Part 1: The Power of Sanctified Time
Genesis 2:3 (NKJV) Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.
The more I study the Word of God, the more I am blown away by His wisdom. It could be said that God is the ultimate authority on time management and productivity. Only He could create and organize a universe in six days!
What I find interesting is that before God ever sanctified a place or a people, He sanctified a time. God pulled out His calendar and said to man: “You get the first six days in a week, but the seventh day I want you to spend it with Me.” I guess the Lord knew how we can get sometimes. We get so busy in the mundane things of life that we easily forget the most important ones! Later on, after He redeemed His people from Egypt, He expanded His appointed times (divine appointments) to include His Feasts in which all males had to appear before Him in Jerusalem.
The point of all this is: God placed within our DNA the need to sanctify times for prayer, study and a host of other important things in our lives. What we do not schedule time for; we will never find time for. This is a Genesis Principle that seems to always work. We all have violated this principle to our own hurt. Now it is time to put this biblical Genesis Principle to work for you, instead of against you.
Step 1: Get a Daytimer or other type of scheduling system. You will find them at Wal-Mart, Staples or even many Drug Stores.
Step 2: Begin sanctifying time at the beginning of each week. Pull out your Daytimer and block out times for prayer and study. Consider these as “holy” times for you. These are times that you have appointments with God to either fellowship with Him or to learn from His Word.
Step 3: Be protective of those times. The enemy will do everything in his power to frustrate you and to keep you from your appointments. Refuse the tactics of the enemy and ask the Holy Spirit to give you the grace to keep and to use those times efficiently for the Kingdom of God. By the way, did you know that part of the anointing from the Holy Spirit is all about efficiency? Let’s end this tip with looking at Acts 1:8 from the Amplified Bible:
Acts 1:8 (AMP) But you shall receive power [ability, efficiency, and might] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends [the very bounds] of the earth.
Go forth and be efficient by the power of the Holy Spirit!
Part 2: The Power of a Sanctified Person
In our last tip, we dealt with the concept and the need for sanctified time in your life. Have you taken the lesson seriously? Have you been creating blocks of sanctified time in your life that belongs only to the Lord?
Remember, this needs to be a part of your spiritual DNA. Place it into your foundation and never allow anyone or anything to remove it!
The second Genesis principle I want to deal with is the next thing God sanctified in His Word: a person (which later became a people.) The individual that I am speaking of is Abraham, the father of us all (Rom. 4:16). God called Abraham to walk with Him and He separated Abraham out for His use in the earth. There are some interesting characteristics about Abraham that parallel our lives:
He answered the call of God.
God called him by name and he responded. We all have done the same thing – twice. First God called us by name to salvation. We asked that call and made Jesus our Lord and Savior. Second God called us by name into the ministry. If you are looking at BLCS as a school or are already a student, you have answered that call.
He believed God.
Not only did he believe God and entered into covenant with Him (i.e. salvation), he believed God about his calling: to become a father of many nations, to be blessed and to be a blessing.
In the same way, you must believe God that He has called you to accomplish something in the Kingdom. This is the call to ministry. Here is an important fact that also applies to you: Abraham could not become the father of many nations without the help of God. He could not do it by himself. Needless to say, he and Sarah had tried for many years to have children, but it proved impossible. If you can do what you think God has called you to do in ministry without the divine help, you don’t know what your calling is! God will never call you to do something that you can do without Him. We must daily learn to rely on His power, His leading and His provision.
Abraham had a call to learn and to teach. One of the reasons God chose Abraham was that he would diligently teach the ways of God to his children (Gen 18:19). How can you teach something you have never been taught yourself? Abraham did not come prepackaged out of the womb with the knowledge of God. He was a citizen of Babylon, had lived there all his life and was involved in the family business. What was the family business? It was professionally making idols for the citizens of Babylon! Abraham was thoroughly versed in how to be an idol worshiping Babylonian, yet God saw in his heart that he would be diligent about learning the ways of the one and only true God. Are you willing to unlearn everything in your life that does not line up with the Word and to diligently learn new ways of living in the Kingdom? If you are, then you are following the faith of our father Abraham.
3. Abraham loved justice!
In the world of greasy grace and anything goes, Abraham in a stark contrast. God chose him because he loved justice. Abraham had a balanced concept of justice and grace in his life. This is an important concept to that we must grasp. In this area, much of the Church is completely out of balance. The rabbis teach that when God created the heavens and the earth, He called Himself “Yahweh Elohim.” “Yahweh” refers to the grace of God and “Elohim” refers to His justice. In the creation of all things, God balanced out grace and justice together. If He hadn’t and it was all justice, Adam and Eve would have died in the Garden. If it was all grace, man would have forever stayed in his sinful state. (Cohen, Abraham, Everyman’s Talmud: The Major Teachings of the Rabbinic Sages. Schocken Books, New York, NY. © 1995. Page 17). Yet God extended grace to man by creating a plan of salvation. His justice required Him to give His own life on the cross to redeem us.
Back to Sanctification and Getting into Your Studies
Sanctification is both instantaneous and progressive. The moment we make Jesus the Lord and Savior of our lives, we are separated unto the Lord. At the same time, as we progressively bring each part of our lives in line with the Word, it becomes separated to Him as well.
So I am sanctified by the grace of God, but I am also sanctified by what I do (2 Tim 2:20-21). As I give myself fully to the study of God’s Word, I am working with the Holy Spirit to sanctify my life for use in the Kingdom. The level of diligence you develop in your study habits will manifest in equal levels of outward ministry! More study, more effectiveness. Little study, little effectiveness.
Using Your Anointing
Anything God sanctifies (or separates) for His use, He also anoints. Anyone called to the ministry has experienced the wonderful anointing of the Holy Spirit as you are ministering: whether in the pulpit or one on one. We love that anointing, we strive to see it increase every time we minister and we are so undone when it is not there. In ministry, we rely so heavily on the anointing that is on our lives.
But did you know that there is an anointing available that few ministers every draw upon or become proficient in flowing with? If you are called to God to be a minister, you are called of God to become a master learner as well (There are no exceptions, just different levels!). To the Hebrews, a master learner was the most honored position within their society. (Another word for master learner is a sage.) The Sages of Israel are respected more than anyone else. Why, you may ask? Hebraically, the highest form of worship is study! One is honored when they dedicate their lives for the purpose of learning how to walking with God. This is a part of your calling. You have an anointing from God to become a master learner. (1 John 2:27)
You need to strive to flow in the anointing you have from the Holy Spirit to become a master learner. It must be as important as flowing in the anointing to minister to people! If you don’t, it will forever restrict the level you can achieve in ministry. Paul told the young minister Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:15 (AMP) 15 Study and be eager and do your utmost to present yourself to God approved (tested by trial), a workman who has no cause to be ashamed, correctly analyzing and accurately dividing [rightly handling and skillfully teaching] the Word of Truth.
Why do you think Satan has fought you so hard in either enrolling or getting into your studies? Learning to flow in the anointing to learn will increase your anointing to teach and preach. You need zeal and knowledge. There are times that your zeal will dwindle and seem to dry up. It is your understanding and knowledge of the Word that will bring you through and reignite the zeal within your soul. This is why the writer of Proverbs tells us:
Proverbs 3:13-18 (NKJV) 13 Happy is the man who finds wisdom, And the man who gains understanding; 14 For her proceeds are better than the profits of silver, And her gain than fine gold. 15 She is more precious than rubies, And all the things you may desire cannot compare with her. 16 Length of days is in her right hand, In her left hand riches and honor. 17 Her ways are ways of pleasantness, And all her paths are peace. 18 She is a tree of life to those who take hold of her, And happy are all who retain her.
Start seeking the face of God about flowing in your anointing to learn! It is real, it is powerful and it will take you to the next level of effectiveness in ministry!
My Prayer for You
“Father, I lift before you every Biblical Life student. I come against every wall or restraint the enemy has placed in their lives to hold back the anointing to become a master learner. I ask that You would tear down everything the enemy has built! I ask that You would loose the anointing of a Bible student upon them and that Your Holy Spirit would make them master learners so they can fulfill Your calling and purposes in the earth. In Jesus name!”
Part Three: The Power of a Sanctified Place
Genesis 3:8a (NKJV) “8 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day…”
There are many powerful things that we can bring to light in this small portion of scripture:
God has a cycle of coming to fellowship with you. There are seasons of powerful visitation in the life of a minister. We look forward to that seasonal visitation, but we can so easily overlook the daily visitation that He wants to have in our lives. This scripture teaches us the importance of daily consistency in our meeting with the LORD.
The second powerful truth that is alluded to here is that there was a certain place within the Garden that God would come to walk and fellowship with His children.
This is the third in a series of teachings that I have been writing that can produce a powerful threefold cord of sanctification in your life. As you place this final block into place, you will feel resistance by the enemy. He does not want to you get all three into place! He knows that you will be so much harder to get stopped or even devoured from what God wants for your life.
David, Jerusalem and a Sanctified Place
As we read through the Bible, we see God coming down and visiting with His people. We have Adam and Eve in the Garden. We see God coming to visit with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. In fact, these three men would make altars or stones of remembrance at places where God visited them to mark the spots. I am sure they visited those places often to build their faith.
Then we come to a very special place to be sanctified. Israel had been in the land for a long time, in fact many generations. Yet we find that the land that became Jerusalem was never taken. By the time that David came around, folks pretty much had settled on the fact that it would never come under Israel’s control (kind of like today). But David sensed in his spirit that the LORD had placed His name on that series of three mountains. He was willing to go to war to gain the place where for centuries all men of Israel would be required of God to meet Him there three times a year (during the Feasts.) Not only did David have to win it through warfare, he then had to purchase a threshing floor to build the temple on. (One day I will teach you about the significance of the threshing floor.) Here is my point: We had a people that understood the power of sanctified time. They also knew they were a sanctified people that had an anointing to empower them to study, worship and pray. The final piece of the puzzle Satan could not allow them to have – a sanctified place.
Look at the power of what happened when all three came together. The reign of David and Solomon were powerful and Israel had a golden age. This age will only be surpassed when Jesus comes to rule and reign in Jerusalem for a thousand years. We call this time period the “Messianic Age.” What a glorious time it will be!
For many that answer the call to ministry, right here is where you get some real resistance from the enemy. You realize God is calling you to a time of prayer and study. You also realize that you are called to ministry and begin separating yourself for both. Satan will fight you tooth and nail from getting all three into place. Since most students (or even ministers) do not know how important all three are when they are placed together, are not prepared for the warfare that is launched by the enemy at them. The enemy is scared that you will place all three together and establish your own mini-Jerusalem within your home and ministry!
Here are some steps to help you fight:
Step One:
Sanctify time. Schedule time to get into the Word, to pray, worship and have fellowship with the LORD. Be consistent and MAKE THE TIME!
Step Two:
Sanctify yourself. Realize that God has separated you from everyone else in the world to use for His purposes. You have an anointing to ministry. You also have an anointing to pray and to get deep into study. Dedicate yourself to discovering and developing proficiency in all of your anointing!
Step Three:
Sanctify a place. Set apart a room or somewhere that can be clean, quiet and productive for prayer and study. If you have an office at home, make sure that it you have good lighting, comfortable chair, shelves for books, etc. Take anything out that would be distracting. That’s right, that TV has to go! Unless you are watching videos as a part of your instruction, get that temptation out of there that would take away from prayer and study. If you have problems with habitually surfing the web, turn it off unless you are researching something needed for your studies. Keep the place holy. If it does not facilitate study, prayer, worship, revelation, etc., get it out of there.
If you get into the habit of always meeting God in this sanctified place, always getting into the Word and hearing from Heaven, you will find over time that it becomes almost automatic. All you have to do is enter the room and you can feel your spirit rise up to pray, worship and study. This is why the devil is fighting you so hard. When you get to that place, the devil will have hell to pay. All you have to do is to walk into your sanctified place and you will hear from Heaven, the Word will begin to come alive and he can’t get anything in there to stop it!
So sanctify a place, a time, and become that sanctified person who God can use to change a generation!
