God's heart's desire for us to be sanctified

This is to respond to message five in ITEROS-HWMR
Topic: The Will of God—Our Sanctification

In this message, I got some reminders that both God and human need this mutual cooperation in order to make the sanctification to take place in us. 

 (1 Thes. 5:23-24)

“The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it". 

In these two verses, it is quite clear that it is really God's heart's desire to sanctify us completely, and from the message throughout the week, we also see God's multifold procedure to sanctify us and make us as holy as He is. And once He calls us, He "ALSO WILL DO IT". However, I am reminded that although God is faithful in His work to sanctify us, we also have to play a part in this process, that is, our cooperation. 

I think a lot of times I simply cast the responsibility to the Lord for Him to renew and sanctify me. Well, it is true that He will do it as He is faithful in His Word. But I realise I also have a role to play so that the Lord can gain my tripartite being. 

(1 Tim 4:7) But the profane and old-womanish myths refuse, and exercise yourself unto
godliness.

I have to cooperate with the Lord by keeping my spirit in a living condition. In order to do it, I have to exercise my spirit in order to preserve my spirit. 

(Jer 15:16) Your words were found and I ate them, / And Your word became to me / The
gladness and joy of my heart, / For I am called by Your name, / O Jehovah, God
of hosts.

I also need to exercise my soul to be filled with Him. I can contact the Word and muse upon Him. This will create a way for Him to permeate my soul. Then I will find joy in Him and my soul will be able to praise Him and worship Him.

(1 Thes 4:4) That each one of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and
honor,

I also need to exercise to live a holy life for the church life. Sometimes, I am quite careless in taking care of my physical environment, and I might be defiled by many things passively instead of exercising myself to run away from the worldly things. Then this can affect the enjoyment of the Lord in my soul and even stop me exercising my spirit to touch the Lord. 

So, it's a good reminder to me again. The Lord is faithful to sanctify us, and this is also His heart's desire to do so. But without my cooperation, whatever He tries to do in me will be in vain. I shouldn't be passive in preserving myself but to be proactive and exercise my entire being to live a life that can let the Lord sanctify us wholly. 

No more tears but joy

Whenever I walked by this place, I remember how my tears streamed down that day so that I had to hide in the forest and cried. During these months, I've been inquiring the Lord concerning the matter. If I were able to collect my tears, they must have already caused the flood.

However, when I happened to read the verse today, it feels like the Lord has gently left a gift before me.

Until now you have asked for nothing in My name; ask and you shall receive, that your joy may be made full (John 16:24). 

Of course, I have had a lot of prayers during the time, but today I enjoy how He has loved me and is willing to fulfill my joy because my joy has been one with His joy (John 15:7-11). So I emptied my thoughts from all busyness and paid attention to my inner feeling concerning what I really want.

I made a request that my joy may be made full, and I know that it is His joy as well.

I love You, Lord. Thank You and I praise You. No more tears but joy.

By the Spirit of God I serve

For we are the circumcision, the ones who serve by the Spirit of God and boast in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh (Phil 3:3).

I enjoy that 1) We're circumcised by Christ's crucifixion and thus have no confidence in the flesh. Therefore, I can forget about everything I perceive about myself, others, and the environment and simply press on to serve Him. My eye has to be single (Matt. 6:22). 2) The Spirit of God is the basis of our service. I need to seize every opportunity to focus on growing in life. Eventually, in all services, we boast in Christ Jesus and glorify Him.

Thank You, Lord, I can simply forget about everything I perceive and focus on Christ and pursue the growth in Life. By this I serve.

Oh Christ!

I've heard a lot that Christ is the reality and He is the answer to many things that we're experiencing. But recently I realised that my praises to Christ and my cooperation in living Christ are much to do with whether I have difficulties or not. When the outward environment is somewhat okay for me to endure, I can still praise Christ and endeavour to live Christ. 

So recently (over a couple of months) I felt that I've been suppressed by some troubles in my heart, and I had been praying a lot and spending a lot more time with the Lord. Talk to Him all the time. But somehow the things I was concerned just wouldn't let me go. It just kept coming back again and again and again. And I told the Lord, I've been telling people around me that I'm a Christian. it will not be a good testimony if I go crazy. I told the Lord the potential solutions that He can do for me. I'm not trying to interfere, but in order to get me out of the troublesome mind, perhaps You can talk to me, comfort me, and blah blah blah. 

But then the messages on day 1 and 2 (week three) really supply me. In John 14:19 Yet a little while and the world beholds Me no longer, but you behold Me; because I live you also shall live. Somehow my heart just melted when I saw this verse. I realised that Lord, I cannot live a life like worldly people do. The people in the world do not care about Christ. They behold Christ no longer, but I have to be the one who beholds Christ. And also it is my lifeline to behold Christ because it says 'I live you also shall live'. 

So then connecting to the message on day 1, the Lord just exposed me that I've been putting my love and attention to so many other things. They might be seemingly good, but they are not Christ. Lord, am I going to stumble people if I do this? Lord, shall I go to Germany for Your move. I think I should. Hum, maybe I need to publish papers like this and do research like that and I will find a job in Germany. And many many other things. But I forgot to behold and live Christ.  

'Living Christ requires that we love Him to the uttermost. As we are engaged in our daily activities, our living should not be those activities but Christ. Our mind should be concentrated on Christ, but the concentration of our mind on Christ depends upon our love for Christ. This is the reason that the New Testament charges us to love Christ. If we do not love Christ, we cannot live Him; loving Him is the best way to concentrate our entire being on Him...We need Christ to captivate us to an extent that even in our dreams we would live Christ' (The conclusion of the new testament pp.3486). 

So praise the Lord, He intentionally got me into these concerns so that I could learn that even my loving the Lord still pretty much fluctuates with the environment, and my living Christ has been shallow. I really really need to practise this. Loving the Lord with my full attention so that I can live Christ. 

The "Open to Him" exercise

For whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord's. (Romans 14:8)

My phone disappeared yesterday. I rarely dropped stuff so I don't know whether it was someone took it or I simply just being careless and dropped it on the road. Anyways, this morning when I woke up, the first thing I was aware of was the uneasiness and self condemnation about...my phone. I called upon the Lord's name and still felt bothered. Then I was reminded, "hey, I'm not even living to my phone, I'm living to God. I'm a vessel and I should simply open to Him." Yes, I'm a human being and will certainly be bothered by this. However, this time is for the Lord, and nothing should be allowed to disturb my time with Him. 

Having been divinely instructed

Now I come back to Matthew for my personl bible study. One thing interesting captured me.

And because they (magi) had been divinely instructed in a dream not to return to Herod, they departed by another way to their country. (Matt. 2:12)

But because he (Joseph) heard that Archelaus was reigning over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there; and having been divinely instructed in a dream, he departed into the regions of Galilee. (Matt. 2:22)

A fresh view concerning the things we ask

In most occations, we would think that prayers should be sheer in spirit because prayers are spiritual matters. However, this morning a fresh idea came in. Prayers should also involve our whole beings.

"Again, truly I say to you that if two of you are in harmony on earth concerning any matter for which they ask, it will be done for them from my Father who is in the heavens" (Matt. 18:19)

"These all continued steadfastly with one accord in prayer..."(Acts 1:14)

Many bible readers have endeavoured in exploring the secrets of our prayers get answered. Of course, the general concepts will be we have to pray the Father's heart and so on. I'm not forsaking this idea, but rather, I would like to add something more concerning our prayers get answered.

Our God is like a mother - the balance of my study, church life, and work

Before reading the morning revival message, I remembered a sister who's doing a full-time job and she has a baby girl. At a point, she felt the need to study post grad so there was one period of time (around 2-3 years) that she was doing a master in a new area and having a full-time job. Although her mother in law will help take care of the child, out of love, she didn't want to miss her baby girl's childhood. Therefore, she was dedicated to her study, her work, and spending time with her baby girl after work. 

In the end, half an year after her graduation, her thesis was awarded the best prize.

I think of this because I'm kinda struggling. I have a heart to take care of the juniors in the church life, but at the same time, I need to study. After September, I'll probably need to work. All these make me think how a Christian sister like me can experience God in all these struggles? I'm sure there are no definite answers because the riches of Christ cannot be exhausted, and only with all the saints can we apprehend the riches of Christ. So, if I experience it right, in the near future, I will be able to share my experience to those who also struggle to find a balance and we can all grow.