And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
John 17:19 NKJV
In the scripture above we uncover an intriguing concept about Jesus Christ.He is illustrating his objective and how he aspires to do it. Firstly he need to sanctify himself and only after sanctifying himself could we be sanctified by the truth.
Sanctify meaning –
To make holy; to consecrate; to set aside for sacred or ceremonial use. To free from sin; to purify. To make acceptable or useful under religious law or practice.
To endorse with religious sanction.
Synonyms
(to make holy) consecrate, hallow, consecrate
(to free from sin) cleanse, purify
To sanctify articulates sincerely to make holy that is, to disentangle from the worldly things and consecrate to God. He had to choose to be separate from earthly influence, programs and systems to fully engage in his purpose. From this interpretation, we can deduce that we can’t fully function for God if we are still surrendering to earthly beliefs, propaganda and cultures.
We have to be born again from earthly culture and start living on earth under the heavenly culture.
Decisions had to be made, he was set apart from the beginning, and as a redeemer of the world he had to prove that it was possible to live a Holy Life. I have come to figure out that as a leader, you have to take the initial act. Leadership implies being involved and being a stimulus for the changes you want.
We are to benefit from his living righteously by the truth of his words. Truth sanctifies, and the world needs the truth, innumerable blasphemies are moving around and multitudes are hurting from the wrong gospel. The truth has set us free, this is not a season for sugarcoating the truth.
The adversary is at war with the Truth therefore the church needs to pace carefully and be fully vested in the word of God. Exploring the word of God is very urgent this season. Living righteously is of paramount importance in our era!
Jesus Christ was baptized by John the Baptist as a seal of sanctification. John had no privilege to baptize him, but Jesus instructed that he was to go through with the formali=ty of publicly rejecting any relationship with a sinful life. It was only through his public declaration of freedom from sin captivity that his ministry was to begin.
Are you born again?
Were you baptised?
Sanctified means being made whole. Immediately after the baptism, he was taken on a journey to be tempted, for quality control. Every advancement in life compromises tests by a greater authority. The devil an earthly god came on his own accord to test the resilience Jesus had. Listen, pal, to change positions you will be tested.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Matthew 4:1 NKJV
To understand this we must go back to the word “holy” in the Old Testament. That is holy which belongs to Yahweh. There is nothing implied here as to moral character. It may refer to days and seasons, to places, to objects used for worship, or to persons. Exactly the same usage is shown with the word “sanctify.” To sanctify anything is to declare it as belonging to God. “Sanctify unto me all the first-born … it is mine” (Exodus 13:2)
Satan knew his kingdom was under attack the moment Jesus Christ was baptized. The moment John was baptizing him, the Holy Spirit came upon Jesus Christ in a form of a dove, and God was heard publicly declaring that he was impressed with Jesus Christ.
But John tried to talk him out of it. “I am the one who needs to be baptized by you,” he said, “so why are you coming to me?” But Jesus said, “It should be done, for we must carry out all that God requires.” So John agreed to baptize him. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and settling on him. And a voice from heaven said, “This is my dearly loved Son, who brings me great joy.”
Matthew 3:14-17 NLT
From the dialogue between John the Baptist and Jesus Christ we can witness that John made an effort to convince Jesus not to be baptised by him, yes he was not wrong it only made sense Jesus was too holy to pass through John. But Jesus knew the importance of baptism. Sanctification was part of his plan, he had to go through the sanctification process of priests and the Holy Spirit would be an indication of his anointing to the bystanders.
With the truth, there is victory and abundance. The worldly folks prefer to live in denial /contradictory beliefs. In the beginning, was the word of truth and in the end, still, the word of truth will be in control. I pray that God helps you today to figure out the truth written in the scriptures so we can live according to our purpose here on earth .
You are designed for sovereignty, this is no longer a time to whimper and accept a life of mediocrity. Old cultures and beliefs kept the human mind in imprisonment but Jesus Christ set us free on Calvary. Each and every shackle that kept us in slavery was defeated including death. We are on the winning side, I pray that you start living in Victory from today.
Apostolic Life 