Set Apart – The Presidential Prayer Team

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. – John 17:17

In John 17, Jesus is engaged in His High Priestly Prayer, in which, among other things, He has prayed for you! In today’s verse, He is asking the Father to sanctify His followers – “sanctify“ means to set apart for an intended purpose. That purpose, Jesus later reveals, is to spread the Gospel to a broken, hurting world.

Sanctification leads to a transformed life. Sanctification begins when a person comes to Jesus for salvation; then sanctification continues to progress as a person grows spiritually in the things of the Lord. Related to sanctification is the participation of the Christ follower in setting himself or herself apart to the Lord as well. That process is consecration. The level of consecration increases as the believer subsequently spends more time in God’s Word and in prayer.

Evangelist teacher and author of My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers, wrote, “We must never allow anything to interfere with the consecration of our spiritual power. Consecration (being dedicated to God’s service) is our part; sanctification (being set apart from sin and being made holy) is God’s part. We must make a deliberate determination to be interested in only in what God is interested.”

When Jesus prayed for your life to be set apart, He was asking the Father to change you. Your life direction and your purpose are changed according to the truth of His Word. As you consecrate yourself to Him, you willingly adopt those changes, seeking to know His truth in your relationships and goals. You are not conforming to the world’s system but are willingly living a life transformed by renewing your mind in the things of the Lord (Romans 12:2).

Is your life different because you know Jesus? Do you find yourself thinking God’s thoughts? Are you experiencing the power of the Holy Spirit in your life? Hold fast to the truth. Let God’s Word be a lamp to your feet and a light to your path (Psalm 119:105). Then keep growing in grace and knowledge (2 Peter 3:18). Then you will know the truth (John 8:32). Pray for those in government to find the truth they are seeking in the Lord Jesus Christ today.

Today’s Verse: John 17:17

Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Recommended for further reading: John 17:8-19

⁸For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. ⁹I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours. ¹⁰All mine are yours, and yours are mine, and I am glorified in them. ¹¹And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one. ¹²While I was with them, I kept them in your name, which you have given me. I have guarded them, and not one of them has been lost except the son of destruction, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. ¹³But now I am coming to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁵I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one. ¹⁶They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. ¹⁸As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. ¹⁹And for their sake I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth.