Your being Born Again is the beginning of your spiritual journey. The very next step in this journey is to consecrate yourself to the LORD. If you have truly repented, you will immediately desire to consecrate your life to Christ. So today, we want to look at “HOW YOU CAN CONSECRATE YOURSELF TO GOD?”
What is consecration? Biblically, consecration means living a life completely surrendered to the Lord, accepting His will for us and seeking that will each day in all things. For instance, Jesus lived a life that was totally surrendered to the Father (Matt. 26:39; Jn. 4:24).
Why should one consecrate himself to the Lord? There are 4 reasons why you should consecrate yourself to the LORD:
1. You should consecrate yourself to the Lord so that you can walk in His way. Before you were saved, you walked in your own way, made our own decisions, and chose your own direction. But after you were saved, God wants you to walk in His way, follow Him, and be led by Him. But this is possible only when you completely give yourself to Him. Consecrating yourself to the Lord keeps you in His way, and saves you from taking your own way.
2. You consecrate yourself to the Lord so that you can grow in Him.
3. You should consecrate your life to God so that He can work in you. Before you can go and work for God, God needs to work in you first. Even though you are saved, He still has much work to do in you so as to conform your thoughts, feelings, decisions, inner disposition, and your whole being to the image of Jesus Christ.
This explains why a person can be genuinely saved for years, and yet has little or no growth in the divine life and little or no changes in his character. God will wait until you give Him the permission to come into your life to restructure it for His purpose (Rev. 3:20).
4. You should consecrate yourself to the Lord in order to enjoy the riches of His salvation. God’s salvation package is full of riches, and these riches belong to every Born-Again believer only. For instance, the Lord told Moses and Aaron, “Here are the rules for the Passover. No foreigner is to eat the Passover... Passover is for the people of Israel only... If a non-Israelite lives with you, and if he wants to share in the Lord’s Passover, then he MUST first be circumcised. Then he will be the same as any citizen of Israel, so he can share in the meal. But if he is not circumcised, then he cannot eat the Passover meal” (Ex. 12:43-48; 2 Cor. 5:17).
When the Lord was to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, He commanded each family to get a one-year old lamb (sheep or goat) that is completely healthy. Kill the lambs for the Passover, and take bunches of hyssop and dip into the bowl filled with blood. Then paint, the blood on the sides and tops of the door frames. At the time the LORD goes through Egypt to kill the firstborns, the Lord will see the blood on the sides and tops of the door frames. Then the Lord will protect that house. The Lord will not let the Destroyer (the spirit of death) come into your houses and hurt you.
If a non-Israelite wants to enjoy this right and privilege exclusively meant for God’s people, he MUST become circumcised. A Gentile becomes a spiritual Israelite by being circumcised. Today, it is no longer the circumcision of the flesh but the circumcision of the heart - you must be Born Again. Then and only then, does he have the full right to enjoy the privileges of God’s children (Jn. 3:3-7).
When I talk about the children of God, I’m not talking about church goers, I’m not talking about church supporters, I’m not talking about those that were baptized as a child, and later confirmed into confusion. I’m not talking about those who claim to be Born Again but are consciously living in sin.
But I’m talking about anyone who has repented of his sins by turning away from those evil ways and turning to God (Prov. 28:13; Isa. 1:18-19). I am talking about anyone who has confessed the Lord Jesus Christ as his Lord and personal Saviour, believing in his heart that God raised Jesus from the dead (Rom. 10:9-10). I’m talking about anyone who has opened the door of his heart and willingly invited the Lord Jesus to come in and control his life (Rev. 3:20). I’m talking about anyone who has been washed and redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb. I’m talking about those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life - a book containing the names of all those going to heaven. I’m talking about those who have had a personal encounter with the Lord Jesus Christ. I’m talking about those people who are Born Again. I’m talking about the New Creatures in Christ.
Here is the truth: When we were saved, God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3; 2 Pet. 1:3).
You have all these blessings in heavenly places, but for you to enjoy them in your daily life, you must consecrate your life to God.
How can one consecrate himself to the LORD? The steps are as follows:
1) Realize that Christ purchased us with His own blood, and now we belong to Him (1 Cor. 6:19-20)
But God does not force anyone to give himself to Him. He waits for us to do this.
2) You should personally decide to consecrate your life to Him. No one else can do this for you. This is called the initial consecration. It is once and for all and it involves all that you are and all that you have.
For this initial consecration to the Lord, it is best to spend time alone with Him in the study of His Word and in prayer, so as to enter into intimate fellowship with Him. That way you can have a thorough transaction with Him.
You can completely give Him yourself, your desires, your plans, your relationships, your possessions and your activities, one by one. In our consecration to Him, we want to be thorough and specific, presenting ourselves and all that relates to us to Him.
The more detailed we are, the better our consecration to Him becomes, and the more we will sense the joy of being the Lord’s, and being well pleasing to Him. To help us pray to the Lord you can use His own words in 1 Cor. 6:19-20. For instance: Lord, I am not my own. Through Jesus I belong to You because You bought me with such a price. Lord, thank You for paying the highest price with Your own precious blood to purchase me. I am Yours. All I have and all that I am are Yours. So Lord, I give you my body, my soul, and my spirit. I give You my very life. I give you my time, my energy, my education, my family, my job” IJN.
We can also use 2 Cor. 5:14 to pray thus: “The love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that if one died for all, therefore we all died.”
With this verse we can pray this way: Lord Jesus, thank You for loving me to the extent that You died on the Cross. Lord, Your love for me constrains me to give my all to You. I give my heart to You. I give my mind, my emotions, and my will to You. Take all of my days, take my whole future. I place everything about me in Your hands. I love You, Lord Jesus!
On one hand, we all need to consecrate our lives once for all to God. But after this initial consecration, we should live a life of consecration all our days on earth.
We can do this by actively practicing to daily give our lives to the Lord. Each morning, when you wake up, you can simply tell the Lord: Lord, thank You for this new day. I offer myself to you today. In this way, you maintain a fresh daily consecration. For instance, if you are a student, you can give yourself to the Lord at the beginning of each school term.
Or if you get a new job or promotion you can pray saying, “Lord, I give this new job to You. It is not mine. It is Yours. I belong to You.”We can also do this at the beginning of a new year to offer ourselves to the Lord again. By practicing to consecrate ourselves daily and at particular times, we keep our consecration to the Lord fresh.
Presenting ourselves to God makes us pleasing to Him, and is our service to Him. When you present yourself to the Lord in consecration, He has the freedom to do in and through you whatever He wants.
Consecration is actually our service to the Lord (Rom. 12:1).
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