We were buried with Him…that just as Christ was raised from the dead…even so we also should walk in newness of life. —Romans 6:4

No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral” — the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection— a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.

Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).

Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ‘white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”

“This is the will of God, your sanctification…” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.

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Journal DJR
Good morning Lord,
Not to be contentious with Oswald Chambers, but I see the White Funeral as more of a process than an event. At least that’s how it has worked and continues to work for me. Pick up your cross DAILY comes to mind. I suppose it is both an event and a process, like a lot of things in your kingdom. And pressing to make an issue one or the other blocks off our hearing and causes religious wars, denominational splits and other things that make you and us sad.

You got it. Your cross is indeed both an initial event, the first time you surrender, “Thy will be done” and a process every day thereafter that you choose to surrender your will.

What if I don’t consciously surrender, but I don’t consciously rebel either?

You have described a majority of my children. They walk in less than I planned and hope for them. Less intimacy, Less power, and missed opportunities. You will miss fewer opportunities if you keep the “self will, vs Thy will” paradigm in mind. It may seem that always denying yourself would lead to a life of no fun… but that is only if you deny yourself all the things the guilt merchants would have you deny. Realize that your cross and white funeral is custom tailored to you. There are things that I call others to that are not for you. And vice versa. Putting on those things will be like forcing on shoes that don’t fit. So connect with me, learn to hear my voice and feel my heart and live from that place. You will have more fun than if you were indulging all your appetites.

Note: Two songs today with slightly different aspects of the White Funeral. djr

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