Consecration

We don’t hear much about consecration these days. I used to hear a lot about it, but it was preached in the wrong way. I do believe what happened to consecration is that many of the generation who heard it all the time got “turned off” by the word and let go of it altogether. As the old expression goes: “We don’t need to throw out the baby with the bath water.”

Jesus was the epitome of consecration. When He prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, He didn’t want to have to go to the cross. It was an agony He absolutely did not want to face, to be separated from His Father. They were One. He had never been without that relationship. Nevertheless, for the joy that was set before Him, He consecrated His life for the purpose for which He was called. He was called to become sin and set mankind free.

We are not called to become that, but what we are called to become is this. We are to completely surrender our lives to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. We are to be so in love with Him and so submitted to Him that we joyfully live for Him. I’ll go where you want me to go. I’ll do what you want me to do.

I believe that the reason some people do not pray that prayer of submission is that they don’t know their God. They are afraid that He will tell them to go to the farthest reaches of the end of the world to be a missionary. They are afraid of a loving God. The God of Love created you for the very destiny that He has for you. You were born with the desire already in you. You were born with the desire to do exactly what He has called you to do. He has not called you to do something you detest. That is not the way He works. He loves you. You are His child. What you desire to do is what He has placed within you. If you don’t have a desire to go to another country as a missionary, that is not what He is asking you to do. You know in your heart where you are to go and what you are to do. Do you know that the place of greatest joy and peace and satisfaction is in the perfect will of God? He will never call you where He has not already prepared you to go. What a joy to serve Him, to dedicate our lives to Him.

It is a true love relationship between us and Him. He loves to use us. He loves to lavish Himself upon us. We should do the same for Him. That is what a covenant relationship is. It is about loving the other person so much that we want to give them pleasure; we want to give them joy. We love doing things for them.

There is a place of dedication, reverence, awe, consecration that we need to get to in our journey with the Lord. It is a place of peace and tranquility. It is a place of joy. It is a place of total trust, a place of faith. It is a place where we can truly speak Galatians 2:20 and mean it, without being full of the “martyrdom” mentality. This particular scripture is one of rejoicing for the child of God. It is a place where we all need to go.

I am crucified with Christ.
Nevertheless, I live.
Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.
And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.

I used to despise this scripture because I had heard so many people of God preach on it as being the scripture that stripped us of all we had so that we could be in a place of humility. What most of these people missed was the utter beauty of surrender to the One you love intensely. “Crucified” just simply means I am out of the way. I am not trying to control the circumstances and “call the shots” for my life.

I trust the Anointed One, Christ, with His anointing to live through me. He loves me. He gave up His life so that I can live, really live. We have not lived until we live through Him. It is such a life of joy and thanksgiving and love and peace. What a life! I love this life! My old nasty self is dead and the wonderful, beautiful Son of God, Christ, lives in me. He has total access to my life, to my mouth, to my hands, to my feet. My feet travel where He determines. My hands do what He knows is good. My mouth speaks what He speaks. His life is my life. I am no longer deciding what is best for me. How can I, who knows so little, dictate to One Who knows all, the way I am to conduct my life. What an ego that takes.

He Who is all-knowing, all-powerful, all-present has presented Himself to me and asked me to open the door of my life that He may come in and abide in me. The God Who created everything wants to live in me. All I can say is, Wow! That is remarkable. I consider it a pleasure, an honor to consecrate my life to Him. Lord, I invite you to live in me and determine my life. You are welcome! Thank You for extending the invitation to me. Now I extend the invitation to You. Take my life, Lord, and let it be consecrated, Lord, to you. What a freedom this is.

My prayer for every person who reads this Pearls is that you will come to experience the freedom of consecration and dedication to the Lord God Almighty. Once you do, your life will be one of excitement and joy, wanting to know what the next adventure is in Him. I urge you to learn what true consecration is.