One thing I’ve learned so far on my journey with the World Race preparation process is that Adventures in Missions (the missions organization that sponsors the World Race) is an organization that promotes brutal, humble, honesty. They push us Racers to be completely and totally honest in our testimonies, stories, struggles, and triumphs. They want us to step back and completely tell the truth, without regards for our reputations, so that Christ can speak to others through our words and our struggles. So, if you’ll let me, I would like to partake in this honesty today. I would like to share a big piece of my heart, and of my life, and of my struggle, in my quest to be more like Jesus.
So, today, I would like to talk to you all about my path to sanctification through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. You see, I have already recognized that I am a sinner, and have received the undeserved gift of grace and my own personal salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus. I have been born again to a new creation: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). I am no longer who I was before I came to Christ-I am made new! The old me is gone, the new has come! My spirit and life have been regenerated; I have been, again, made new. “But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).
I have been given newness of life, and therefore, freedom from sin. “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:4,7). So, I have died with Christ, so that I would be set free from the power of sin. And, just as I have died with him, I too have been raised with him into newness of life, and freedom from sin. I am no longer a slave to sin, but of righteousness. “But, thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves to righteousness” (Romans 6:17-18).
I know these things to be true. I know that because of these things, I am a child of God. “See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him” (1 John 3:1). I know that I am made new, that I have been regenerated, that I have freedom from sin, and that I am a child of the living and breathing God. I know all these things to be completely and totally true.
I also know that I am still on my way towards the work of sanctification, which is made possible by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification is, at its very definition, the making of something to be holy, or set apart. At the cornerstone of our pursuit of sanctification is the fact that we don’t have to sin anymore; we are dead to the power of sin. “So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness” (Romans 6:11-13). These verses are talking about the fact that sanctification comes about through the presentation of ourselves to God, and to the world, as the new creation we have become through Christ Jesus.
Sanctification also comes about by submitting to the Holy Spirit. “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh,” (Galatians 5:16). Day by day we are in a battle against sin, and we are called to battle against the sin by submitting to the power of the Spirit in our daily lives. In doing this, we are supposed to abstain from fleshly desires. “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul,” (1 Peter 2:11). In order to complete this very work of sanctification, we must wage war against our fleshly desires. We must make no provision for our earthly desires, and make it our ambition to be pleasing to God. Day by day, we must renew our minds, and we must be careful in how we walk and live our daily lives. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2).
Now I bet a lot of you are thinking, “All that is impossible to do on my own!” And you would be right. But we mustn’t lose heart. Because the Holy Spirit is promised to us for this very work of sanctification. “Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God, and God in him. And by this we know that he abides in us, by the Spirit whom he has given us” (1 John 3:24). God has given us the Holy Spirit to help us wage war against the sin inside of us, and the sin in this world. Because apart from Him we can do absolutely nothing.
So this is the part of the blog post where I get completely and brutally honest. Because, as I have said before, I know that I am made new, that I have been regenerated, that I have freedom from sin, and that I am a child of the living and breathing God. But I don’t know that I am sanctified. I don’t know that I am made completely holy and like God. Because day by day I battle against my sin, and most days, it feels like I lose. Because some days I am more characterized by my desire to provide for my flesh, than by battling my flesh. Because it is hard for me to humbly acknowledge that it is God who has empowered me through the presence of the Holy Spirit to fight and win the battle.
Because most days I try to rely on only me.
And when I try to rely only on me, I will always, always, lose. Even when all of my intentions are good, when all I want is to kill the sin in my life, without the power of the Holy Spirit, I can accomplish nothing. The very reason we have been given the Holy Spirit is so that we could “live,” produce fruit, and grow in grace. We have been given the Holy Spirit so that we could become sanctified. That is the reason why God has given us such a marvelous gift, so that we would not have to do it all on our own. God knows that apart from Him, we can do nothing. And, slowly but surely, I am starting to grasp that concept as well.
So, I hope you learned a little something from the girl who is very nearly sanctified, and yet very nearly broken. I hope that God speaks through my words into your life, so that you too may realize that all you have is Christ.
Blessings,
Katie Rhodes
Want to know how YOU can help send me to three other countries to spend three months in each one? Just click HERE to support me on my World Race Gap Year trip! Thank you so much for your support!
