Now we need to consider what the Spirit did when He sanctified us. The sanctifying of the Spirit before our repentance is recorded in the Bible in a very detailed way. But the Bible is like a big jigsaw puzzle. It does not give you every part of the picture in a gathered way, but the pieces are scattered throughout it. We have to learn how to put the pieces together to see a complete picture.
Luke 15:8-9 says, "Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one silver coin, does not light a lamp and sweep the house and seek carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin which I lost." This portion of the Word gives us a picture of the Spirit's sanctifying work. We need to notice the words seek and finds. The woman, signifying the Spirit, seeks the lost silver coin carefully until she finds it.
In Luke 15 the Lord gave us three parables: the parable of a good shepherd finding the lost sheep; the parable of a fine woman seeking for her lost treasure; and the parable of a loving father expecting his prodigal son to come back. When we get into the significance of this chapter, we can realize that this surely refers to the Triune God. The Father is waiting lovingly to receive the sinners back to Himself, but how could they come back? First, the Son is the good Shepherd taking care of the lost sinners, and then the Spirit is working.
We saved sinners were God's chosen people. The coin, before being lost, was the treasure of the woman. The woman signifies the Spirit. The Spirit who is working on us and in us is not like a tiger or even a man. The Spirit works like a sister, a woman. The sisters are finer and sweeter than the brothers. They were born that way. Thank the Lord that the Spirit is the Woman, the Lord is the Shepherd, and God is the Father. The Father with the Shepherd and the Woman work together in love to save fallen sinners. This is detailed in the divine revelation.
The Spirit as a woman came to the lost sinners. They are God's chosen people. They were once in God's hand as His treasure, His coins. Even before we were lost, we were treasures in the Lord's hand. Then one day we became lost. But in eternity God predestinated us to bring us back to Himself. The first blessing that God rendered to us in eternity past was His choosing us unto sanctification. Ephesians 1:4 says, "He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy...." He has chosen us to be holy. This is unto sanctification. Our being made holy began when the Spirit as the woman came to seek us, to bring us back to God unto His holiness.
In time the Spirit as the woman came to seek us, not just to find us. She came to seek carefully for the lost coin. I like the word carefully. Who does this careful work? The sanctifying Spirit of God. The Spirit is almighty, all-capable, and omnipotent, but She (I use the female pronoun here) needs to seek carefully. This is because we were very complicated before we were saved. It was not easy for the Spirit to find us. So the woman, the Spirit, came to seek for us carefully by lighting a lamp. The lamp here signifies the word of God (Psa. 119:105, 130). One day when we heard the gospel, some of the words in the Bible began to shine in us. In my youth I got to know John 3:16. But for many years that did not work on me. One day, however, the seeking Spirit caused this verse to shine within me. The word of God is a lamp used by the Spirit to illuminate and expose the sinner's position and condition that he may repent.
The Spirit as a woman lit a lamp, and then she swept the house. To sweep the house is to search and cleanse the sinner's inward parts. The Spirit who sought us lit the word and swept within us, in our inner being, until she found us. To find is to get. Thus, the Spirit is a woman coming to seek us by lighting the word and sweeping within us, in our inner being, until she gets us. The word began to shine within us while the Spirit was sweeping to clear away all the dirt from within us. She did this until she got us. This is the sanctifying of the Spirit. When we were in the world, among a heap of sinners, the Spirit came to seek us, to visit us, to seek us out carefully by lighting God's word of life. At the same time, she was sweeping within us to clear away all the dirt within us. Then we started to repent.