“On December 18 of the second year of King Darius’s reign, the Lord sent this message to the prophet Haggai: “This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies says. Ask the priests this question about the law: ‘If one of you is carrying some meat from a holy sacrifice in his robes and his robe happens to brush against some bread or stew, wine or olive oil, or any other kind of food, will it also become holy?’” The priests replied, “No.” Then Haggai asked, “If someone becomes ceremonially unclean by touching a dead person and then touches any of these foods, will the food be defiled?” And the priests answered, “Yes.””
Haggai 2:10-13 NLT
God challenges the rhetoric of men. For all the vastness of his plans and the sweeping grandeur of his nature. God cares upon the fine nuance of his will. It is not enough that we are “simply,” holy. He wants every crack and crevice of our being to be washed and saturated in it. This requires time and effort put into a deep and pervasive sanctification process that challenges every fold in the tapestry of our humanity. Because we are finite, this is a process. We do not come set apart by nature. We are set apart by adoption and then painstakingly crafted and developed until we are ready for the kiln. Many believers have no concept of the processes of God. They do not fathom the blessing that comes from his continued pressure in their lives. They are not taught to value sanctification as a process but only as an manifestation. They are closed to it. We must continually open the door to his process. We must continually be thankful for the hand of the artist in every moment. He does not expect us to come before him clean and perfect. Instead he expects us to come before him humble and willing to be made perfected by his constant pressures in our finite existence.
JOSH McGARY. COM 