Sanctification

Let me tell you about a dog that taught me more about sanctification than any theology book ever could… and she didn’t say a word the whole time.

Her name’s CJ… short for Calamity Jane. And if you’ve ever seen a good English Pointer lock up on a bird, you know what I mean when I say it’ll make a preacher want to skip a Sunday service. Head high, tail straight, muscles tight like a coiled spring… just poetry with fur on it.

Now CJ ain’t like my German Shorthaired Pointer dogs. Those shorthairs… they’re all up in your business. If you sit down, they sit with you. If you breathe, they wanna be part of it. They’re relationship dogs.

But a pointer like CJ?

She’s got a little hound in her soul. She’s thinking, “You can come if you want… but I’m going hunting either way.” When I first got her as a pup, she was a little skittish. Real sensitive. Didn’t take much correction at all. Now that can be a blessing… unless the fella holding the leash doesn’t quite know what he’s doing.

And wouldn’t you know it… that fella was me.

I got into this habit of trying to micro manage her.

I mean I was micromanaging that dog like I was playing a video game.

“Go here, CJ.”

“No, not there, CJ.”

“I think you’re on a bird… no wait… maybe not…”

I was trying to outthink a creature that God designed with a nose that could probably smell a biscuit baking three counties over and tell you if it needed more butter.

Truth is, I was getting in her way.

See, CJ was created to hunt.

God wired her with instincts I don’t have, senses I can’t understand, and a purpose I didn’t need to rewrite… just refine.

So finally, after enough frustration to humble a man, I backed off. I started correcting the big things…and letting her run.

And wouldn’t you know it… that dog got better. Not because I tightened control, but because I trusted her design and stayed consistent as her trainer.

Now somewhere along the way, watching that dog work God nudged me…That’s sanctification.

Big church word… simple meaning. It’s the process of becoming what God already designed you to be.

The Bible says in Philippians 1:6, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.”

You don’t start out finished… just like a pup don’t start out polished. But if you belong to the Master, there ought to be progress.

A good bird dog learns the whistle… the tone… the subtle cues. At first it’s clumsy. Delayed. Confused. But over time, it becomes instinct.

Same with us. Jesus said in John 10:27, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” Sanctification teaches you what His voice sounds like.

Not just in church…but in decisions… in conviction… in quiet moments when nobody else is around. Obedience starts changing from “I have to” to “I trust Him.”

Now let me ease something in right here, because this is where folks get sideways sometimes…

Even the church, with the best intentions, can start trying to “overtrain” people.

We hand out lists… do this, don’t do that… stand here, don’t go there… like we’re programming a robot instead of shepherding a soul.

But sanctification ain’t about memorizing a rulebook. It’s about relationship. It’s about learning the Shepherd’s voice so clearly that you don’t need a thousand rules… because your heart already leans toward Him. Galatians 5:16 says, “Walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.” Notice it didn’t say “white-knuckle your way through a checklist.”

It said walk… with Him.

Now nobody trains a bird dog so it can sit on the porch and stare at the fence. You train it so it can run free the right way. So it can do what it was born to do… better. That’s holiness. Not a cage but a calling.

Romans 6:22 says, “But now that you have been set free from sin… the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.”

God ain’t trying to take your joy. He’s trying to aim it. He’s shaping you into who He already designed you to be in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “We all… are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another.”

That’s sanctification. It is not instant or flashy But steady and led by the Master’s hand.

And if we will stop just doin, and start just listenin He will change us.