First Thessalonians 5:19 says, “Do not quench the Spirit.” Because the Spirit mingles with our spirit, and from our spirit He is doing a work of sanctification, to quench the Spirit is to stop His sanctifying work. If we do not quench theSpirit but always go along with Him, we will not need to care about overcoming sins or being separated from the world. There is no need for us to do the work of sanctification ourselves; this is the work of the Holy Spirit. However, we must take care not to hinder His work. We must learn to give the Holy Spirit a free way to do His work with no quenching, hindrance, or restriction. As we cooperate with the sanctifying Spirit and do not quench Him, day by day and hour by hour we will spontaneously be freed from every kind of sin and be separated from the world and all things other than God. Spontaneously we also will be saturated with the divine element and transformed into the divine image. In this way we will be prepared to be glorified at His coming back.
We do not need to try to overcome many things. We must care only for not quenching the Spirit. We should always be reminded not to quench the Spirit. Are you going shopping? Do not quench the Spirit. Are you about to talk to someone? Do not quench the Spirit. Are you about to lose your temper or do something wrong? Do not quench the Spirit. Someone may ask, “Why should I not go to the movies?” We can simply answer, “Do not quench the Spirit.” If we simply take care of not quenching the Spirit, the Spirit will care for our sanctification. The Spirit whom we must not quench is the sanctifying Spirit, the Holy Spirit who brought God into Mary’s womb to be incarnated there. This is the same Holy Spirit that today is bringing God into us again and again to accomplish His work of sanctification, that is, to saturate us with the divine element, transform us into His divine appearance, and prepare us for His coming back.
At the coming of the Lord, the work of sanctification will be fully and thoroughly completed, causing us to be the saints in whom He is glorified. Today we are the saints, but we are not manifested as saints, because the process of sanctification has not yet been completed in us. We are still under the process of being sanctified. At the coming of the Lord Jesus we will be thoroughly, fully, wholly, and absolutely sanctified. At that time we will be manifested as saints by the Lord Jesus’ being glorified in us. Our full sanctification is the work of the Holy Spirit as revealed in the two books of Thessalonians. We not only have holiness within us, but we also have the work of holiness within us, which is sanctification. It is through this sanctification by the Holy Spirit that we are under the process of being fully saved day by day.
We do not find the word saturate in the Bible, related to sanctification. However, we do have the words transformed, conformed, and glorified, which imply saturation. Without being saturated with the divine element, we cannot be transformed, conformed, and glorified. The work of transformation, conformation, and glorification does not take place objectively, outside of us. Rather, it is very subjective, within us. Therefore, this work requires that we be saturated with the divine element of God. As the Lord saturates us, we are transformed in our soul, conformed to His image, and transfigured in our body, that is, glorified.
First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “The God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” By the Lord’s work of saturation, we will be transformed and glorified; that is, we will be sanctified in our whole spirit, soul, and body. Since the day the Lord came into us, He has been the saturating element within us. We may compare the Lord’s saturation to the spreading of ink. If we inject a drop of ink into the center of a ball of cotton, the ink will spread from the center until it saturates and permeates the whole ball. This is a picture of transformation and glorification. The Triune God as glory has been “injected” into us, and He is now waiting for the opportunity to spread, saturate, and permeate our being. First, He came into our spirit; then, He spreads from our spirit into our soul to transform it. Finally, He will spread from our soul even to our body. At the time of our glorification we will experience full redemption, the redemption not only of our spirit and our soul but also of our body (Rom. 8:23).
Ephesians 3:16-17a and 19b say, “That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit into the inner man, that Christ may make His home in your hearts through faith...that you may be filled unto all the fullness of God.” When our inner man, our spirit, is strengthened by the Spirit, we give more room to the Spirit, and Christ takes over and makes His home in all the parts of our heart. As a result, our whole being is filled unto all the fullness of God. This process is our saturation and permeation with God. It is in this way that we are transformed and glorified. The first step of sanctification is that we are kept from sin, and the second is that we are separated from the world. Then we are saturated and permeated within by the Holy Spirit. Gradually we are transformed in our soul, and eventually we will be transfigured in our body, that is, glorified. Glorification is the final, ultimate step of sanctification. At that time we will be wholly and thoroughly sanctified in our spirit, soul, and body. We will be one with the Lord in glory, and we will meet Him in glory at His return. This will be the result of our full sanctification. Today we are under the process of daily sanctification.
The two Epistles to the Thessalonians speak of Christ’s second coming (1 Thes. 1:10; 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 Thes. 1:10; 2:1). In the foregoing verses, the Greek word for “coming” is parousia, which also means “presence.” The way to be in the Lord’s presence at His coming is by being fully sanctified. We may feel that our condition is acceptable, but if we were to stand in the Lord’s presence today, we would lament that too much of our inward being is still not sanctified. Only when weare thoroughly saturated, permeated, and sanctified can we be peaceful in the Lord’s presence, because at that time nothing within us will cause us shame. We must be wholly sanctified from within to without, until every inward part is full of Christ and brought into the new creation. Then we will be bold and have the full peace to stand in His parousia, His presence. This is a matter not only of positional sanctification, a change in our position. It is even more a matter of dispositional sanctification, a change in our disposition. We need a change in our nature, our disposition, and our entire being must be transformed.