If My People who are called by My Name • Deshen Daily

If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land (2 Chronicles 7:14, ESV)

The world is in crisis and chaos. The Lord spoke to Israel, giving them instructions on what to do if they face any form of calamity in their land such as famine, pestilence or enemy invasion. He tells us that He will respond if His people will pray, seek His face and turn from their wicked ways. Let us quickly some components of this verse to shed more light on them.

We are God’s people here today. God puts the outcome of what happens in the land on His people. Jesus said we are the light of the world and the salt of the earth. Do you know that if Christians were not present in this world today, the wickedness and sin on earth today are capable of total destruction of the world? There are things that are not happening today because Christians are still preaching the truth as light in a dark place and resisting sin and Satan. You might not have realized this, but there are certain things not happening in your home or neighborhood because you are there.

He continues and says His people should humble themselves, pray and seek His face. Prayer is a sign of humility before God. It is an acknowledgment of our need for Him. Christians across the globe are responding in prayer against the coronavirus pestilence. Who can tell what would have happened if there was no prayer response? The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man makes tremendous power available. When we pray as a family, a greater measure of power to command changes is released.

As we pray, He commands us to turn from our wicked or ungodly ways. Righteousness exalts a nation and sin is always a reproach to any people. This coronavirus pandemic will not leave the world and the Church the same. Many unbelievers will awake to the reality of God and coming eternal condemnation from what is happening. Many Churches will be shaken to the core and there will be a shaking off of what God has not planted. It is time for repentance and turning away from sin. Responding in prayer while continuing in our sins is the definition of what empty Christian religion is.

If we pray and turn from our wicked ways, the Lord says He will heal our land. Remember, the verse above was not addressed to the world, the ungodly. God is not asking sinners to pray against calamities, for that prayer is useless. He is not asking the world to stop sinning, for they cannot. There is one prayer He is waiting from the world, and one thing He wants them to do: accept Jesus and escape from the pollutions of the world. The commandment above is for His people. He is calling us to order. The current state of most of the Church is like a sick and frail doctor in a hospital ward with dying patients. May the Lord touch your heart, and the Church worldwide to respond not only in prayer but in repentance and turning away from our sins and ungodly practices that have made their way in amongst us.

MEDITATE

What do you think will happen if the Church responds in prayer but continues in our sinful ways?

APPLY THE WORD

What is the Lord saying to you? Have you been moved to seek God in prayer in these difficult times? Are there any sinful ways you are aware of that you also need to turn away from? The Lord says if we pray and turn away from our sins, there will a move of the Spirit that will not only affect us individually but the Body of Christ as a whole and the world at large.

PRAY

Pray that our hearts will soften and not hardened to respond to the Word in prayer and repentance as the Spirit directs us.

Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for I am the Lord your God. And ye shall keep my statutes, and do them: I am the Lord which sanctify you. (Leviticus 20:7–8, KJV)

Jehovah Mekaddishkem showing washing gloves, cleaning fluid and sponge

As the Great I AM that I AM, God revealed Himself as the Lord who sanctifies His people in the Old Covenant—Jehovah Mekaddishkem. But this was only a shadow of something greater that was coming in the New Testament.

Jehovah Mekaddishkem is the English transliteration of the Hebrew words for “I am the Lord which sanctify you” ( “mekaddish” = sanctify, “kem” = you). Divine names and titles in the Old Testament often reveal an aspect of God in relation to His people.

There are three keywords that underlie the meaning of sanctification: “wash,” “consecrate,” and “separate.” Sanctification essentially means to make something holy. Sinlessness is a core aspect of holiness, but there is more to holiness than sinlessness. It is the very nature of God. However, when used in reference to us humans, it means to be cleaned from sin, set apart for God, and consecrated to Him.

In the passage above, God tells the people first to sanctify themselves and then reveals He is the One who sanctifies them. Thus, He gives us the two sides of sanctification—the God side and the human side. There’s something God does and something His people do for their sanctification.

This truth was only a shadow in the Old Testament. It is in Christ that we see God fully revealed as Jehovah Mekaddishkem to His people through the sanctifying work on the cross. In speaking to the Corinthians, Paul revealed,

“And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.” (1 Corinthians 6:11, KJV)

This is Jehovah Mekaddishkem fulfilled in Christ: We were washed and sanctified. Note that these are in past tense, describing something God has already done. The day you received Christ, you received the bath of your life, a heavenly bath by the Spirit of God that removed every stain of sin through the precious blood of Christ. And as you continue to live on earth, the Spirit continues to sanctify you daily.

Following the sanctifying work He has already done in us, He commands us,

“For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication:” (1 Thessalonians 4:3, KJV)

Now that you are clean, washed, and sanctified, He tells us to put that sanctification to work outwardly. Paul explicit states it is what God wants—His will. He gives us a very specific example of sanctification here: abstain from sexual immorality. Few things defile us, like sexual impurity. But sanctification certainly includes more than abstaining from fornication or adultery. As above, it includes living a consecrated and separated life to God daily in the way we talk, act, think, feel, and handle our bodies.

He is Jehovah Mekaddishkem, the God who has Sanctified you in Christ and continues to sanctify you every day.

Meditate

Is our sanctification completed, ongoing, or both?

Apply the Word

This is the crucial part of this devotional. Until you receive the truth that God has already sanctified you by His Spirit, you will not be empowered to be sanctified practically. Put God’s sanctification power to work in your life daily by faith in the finished work of Christ.