Because our heart is changeable, it is not steadfast but rather blameable; therefore, the Lord needs to establish our heart blameless by renewing it continually, and He sanctifies us wholly and preserves our whole being complete!
Hallelujah, faithful is He who called us, for He will also do this in us!
Our heart represents our very being, and whatever the heart is full of, that’s what the mouth speaks.
Our heart is composed of our mind, emotion, and will, together with our conscience; our heart is the switch of life, for when the heart is turned to the Lord, life can flow and spread in all our inner being.
On one hand we need to exercise our spirit to contact the Lord, receive Him, and contain Him, and on the other hand we need to – at the same time – turn our heart to the Lord and have a pure, renewed, and warm heart toward Him.
If we only exercise our spirit but we do not deal with our heart, we become extreme; when we deal with our heart and realize that it is incurable, deceitful above all things, and changeable, and therefore we come to the Lord about our heart again and again, we will have the Lord infused into us much more.
In order for us to live a holy life for the church life, we need the Lord to establish our heart blameless in holiness; we cannot do this by ourselves – we can’t change our heart or improve our heart, but we can come to the Lord and open all the parts of our hearts to Him, and He can infuse our heart with Himself to renew our heart.
Only God is new; only God is the unchanging One, so when we open to Him and come to Him again and again, our changeable heart is made steadfast by Him in holiness, blameless.
According to our birth, our heart is changeable both in our relationship with the Lord and with others; sometimes during the same day we may love and hate someone at different times during the day.
We do not know what is in our heart, but when we speak we realize what our heart contains and what it is focused on. Oh Lord Jesus!
May we come to the Lord again and again regarding our heart, realizing that we can’t change our heart neither can we improve it, and may we allow Him to deal with our heart, work Himself into our heart, and saturate our heart with His very element!
Because our Heart is Changeable, it needs to be Renewed by the Sanctifying Spirit to be Established and Built up
There is no one – not even one person – who, according to his natural, human life, is steadfast in his heart; rather, because our heart changes so easily, it is not at all trustworthy (see Jer. 17:9-10; 13:23).
Our heart is deceitful above all things, and it is incurable; just as a Cushite cannot change his skin and the leopard cannot change his spots, so we cannot change our heart, neither can we do good by default.
But thank the Lord, the sanctification of the Spirit is the divine spot-remover, for by His sanctification, the Spirit renews our heart to establish it blameless in holiness.
Our heart is blameable because it is changeable; an unchanging heart is a blameless heart (see Psa. 57:7; 108:1; 112:7).
In God’s salvation the renewing of our heart is once for all; however, in our experience day by day our heart needs to be renewed continually because it is changeable.
Amen, the Lord gave us a new heart and a new spirit at the time of our regeneration (Ezek. 36:26), but day by day there’s the need of the renewing of our heart through both the discipline of the Spirit outwardly (for the breaking of the outer man) and the sanctification of the Spirit inwardly (for the addition of the divine element) – see 2 Cor. 4:16.
Because our heart is so changeable, it needs to be renewed continually by the sanctifying Spirit so that our heart can be established and built up in the state of being holy; our heart needs to be renewed to be separated unto God, occupied by God, possessed by God, and saturated with God (Titus 3:5; Rom. 6:19, 22; 2 Cor. 3:16-18; Matt. 5:8; Psa. 51:10-12).
How much we need to pray to the Lord and turn our heart to Him again and again as He exposes the real situation and condition of our heart, asking Him to make us pure in heart, to give us a new heart and create in us a clean heart, and to cause our heart to turn to Him again and again!
Whether we are young or old, whether we are new or not-so-new in the Lord, our heart is changeable; no matter how old we are and how much spiritual experience we have our heart is changeable and cannot be cured.
Older people are not more steadfast in their heart than the young people, and those who have more maturity in the divine life do not have a more steadfast than the young ones; rather, our heart changes so easily and it is not at all trustworthy.
Because our heart is changeable, our crucial need in our Christian life is for the Lord to establish our heart through the sanctification of the Spirit, so that our heart would be renewed, solidly established, and built up.
The Lord Himself seeks to establish our hearts blameless (1 Thes. 3:13), for He sees how blameable our heart is, for it is so changeable.
He wants to separate our heart unto Himself (this is the positional sanctification) so that our heart may be occupied by God, possessed by God, and saturated with God (this is the dispositional sanctification).
Through His sanctifying work God is establishing our heart blameless in holiness, causing our heart to be renewed and become steadfast, being established and built up.
May we cooperate with His inner sanctifying work, allowing the Lord to renew our heart daily as we turn our heart to Him!
As our heart is being established blameless in holiness by the continual renewing of the sanctifying Spirit, we are becoming the New Jerusalem with the newness of the divine life, and we are becoming the holy city with the holiness of the divine nature (Rev. 21:2; 1 John 5:11-12; 2 Pet. 1:4).
The inner sanctifying work done by the Spirit today in our daily living and experience has an eternal value and effect, for it makes us the holy city having the holiness of the divine nature! Amen!
Lord Jesus, our heart is blameable because it is so changeable; we come to You so that You may establish our heart blameless in holiness! Amen, Lord, we turn our heart to You; cause us to turn our whole inner being toward You so that You may occupy our heart, possess our heart, and saturate our heart with Yourself. We want to cooperate with Your sanctifying work so that our heart may be renewed continually, for our heart is changeable! Oh Lord, how we need that our heart would be renewed continually by the sanctifying Spirit so that our heart may be established and built up in holiness!
The God of Peace Sanctifies us Wholly and Preserves our whole being Complete!
1 Thes. 5:23-24 is such a wonderful portion of the word of God!
The God of peace sanctifies us wholly, and He preserves our whole being complete – both our spirit and soul and body – at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! Amen, faithful is He who calls us, for He will also do it!
Our God is the God of peace; the God of peace is the Sanctifier, and His sanctification brings in peace. When we are wholly sanctified by the Lord from within, we have peace with Him and with others in every way.
So we need to pray to the Lord that He would give us peace continually in every way (2 Thes. 3:16) and sanctify us wholly.
God desires to sanctify us, and He Himself will do it as long as we are willing to pursue Him as holiness and cooperate with Him; in this way we can be holy as He is holy (1 Pet. 1:15-16).
Without holiness we cannot see God (Heb. 5:16), so we need to open to and cooperate with His inner sanctifying work, so that He may sanctify us wholly.
By sanctifying us, God transforms us in the essence of our spirit, soul, and body, making us wholly like Him in nature; in this way He preserves our spirit, soul, and body wholly complete (1 Thes. 5:23).
Through the fall of man, our body was ruined and became the flesh (the fallen human being), our soul was contaminated and became the self (the person of man declaring independence from God), and our spirit was deadened (without any function, having no divine life in it).
But in His full salvation, God wants to save our entire being and make us complete and perfect.
For this, God is preserving our spirit from any deadening element (Heb. 9:14), He is preserving our soul from remaining natural and old (Matt. 16:24-26), and He is preserving our body from the ruin of sin (1 Thes. 4:4; Rom. 6:6).
Praise the Lord for His organic salvation and His sanctifying work! Such a preservation by God and His thorough sanctification sustain us to live a holy life unto maturity so that we may meet the Lord in His coming.
On one hand He is inwardly transforming us through a metabolic process in which our natural life is removed and the divine life is constituted into us, and on the other hand He is filling us with the divine life that changes us to bring us to maturity in life.
This preserves our whole being – spirit, soul, and body – so that we may be qualified to meet the Lord at His coming.
Quantitatively, God sanctifies us wholly; He sanctifies our entire being and brings us in His peace.
Qualitatively, God preserves us complete – He keeps our spirit, soul, and body perfect.
However, although God preserves us, we need to take the responsibility, the initiative, to cooperate with His operation to be preserved by keeping our spirit, soul, and body in the saturating of the Holy Spirit (1 Thes. 5:12-24).
Yes, God does preserve us and He does want to sanctify us, but we need to keep ourselves open to Him and cooperate with His operation to be preserved and be saturated!
Hallelujah, He who calls us is faithful – though our heart is changeable and we are faithless – and He will also do it in us!
Lord Jesus, we take the initiative to cooperate with Your operation to preserve our whole being and sanctify us by keeping our spirit, soul, and body in the saturating of the Holy Spirit! Hallelujah, God is preserving our spirit from any deadening element, our soul from remaining natural and old, and our body from the ruin of sin. Amen, Lord, transform us in the essence of our spirit, soul, and body and make us wholly like You in nature – make us holy even as You are holy! Oh Lord, we believe that You are faithful and that You will do this in us, and we give ourselves to You to cooperate with Your preserving and sanctifying work!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, msgs. 19-20 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Will of God (2020 spring ITERO), week 5, The Will of God – our Sanctification.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Oh, purify us, Lord, by speaking in our heart; / Thy living, spoken word this washing will impart. / Increase Thy speaking, Lord, and cleanse our every part. / Oh, purify us, Lord, we pray. (Hymns #1135)
– Lord, transform us to Thine image / In emotion, mind, and will; / Saturate us with Thy Spirit, / All our being wholly fill. / He transforms, all sanctifying, / Till like Him we are matured; / He transforms, our soul possessing, / Till His stature is secured. (Hymns #750)
– And 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. (Scripture song)
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