“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;”
- 2 Corinthians 10: 5
God’s Spirit invades our lives like a conquering hero. He immediately begins His renovation process, gutting us like an old house and fashioning us according to His will and purpose for our lives. He does this through a three-stage process, which we call Justification, Sanctification and Glorification.
Justification takes place in our spirit in an instant. Our spirit, once dead in trespasses and sins, is born again. God fills us with His Holy Spirit, and we take in our first breath of the celestial air of eternal life. At this same instant, Jesus crosses the borders into our soul and the work of Sanctification begins.
Our soul – our mind, our will and our emotions – is where Sanctification takes place. It is a life-long process and requires much humility and surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit, as He perfects us from glory to glory (2 Corinthians 3:18). The Holy Spirit purposely enters the cerebral territory within us and unseats Satan from his throne in our lives. Then He starts the process of vanquishing the carnal flesh’s hold on us (Romans 8:7). We mature in our spiritual walk day by day, as God’s Spirit turns our motivation and desires from earthly lusts to spiritual passions.
Thankfully, He continues to conquer every temporal area of our mind, bringing them all captive to the mind of Christ (Romans 8:6). He humbles our will and makes it submissive to His. Then He heals our emotions from wounds of the past and brings them under the control of the Spirit of God.
One day, Glorification will occur. When Christ returns, we shall instantly exchange our earthly bodies for immortal ones and we shall be like Christ, because we shall see Him as He is (1 John 3:2).
Prayer:
Lord Jesus, helps us to step out of Your way and to allow Your Spirit complete reign in our lives. Make us more like You with each passing day and perfect us according to Your will.
Thought for the Day:
Christ came not to condemn us, but to give us life. We condemn ourselves by our unbelief (John 3: 17-18).
