(Introduction)(Dial.1)(Dial.2)(Dial.3)(Dial.4)(Dial.5)(Dial.6)(Dial.7)(Dial.8)(Dial.9)(Dial.10)

(Dial.11)(Dial.12)(Dial.13)DIALOGUE 14 (Dial.15)(Dial.16)(Dial.17)(Dial.18)(Dial.19)(Dial.20)

 

SANCTIFICATION

DIRTY_C: I would love to be holy, work miracles and understand God better than I do. I would really like to do things holy people do.

CLEAN_C: Not all saints work miracles. In fact, very few of them do.

DIRTY_C: That is not what I have heard.

CLEAN_C: Do you know what makes people holy or saints?

DIRTY_C: What is a saint?

CLEAN_C: A saint is someone who is totally dependent on God and on Him alone. Then, through His workings deep in the heart, man becomes alike to God in character inside and outside, till there is no difference between the outward and the inward part of him.

DIRTY_C: You mean that, only if someone is holy inside and outside he shall work miracles?

CLEAN_C: No, that is not what I mean at all. If someone walks with God that way, totally depending on Him, he is the miracle himself. The changed person is the miracle. Not all holy people are able to work miracles, but all are enabled to do God’s will.

DIRTY_C: You mean I can be that miracle? What is there that prevents me from being a miracle?

CLEAN_C: Unless you clean up your soul first, you won’t be able to become any kind of miracle. Only those who break down the wall that separates them from God are able to become a miracle as they walk. Now, you need to decide what to do through your life. As I said before, you wish to jump over the wall into the sheepfold. You are avoiding going through the door, which is much easier for your soul.

DIRTY_C: But, I wish I could have the strength and the courage to clean my whole life! However, there are some difficult sins I feel I should not confess publicly.  

CLEAN_C: I wish you would put them all in the light right away! There is nothing to fear besides the death of the flesh when we put all sins in the light. And the death of the flesh is a great motive to rejoice. It is not a sad happening. You should start right now and find out for yourself how easy and how exceptionally good it is to live in the light, even if the first stages are somewhat hard to bear. The peace we experience will encourage us, though. You should start right away. Just try, please.

DIRTY_C: No, not now. I am not ready for it. Besides, I don’t feel like confessing my sins before you. You are the only man of God I know who shall pray with me about my sins. My pastor won’t help me because he won’t accept such a doctrine. Tell me: after I cleanse my whole life I shall be holy? I shall be a saint?

CLEAN_C: No. As soon as you break down the wall sins made and which separates you from the Lord, you shall easily find the way towards total holiness. You shall be set on your way. You will find the way as soon as all sins are removed from between you and the Lord. “For He is our peace, He making us both one, and He has broken down the middle wall of separation between us”, Eph.2:14. Each sin in your past and present is like a brick in that wall. You should remove them one by one, just as you have committed them one by one. Even if you had committed only one sin, you would need to put that in the light. Only then will you find your way open towards holiness and consecration.

DIRTY_C: I thought cleaning was all there was to it. What do you mean I will be set on my way?

CLEAN_C: After you cleanse your whole life thoroughly, you will be able to walk the way God purposed for all of us. Nothing will be the same after you are fully cleansed. Nothing will feel the same either. You should be clean and forgiven by men and God, even though to be clean before men does not mean you should confess what man sees as sin. Many times man sees sin where there is no sin because of the way he sees things. Man has in mind only his own views and interests. You should know what God considers as sin and what not. And, after you are thoroughly cleansed. your way has scarcely started. Only then are you able to start it and to carry on in a narrow way and never get tired.

DIRTY_C: You mean that I still need to work hard after I have humbled myself before people? Why should I clean up my past and present then? Isn’t it supposed to make it easier for me? What is it worth then? I thought that would be the end of it! What is that humiliation worth for, then?

CLEAN_C: Only after you clean your whole life are you able to start to accomplish what God has in mind for you and, in fact, for all of us because God is the one who works things in us. If you are separated from the Lord by any sin, He won’t work it in you. Unless you are clean, you can’t start anything on that way at all. Besides, what you consider a humiliation at this point is not a humiliation for many. People feel sorry for their sins and, by confessing, they are made light and free of all guilt. They consider it a blessing and not a humiliation. And God demands that you confess to people and to God, just as He might demand from you that you confess any kind of sin with people. Not only to people, but confess with them. That is what happened to Job’s friends. God told them to go to Job so he would pray for the forgiveness of their folly. (The Bible says, “Confess your sins one to another and pray one for another... Brothers, if a man is overtaken in a fault… bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfil the Law of Christ”, James 5:16; Gal.6:1,2).

DIRTY_C: You mean, we should confess our sins as people do to a priest? Is it right to confess to priests then?

CLEAN_C: No, it is not right at all. The principle of authority of a priest is wrong. You may confess all your sins together with someone whom God hears easily. I can’t believe God hears idolatrous priests at all. The Bible adds that, “the prayer of a righteous man avails much” - not of an unrighteous one. James, the half-brother of the Lord Jesus, said it must be a prayer of a righteous man and not of an idolatrous one.

DIRTY_C: I would die of shame if I had to let someone like you know my sins. And what would happen if such you tell others what I had confessed?

CLEAN_C: The person who prays with you must be such a one who carries your sins as if they were his own. He must pray as if he had been the one who has sinned and not only you. If that person tells others what you have done, you cannot consider him as a righteous person anymore. And the Bible talks here about the prayer of a righteous person. You must seek and find such righteous people whom God hears easily when they pray for such an important issue as forgiveness of sins. However, I believe that if you do such a confession under the blessing of God, even those people who hear about your sins will have the impression and the awareness that you have confessed and that they should do the same. They will learn about the way and not about the sins. The way will stand out. They will have a practical way of set before them about what it means to walk in the light. Their eyes will see it clearly and God will urge them to see it the way they should. It shall be highlighted to them. And, the more people resist you, the more clearly they have seen it.

DIRTY_C: And why would God demand from us that our sins be confessed that way and to people?

CLEAN_C: Not to people, but with people. It is a commandment to walk in the light. You shouldn't be too proud to do it. However, it is a big step ahead towards accomplishing what God has in mind for us. We learn to be ourselves and to walk in the light right from the start. Most sinners are hypocrites and walking in the light has the power to undo hypocrisy and to untie it. It is a very good help to gain the attitude and the idea of what it is all about. The Bible requires of all of us that we walk in the light. The way we start to learn, if maintained, will help us kill our sins and slaughter wrong attitudes and bad motives from our whole life very easily. It is the best medicine against all sin. Sin will simply die that way. It really works if you are not sympathetic towards yourself. Light shows all, annihilates all by confessing all in details. We should learn to do it that way and practice its ways faithfully. Besides, God hears any righteous man or woman about anything – how much more about someone’s sins and broken heartedness!

DIRTY_C: Please, explain this better to me. I am still a little confused about it all. I still believe it could work much better some other way.

CLEAN_C: I think you are not confused at all, but rather unwilling to do it that way. Besides, you are just postponing things. It is not confusion you are feeling, but rather unwillingness. However, let me try to explain it in a better way. You recall Lazarus, the man who died and has been resurrected by Jesus four days later. He was the brother of a prostitute who anointed Jesus with a very valuable perfume, (John 11).

DIRTY_C: Yes, my pastor mentioned the story once. He mentioned the miracle.

CLEAN_C: When Lazarus came out of the tomb, he was bound with linen and could not move his arms and legs freely, even though he had been resurrected. We read, “And he who had died came out, bound hand and foot with sheets, and his face was bound with a cloth. Jesus said to them, ‘Untie him and let him go!’” Even if had been resurrected from death, he was bound and could not move freely. It would be a hard task for him to untie himself. When we talk about sins, it works much the same way. Jesus commands free and righteous people to untie us and let us go without accusation. That is what Job did to his friends. God would hear Job only. They confessed their sins and Job prayed for them. They went free and forgiven.

DIRTY_C: I understand. That is a good example you have given me. You mean there are free and able people who know how to untie us from our sins.

CLEAN_C: Yes, there are people who have that gift of faith. Jesus said that whatever any righteous man unties here on earth, shall be untied in heaven. However, that is not the only thing we benefit by confessing all our sins together with one righteous man or more people. There are more benefits to it.

DIRTY_C: What other benefits are there?

CLEAN_C: By doing so, we start to put in practice one of the pillars of a holy life: walking in the light. That also enables us to do the opposite of temptation when it strikes us.

DIRTY_C: This is confusing to me. I never understood walking in the light as you are explaining it to me.

CLEAN_C: Adam and Eve’s first action after sinning was hiding from God. We can easily assume the opposite of hiding should be the first action required to come to God and for holiness.

DIRTY_C: I can understand that.

CLEAN_C: They have erred by sinning. Yet, hiding was a bad consequence of their fears. Now, the way back to God asks that we reveal and expose. It can’t be any other way at all. It must be the other way round, the reversing way. We need to do the opposite of what they did! Exposing sin is the only way back.

DIRTY_C: This is a hard saying, isn’t it? It is hard to accept that it is the only way there is back to the Father.

CLEAN_C: Putting all in the light must be the first step one needs to take towards holiness. Even if thousands of people are looking and listening to our sins being confessed, we should put all in the light before them as if we are alone with God. God says that, if we do not reveal our sins, all shall be revealed any way, sooner or later. Jesus promised that, “There is nothing covered that shall not be revealed, and nothing hidden which shall not be known”, Mat.10:26. It is useless to have anything hidden at this stage. We should reveal it all ourselves. Why hide if it all shall be revealed, anyway?

DIRTY_C: It scares me to death to think that it is the way God’s judgment shall be! It makes me tremble with fear! Just think of it: every person shall see everything I did to them or thought about them! It is terrible! It is not easy to agree with God on such an issue as this.

CLEAN_C: God does not need you to instruct Him on how He must accomplish justice, does He? You should think of it before you had sinned and not after. Even if He needed some counselling, I don’t think He would receive it from someone who hasn’t cleansed his life thoroughly. But, we know He doesn't need a counsellor!

DIRTY_C: I understand. However, the thought of how it shall be in Judgment Day makes me think of asking God to have it done some other way with me! Will He hear me?

CLEAN_C: If you really wish to help God, you must rather do things as He purposed they should be done. You must let God advise you and help you out of sin by using light and its ways. God won't use darkness or its ways to do so.

DIRTY_C: Are you asking me to confess al my sins to you? Is that what you are aiming at?

CLEAN_C: No. But, I would love to have you fully cleansed and pure before God as a bride needs to be before her bridegroom. The way it happens doesn’t really matter to me, as long as it really works.

DIRTY_C: I understand. I don’t think you shall hear me confess all my sins at all. At least, I hope it won’t happen!

CLEAN_C: I really hope God gets a chance to clean your whole life and make it spotless forever, one way or another. I hope you won’t make it more difficult for you than what it is already. I will know about your sins sooner or later anyway, because God will judge all of us and He won’t do that in private. It wouldn’t change a thing if I heard about your sins now or not.

DIRTY_C: Better later than now! At least the shame is postponed.

CLEAN_C: It would be much better for you to reveal it right away though. By doing it now, God would work righteousness in you. You won’t find forgiveness in Judgment day. But, you can find it now. 

DIRTY_C: You mean I shall be condemned if I postpone it?

CLEAN_C: If you postpone it until Judgment Day or until you die, I am sure you will be condemned.

DIRTY_C: And what must I do after I have confessed all my sins to you?

CLEAN_C: You don’t have to confess them to me at all. You haven’t sinned against me, as far as I can remember!

DIRTY_C: I understood that part. But, suppose I confess all my sins. Then what? What comes after that? What am I supposed to expect?

CLEAN_C: When we confess all our sins by name, we will also learn the way to deal with each sin separately and individually. Besides, we learn that only through light can sins be annihilated forever. And they must be annihilated and not merely put asleep. Walking in the light is what secures holiness to us, replacing the annihilated sins with a new life and a new way of living. The future of our steps depends on how well we manage to walk in the light now and later. The principle of exposing and expecting salvation from those sins we push to the light, is the basic principle of a holy life. The foundations of holiness are based upon walking in the light. However, we should do more than expose it at first.

DIRTY_C: What else should we do?

CLEAN_C: One thing we should do right from the beginning is to do the opposite of temptation. I mean, if an arrow of temptation strikes you, you should know you must do the opposite of what temptation tells you to do. And it should be easy enough.

DIRTY_C: How so?

CLEAN_C: Let’s suppose you are easily tempted to steal. Under such trials, you simply give to people instead of stealing. Not stealing is never enough. The opposite of stealing is giving away. It shall open a new perspective to your vision of the new life.

DIRTY_C: Is that what you mean by doing the opposite? You mean, if I am tempted to say bad things about people I should not only keep quiet but rather tell good things about them? Is that what you mean?

CLEAN_C: You could put it that way, yes. Suppose you sit around with people who are gossiping about someone. You should tell those people they are wrong or wrong about the person they are talking about. However, if you are tempted to say bad things, you should think of some good things about that person and tell them about it. It will surely hinder temptation and might silence those gossipers. It shall hinder sin. “Love covers a multitude of sins”. If you have been stealing, you should work to give to people. That is what Paul says. “Let him who stole steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, so that he may have something to give to him who needs”, Eph.4:28. Not stealing shouldn’t be enough to any of us. To stop lying shouldn’t be enough either. We should speak the truth and not merely not lie. Keeping quiet and not lying is not enough - it is not, yet, speaking the truth.

DIRTY_C: Now I understand why Jesus said it was a narrow way. I just didn’t think it was that narrow.

CLEAN_C: Well, the degree of difficulty lies only in the unwillingness of the heart of man. The heart is not that hard anymore when man is willing to do the right thing the right way. The only reason why it is hard is because man is unwilling. As I said, you shouldn’t make it harder for yourself. It is difficult enough already. The more you delay it, the harder it shall become for you. Don’t expect that it shall become easier as time runs out. It won’t. However, it is not that hard when people are willing. If people are obedient, it shall be easy enough and their yoke shall feel as light as it is.

DIRTY_C: I understood that. You mean, I should do the opposite of what I think I must do. As I understand it, I don’t wish to confess my sins and I should do the opposite of it right now. I want to postpone, but should instead hasten it. Is that so? I should go against myself, deny my fears and expose myself fully.

CLEAN_C: That seems a good idea, yes. You have seen the point I am trying to put forth to you. You haven’t started the way towards heaven yet, and you already know what to do. Can you see you haven't started it yet?

DIRTY_C: I think I have already started my way towards heaven. I go to church every time there is a service; I read my Bible quite often; I pray. How can you say I haven’t started yet? My pastor says I am already a Christian.

CLEAN_C: I shouldn’t need to comment on that, should I?

DIRTY_C: What do you mean?

CLEAN_C: It is obvious your pastor shall agree with your attitude. Perhaps he doesn’t walk in the light himself. The Bible says, “Can two walk together unless they are agreed?” Amos 3:3. It is clear to me the two of you are agreed. It also says that “For there will be a time when they will not endure sound doctrine, but they will heap up teachers to themselves according to their own lusts, tickling the ear”, 2Tim.4:3. The reason why there are so many churches is, mainly, because there are so many different carnal ways people wish God to accept from them.

DIRTY_C: I am the one who shouldn’t comment on that now! You are offending me deeply again! I don’t think you are being nice to me right now!

CLEAN_C: I don’t mean to be polite and nice. I only mean to express truth the best way I can.

DIRTY_C: Why do you keep telling me my pastor is wrong?

CLEAN_C: If you would just clean your life up, you would easily understand what I mean. It is so easy to understand truth if we experience it. But, if you do not experience it and do not obey it, it shall be hard to have a good understanding of it. I don’t expect you to accept these points of view unless you clean up your life thoroughly. Why would you be held back and refuse to clean up your whole soul by confessing all your sins? Is it only because your pastor does not agree with it?

DIRTY_C: It is the way you talk that offends me. You hurt people, you are not nice to them.

CLEAN_C: Besides, if you clean your life, your whole church might benefit from the example and from the blessing God bestows on you as a consequence of being in the light. It will be a blessing for your church if you clean up your own life. You shouldn’t stop going there only because you changed your mind. Unless God tells you to go away from there, you should stay right where you are and be a light among your people. Nevertheless, I can’t find a reason why you are postponing it if your church does not practice it! It just doesn’t make sense to me! There are so many blessings attached to it and you keep refusing them all!

DIRTY_C: But, tell me what will happen to me personally after I clean my life the way you are telling me to do it. Can you tell me?

CLEAN_C: Being clean before man and God makes it possible for us to be strong during those trials and temptations that make us grow in holiness. That closeness to God is what makes us strong - not the trials themselves, at least, not in a direct way. And when you decide to do the opposite of temptation, you will be able to fulfil what you purpose. Then will you be able to purpose and carry out. You will be able to perform what you purposed in God. It won’t work as before anymore. You know that if you are not clean, you won’t be able to do holiness or any right thing at all, at least not in a constant way. And even if you get it right to do some things the way you ought, sooner or later you won't be able to do so anymore.

DIRTY_C: You mean I shall be driven to wrong doctrines and away from what I ought to believe?

CLEAN_C: Yes, that is what I mean, even though knowing about the right way is not the only thing we should be able to do. Doing is required of all of us who know. However, God requires even more than doing. And knowing is less than doing. And God requires more than doing. He demands of us that we become what we do, that we are what we do, and that we become such people who do His will in a natural way, as if it has always been our way. The Lord requires that we are what we do. God’s ways and commandments should be as natural to us as our breathing. We don’t think about breathing – we just do it! That is more than knowing or of forcing ourselves to do so. If we do not become such people, we shall be of the kind that looks back easily and be cursed as Loth’s wife has been. Or, we won’t be aware of God leaving us as happened to Samson.

DIRTY_C: I understand. Loth’s wife was turned into a salt pillar, right?

CLEAN_C: Yes, she was, (Gen.19:26). And not even Abraham’s prayers hindered it, (Gen.18:16-33).

DIRTY_C: It seems strange that she had looked back after the angels told her not to look back.

CLEAN_C: Yes, that is what happens to any person who is not in a continual fellowship with God. And having any sin between us and God will surely kill the fellowship with Him and God shall be absent. May we be able to be aware of His absence! Many people leave novels and fantasies behind, and they don’t see the need to have their hearts changed. If the heart still reasons according to the old ways - even if it has left all rubbish behind - it shall sooner or later, one way or another fall back into some kind of trap. Many stop drinking with friends, and yet, they still tell jokes which God is not pleased with. Unfortunately, they leave the door open to sin. Sin shall always be at the door if we do not do the right thing. (Gen.4:7)

DIRTY_C: And that is why people easily and eventually become salt pillars?

CLEAN_C: Yes, I believe so. They should not rest until their whole heart is changed for real. It must change as well. Now that they have left illusions, they should gain a new heart which thinks according to the new ways the Lord entrusted to them. They should never keep the old heart in them anymore. They cannot afford to do so.

DIRTY_C: If that is true, then I am not only a salt pillar! I am a salt tower!

CLEAN_C: If you say so! The amazing part about this is that you seem not to fear becoming a salt pillar at all.  Why don’t you clean your life right away?

DIRTY_C: After I clean up I will be a holy man?

CLEAN_C: No, probably not. But, you will easily know how to become holy. There is a way to become holy, Deciding to be holy is very short. It shall work differently then. You should not postpone this first step one second more! Cleaning yourself will turn your way light and your yoke very soft. Then - and only then - shall you be able to finish the way you have started to experience. It shall become easy to persevere and to end the work that has been started in you!

DIRTY_C: What do you mean by finishing the work in me? Didn’t Christ cry out and say “It is finished”?

CLEAN_C: Everything starts when we are able to accept Christ and His way to comply ourselves to them. Then, we can easily become holy and fully sanctified. Paul said: “Follow sanctification, without which no one shall see the Lord”, Heb.12:14. And he was talking to revival Christians there, surely.

DIRTY_C: I understand. In other words, cleaning ourselves is the way to start and not the end of the race.

CLEAN_C: Yes, it is. By being cleansed, we shall be allowed into God’s will and, most especially, into the ways and means to accomplish it to the end. Cleaning our lives is the only way to start. In fact, we won’t be able to start carrying out God’s will any other way at all.   

DIRTY_C: And what is God’s will for us?

CLEAN_C: Sanctification, for example, is God’s will for us.  “This is God’s will, even your sanctification”, 1 Thes.4:3.

DIRTY_C: What is sanctification?

CLEAN_C: Sanctification is when our actions and members are able to perform in a natural way whatever is inside a justified heart. A justified heart is a heart made just and righteous through a new birth. Our mind and everything else we have in us are used to old habits and old ways. We think according to the old way, reason the old way, talk the old way and do most things the way we were used to. Now that we become changed for real inside, we need to teach our whole being to live and to be according to what our heart has been changed into. A sanctified person is someone who is new inside and his outside is according to it in a natural way. If God fills us with virtues inside, sanctification is living according to them as if we have never lived any other way before. We need to reach that point where God’s life is our life. However, we should change ourselves from inside first. And that starts happening only when God cleans our soul and fills us with Himself. 

DIRTY_C: So, you are sure I need to clean up before I can be allowed into God’s will for my life, into sanctification?

CLEAN_C: Yes, I am sure of that. You need to clean up before you can know what God's will is and before you can think of being fit and enabled to carry it out in a faithful way. “And a highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called, The Way of Holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it. But He shall be with them; the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err in it”, Is.35:8. If you do not clean up your whole life, past and present, you can’t have free access to God’s will and neither get to the means to accomplish it. Jesus said once: “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord! Lord! shall enter the kingdom of Heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in Heaven”, Mat.7:21. And even if we know what God’s will is, unless we get hold of all the means which cause us to be able to accomplish it, God’s will won’t be done by us at all. That is why God promises to punish more those who knew His will and were unable or unwilling to carry it out. One needs to get hold of the means to accomplish it faithfully. We need to be taught how to get it done and how to fulfil it. That is why I keep insisting with you that you should start right away, because there is still a long way ahead of you.  

DIRTY_C: You are discouraging me. I hoped it would be easier than that.

CLEAN_C: It should be easier through the Lord. But, you need to be in the Lord first. Unless you do it God’s way, you won’t reach the end of your path faithfully. And to be in God, you need to clean your life first.

 

(Introduction)(Dial.1)(Dial.2)(Dial.3)(Dial.4)(Dial.5)(Dial.6)(Dial.7)(Dial.8)(Dial.9)(Dial.10)

(Dial.11)(Dial.12)(Dial.13)DIALOGUE 14 (Dial.15)(Dial.16)(Dial.17)(Dial.18)(Dial.19)(Dial.20)