Author Topic: Fresh take  (Read 5488 times)

Offline jbeers285

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Fresh take
« Reply #25 on: October 24, 2012, 07:46:10 PM »
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So would say that the desires of the flesh have left you completely or is there still a battle with the sin nature?
I wish I had a simple answer to this question, but I think my best way to describe it is that there have been long periods of time (sometimes years?) where this has been true, but that it is not always true.  I actually hadn't really thought about this subject in a while before this thread came up, and as I've been thinking about it God has convicted me of an area of my life where my sin nature has seemed to have returned just in the last 6 months.  Thankfully I have not given into temptation in that area in the last month or so, but I have to admit that the desire has been there at times, and that alone is disturbing to me.  It means that I need to again die to self and allow Christ to fully live through me.  I am thankful for this thread bringing this to my attention, and have been praying for God to change my heart again to make if fully His again.

Is there something more I can do to pursue sanctification?
Unfortunately here I have bad news.  I do NOT know any formulas for achieving Entire Sanctification.  I have a really close friend who was vigorously pursuing it at the same time as my experience and who never felt like he achieved it.  Meanwhile, I was NOT really pursuing it and really felt like I did.  It still does not seem fair to me, and I strongly regret that my friend eventually fell away from being a Christian at all, partly due to his frustration at never getting the level of experience with God that he desired.

My suggestion would be to NOT strive for this experience in itself, but rather to simply strive to deepen your relationship with God Himself.  Continue learning about Him through studying His Word, prayer, and fellowship with other believers.  Continue sharing with him from your most inward thoughts and feelings.  Continue trying to make Him happy by living according to His will.  Listen to His voice in your life and follow it wherever it leads (assuming of course that it aligns with scripture).  If you are doing all these things, and God thinks it is best for this to happen to you, then He'll present the opportunity.

But don't think that it will be this wonderful experience either.  For me it was pretty traumatic really.  However I wouldn't trade it for the world :)

Thank you for your openness and for your encouragement. I ask that you would pray for me as I seek to grow in wisdom and understanding.

So even being entirely sanctified there are still moments of struggle and times of needing to be cleansed again?

I find myself feeling like this is a more realistic approach to the idea of Holy living. I hope that I can draw nearer to God and I hope that I can continue to grow in The Lord.  I find myself praying that God would help me to live according to His word, to seek Him with all my heart and that he would help not go astray and that I could dwell on His word.
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Offline Prof Underwood

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Re: Fresh take
« Reply #26 on: October 24, 2012, 09:05:00 PM »
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Truth is you always struggle with sin somewhere even just as a temptation, and you sin way more than you realize because we don't have a full capacity to understand what is and is not sin.
I understand why you would come to this conclusion from your perspective, but it is not what I believe to be true.  I believe that God has the power to change us so thoroughly that we no longer even want to sin.  This fits with my understanding of the Bible, and it has also been my personal experience for long periods of time in my life.  During those times, resisting temptation has NOT been a struggle.  Christ calls us to be perfect even as His Father is perfect, and Christ's yoke is light and His burden is easy.

Thank you for your openness and for your encouragement. I ask that you would pray for me as I seek to grow in wisdom and understanding.
I will be glad to pray for you in this area.  God tells us that if we ask for wisdom that He will give it to us.  So you're on the right track :)

So even being entirely sanctified there are still moments of struggle and times of needing to be cleansed again?
Again, this would depend on your theology.  My Christian brothers and sisters who believe in Eternal Security would probably dislike the idea of needing to be cleansed again.  However, within my own faith tradition and understanding, it is entirely possible for this to be necessary.  But when it comes to Entire Sanctification, I'm not sure that the whole cleansing analogy is the most accurate.  I think that analogy works more for salvation, and would choose something more akin to metamorphasis for sanctification.  C.S. Lewis talks about the idea of a horse turning into a pegasus, and although it is a painful process for the wings to burst out the sides of the horse, that in the end you have a whole different animal.  It is not just a horse that can jump a bit higher than before, but rather one that can fly.

I hope that I can draw nearer to God and I hope that I can continue to grow in The Lord.  I find myself praying that God would help me to live according to His word, to seek Him with all my heart and that he would help not go astray and that I could dwell on His word.
It's interesting that you mention growing in the Lord, as earlier in the discussion I was thinking about pointing to the passage that talks about how even Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature with God and man".  And your idea to seek God first is also Biblical.  If you seek Him first, then everything else will come right along.

 


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