Introduction: In order to experience the Lord you MUST be a consecrated person, because the time it takes to grow is long.
If we are not clear about consecration and are not consecrated, then we may not be able to finish the course like the Apostle Paul.
“I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love His appearing” (2 Tim. 4:7-8).
When we are supposed to run the race, we may run away from situations that could help us to grow.
Therefore, we must be properly consecrated in order to go on and grow properly, ready for anything that may come our way.
These two experiences, salvation and consecration are closely related. A saved person should move on to become a consecrated person. Once a person is saved, the next step is to consecrate himself to the Lord. To be saved without being consecrated is a waste.
What is the basis of consecration? On what basis must we consecrate ourselves to God? On what basis does God require us to consecrate ourselves to Him?
For instance, when you move into a house and live in it, it is because you have paid a certain price to rent or buy it. This renting or buying is the basis on which you live there.
All the doings of our God are legal. God has paid a price to purchase us. He therefore, demands that we consecrate ourselves to Him.
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? 20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
Our consecration to God is based on this purchase. God the Father has bought us with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.
“Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers; 19 But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1 Pet. 1:18-19).
“But when the fullness of the time was come, God the Father sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons” (Gal. 4:4-5).
We became sinners because of the sin of Adam and Eve. We fell under God’s law, and were kept and retained by this law.
If God, therefore, wanted to release us from under His righteous law, He must pay the full price to satisfy the demand of His law. This price He paid is the precious blood of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
Formerly be belonged to the law, but now we belong to God. The right of ownership has been transferred from the law to the hand of God.
It is on the basis of this transfer of right that God the Father demands that we consecrate ourselves to Him.
Each time that something happens that we find ourselves arguing with God, we MUST quickly bow before Him and say, Lord, I am the slave you bought. My right of ownership has been purchased by You. I here and now declare that You are right and I am wrong. Even in this matter I will let You be the Lord, an decide for me.”
Every time we depart from the position of consecration, we should know that we are in a state of rebellion similar to that of Onesimus, the slave who fled from his master, Philemon.
Many of us may be runaway slaves. We must repent right away and consecrate ourselves to the Lord again or for the first time. When you do this, you’ll immediately experience life and growth.
At conversion, the believer receives a justified life. How is a person justified?
“Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law” (Rom. 3:28).
NLT puts it this way, “So, we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law” (Rom. 3:28).
“Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: 2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God” (Rom. 5:1-2).
When you are justified, you are declared discharged and acquitted by the court of Heaven.
As a believer you are made righteous. “For God the Father hath made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (Christ)” (2 Cor. 5:21, KJV).
This righteousness is a free gift from God Almighty to the believer. “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).
After the believer has been justified and made righteous, what follows is a consecrated life. In consecration, the believer acknowledges the Lord’s ownership of his life.
What is the meaning of consecration? To consecrate means to make holy or to dedicate to a higher purpose.
The meaning of consecration is to be a sacrifice.
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
What is a sacrifice? Whenever a thing is set apart from its original position and usage, and is laid on God’s altar, specifically for Him, that thing is then a sacrifice.
For instance, when a cow that is usually used for plowing is sacrificed, it is burnt to be a sweet savour to God. IT become God’s food to satisfy Him.
Leviticus 3:5 says, “And Aaron's sons shall burn it on the altar upon the burnt sacrifice, which is upon the wood that is on the fire: it is an offering made by fire, of a sweet savour unto the Lord.”
Leviticus 3:11 says, “And the priest shall burn it upon the altar: it is the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord.”
Since the meaning of consecration is to offer ourselves to God as a living sacrifice for God’s satisfaction, we should ask ourselves this question:
Since your consecration, how much of your actual living and actual experiences have proved that you have indeed laid your lives on the altar as a sacrifice to God?
True consecration is never compelled by God. It is from our voluntary will. God takes nothing by force. You have to offer yourself willingly to God.
Therefore, our consecration today must be made out of our voluntary will. It has to be you who willingly lay on the altar, and dare not move away no matter what.
Others may move about freely, but you dare not act in a casual way. Others may calculate and choose between the sweet and the bitter, but when you that is being consecrated encounter a difficulty, you dare not consider escape as an option.
Others can reason and even argue with God, but you that is consecrated to Him dare not say even one sentence.
Others can evade God’s will, and avoid being bound and limited, but you that is consecrated would rather be restricted by His will and willing to be imprisoned in His hand.
All these is simply because you have already offered yourself to God and laid on the altar as a living sacrifice. You are already a consecrated person.
You should be able to say continually to God, “O Lord, I have no choice; I have already consecrated myself to You; I am in Your hands.” Then you will continually experience life and growth in life.
What is the purpose of consecration? The purpose of consecration is to be used by God; to work for God. But to be able to work for God, we must first of all let God work in our lives. Only those who have first of all let God work in their lives can work for God. You can only work for God to the extent that you allow God to work in your life.
When any sacrifice is offered to God, God will first consume that sacrifice by fire, if that sacrifice will be pleasing and acceptable to God.
If the sacrifice is not first consumed by fire, it will be raw and foul-smelling, and could never be pleasing and acceptable to God.
That is how our consecration today should be. You have already offered yourself to God. Yet if you do not allow God first to work in your life, but go out to work for Him and serve Him directly, that work and that service will be raw and foul-smelling to God. It can never be accepted by God, let alone satisfy Him.
“But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour. 21 If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work” (2 Tim. 2:20-21).
Therefore, you must allow God to work on you first. Then His life will flow and grow within you. In this way, He makes you ready to work for His eternal purpose.
What is the result of consecration? A truly consecrated person is one who has really cut his ties with the world and tightly binds himself to God.
To this person, his all is God; his future is God. He lives every day to contact God, to enjoy God, to be filled up with God, and to overflow with God.
He is sorrowful when God’s desires are not met. And he is happy when God’s desires are met. He is just involved with God. His own thoughts, desires and choices are put aside for God’s. That was the case with Jesus Christ. He said, “Nevertheless, not My will, but Yours be done.” He always knows that his place is on the altar, and his future is to be ashes for God.
When we talk about giving up your future, we mean that when a profitable business opportunity awaits you, when an excellent job awaits you, you will give it up for the Lord’s sake. This is truly called the giving up of future.
Even if the entire glory of Egypt is placed before you, “You can still say to it, Good-bye. I must be on my way to Canaan.”
Such an one is not distracted by the things of this world. Our future is God only, not a degree or a promotion.
Whenever you discover that your heart loves many things other than God Himself, just know that you desperately need to be re-consecrated, to be ashes for God.
Conclusion: What happens when you truly consecrated yourself to God? You become a prisoner of His love because His love has pierced your heart. You become a sacrifice indeed, laid on the altar for God’s enjoyment and satisfaction. You will become a person who has been thoroughly worked on by God to purge you from all filthiness, and are now fit to work for Him. Your future will truly become a handful of ashes. All your ways of escape outside of God’s will shall have been cut off. God only will be your future. At that time, the experience of your consecration will indeed have become matured.
Watch out for next edition of the Good News from the pulpit
- our friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor, HOG). 01.12.2021
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