CHRISTIAN LITERATURE
& LIVING

Was blind, but now I see.

3 : 2 February 2004

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Pastor Harold Brokke

Pastor Harold Brokke and his wife Cathy Brokke have served the Lord Jesus as counselors to countless missionaries all over the world. Harold is a former President of Bethany International, the community that established and ran the renowned Bethany House Publishers. Presently Pastor Brokke serves the Bethany Missionary Church as Senior Pastor Emeritus. Cathy was the Director of Bethany International Missions for many years. Both live in Minneapolis. God has called Harold to minister to people and communities around the world on Bible Prophecy and sanctification through the Message of the Cross. This article is presented to us by Bev Cooley, bev.cooley@bethfel.org.


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Copyright © 2001
M. S. Thirumalai

HOW BELIEVERS ARE SET APART BY THE LORD
Pastor Harold Brokke


Believers who are "set apart" and empowered by the Holy Spirit will also effectively witness throughout the whole world.

Sanctify them by your truth. Your word is truth. As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth (John 17:18).

1. THREE WITNESSES TO THIS TRUTH

WATCHMAN NEE wrote about Romans 6:19:

Present your members as servants of righteousness unto holiness." He says, "People think we become holy by the eradication of something evil within. No, we become holy by being separated unto God. This giving of myself is a definite thing, just as definite as the 'reckoning' of Rom. 6:11. There must be a day in my life when I pass out of my own hands into His, and from the day forward I belong to Him and no longer to myself. This does not mean that I consecrate myself to be a preacher or missionary. Alas, many people…have 'consecrated' (as they would put it) their own uncrucified natural faculties to the doing of His work; but that is not true consecration. Then to what are we consecrated? Not to Christian work, but to the will of God, to be and to do whatever he wants.

TED HEGRE wrote,

The word says that positionally our old man was crucified with Him (Rom. 6:6). It is already done, for there we were crucified; there we were buried. As far as God is concerned, He is through with the 'old man.' However, in our experience, God will not make this real until we give Him our permission by making an absolute surrender to Him, a surrender so complete that death (to the selfish life) is the only word that can properly describe it. Then we can go on and reckon ourselves 'dead to sin and alive to God in Chris Jesus our Lord.' (Rom. 6:11).

ANDREW MURRAY wrote,

Are you willing to be consecrated? Are you willing to give up yourself to the power of the Holy Sprit? You well know that the human side of consecration will not help you. I may consecrate myself a hundred times with all the intensity of my being, and that will not help me. What will help me is this. God from heaven accepts and seals my consecration. Are you willing to give yourself to the Holy Spirit? He will enable us to perfect, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, what was begun in the Spirit." "Rise up every morning thinking, God is in charge. He is working out everything in my life.

2. OFF WITH THE OLD, ON WITH THE NEW

Our response to this call is decisive, not gradual. God has given us power to act on His Word.

2 Peter 1:3 "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness."

Our old selves were crucified with Christ.

Romans 6:6 "We know that our old self was crucified with Him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."
Eph. 4:22 "You were taught, with regard to your former manner of life, to put off your own self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires; to be made new in the attitude (pneuma) of your minds; and to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness."

We can begin to live by the power of Christ within us. (See Gal. 2:20).

3. THE LORD USES SANCTIFIED VESSELS

2 Timothy 2:20 "In a large house there are vessels not only of gold or silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for honor and some for dishonor. Therefore if anyone cleanses himself from the latter, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work."
Also 2 Cor. 7:1 "Having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting as cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God."

There are two different words used in 2 Corinthians 7:1. First: the words, "cleanse ourselves." The Greek word here is katharizo, it means to be purged from defilement. This cleansing is not a process but the act of making something clean. Second, this verse also contains the phrase, "perfecting holiness." The Greek word here is the word, epiteleo that carries the meaning of a continuous process toward spiritual growth and maturity.

Note the difference in this "apple" illustration:

We are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. We must be clean vessels in flesh and spirit. Rev. 1:7 says that Jesus "loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood." The cleansing we need is not the same as the growth we need. For instance, you pick up an apple and say, "This apple is dirty, I can't eat it." Your wife says, "It's very dirty but it's ripe enough to eat." Then you clean it up and eat it. Notice two things about the apple. It was washed clean, katharzo. But it became a ripe apple by a process of growth, epiteleo. So also sanctification is not only a growth issue. We must also transact by faith in Jesus who cleansed, and sets us apart by the Spirit.

4. JESUS' CROSS IS OUR SANCTIFYING ALTAR

Romans 15:16 The Lord gave Paul grace to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the priestly service of the gospel of God, so that the offering of the Gentiles (i.e. nations) may be acceptable, sanctified to by the Holy Spirit." (prosphora).

Paul presented the Gentile believers as sacrificial offerings to God. Jesus laid down His life on a Roman cross, known internationally as a place of execution. Because of His death on it the cross was Jesus' new altar!…the appointed place where the Holy Spirit releases His sanctifying grace, love and freedom.

Andrew Murray said,
"Where is the place of death? How can the crucifixion which leads to holiness and to God be accomplished in us? Thank God! It is through no work of our own, no weary process of self-crucifixion. The crucifixion that is to sanctify us is an accomplished fact. The cross bears the banner, "It is finished." On it Christ sanctified Himself for us that we might be sanctified in the truth. Our crucifixion, like our sanctification, is something that, in Christ, has been completely finished. "We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all"(Heb. 10:10). As you consent, and believe in Jesus as your very death and life, you enter into the enjoyment and experience of it. NOW."

The Spirit does His delivering work when Jesus' cross becomes our altar.

5. THE PRINCIPLE OF LOSING AND FINDING

Mark 8:35 "Whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it."
John 12:24 "Most assuredly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life."

These verses tell us to lose our natural life (or psuche). If we hold tight to our own resources, we limit Christ's power. But when we yield to Him He unites us to the eternal resources of the Holy Spirit.

6. THE SPIRIT'S PURITY AND POWER

Acts 15:8-9 God's gift to the Gentiles and the Jews alike. He "gave them the Holy Spirit, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." Acts 1:8 "You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, and in Judea, and Samaria, and to the uttermost part of the earth."

The word "receive" is used in both Acts 1:8 and John 1:12. It means to take hold of God's gift. It indicates active reception rather than passive consent. Jesus promised to baptize us with the Holy Spirit, He is the only one who can make Jesus a reality to the nations.

Notice D.L. Moody's testimony:

"After he had preached two women said to him "You need the power of the Spirit." Later on, when he was in New York, he continued praying to be filled with the Spirit. Then, the blessing came! "Oh, what a day-I cannot describe it …I can only say that God revealed Himself to me, and I had such an experience of His love that I had to stay His hand. I went to preaching again ... I did not preach any new truth, and yet hundreds were converted." Jesus gives the Holy Spirit and we receive "the promise of the Spirit by faith" (Gal. 3:14).

HE COMES TO MAKE US WITNESSES TO ALL NATIONS, and "THEN THE END WILL COME."


HEALING | REBEKAH - SHE WHO WENT THE SECOND MILE | WHATEVER WORKS, DO IT! - SOME TIPS FOR THOSE WHO WISH TO WRITE CHRISTIAN FICTION | HOW BELIEVERS ARE SET APART BY THE LORD | BEING A GODLY WITNESS | FULFILLING THE DECLARATION IN THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW | THE GLORY OF LOVE | THE GREAT AMERICAN AWAKENING | THE RISE AND FALL OF CHRISTIANITY IN TURKEY | HOME PAGE | CONTACT EDITOR


Harold Brokke
Professor Emeritus
Bethany College of Missions
6820 Auto Club Road, Suite C
Bloomington, MN 55438, USA
E-mail: harold.brokke@bethfel.org.