“Where is your card?”
I dug my hands into my bag and pulled out a rectangular hard paper that had my name written on it. Placing it on the table in front of the huge man who had a gun hanging on his right arm, he glanced at it, looked at me, raised the bar and asked me to go in.
That was it! Without that card, that gate pass, I’d be standing outside. No mercy.
You’ve attended some events where you had to present a card or you wouldn’t have been granted access, right?
Such events/occasions are usually BIG, such that no one would want to miss. But you would not be allowed in without that gate pass.
This is similar to a grand place, event and home that every Christian, even some non-Christians, look forward to going to: Heaven.
Who wants to go to Heaven? And every hand goes into the air. But the question that follows is: Are you prepared to go there? Because, heaven is a prepared place for prepared people. Jesus made it clear to us in John 14:1-3. And in Hebrews 12:14, the Bible tells us to, “Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which no man shall see the Lord.”
Holiness/Inward purity/Sanctification – that is one card you must hold to be granted access to see the King of Kings in heaven.
SO WHAT IS SANCTIFICATION?
Sanctification means to make sacred or holy; set apart for a holy or religious use; make free from sin; or to cleanse from moral corruption.
Sanctification is the second work of grace, salvation being the first. After a man is saved from sin, something else needs to be done for him to have an ongoing Christian life — the root of sin needs to be dealt with.
ROOTING OUT THE ADAMIC NATURE
There’s an illustration often used to explain this: If you had a tree standing in your compound which you desire to get rid of, what would you do?
“I’d cut down the branches and stem,” you may reply.
Fine. But what happens after a while when some nutrients and rain water get absorbed from that ground?
The root begins to shoot out some branches. Right?
I bet you would agree with me. That’s the same with the saved man. At salvation, the fruits and branches of sin are cut off. But as the days go by, that inward Adamic nature of sin starts shooting out, and you’d see yourself falling in and out of sin – struggling to remain saved.
SINFUL SPOTS MAR THE SOUL
God doesn’t want you to remain in that state. You’ll miss heaven if you’re caught in the web of sin when the trumpet sounds, or if death knocks on your door.
Yes, “for if at the judgement bar, sinful spots your soul shall mar, you can never enter there.”
That’s why you need this experience, this passport called SANCTIFICATION.
And guess what? Jesus has made the sacrifice for your sanctification; because He’s the one to perform that heart operation for you. “Wherefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people who His own blood, suffered without the camp.” (Hebrews 13:12).
But He’s not going to grab you, lay you on the theater bed and force His knife into your heart. No surgeon does that.
You have to present your body to Him.
How do you present yourself?
REPENT
First, if you’re not yet born again, start there. Confess your sins to Christ and ask Him to forgive you.
DESIRE
Second, desire this sanctification experience, and express your desire to God in prayers. Tell Him you need Him to sanctification your heart.
CONSECRATE
Thirdly, consecrate yourself to God. The patient that needs a surgery lies on the theater bed and leaves his/her body in the hands of the surgeon. He/she won’t dictate what should and should not be done. Surrender your life wholly to Christ saying, “not my will but Thine be done – in everything.”
Then Christ will come in, work in your heart,and you’ll never be the same again. That Adamic nature that pushes you into sin will be uprooted. You’ll be released to live a victorious life in Christ.
And yes, that “gate pass” will be right in your hands. When it’s time to leave this world, you’ll arrive Heaven’s shore beaming with smiles… Oh, how the angels would fling the pearly gates open when they see that “white card”, and Christ would pull you into His loving embrace, saying, “Welcome home, child. You made it!”
What a day, glorious day that will be.
Get your ticket now!
