The Art of Sanctification

I have to admit sanctification wasn’t on my mind until I listened to Apostle Joshua Giles on *Prophetic Forecast”. The Apostle challenged his listeners to “sanctify themselves” before the new year of 2026. He would wrap up with a list of things we can do to prepare ourselves for the upcoming year. I finished listening to his message and decided to do my own study on sanctification. May I share what I’ve learned?

The word sanctify means to make holy, to set apart. This call then from the Apostle is an act of preparation for the new year, he tells us to go through a sanctification process. So, what does THAT look like?

The Art of Sanctification comes to us through the following ways:

1. We are sanctified through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ!

For by one sacrifice, He has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

Hebrews 10:14

Jesus gave His life for us. When we believe in Jesus’ life, death and resurrection we enter into the new covenant. Hebrews 10:16 tells us that God will put His laws in our hearts and write them on our minds. While we walk in belief, He is at work making us perfect and holy. Through Him, we are sanctified! Now THAT is good news!

2.  We are sanctified when we meditate on God’s Word.  In the Scripture below, Jesus is giving His disciples some important instructions.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. John 17:17

The fact that you are reading this, which is based on Scripture, is a step in sanctification. That’s why it is important to meditate on God’s Word; read it, make it part of your daily living. His Word is truth. This verse in John tells us that we are sanctified through truth. Pursue it. Surround yourself with it.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” John 14:6

Allow the Truth to sanctify you.

3.  Sanctification requires the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is an essential part in this process of being made holy.

And that is what some of you were. But you were washed. You were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. I Corinthians 6:11

But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life. Jude 1:20-21

While Jesus was yet teaching His disciples, He promised to send them a helper, an advocate, One who would be with them (and us) forever.  In John 14:17, Jesus calls Him the Spirit of truth. The disciples didn’t realize yet, what Jesus meant, for they didn’t comprehend all that would take place. But Jesus, knowing that they would need a helper, was telling them, that a promised One would come, in Spirit and truth, and would even help them remember everything that Jesus had said to them while He walked among them.

(John 14:26)

Therefore, we need the Holy Spirit to bring truth and sanctification into our lives.

4.  The sanctification process requires determination, a “working out” of our faith.

The following Scriptures give us another hint at walking in a lifestyle that is set apart.  

Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and act in order to fulfill his good purpose.  Do everything without grumbling and arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation. Then you will shine among them like stars in the sky. Philippians 2:12-15

Jesus told us in John 16:33 that in this world, we will have trouble. This is the very reason we need to pursue sanctification. In the pursuing, in the working out of our faith in fear and trembling, we are acknowledging the importance of the work Jesus accomplished upon the cross. We know that our lives count. We have purpose. We have a destiny. We can make a difference in God’s Kingdom in the here and now.

Though the road may be hard, we must persevere for when we are sanctified, blameless and pure, our lives will shine.

5.  Sanctification brings new life!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old has gone, the new is here! All this from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. II Corinthians 5:17-19

When we sanctify ourselves, as the Apostle Joshua Giles encouraged in his message, we are submitting to the process of becoming holy. We are choosing the narrow path, obedience, and belief in Jesus, God’s Word, and all that He has to offer us. We are choosing to be holy.

And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes for the Lord, who is the Spirit.

II Corinthians 3:18

I love this verse; I’m being changed from glory to glory. I make mistakes. Sometimes I need an attitude adjustment. I don’t always remember to be thankful. Sometimes I cave in to the temptations of this world. But, the Holy Spirit seems to remind me, I am being changed from glory to glory. I’m a work in progress. I’m a forgiven child of God.

The Art of Sanctification is a most holy process. It is the holy place, a “take off your shoes for you are standing on holy ground” place. It happens in the presence of our loving God.

It happens where faith, obedience and desire meet the One who is able to fill us.

I hope you’ll join me by inviting the Holy Spirit to do His work of sanctification in us during these final days of 2025. May you find Him in your pursuit of holiness!

But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do; for it is written; “Be holy, because I am holy.” I Peter 1:15-16

The LORD said to Moses, “Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them; ‘Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.’” Leviticus 19:1

*Prophetic Forecast with Joshua Giles