Stuck In The Middle 3

Today on Truth Matters with medical doctor Cheryl Davis, she completes her series on the three distinctive aspects of sanctification, the process of becoming spiritually mature in the faith, leaving behind a life compromised by sin. Now here's Dr. Cheryl Davis on the final episode of Getting Stuck in the Middle, the sanctification process of growing closer to God and living the abundant life. Fire can give life or destroy.

In the case of gold, it removes the impurities to deliver a more authentic product. It is the same way in our walk as a believer. The phrase, but he knoweth the way that I take, means that God knew us before we were knitted in our mother's womb, and he knows our inward thoughts and the very fiber of our being. Our experiences in this life are tailored to his divine plan according to the way that I take, meaning the pathway that I will have to walk down according to who I am based on where I need to be and at what time I finally decide to submit. When he hath tried me guarantees the process and the fire, or hence the struggle.

Trials in our lives are not random. They are allowed by God to develop within us Christ's likeness to set us apart for him. But in the church today, we are getting stuck in the middle. We are accepting Christ as our Savior and experiencing positional sanctification and becoming complacent. When we move into experiential sanctification and we begin to experience the suffering aspect of our walk with Christ, we are resisting the process and stunting our growth as Christians.

This teaching is not popular in the churches in America. We focus on the blessings of God and we assume that they will come surely from our position of being a believer. Being a believer positionally gives us eternal life, but experience, trial and suffering gives us relationship with Christ and releases the power of the Holy Spirit within our lives to live a life of holiness before him. Without the power of the Holy Spirit, we will live a defeated life wrought with sin that loses its authenticity and looks exactly like the world. That is why Christians today are experiencing some of the same issues as the world because of our resistance to experiential sanctification. We have settled for just enough of Jesus to make us blameless, but we have held on to our sinful nature, cutting off the power that the Holy Spirit so wants to give us, but our vessels are so unholy and unclean that the Spirit will not dwell within us. We're not putting away the world and setting ourselves apart to God so that the Holy Spirit can use us. The Holy Spirit through the body of believers is the lifeline of the church. Experiential sanctification is a rate-limiting step in releasing the power of the Holy Spirit within the church in the last days. We must submit ourselves to his leadership in our lives to allow him to cut away the impurities so that we can be an authentic witness to a lost world. Finally, at the end of the spectrum is ultimate sanctification.

It is that aspect of our final perfection and will be ours only in glory. 1 John 3.2 says, Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed when we shall be, but we know that when he is revealed, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. The end of the spectrum is when we come face to face with God that is mentioned in Ephesians. Ephesians 5 26 and 27 says that he might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of the water by the word, that he might present her to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. At the marriage supper of the Lamb, we will be presented faultless before God, and this is our ultimate glorification.

The end of the spectrum depends on finishing well. The middle is the means to the end, and Christ, the end will always justify the means no matter what. Whatever the Lord calls us to, he ordains us. He will use it for our good, just as he did in the life of Joseph. I urge you today to make the choice to submit yourself to God's leadership in your life and to allow the Holy Spirit to sanctify you. We, the body of believers, makes up the church.

The church needs power in these last days to present an authentic truth and gospel to a nation before it is too late. This has been Truth Matters with Dr. Cheryl Davis, where truth always matters. Dr. Cheryl Davis has concluded her series on sanctification with today's message.

We pray this series has helped you in your walk with Jesus, giving you biblical and spiritual insight into the process of being wholly sanctified and surrendering your will to God's will. If you would like to contact Dr. Davis, please write to her at P.O. Box 159, St. Paul's, North Carolina, 28384, or visit our website at ProjectTruthMatters.com. Dr. Davis is available to speak at your women's group, church, conference, or university. You can invite her at Cheryl Davis at ProjectTruthMatters.com. This has been Truth Matters, a production of The Truth Project, a last-day ministry of biblical truth.