Sanctification is what God says it is–godliness in all areas of one’s life. Such a life is summarized in several Scriptural passages, among which are: “walk(ing) as He (Jesus) walked,” “purify(ing) himself as He is pure,” “overcome(ing) as He overcame.” Simply stated, sanctification is living the godly life–AS DID JESUS OF NAZARETH (1 Jn. 2:6).

With that firmly established in our minds, let us now enter into this most important of studies with one Truth solidly fixed in our hearts (minds). It is the vital Truth spoken by Jesus while in prayer to His Father: “Father, sanctify them (the disciples) by Your Truth; Your Word is Truth” (Jn. 17:17). Sanctification means to live God’s Word–“ride His brand.” God’s brand is His Word manifested in His saints. By continuously learning His Word and allowing it to control our thoughts, words and actions we “walk as He (Jesus) walked” as a man. God uses water to symbolize His Holy Scriptures. By continuously studying God’s Word we are being purified “by the washing of water by the Word” (Eph. 5:24-27). In this passage the Apostle Paul is describing the saints’ relationship with God the Father, noting that the church (congregation of the saints) must remain in total submission to Him “in everything.” Verse 27 makes it clear that unless one is continually washed by God’s Word, Christ will not present him to the Father as one who has qualified for salvation. As water applied to the body physically cleanses the person outwardly, God’s Word applied to the heart cleanses the person inwardly so that, as the Scriptures are manifested through the saint’s words, thoughts and actions, the saint manifests to the world the “measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). This process is what Jesus was referring to in Matthew 7:13,14 when He spoke about entering God’s strait gate (His true church) and walking His narrow way (obeying His Word) which leads to His kingdom.  In other words, one must “ride His brand.” God’s brand is His Word manifested outwardly in the life of the saint. This is the “brand” the world sees. This brand, if manifested as commanded, will bring to fruition in the saint’s life the statement made by our earthly example: “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father.” If we “walk as He walked” this statement will characterize us.

Everything the God-seeker knows or can know about Father and Son is found in the Holy Bible. There is no other source of spiritual Truth. That Truth must be manifested in and through a person in order to qualify for eternal life. There is no substitute, no other option, no other book, no other addition to it, no other “walk.” For this reason Jesus said that in order to be saved man must live by (in strict obedience to) every one of the Words in THE (ONLY) BOOK sanctioned by Him. Jesus said that only THAT BOOK was literally spoken by God Himself (Mat. 4:4). So how did His spoken Words come to be made available to mankind in THAT BOOK?

Every Word in the Holy Bible  was spoken by God the Father. There is no other source of Spiritual Truth. The Words man are to live by were spoken to either God’s prophets, Jesus of Nazareth or the apostles. At times He did speak to other people, and even an animal, for example, Balaam and his ass (Num. 22). These incidences were included for a reason. We are to use them as warnings. Let us not be like Balaam. By ignoring God’s Words he showed himself to be more of an ass than the animal he rode.

God is a spirit (Jn. 4:24). No man has seen Him (Jn. 1:18) or heard His voice (Jn. 5:37) except Jesus Christ, Who heard His audible voice after being baptized. Then later Peter, James and John heard Him speak at the time of Jesus’ transfiguration. The God Who was visually seen and audibly heard by Adam, Eve, Abraham, Jacob, etc. was The Word Who came to earth as Jesus of Nazareth (Jn. 1:1-4,14). Which begs the obvious question: HOW DID GOD SPEAK TO THE BIBLE WRITERS?

The Agent of delivery of God’s Words  to the prophets and apostles was the Holy Spirit. I use electricity to illustrate how this system worked anciently and how it works today in the lives of  God’s true ministers. I will use one of man’s unique inventions to illustrate how God’s information system works.  A machine receives its owner’s audible voice (detects sound waves), processes the sound of the voice, then performs the acts the voice tells it to perform. For example, the person speaks, his sound (voice) waves activate the machine which then causes the lights to come on, a door to open, a recording machine to activate, etc. In this crude illustration, the person plays the part of God, the sound waves play the part of the Holy Spirit, the machine plays the part of God’s minister (prophet, apostle). The Holy Spirit is both God’s messenger and His power (Lk. 1:35).  Anciently, God spoke; His Words were carried to His prophets, Jesus and His apostles. They received His Words, spoke them and recorded them in print. God describes this process in Second Peter 1:21: “holy men of old spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit” which had carried God’s Words to them. Either the prophets/apostles or their scribes then recorded their Words “for our instruction” (1 Cor. 10:11). This Truth is also stated in Second Timothy 3:16 where we are told that “all Scripture is given by inspiration of God”–carried by God’s Spirit.

Because it is God’s Word delivered by His Spirit, “All Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness.” Jesus Himself proclaimed that every Word He spoke was given to Him by the Father, and that all of mankind will be judged by those Words (Jn. 12:47-50). Sanctification is accomplished only by living God’s Word–“riding His brand.” Any deviation from God’s Spirit-delivered Word is deception in its highest, most deadly form. Such deviation is equivalent to a cattle rustler changing the brand on an animal. The altered brand looked like the real thing but wasn’t. The perverted gospel proclaimed by the Catholic/Protestant religious system sounds like the real gospel. In reality it is a perverted version of it (Gal. 1:6). Contrary to universal church opinion, there is no substitute for God’s Truth. Any deviation from the true gospel as written in the Holy Bible is of Satan. See the Introduction to this website for numerous examples of the deceptive “truths” upon which the Counterfeit Church has been built. L.J.