Sanctification; preparation for prayer

Sanctification; preparation for prayer

To experience God and His answer to prayer,
we must be properly prepared.  Anything
opposed to God’s Will is sin, and sin and it’s effects in us hurt our efforts
to serve Him.  This is not in opposition
to our Salvation.   Those Saved by Jesus
alone are fully forgiven.  However, we
are still here “in the flesh”, still sinners, and still suffering the
consequences of our sin – all of the way up to our death or our seeing the Lord
return.  But even though we are still
sinners, we can approach God as someone already forgiven, under the Sacrifice
of Jesus’ Blood.

The role of sin in the Christian life is
important to understand, because though we are forgiven, our sin still has it’s
consequences.  Knowing how sin affects
our walk, and what to do about it, will make the difference between a
successful walk and a failing one.

This is not an issue in opposition to our
Salvation.  Those in Jesus are Saved and
fully forgiven, though still sinners.  We
are Justified now before God on the merit of Christ’s Sacrifice and constant
intercession on our behalf.  However, we are
yet in the flesh, and we still suffer the results of our sin – all the way up
to death or when Christ returns and we are Glorified in our new bodies.

Though we are sinners, as Righteous through
Christ we may now approach the Throne of God in the Most Holy Place in
Heaven.  We may stand before God in the
Holy Spirit, clean under the Sacrifice of the Lamb’s Blood.

All of these issues speak of the Christian’s
heart.  The Gift of the Holy Spirit is
for the express purpose of the transformation of our heart, and thus our
life.  All that we do and are flows from
the heart, and God’s primary concern is our heart and the results following
it.  The nurture of our heart and our
interaction with the Holy Spirit in us is our primary responsibility, and sin
is the obstacle standing in our way.

The nurture of our relationship with the
Spirit in us revolves around five things – the study of the Word to know the
Person, Heart, and Will of God; prayer to God seeking our conformity to His
Word; the deliberate pursuit of a holy life before God; our obedience to His
Word, supported in prayer made profitable through a holy life; and our joy in
obedience to God, bringing joy in experiencing Him.  All of these issues are common and are seated
in the heart.  If these are necessary for
our transformation to Christ’s image, and if our heart is centrally involved,
and if sin hardens our heart and so dampens our responsiveness to God – then
the only reasonable thing to do is what God already demands.  Examine yourself, see your sin in your
reflection in Scripture, see what you are to be, be conformed in obedience
under the help of the Holy Spirit, turn from your sin, and strive to be a
useful slave to Christ in the Kingdom of God.

See sin for the blight it is.  See its hindrance on your heart, the same
heart responsible as the source of yourself and your Christian walk.  Recognize God’s despise of sin. Strive to be
holy, for He is holy.  Strive and live to
obey His law written on your heart.

Confessed and Sanctified

Once Saved, our Lord Jesus sets out to refine
us, restoring all of the parts of us distorted under our sin.  We are forgiven, but it’s still a long road
to the Christ-likeness we will know when He gathers the Church.  For now, while still in our sinful flesh, we
are sinners who have forgiveness.

The key here is that we continue to disobey
in sin, and we must constantly turn in confession to our Lord Jesus, repent,
and receive forgiveness relief from the burden of our sin.  It is a mistake to believe that one’s
original confession at Salvation will automatically bring forgiveness
liberation from all of the sins we are yet to commit, without any further
action from us.  No, we are told that
we have been set right before God, adopted, and now have entered into the New
Covenant under Christ.

In His Covenant with us, we are allowed to
confess and repent of our sin, and receive that forgiveness He earned at the
Cross.  We have been placed under the
care of Jesus’ grace and priestly authority. 
But we continue to be responsible for confession and repentance, in
order to be relieved of the sin that affects our relationship with God the
Father, Son, and Spirit.

When we sin, the Word shows us, the Spirit
convicts us, and we respond in confession, repentance, and a plea for
mercy.  When we do this, Jesus always
responds – the guilt and burden of our sin have been hung on the Cross, and He
is always ready to say ‘It’s alright, this issue is behind us now.  Don’t do that anymore.  Let’s try it one more time.’

Standing forgiven, soft hearted, and humble
before the Father, He hears our prayers.  
His Will is that we would be confessed and Sanctified, or made ready and
clean, through Jesus’ forgiveness.