Devotions with Pastor Dick Guilfoil

Is God’s Will My Will?
“It is God’s will that you should be sanctified…” 1 Thessalonians 4:3
Sanctification is not a question of whether God is willing to sanctify me— is it my will?

• Am I willing to let God do in me everything that has been made possible through the atonement of the Cross of Christ?
• Am I willing to let Jesus become sanctification to me, and to let His life be exhibited in my human flesh? (1 Corinthians 1:30). “It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us wisdom from God --- that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.”

Beware of saying, “Oh, I am longing to be sanctified.”

• No you are not.
• Recognize your need, but stop longing and make it a matter of action.
• Receive Jesus Christ to become sanctification for you by absolute, unquestioning faith, and the great miracle of the atonement of Jesus will become real in you.

All that Jesus made possible,

• Becomes mine through the free and loving gift of God on the basis of what Christ accomplished on the cross.

• And my attitude as a saved and sanctified soul is that of profound, humble holiness.
• There is no such thing as proud holiness.

It is a holiness based on agonizing repentance,

• A sense of inexpressible shame and degradation, and also on the amazing realization that the love of God demonstrated itself to me while I cared nothing about Him
• Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

He completed everything for my salvation and sanctification.

• No wonder Paul said that nothing “shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” Romans 8:39.

Sanctification makes me one with Jesus Christ, and in Him one with God.

• It is accomplished only through the magnificent atonement of Christ.
• Never confuse the effect with the cause.
• The effect in me is obedience, service, and prayer, and is the outcome of inexpressible thanks and adoration for the miraculous sanctification that has been brought about in me because of the atonement through the Cross of Christ.

May God’s grace be with your and your loved ones this very day.
Pastor Dick