Preserve our Body in Sanctification by Presenting it to God to Live a Holy Life

In order for us to cooperate with God to preserve our body in sanctification, we must present our body to Him so that we may live a holy life for the church life, practicing the Body life in order to carry out God’s perfect will.

Oh Lord, we give ourselves to You! We present our bodies a living sacrifice to You! May our body be for the church life, even be a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God! Amen, Lord, sanctify our body!

This week we prayerfully considered the cause of our blamelessness in holiness and the cause of our complete sanctification in our spirit, soul, and body.

We believers in Christ need to live a holy life for the church life; for this, we need the Lord to establish our heart blameless in holiness.

Our heart, according to the Bible, is a composition of our mind, emotion, and will, together with the conscience. The reason our heart is important is that our heart is the entrance and exit of life, even the switch of life.

If our heart is not right, God’s life in our spirit is hindered from growing in us and flowing in our inner being.

On His side, God is unchanging, and His eternal economy is something He focuses on to the uttermost. On our side, however, our heart is changeable, so it is blamable. We need to be renewed in our heart.

We need to have a blameless heart. We need to be those who are sanctified in living a holy life for the church life. God operates in us to sanctify us, and we cooperate with Him by dealing with our heart.

We open to the Lord in prayer again and again so that our heart may be soft, pure, loving, and at peace.

May the Lord establish our heart blameless in holiness by the continual renewing of the sanctifying Spirit.

On the judicial side, Christ shed His blood for our redemption; on the organic side, He is continually sanctifying us in our disposition as the Spirit so that our spirit, soul, and body would be preserved complete, without blame, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We need to cooperate with God to preserve our spirit in sanctification; that is, we need to keep our spirit in a living condition by exercising our spirit.

We need to fellowship with the Lord and keep touching Him! Also, we need to cooperate with God to preserve our soul in sanctification by dealing with and clearing the three main “arteries” of our heart.

Our mind needs to be renewed. Our emotion needs to be dealt with and attuned to Christ’s emotion. And our will needs to be subdued.

May we cooperate with God to deal with our heart and preserve our soul in sanctification.

Cooperate with God to Preserve our Body in Sanctification by Not Presenting our Body to anything Sinful but Presenting it to God for His Will

We need to be those who cooperate with God not only to preserve our spirit and our soul in sanctification but even more, our body.

We need to cooperate with God to preserve our body in sanctification. How? It is by presenting our body to Him so that we may live a holy life for the church life, practicing the Body life in order to carry out God’s perfect will (Rom. 12:1-2; 1 Thes. 4:4; 5:18).

We need to realise that, even though we think we know our body, for it is our own body, our fallen body is the flesh, the meeting hall of Satan, sin, and death.

On the one hand, by Christ’s redemption, our regenerated spirit is the meeting hall of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit; on the other hand, our flesh is the meeting hall of Satan, sin, and death (Rom. 6:6, 12, 14; 7:11, 24; 1 Cor. 6:15, 19).

Through regeneration, Christ came into us; now we need to cooperate with God to preserve our body in sanctification so that our body would be a member of Christ and a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Our body is fallen and corrupted, for sin has damaged and ruined our body to make it the body of sin (Rom. 6:6).

To preserve our body in sanctification, we should never allow it to follow the old man; rather, we should glorify God in our body (1 Cor. 6:20).

We need to preserve our body in sanctification by magnifying Christ in our body (Phil. 1:20). This is on the positive side.

On the negative side, we must not live according to our soul, the old man; if we do this, the body of sin will lose its job and become unemployed.

But if we do not exercise our spirit and we do not cooperate with God to preserve our body in sanctification, by default we will sin.

When we become soulish, when we live by our soul life, our body is employed, so the body of sin is active and great.

But when we deny the soul, we put our old man on the cross, and our body of sin will be unemployed, so we will no longer serve sin as slaves.

To preserve our body, we must not present our body to anything that is sinful. Instead, we should present ourselves as slaves to righteousness and our members as weapons of righteousness (Rom. 8:13; Dan. 5:23).

This is why Paul charged us to abstain from fornication (1 Thes. 4:2). When we abstain from fornication, we preserve our body, our vessel, in sanctification and honour.

Today the whole world is full of contamination and defilement. When you walk on the street, all the ads and billboards are defiling us, and even the way people dress, speak, and behave, it is so defiling.

Even more, we have our mobile phones and the world is at our fingertips; we are so many times defiled by what we watch on our phone, what we listen to, and what we read. Oh Lord!

We may start watching or reading something good or interesting, but it ends up with something that defiles us.

Because the world is so contaminating and defiling, it is very difficult for us to preserve our body.

The Lord doesn’t want us to get out of the world and be on a mountain somewhere just with the Lord and with the saints; He wants us to cooperate with Him to preserve our body in sanctification in the midst of the things and people that are there with us.

As parents, we need to learn to stay away from defilement and contamination through being sanctified in what we see, hear, and do, and we also need to train our children to do the same.

We need to teach our children, even those in elementary school, to preserve themselves and keep away from these contaminating elements.

If we think that the children need to be allowed to be tested in order to develop resistance, we are seriously mistaken, and in the future, we will regret such a course of action.

But if we help our children enjoy God’s word, God’s creation, and the church life, while at the same time help them keep away from the defiling and contaminating things in the world, we will reap the benefits.

No matter how young or how old we are, as long as we are a human being, we need to guard ourselves from lust and defilement.

The things we watch, the things we look at, the things we listen to, and the things we read can defile and contaminate us.

As long as we have not been transfigured and still remain in the old creation, as long as we still have the flesh, we need to preserve our body.

It is not easy to preserve our body, for this means that we need to be careful not to look at anything, not to listen to anything, and not to touch anything that will defile our body.

God’s will is our sanctification, that we know how to possess our own vessel in sanctification and honour (1 Thes. 4:3-4).

The reason people today indulge in the passion of lust is that they do not know God (v. 5). But we know God. We love God. We want to cooperate with God to preserve our body.

We are not immune to defilement and contamination. In order to preserve our body, we must buffet it and lead it as a slave to fulfil our holy purpose to become part of the holy city of God (1 Cor. 9:27; Rev. 21:2).

We need to be careful what we look at. We need to be watchful concerning what we listen to.

And we need to be vigilant to make sure we don’t touch or do things that are sinful, for they defile us. We should simply open to the Lord and tell Him,

Lord Jesus, we want to cooperate with God to preserve our body in sanctification. We present our body to You to live a holy life for the church life. Oh Lord, may we realise that, even as our spirit is the meeting hall of the Triune God, so our flesh is the meeting hall of Satan, sin, and death! We want to turn from our flesh to our spirit! We set our mind not on the flesh with its passions and lusts but on our spirit! We want to preserve our body by glorifying God in our body! Amen, Lord, may You be magnified in our body. We choose not to live according to our soul, the old man. We choose to live in spirit and according to our spirit! Amen, Lord, we choose not to present our body to anything that is sinful; instead, we present ourselves as slaves to righteousness! We present our members as weapons of righteousness! Oh Lord, we do not trust our flesh and we do not trust our fallen soul; we present our body to You for the church life to be sanctified! May we lead our body as a slave to fulfil our holy purpose so that we may become the holy city! Amen!

God Sanctifies us Wholly and we Cooperate by Rejoicing, Praying, Giving Him Thanks, Not Quenching the Spirit, and Not Despising prophecies!

1 Thessalonians 5:12-24 is a wonderful portion of the Word showing us how, on His side, the Lord works to sanctify us, and on our side, we should cooperate with Him to be sanctified.

God sanctifies us wholly, and we cooperate with His sanctifying work. We need to cooperate with God’s work of sanctification by living a holy life for the church life.

He operates in us both the willing and the working for His good pleasure, and we cooperate by living a spiritual and separated life.

God operates in us to sanctify us and preserve us, even to preserve our whole being complete at His coming. He wants to sanctify us wholly and preserve our spirit, soul, and body complete at His coming. How wonderful!

On our side, however, we need to cooperate with Him. We cooperate with Him by preserving our spirit, soul, and body in sanctification.

We cooperate with Him by always rejoicing, unceasingly praying, in everything giving Him thanks, not quenching the Spirit, and not despising prophesying in the church meetings. Amen!

Especially when it comes to cooperating with God to preserve our body in sanctification, we need to present our body to Him so that we may live a holy life for the church life.

We can’t say that we preserve our body in sanctification and, on the other hand, we don’t go to the meetings of the church.

We need to present our body for the church life to enjoy the Lord with the saints. We need to live a holy life for the church life.

We need to practice the Body life in order to carry out God’s perfect will.

But we don’t do this in an outward way, because it is mandatory; we don’t do it because we are told to do it but because we exercise our spirit.

We exercise our spirit to pray unceasingly. We exercise our spirit to always rejoice. We exercise our spirit to give the Lord thanks in all things and concerning all things.

We exercise our spirit to not quench the Spirit but rather, speak the Lord and speak for the Lord.

And we exercise our spirit as we come to the meetings of the church so that we may appreciate the prophesying of the saints and not despise it.

We are believers in Christ who are exercising our spirit again and again.

When we exercise our spirit, deal with the main arteries of our heart before the Lord under His shining, and present our body to the Lord for the church life so that we may live a holy life, we will be kept in the divine life.

Our spirit will be preserved from any deadness and defilement. Our soul will be kept from any pollution or blockage in our mind, emotion, and will.

And our body will be preserved from the defilement and contamination of this age. Spontaneously, we will live a holy life for the church life.

Whether we are new believers or we have been believers for many years, we still need to cooperate with the Lord to preserve our spirit, soul, and body in sanctification so that we may live a holy life for the church life.

Only when we cooperate with the Lord in such a way can He flow in us as life and He can also flow out of us as life to minister life to others for the building up of the church.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit to cooperate with You to preserve our spirit, soul, and body in sanctification. Thank You, Lord, for operating in us to sanctify us and preserve our whole being – spirit, soul, and body – complete and without blame at Your coming! Amen, we want to cooperate with You today. We exercise our spirit to always rejoice, unceasingly pray, and in everything give thanks! Amen, we exercise our spirit to not quench the Spirit but rather, speak one with the Lord and never despise prophesying in the church meetings! Hallelujah, we can cooperate with the Lord to have our whole being sanctified so that we may live a holy life for the church life! Amen, Lord, may we live such a sanctified and holy life for the church life today! May Your divine life flow in us and through us to others in the church life for the building up of the church as the Body of Christ! Hallelujah, faithful is He who calls us, for He will also do it! Amen!

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References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brother Minoru Chen on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of 1 Thessalonians, pp. 212-214, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Experiencing, Enjoying, and Expressing Christ (part 3 – 2025 Summer Training), week 29, The Cause of Our Blamelessness in Holiness and the Cause of Our Complete Sanctification in Our Spirit, Soul, and Body – day 6.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – My spirit, soul, and body, / Dear Lord, I give to Thee, / A consecrated offering, / Thine evermore to be. / My all is on the altar; / Lord, I am all Thine own; / Oh, may my faith ne’er falter! / Lord, keep me Thine alone. (Hymns #447 stanza 1 and chorus)
  – Consecrated is Thy temple, / Purged from every stain and sin; / May Thy flame of glory now be / Manifested from within. / Let the earth in solemn wonder / See my body willingly / Offered as Thy slave obedient, / Energized alone by Thee. (Hymns #403 stanza 2)
  – I am the Lord’s! Yet teach me all it meaneth, / All it involves of love and loyalty, / Of holy service, absolute surrender, / And unreserved obedience unto Thee. / I am the Lord’s! Yes; body, soul, and spirit, / O seal them irrecoverably Thine; / As Thou, Beloved, in Thy grace and fulness / Forever and forevermore art mine. (Hymns #433 stanzas 3-4)