21/04/2022
Why we should consecrate ourselves to the Lord?
To consecrate yourself is to answer God's call to spiritual consecration. This means making a conscious, willing decision to dedicate your whole being (soul, heart, mind, and body) to God. Only you can make the decision to consecrate yourself to God.
When we were saved, we were born again with the life of God -2 Cor 5.17.
Regeneration or rebirth is only the beginning of our spiritual journey. The Holy Spirit has an important role in our regeneration when we become Christians. After we were regenerated, the next step is to consecrate, or give ourselves to God.
We all need to concentrate ourselves to the Lord in order to deepen our personal knowledge of Christ and grow in the divine life, even if we have only just gotten saved. Consecration is our daily life with God. Each day, we are to live out our lives as a 'holy' and 'royal' priesthood to the glory of God - 1Peter 2.9-10.
In Exodus 28.41, we read that sanctification and consecration were two different entities though they are practically related. To sanctify (Hebrew "qadash") means to make holy or set apart. The word holy means to be different - when we became born again, we received the life of God in our spirit - Ephesians 1.4. To be set apart - from those around you. One good example is Abraham, in the book of Genesis, God told him to be set apart from his family, friends, and where he lived. Abraham chose to obey God that set him apart physically and emotionally from everyone. Just like Abraham, it is important for every Christian to know God called us to be set apart. He has set us apart from the ways, thoughts, and attitudes of the world.
Sanctification is an emptying process where we are cleansed from the old life and made clean by God's Word. It is God's operation, the process by which He makes us holy because God is holy -1 Peter 1.15.
To consecrate (Hebrew "charam") means to fill, to fulfill, to accomplish, and to replenish. Consecration is a filling process where new life is poured into us that makes us ready for use by God. It is the human side of sanctification - John 17.17-19. However, for God to carry out the process of consecration with us He needs our cooperation, our willingness to obey that call like Abraham. God wants to fill us from our spirit into our whole being - 1 Thessalonians 5.23.
In the OT, consecration was completed by washing in water. In 2 Samuel 12.20, when David confessed his sin of adultery, he bathed and changed his clothes before he worshiped the Lord and same also in the NT - Colossians 3.5-14. Paul described in his letter to Titus what God has done for us in Christ and how we should live in response in Titus 2.13-14.
But, today when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we become a living sacrifice -Romans 12.1. It means He is not only our Saviour but most of all He is our Lord because we rely on the power provided by the Holy Spirit - John 14.16-17.
Why we should consecrate ourselves to the Lord:
1. To walk in the Lordship - Before we were saved, we made our own decisions, our life was for the pursuit of our own goals and satisfaction, and chose the direction for our life. After we were saved, God wants us to walk in His way and be led by Him. How can we know what His way is? How can He lead us? By consecrating ourselves to His Lordship -as a Christian we should live moment by moment in faithful submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, meaning He is the boss and master of your whole life not only a part or a portion of your life.
2. To grow in life- When Christ comes into us, we were regenerated with his divine life. His intention is for that divine life to grow. Surrendering every part of ourselves and every aspect of our lives to Him creates the best environment for the divine life to grow in us. As we follow God, we grow in that divine life in a real and practical way. 1 John 3.9 - No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God.
3. To allow God to work in us - Before we can work with God, He first needs to work in us. Even though we were saved, He still has to conform our thoughts, feelings, and decisions - our whole being -to the image of His Son, as what Romans 8.29 says that God's goal for us is to make us Christ-like. He is not a dictator. He respects our free will and does not force His work on us, rather He needs our consent to work freely in us.
4. To enjoy the riches of God's salvation - God's salvation is full of riches. The way we can enter into the enjoyment of all these blessings is by consecrating ourselves to Him. We read it in Joshua 3.5,17-18, whereas God fulfilled his promised that He would do miracles when the Israelites consecrate themselves with God. He stopped the river from overflowing to help the Israelites crossed the river and enter Canaan. Some of the benefits of consecration:
1. Overflowing blessings -Exodus 32.29
2. Overflowing anointing - Hebrews 1.9
3. Ever abiding presence of God - Psalm 91.1
4. Becoming a chosen vessel of God - 2 Tim 2.21 / Acts 9.15
In this respect, Consecration is like a door. To enter a building, we must go through a door. If we don't, no matter what wonderful thing awaits us on the other side, we can't enjoy or participate in it. Consecration is the door for us to enter through to enjoy all the riches of God's salvation.
Whether we were newly saved or longtime believers, each one of us can give ourselves to the Lord. He is happy and willing to receive our consecration at any time!
When the Lord becomes our priority, it allows Him to increase as we decrease our desires for other things - John 3.30 (KJV) says, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
A sanctified and consecrated life leads to the operation of a strong anointing. The anointing is the working of God's power in our lives when we live consecrated lives.
