No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a
“white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this
crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be
more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death
with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ.
Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only
one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really
experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of
excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop
being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid
the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by
striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into
His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your
own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your
last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory
with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly
proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an
agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3).
Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the
process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to
experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this
is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
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