The Sanctified Life

When I went to Asbury College back in 1968, it was the last place I wanted to go.  Knowing that God wanted me to go to Asbury, I took matters in my own hands and went to Georgia Southern College.  As one filled with the spirit of Jonah who went west instead of east, I went south instead of north.  There was a part of me which enjoyed my stint in the belly of the big fish, but in the end, the discontent experienced in deliberate disobedience caused me to send my application for admission to Asbury College.  This Kentucky college was non-denominational with an overt holiness tradition.  "Holiness unto the Lord" was on the front wall of the main auditorium.  

Three times a week we gathered in that auditorium for required chapel services and the theme most common to those services was the call to holy living.  The language used spoke of "being filled with the Holy Spirit," or "baptized in the Holy Spirit," or "sanctified."  It was all new to this young believer and all I knew for sure was that I wanted no part of something which seemed be food for religious fanatics.  What I remember most about the preaching was that it seemed to be focused more on having an experience than a radical life style of abandonment of self to God.  I have no argument with those who preached in those days that there comes to many a believer a need for a moment of consciously choosing a total commitment to Christ instead of one that is mostly about dabbling in shallow waters.  

I have preached such a message many times, but being filled with the Spirit as it is proclaimed in the Scripture is about a life style decision instead of an experience.  It is about choosing God's agenda over our own.  It is about abandoning any right to the control of our life so that His control is absolute.  It is about never ceasing to seek God.  To be filled with the Holy Spirit means that there is no room in our spirit for anything that hinders our desire for God.  The sanctified life where the Holy Spirit is given unhindered control is not for the religious dabblers.  It is for those who are intent in going hard after God.