After October’s Intentional Season and Understanding Sanctification

Hey Family,

For those of you who were not aware, the Lord led my family into a Season of Intentionality in October, which happens to be my birth and wedding anniversary month (yes, I got married on my birthday, and my advice to anyone thinking of doing the same is this: you might always be one gift short 😂😂😂)

It’s been a wonderful Intentionality Season and a challenging one if I might add. The aim of spending quality time with the Lord, getting physically fit and growing in my relationship with my children all had their high and low moments, but the highs won as God will have it.

Here are a few testimonies:

• I have suffered some pain in my right knee for a while. Doing a 30-minutes exercise for five days in a week did wonders for that. The pain is gone.
• Drama Queen said to me one morning, “Mummy, you are very nice now” 😂😂😂😍😍😍 The Lord is indeed working in me a gentle spirit that has been noticed. There is still more to be done, but I am grateful for how far He has led me.
• My Heavenly Father said something to me yesterday that I have continued to ponder on: “You are doing well”. To be honest, I don’t know what He means, but those words have encouraged me more than anything else. To think that He sees my heart, even when I don’t measure up. He sees Jesus in me, that must be it. And I am grateful that He will stoop down to give me a pat on my back 😭😭😭🥰🥰🥰

It’s funny how a season of intentionality leads to a lifestyle of intentionality. This brings me to something that came to mind while reading a portion of scripture some days ago:

“I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification . . . But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.” Romans 6:19,22 (ESV)

Understanding Sanctification

I don’t think I have ever meditated on the word Sanctification. It’s one of those theological words that every Christian thinks they understand on face value, so we use it on many occasions in songs and regular talk, and many times out of context. As I read Romans 6 and those verses above, I know it was the Holy Spirit bringing it to my attention, so I took a moment to meditate on what I read and wrote this:

Sanctification is the transformation of the soul, the forming of the spirit, and the mummification of the body.

Transformation of the soul: “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 12:2. This is an intentional act. We cannot happen upon a transformed soul. By daily allowing the word of God do its work in us, by guarding the doorways of our soul (eyes, mouth and ears) and by humbly submitting to the will of God in thanksgiving at all times, our souls experience the transformation that leads to sanctification.

Forming of the spirit: “My little children, for whom I am again in the anguish of childbirth until Christ is formed in you!” – Galatians 4:19. The only way I can explain this is to liken us to a spirit-shaped vacuum that can house anything it likes. By allowing the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us, we consciously and intentionally step aside from ourselves and let Him take the wheel of our lives. The consistent surrendering of our will to His is like the hardening of clay to take the shape of its design, and then He, who is our Sanctification, is formed in us.

Mummification of the body: As I pondered on the choice of word, I was tempted to replace mummification with mortification, thinking that to be what my heart might have wanted to write. But on second thought, and by the leading of the Holy Spirit, I know mummification is the word and here is why: In many portions of scripture, including the one that used the word mortify, we are reminded that we have been crucified with Christ and are dead to sin. So if our bodies (flesh) are dead, then how do we reconcile that fact with the other that says our bodies are God’s temple? Hence mummification. We take these dead bodies, preserving them in that dead state to be the dwelling of the Spirit of God that it may not decay. 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 6:13 . . . the same righteousness that leads to sanctification.

These 3 definitions are not independent of each other. We cannot say that our souls are being transformed without Christ being formed in our spirit and without the mummification of our bodies as explained above, and we will never attain sanctification without all.

As my season of intentionality rounded up, I realised that what God was trying to do was set me on the path where it will not just be a season, but a lifestyle, where I will present myself to Him intentionally until all that He has taught me in this season becomes all that I am. And that’s how habits are formed, by starting and continuing diligently.

Will you become intentional towards sanctification?