The Names of God: Jehovah-Maccaddeshcem

The LORD Our Sanctifier

Exodus 31:13 
Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The biblical means of sanctification is not an eradication of man's sin nature but rather God's setting a man apart for some reason. 

He sets us apart when we accept Christ as our Lord & Savior. This is not a setting apart like the 1% of the population that lives outlandishly with every material thing they could ever want or ever need at their fingertips. This is not a setting apart like a culling, where the sick & infected are removed & quarantined them to protect the rest of the population. No, the setting apart is not an isolation in either extreme. Rather its inclusion with a greater purpose, a calling, to glorify & honor God in every single situation & circumstance in your life...whatever, no matter what it may be. 

Sanctification by Jehovah-Maccaddeshcem comes in many forms, sometimes painful, sometimes joyful, always necessary. For us, sanctification by the Lord has looked like this: we lost our home to a fire, a month later we miscarried our first baby, 18 months of infertility followed. Infertility was ended by the joyful news of our second pregnancy, at 5 months pregnant we learned our son no longer had a heartbeat, I labored & delivered him & we laid him to rest. A third pregnancy followed, it included 20 weeks of bedrest, medication, endless tests, a failed induction & finally a c-section to welcome our son. A tumultuous year began as did a fourth pregnancy, a perfect pregnancy which resulted in another son. It also resulted in the disowning of my husband by his parents because of my husband's decision that we were lacking something in our lives that alcohol & a false knowledge of God could never fill, God Himself. One might think that once we made the decision to put God first in our lives that the sanctification process was complete. But that is wholly untrue. The next half of our story includes 8 months of unemployment, food stamps, financial ruin, 2 more miscarriages, an answer to the call of my husband to preach the Gospel, the pastoring & resigning of our first church, the birth & NICU stay of our first daughter, & the complete humbling of ourselves to God's will & purpose. 

What does any of that have to do with being wholly sanctified by God? It sounds like a pity party full of rotten & miserable circumstances with a few sunny times thrown in just to keep us off the ledge. But it is anything but that. It was opportunity after opportunity after opportunity to glorify & honor God. Sometimes we did & it made bearing the burden of that situation all the easier to bear, it made helping others who were in the midst of what we had come through a blessing & a privilege. Sometimes we didn't & we bore the hurt, the anger, & the bitterness of our situation. But God in His infinite mercy & grace, chipped away at those callouses on our hearts & He gave us a purpose. He gave us Himself. 

The biblical means of sanctification is not an eradication of man's sin nature but rather God's setting a man apart for some reason. It is a process. One that begins immediately upon Salvation & does not end until I kneel at His feet, where I pray that He lifts me up & proclaims "Well done my child". 

He has called us out to live out from amongst the world while still walking within it. It's hard. It's messy. It's painful. But it's also beautiful, joyful, & overwhelmingly good in so many ways. 

Sanctification means Living Him, Loving Him, Longing for Him, in every opportunity given, good & bad, painful & pleasant.