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Day 17

BE TRULY SANCTIFIED!

• WE MUST “FOCUS ON OUR SPIRITUAL CALLING” AS TOP PRIORITY



GOD’S WORD:   Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall,  and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean to have a “calling” from the Lord?

2. What does it mean to be part of the Lord’s “election” and who has already cast the final vote to win my election?

3. How can the Lord’s “calling and election” become more real to ME to the point I can understand and believe I never need to fall away from the Lord?

4. How and why might a “more defined focus” help inspire greater confidence in my personal relationship with the Lord?

5. How might times of personal fasting, meditation and prayer help me focus more clearly on my “calling and election”?

• WE MUST “SET OUR HEARTS” ON THE NEED FOR SANCTIFICATION

GOD’S WORD:   It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;  that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,  not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;  and that in this matter no one should wrong his brother or take advantage of him. The Lord will punish men for all such sins, as we have already told you and warned you.  For God did not call us to be impure, but to live a holy life.  Therefore, he who rejects this instruction does not reject man but God, who gives you his Holy Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What does it mean to be really “sanctified”?

2. How does the Lord view “impure and unholy lives” of his children?

3. How and why does “sexual immorality” stain my holiness and challenge my sanctification?

4. What are some other ways that my “flesh” can take control of my life to stain my holiness and challenge my sanctification?

5. What are some ways I might “wrong my brother and take advantage” of him because of his battle with the “flesh”?

6. What are specific ways I can best help my brothers to overcome the “flesh”?

7. How might times of fasting help to “set my heart on sanctification” to pursue holiness and purity of life in the Lord?

• WE MUST FIND “DEEP HUNGER” FOR HOLY SANCTIFICATION

GOD’S WORD:   They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. (John 17:16-19 NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What did Jesus mean by insisting he “was not of this world”?

2. What does Jesus expect of his followers when he insists that they too “not be of this world”?

3. How does “not being of this world” relate to believers being “sanctified” before the Lord?

4. How does regular time in the “word of the Lord” relate to spiritual sanctification?

5. What part may regular times of “fasting and prayer” have for my commitment to sanctification?

• WE MUST “ACCEPT CLEANSING” FOR OUR CONSCIENCE

GOD’S WORD:   The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean.  How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! (Hebrews 9:13-14, NIV)

REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What was the significance of the Jewish priests collecting blood from sacrificial animals and “sprinkling that blood” on worshipers?

2. How might I regularly approach the Lord for special cleansing during times of intense “prayer and fasting”?

3. When were some times I may have especially “emptied myself” for spiritual cleansing and renewal?

4. When might I have begged the Lord to “cleanse my conscience” from acts that lead to spiritual death so that I could serve the Lord with recommitment to radical obedience?

5. While it is not a biblical directive, how might the tradition of the historic church be helpful when believers ”fasted each Lord’s Day” until they had first receive the Holy Communion?

• WE MUST ALWAYS BE “AWARE OF THE DAILY TEMPTATION” OF THE FLESH

GOD’S WORD:   See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.  But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. (Hebrews 3:12-13, NIV)

 REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. How deceitful are “the temptations of the flesh”?

2. What seems to be the immediate impact of daring to “tamper with sin” even a little bit?

3. What seems to be the ultimate impact of falling into the habit of “tampering with sin”?

4. How can I best help others with their intense war “between the flesh and the Spirit”?

5. What “kind of Christian fellowship” can best facilitate such a commitment to the Lord and to each other as is called for in this passage?

6.

• WE MUST “EMPLOY SPIRITUAL DISCIPLINE” TO HELP OVERCOME THE FLESH

GOD’S WORD:  The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;  idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions  and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.  Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires.  Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. (Galatians 5:19-25, NIV)



REFLECTION-DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. What do each of these “reflections of the flesh mean: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, rage, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, envy, drunkenness, and orgies”?

2. What might be some unnamed sins that could rightly fall under the term “and the like”?

3. How dangerous are these kinds of “flesh sins” for the child of God?

4. What do each of these “reflections of the spiritual life mean: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”?

5. How important might regular times of fasting and prayer be for my “crucifying the sinful nature, living by the Spirit and keeping in step with the Spirit”?

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