELD TO IT…DO IT…
It will change the way you view of God, yourself, this world’s system, the people in it… it will change you for the better and for the Master’s use. Your life is of eternal significance and so are the souls of those whom you encounter!
God’s Word is not an ornament, but Truth to know and apply!
You have been set apart BY God, TO God, FOR God’s use!
You are one privileged person!