Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath Desired to Have You

And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat (Luke 22:31, KJV)

Jesus revealed to Peter that Satan had asked to have the Apostles so he might sift them like grain. Satan has not stopped asking to sift people—especially those in ministry.  

Satan wanted to sift the Apostles, beginning with Peter. Sifting separates the valuable part of grain from the useless chaff, so when Satan sifts someone, he removes every virtue and makes them ineffective, or toho va boho. Satan attacked Peter using his denial of Jesus; He would have used the shame, guilt, and condemnation that followed the rejection to make Peter an emotional wreck. Had Jesus not prayed for Peter, Peter would have dropped out of the ministry and returned to fishing, buried in shame for the rest of his life. 

Satan has big evil plans for us, just as he had for the Apostles. He is looking for an opportunity to sift us using life’s ordinary circumstances. He might use sexual sin, greed, lies, mistakes, or any other weakness or fault to pull us into his sift and quench God’s fire in us using shame, guilt, condemnation, or fear. As I have taught repeatedly, the most dangerous spiritual warfare battles occur in our hearts and our daily circumstances of life; they are not in fighting or binding demons in the air or seas. 

We, therefore, have to be sober and vigilant because the adversary is moving around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

Read more: Beware of Satan’s Schemes.

Please take a moment to meditate on our verse above, replacing Simon with your name.

Satan knows how to use our weaknesses, faults, and errors in life to quench the fire of God through various vices such as shame, guilts, condemnation and fear. Be vigilant and put on God’s armor by having the assurance of your salvation, living in righteousness, standing on the truth, believing firmly in what He says, etc.

Pray for yourself and another believer who comes to mind now that their faith will not fail when Satan tries to sift them. 

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)

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.

Pray

Ask the Lord to help you in your daily walk of sanctification.

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