Chapter 195—A Refining and Sanctifying Force
I the Lord do sanctify them.
Leviticus 22:9
.
None but He who has created man can effect a change in the human
heart.... The human judgment and ideas of the most experienced are liable to
be imperfect and faulty, and the frail instrument, subject to his own hereditary
traits of character, has need to submit to the sanctification of the Holy Spirit
every day, else self will gather the reins and want to drive.
A mind trained only in worldly science fails to understand the things of
God; but the same mind, converted and sanctified, will see the divine power
in the word. Only the mind and heart cleansed by the sanctification of the
Spirit can discern heavenly things.
An earthly parent cannot give his child a sanctified character. He cannot
transfer his character to his child. God alone can transform us. Christ
breathed on His disciples, and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost” (
John
20:22
). This is the great gift of heaven. Christ imparted to them through
the Spirit His own sanctification. He imbued them with His power, that they
might win souls to the gospel. Henceforth Christ would live through their
faculties, and speak through their words.... They must cherish His principles
and be controlled by His Spirit. They were no longer to follow their own
way, to speak their own words. The words they spoke were to proceed from
a sanctified heart, and fall from sanctified lips.
We need the softening, subduing, refining influence of the Holy Spirit, to
mold our characters, and to bring every thought into captivity to Christ. It is
the Holy Spirit that will enable us to overcome, that will lead us to sit at the
feet of Jesus, as did Mary, and learn His meekness and lowliness of heart.
We need to be sanctified by the Holy Spirit every hour of the day, lest we be
ensnared by the enemy, and our souls be imperiled.
The light of truth is to shine to the ends of the earth. Greater and still
greater light is beaming with celestial brightness from the Redeemer’s face
upon His representatives, to be diffused through the darkness of a benighted
world. As laborers together with Him, let us pray for the sanctification of
His Spirit, that we may shine more and more brightly.
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