You shall surely observe My sabbaths; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Exodus 31:13.
You shall consecrate yourselves therefore and be holy, for I am the LORD your God. You shall keep My statutes and practice them; I am the LORD who sanctifies you. Leviticus 20:7-8.
“They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.” John 17:16-17.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהם) says:
Today we continue My instructions on knowing Me by knowing My Name with a Name that has been Mine since the beginning but because of the fall of Adam from the place of sanctity, from the purity of holiness and truth in which I created him, into the defilement of sin and deceit through his disobedience, this Name comes to it fulfillment, it culminates, in Jesus in the work of grace which I gave Him to do. And the Name? I AM the LORD who sanctifies you. YHWH (יהוה) Mekaddeshkem (מְקַדִּשְׁכֶֽם). But by My doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to you wisdom from Me, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 1:30-31.
Sanctification is the process of making or becoming holy, set apart in holiness, the process of consecration. It is taking out the impure so that all that remains is the pure. It is separating the profane from the holy. My Name of Mekaddesh is derived from the Hebrew word for “holy,” which is, Kadosh (קָד֛וֹשׁ). I often identify Myself as Kadosh, which you will see translated in your Bibles as “The Holy One.” The key here is My Holiness, and without holiness no one can see Me. Hebrews 12:13. Why? My eyes are too pure to gaze on evil, and I cannot look on iniquity and sin. Habakkuk 1:13. It is foreign to holiness.
Holiness is separation from all evil and defilement. I am holy. The sum of all moral excellency is found in Me. I AM absolute purity, untouched by even the slightest speck of sin. I AM light, and in Me there is no darkness at all. 1 John 1:5. I am pure love. I am separated from all evil and defilement and I stand opposed to sin. That was what the flood was about in Noah’s day and what the judgement on Sodom and Gomorrah was about in Abraham’s day. Your sins created a barrier, a dividing wall, between us so I could no longer dwell in your midst. It put Adam and Eve out of the garden where we had total oneness of purpose and partnership.
But from the time they left My rest I had a plan of where all judgment and wrath for sin would fall and I began to reveal that plan even in the Garden of Eden. I spoke of the seed of a woman that would crush the power of the devil over your lives to which Adam had submitted his dominion authority. I taught Noah the burnt offering (the sin offering) when he came out of the Ark. And Abraham prophesied that I Myself would supply the Lamb for the burnt offering.
I the LORD your God am HOLY. This attribute of Mine is so overwhelming in its clarity of radiant purity that the angels in My presence cannot but cry out “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the LORD of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” Isaiah 6:3. Because of this uncompromised purity, even the angels cover their faces before Me and when Isaiah, who by the world’s standards was a holy man, witnessed My holiness, he was so overwhelmed by the complete purity, the sacredness of My presence to such a great degree that he cried out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.” Isaiah 6:5
Without being holy as I am holy, you cannot come into My presence and see Me. Hebrews 12:14. I taught this to the people of Israel in the wilderness on the way to the land I promised Abraham and their fathers by the plan of the tabernacle and the sin offerings and other offerings and the rules of cleansing and sanctification to come into My sacred presence. And this was the way that I sanctified them to minister before Me in the outer and inner courts, but to enter the Holy of holies behind the veil into My very presence was reserved only for the High Priest in a cloud of incense with the blood of the lamb to sprinkle seven times. “For I am the LORD who brought you up from the land of Egypt to be your God; thus you shall be holy, for I am holy.” Leviticus 11:45. And Moses warned them, for My tabernacle was among them with My presence dwelling there, “Since the LORD your God walks in the midst of your camp to deliver you and to defeat your enemies before you, therefore your camp must be holy; and He must not see anything indecent among you or He will turn away from you.” Deuteronomy 23:14. But if they did, they had the burnt offering, the sin offering, the grain offering, the peace offering, and the guilt offering to cover their unintentional sins. I gave them the shadow of the substance of the good things to come that worked as a covering to the sins until the debt was paid by the blood of My Son.
But to understand My Name as the LORD who sanctifies you, you must go back to when sanctification began, that is, with the Shabbat. It began on the seventh day of creation that I sanctified it and set it apart as holy. At the close of the sixth day, on the eve of the seventh day, I created man in My image and according to My likeness, I created them male and female, and I immediately, at the beginning of the seventh day, pulled them into Me in the rest and sanctity of the seventh day. And it was there in Me that I clothed them (compassed them about) with the majestic beauty, glory, and splendor of holiness, in which they were to take their dominion authority over the work of My hands. Psalm 8:5-9. Entering into the Shabbat with Me, brings you into the rest of My holiness. As it is written, “Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts. By the seventh day God completed His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.” Genesis 2:1-3.
And it was there in the Shabbat, that is, My rest, that I sanctified them by My Word. Each day we walked together and I shared My Word with them. And they shared theirs with Me. But when sin came, they hid from Me and no longer shared sweet fellowship in My Word. They left My rest, you never hear after that day that Adam and I spoke with one another again. Not because I did not want to communicate, but he cut off communication. Sin defiles and turns garments of the majestic beauty of holiness into naked shame. Remember what I told Moses he must do for his brother as My high priest so that he could minister to Me as consecrated in holiness? I told him, “You shall make holy garments for Aaron your brother, for glory and for beauty. You shall speak to all the skillful persons whom I have endowed with the spirit of wisdom, that they make Aaron’s garments to consecrate him, that he may minister as priest to Me.” Exodus 28:1-3. And I gave very particular instructions as to the materials to use and the various garments to make. These garments were made of gold and blue and purple and scarlet material and the fine linen, with precious jewels on the breastpiece with rows of precious gemstones engrave with the names of the twelve tribes of Israel so they would be before Me as he ministered. And I directed Moses also to have a plate of pure gold fashioned and to engrave on it, like the engravings of a seal, “Holy to the LORD.” This was to be fastened by a blue cord, to the turban for his head so that hung down on Aaron’s forehead, so that Aaron would take away the iniquity of the holy things which the sons of Israel consecrate, with regard to all their holy gifts; make them acceptable before Me as holy. Exodus 28:36-38.
Let Me jump forward here before I go back again for I speak the end from the beginning, and so should you or it means you have no plan, no goal, and no purpose. Just as I clothed you (compassed you about) with the beautiful glory and splendor of holiness in My Shabbat (rest) when I formed you, Psalm 8:5, so now in the naked and stripped state in which Adam and Eve put themselves and all their biological descendants, I again clothe you who are born again by the Spirit in Jesus—those who become a NEW creation in Christ, you who join again with Me by My Holy Spirit in you, I clothe again in the beauty of holiness. I clothe you in the garments of Salvation (Yeshuah) and the robe of righteousness. Isaiah 61:10. For all who are baptized into Christ have clothed themselves with Christ. Galatians 3:27. I have fulfilled in Jesus (Yehsuah) My Words in Psalm 149: “For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the afflicted ones with salvation (YESHUAH).” Psalm 149:4. I have again clothed you in the beautiful glory and splendor of My holiness in Christ. “I will rejoice greatly in the LORD, my soul will exult in my God; for He has clothed me with garments of salvation, He has wrapped me with a robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels,” Isaiah 61:10, “that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.” Ephesians 5:27. Jesus is your Shabbat, He has reconciled you with Me and pulled you back with Him into My very bosom. He has prepared a place for you in My rest by His death and resurrection and when I raised Him from the dead I raised you with Him and seated you there with Him in My rest. He is Lord even of the Shabbat, the Sabbath day.
And even before I gave Moses the Ten Commandments and the plans for the tabernacle and the priests’ vestments, I taught them about the Shabbat. It was the first teaching I gave them when they came out of Egypt. And I taught them this lesson by the gathering of the Manna, the bread from Heaven that I gave them to eat every day while they were in the barrenness of the desert. On the sixth day I gave them the double portion of the manna so that on the Shabbat, the seventh day, there would be no work but it would be set aside as a day of rest in Me. Exodus 16:22-36. And later I would tell them more about the mystery of the Shabbat, “You shall surely observe My Shabbat; for this is a sign between Me and you throughout your generations, that you may know that I am the LORD who sanctifies you.” Exodus 31:13. And this is the first time I gave you My Name as the LORD who sanctifies you and it was in relation to entering My rest, the place of grace in which you now stand by faith.
And later I affirmed this again, I told Moses, “Speak to all the congregation of the sons of Israel and say to them, ‘You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy. Every one of you shall reverence his mother and his father, and you shall keep My sabbaths; I am the LORD your God. Leviticus 19:2-3.
I am righteous in all My ways, and holy in all My works. Psalm 145:17. Holiness befits My house for length of days. I made all things in My creation “very good.” There was not the least imperfection at all in it at the time that I made them. All the angels and man were created holy by Me before they fell into sin. Sin defiles holiness. Holiness is beautiful but sin is not. Sin defiles and deforms. It turned a glorious angel shining with My radiance, Lucifer, now known as Satan (the accuser) or the devil, the father of lies, into an ugly evil spirit that inhabits realms of darkness and crawls in the dirt he eats. It took away the strength of Samson and turned him into the slave of the enemy. It brought the tall handsome Saul, the first king of Israel, into a defeated, fearful, jealous, depressed remnant of what he once was. And sin turned an incorruptible life and world into a corruptible, curse filled, defiled place. And that is what Adam and Eve did by their sin. Think twice about being pulled into pride and sin. That is why My Son, even after offering the woman caught in adultery the gift of no condemnation, He told her to avoid that sin in the future.
Every law and command I give you is to help you walk in holiness and truth. Even the Ceremonial Laws like those concerning the layout of the tabernacle, the priesthood and the various offerings, were to help you to holiness. But even though the Law is holy it proved to be against you in that it condemned you, for to achieve righteousness on your own is impossible for man since Adam corrupted the seed. The Law shows you that the only person, who is without any sin at all, the only person in whom Holiness is perfected in man, is Jesus Christ. Only Jesus fulfilled and satisfied every single requirement of My Law, to the letter. And Jesus revealed My Holiness to you not only in His life, but also in His death. The death of Christ was the most powerful revelation of My infinite holiness and how utterly hateful sin is to Me. My Son, who was perfect, took your sins and took the punishment due them in your place, and great was the pain and agony that He suffered on the cross and that is how serious sin is.
And the most wonderful news for you is that now, in exchange for bearing the punishment for your sins, Jesus Christ has given each of you the standing of perfect holiness that is His, the holiness of the perfect life that He lived on earth. I made Him who knew no sin to be sin for you so that in Him you can become righteous with My own righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21. There is therefore now no condemnation to you who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, I did: sending My own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, I condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in you, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
So the good news is this: My holiness, which formerly disqualified you from being in My presence and kept you away from Me, is the same holiness that now qualifies you to be in My presence and keeps you there with confidence in the very Holy of Holies, My throne of grace. Hebrews 4:12-16. For it was My good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in My Son and through Him to reconcile all things to Myself, having made peace through the blood of His cross. And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet Jesus has now reconciled you to Me in His fleshly body through death, in order to present you before Me HOLY and BLAMELESS and BEYOND REPROACH. Colossians 1:19-22.
And now that My Holiness has enabled you to stand in My holy presence, it becomes possible for you to be sanctified, through My power working within you which can do far more than you can ask or imagine. And there is the key, walking in the Spirit, for now that you have been born again by your faith in Jesus, My Spirit has come to dwell in you. And He is the sanctifier. But how does He sanctify you? He guides you to all truth, My Word is truth. Jesus told His disciples that it was His Word that cleansed them. Once your sins are gone by the blood of My Son, you renew your mind to be transformed from the lusts of sin to the purity of holiness by the washing of water with My Word.
How does Jesus sanctify you, His body the Church? Christ loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be HOLY and blameless. Ephesians 5:25-27.
Do you remember what Jesus prayed for you who would believe in Him at the Passover supper the night before He died? He prayed to Me for you, “They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; Your Word is truth.” John 17:16-17. Once you have been born again of the incorruptible seed of My Word, you must renew you mind in My Word so that I can sanctify you. For I am My Word and I am holy. My Word is holy and it is living and active, working in you to bring life, healing, and discern the thoughts and motives of your heart. Hebrews 4:12.
Obedience to My Word is the key to My work of sanctification in you. Remove the vile and speak only My pure words.
And all this becomes possible by My grace, that you access by faith in Jesus, for of His fullness you have all received, grace upon grace. For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. For My grace has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing you to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of your Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself for you to redeem you from every lawless deed, and to purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds.
For you were once foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending your life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when My kindness and My love for mankind appeared, I saved you, not on the basis of deeds which you have done in righteousness, but according to My mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom I poured out upon you richly through Jesus Christ your Savior, so that being justified by His grace you would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. For you are My workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which I prepared beforehand so that you would walk in them. Pursue peace with all men, and the holiness without which no one will see Me. See to it that no one comes short of My grace; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled Hebrews 12:14-15.
I love you beyond love. I did not leave you in your sins but sent My beloved Son to bear your sins and make you holy and blameless before Me. My will for you now is that your lives should indeed become holy, just as I AM holy. I want the way you walk and live to match who you are in Christ. There should be a difference in the way you live, work, talk, and go about your daily affairs and relationships from the ways of people who do not believe. You are in the world but not of the world, you are sanctified and set apart for doing the good deeds of the Kingdom on earth. And this is the specific usage of My Name YHWH Mekaddeshkem. I AM the LORD who sanctifies you that you may walk in newness of life. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As My obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like Me, the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” 1 Peter 1:13-16.