Today, we shall look at “WHAT CONSECRATION INVOLVES.” God is waiting for you at the place of consecration. You cannot have any meaningful encounter with God without consecration.
This appears to be what the LORD is asking the church today: Where is the sacrifice? You are the sacrifice. And that is why in Romans 12:1-2 the Bible says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.”
Consecration is the sacrifice upon the altar. Consecration is that your life has become that sacrifice on the altar. That was why Isaac was asking the father, “Where is the sacrifice?” And so, God is asking us today, “Where is the sacrifice?”
So many Christians consecrated themselves to the LORD in the past. They willingly gave themselves to the LORD in the past. But today, they are no longer laying on the altar. They have run away and left the place of consecration.
Why did they run away from the altar of sacrifice? This is because they do not want to fully obey God. They want to do things their own way. They want to go for evangelism at their own time. They want to want to dress the way they want. They want to wear nose rings etc. They want to lie, fornicate whenever the opportunity shows up.
In Mark 8:34-35 Jesus said, “…If any man wants to follow Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. 35 For whosoever would save his life shall lose it; and whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s shall save it.”
But God is looking for people who are consecrated, because you cannot work with Him without consecration.
Consecration involves sacrifice. You have to give up something before you can be His disciple. The rich young ruler refused to give up His wealth and that was why he could not be Jesus’ disciple.
Jesus said, “You cannot become My disciple without giving up everything you own” (Lk. 14:33).
Today many are burning out their lives on other altars. Many are being spent on other things and not Christ. God is asking us today, “Where is the animal for sacrifice?”
Do you know that if you are not burning for God as a sacrifice, you are burning for something else? You can be burning for your career, business, family. You can be burning your life as a burnt offering for the things of the world, and not the things of Christ. But Jesus said, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God….” (Matt. 6:33).
Some people go to work in the morning, come back rests for 2hrs and go for another work till 9pm. This is the cycle for almost a lifetime. You ask yourself, “What is this person living for?” He is living for money. He has no time for God. In fact, money has become his god – idolatry.
Is there anything wrong with looking for money? No! But if it has come to a point that everything you are doing is just to gather money, then, it is a miserable life.
The consecrated life is not cheap. It is not just mere words. Consecration involves blood, because there is no sacrifice that there is no blood. When you talk about sacrifice, that means there is blood. You will lose blood.
Consecration involves tears, agony, suffering. You must give up something when it comes to consecration. You need to give up something. In fact, you need to give up your own life.
For the Scripture to say, “Present your body….” That is your entire life. That is why God cannot use a person that is not available. Consecration is making yourself available for God. It is making yourself available for His purpose.
Consecration involves self-denial. Denying everything, forsaking everything, surrendering everything to God.
Consecration is that you have separated yourself from the things of this life for God. God wants to use you, and you have decided to dedicate yourself, set yourself apart. In this case nothing else in the entire universe is more important to you than the LORD Himself.
Realize that God will only meet with man at the altar of consecration. You cannot be anything for God here on earth without consecration. God will never use anyone or anything that is not consecrated unto Him.
Consecration is not for all. Consecration is for those who have resolved to pay the highest prize. Jesus paid the highest prize. The highest prize you can pay is your life.
God is calling all of us unto consecration. God is calling you to consecration in the local Assembly where he has planted you. Your time will be required. Your presence will be required. Your money will be required. Your ideas will be required. But if you are not available, God is helpless. God is helpless in a situation where there are no consecrated people. God is helpless in a place where there are no people that are ready to make sacrifice.
So many people made sacrifices for you and I to be in the Kingdom of God today. Some lost their lives, some lost their entire families.
Look at a man like Apostle Paul. Consider the way he lived his life. That man did not marry. Why? He said, “If I marry, it will distract me from serving the LORD” (1 Cor. 7:9, 27-28, 32-34). If I marry I will not be able to give the LORD my 100%. He said, “I am spent for Jesus, I am not living for anything else other than the Gospel.” That is consecration. Anything less than that is nothing but a child’s play.
The Lord is telling us today that, “We should have died in the judgment of God because the soul that sinneth shall die” (Ezek. 18:4).
But the Lord has shown us mercy and called us unto Himself. And because He has redeemed us, He has saved us from slavery and destruction, He has then called us to complete consecration unto Him.
Now consider it: You have been saved, you have been delivered, you have passed from darkness to light, you have passed from death to life, you have tasted of the goodness of the LORD through Jesus Christ who died on the Cross for us, then there is a call upon your life – a call to complete consecration.
Apostle Paul said, “I beseech you therefore, because of the sacrifice Christ made for us, I plead with you that this is what you should do.”
Looking at the mercies the Lord had shown to you, I beseech you therefore, to present your bodies a living sacrifice…
God wants us to offer ourselves as living sacrifices - daily laying aside our own desires to follow Him, putting all our energy and resources at His disposal and trusting Him to guide us. We do this out of gratitude because of what He has done for us.
You should bring your mortal body to the Lord and you have to place it on the altar of sacrifice.
You are required to present your whole body on the altar of sacrifice to God.
A dead animal cannot be presented to the LORD. You must present that sacrifice to the Lord when it is still alive, and you must present that sacrifice complete to the Lord.
Jesus Christ presented Himself a living sacrifice on the altar of sacrifice to God the Father. You too are required to present your whole body a living sacrifice to God the Father.
What does it mean when the Bible says, “I present my body to the Lord?” You are saying I present my body, my intellect (mind, thinker) to the Lord. But your intellect, your body, must be holy before it can be accepted by the Lord. You will determine that you will not fill your mind with pollutions like pornography.
You will say, “I present my hands to the Lord, and these hands will only do things that will bring glory to God.”
I present my feet to the Lord. The places I will walk to are places that will glorify God. I will not walk to shrines. I will not walk to bars. I will not walk to the houses of harlots.
I present my tongue to the Lord, and it will speak only those things that glorify the LORD.
I present my genitals to the Lord. It must not misbehave. It will work only when I am legally married.”
I present my body a living sacrifice unto the Lord which is my reasonable service.
It is the members of our bodies that are used to commit sin and therefore, we must quickly present them to the Lord (Rom. 6:12-13, 19).
Conclusion: Every Born-Again believer is called to be set apart (2 Tim. 2:20-22). The life of every Born-Again believer should be consecrated to the Lord (Rom. 12:1-2). Once you are consecrated, you are expected to do all things in line with the Word of God.
Watch out for the next edition of the Good News from the Pulpit!
· Your friend, I. I. Madubunyi (Senior Pastor, HOG). 17.03.2024
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