I hadn't thought of that before, that Mary was the first member of the church - the invisible church that is. Orthodoxy says that she was entirely sanctified at the Annunciation where the angel of the Lord called her 'full of grace' (not from 'The Immaculate Conception').
But I think it is very important that we know when the church started - the visible one that is, which gives a witness to the world, even though it consists of wheat and tares, as we need to know which are the cults, false churches, that do not teach holiness doctrine showing The Way to the deification of man which is the restoration to that to which he lost at the fall. Sadly in these dark times, it is now not even in the original church as they have mainly succumbed to the 'gradual sanctification' of worldly churches whereby holiness is not obtained till death.
Re cleansing, on meeting a man walking in the Spirit and led by the Spirit, people will be convicted of their sins even before he speaks as in the story about Charles Finney and the factory girl who came to Christ just looking at him after she had been making jokes about him.
When I was fully walking in the Spirit, I attended a Bible study group where one woman was seriously convicted by what I was saying, but the leader of the group soon put an end to it by telling her that she was stressing herself un-necessarily as even her future sins had been forgiven. He won.
When we first come to Christ, we are very sensitive to sin and will try desperately to avoid it, but soon we will begin to compromise if we have not gone on to perfection, and then we 'lose our first love' and remain so unless we are revived through the first stage of entire sanctification.
Not to make too much of Mary, but she gave birth to Jesus and raised Him so spent many years being very close and watching/discerning/hearing Him. And she is a figure or type of the church....she heard the word preached to her by the angel and received/believed it. The Word made flesh. Thus what was conceived in her was of the Holy Spirit....then Christ was formed in her and she finally gave birth to Him. We follow that same pattern I believe.
There are a lot of terminologies that make me cringe....ecclesiastical terminology like Annunciation, Immaculate Conception are among them, because it is a departure from the simplicity of Christ and takes glory away from Him and what He has simply said in His word. I don't like the term deification applied to man either. It seems to overstate the case, when we are to be reflectors of HIS light and glory and deity, because we don't have it of our own. Gods and sons of God in the bible I take to be honorary titles, not to be taken too literally. We have received the spirit of adoption, which is as binding a commitment as having natural children, but not as literal.
Isa 43:10-11
Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me.
I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour.
On the idea of gradual sanctification.....I've noticed there is a strong theme of growth in the bible, so I don't think we can ignore that. It even says until we grow up into the full stature of Christ. Mustard seed of faith which grows until it become a life giving tree, etc. But I believe there is a moment when it is done, when we have crossed the divide, as I think of it. A moment when we fully surrender and have fully consecrated ourselves to Him and become a whole burnt offering on the altar, a whole living sacrifice. But seems it generally takes some form of gradual growth to get there, whether for a short or long period of time. We undergo His chastisements and suffering as sons over time so that we may partake of His holiness.
Yes, the presence of the Holy Spirit in one makes things happen. It can be a stronger or weaker presence. I believe it was His presence in me a few times that caused demons to manifest, and it came out of one person spontaneously......I didn't command it, it was just spontaneous. And I can't say I was walking in the spirit particularly at the time, just trying very hard to bring someone to Christ. He was willing to listen so I just kept talking about the Lord and the gospel and things that the bible says whenever we crossed paths.......and it is simply true that signs follow the preaching of the gospel.
I seem to be the opposite about sin....I wasn't very conscious of my sins in the beginning, except for the sin of unbelief. I was ashamed of not having believed before and of being patronizing when people had witnessed to me a few times. Some sins fell away automatically, but others I only left behind as I became instructed and convicted as I learned the word. And now I am much more sensitive to sin than I used to be.....way way more aware that in me is no good thing, apart from the Lord. Aware of inner things that I am helpless to deal with on my own. Aware that sin is much more than things we do but is what we ARE, in our old man carnal nature. We need the Lord to get to the root of sin/iniquity in us. I think it is that root that drags people down from the heights of that first love...which we need to overcome.
