My friends did what I thought they would never do. They turned against me and falsely accused me of some terrible things. About the same time, the Lord made it very clear that I was to leave my position at the church. I felt I had lost everything! I did not understand why it happened or what was going on in my life, but eventually God showed me that what happened was actually part of His answer to my prayers of consecration.
I asked God to take all of me; I gave myself to Him, and I was sincere. I just wasn’t expecting some of the results. There were things in God’s way and He had to move them. At first, I was lonely and hurt, but eventually I began to see that my security and value were rooted in my friends and church position and that God actually did me a huge favor in removing them.
The process of consecration is not usually comfortable or easy, but it is always good and the benefits are amazing.
If you pray the prayer of consecration, you can expect the fire of God to come and cleanse you and your life. The process of consecration is not usually comfortable or easy, but it is always good and the results are amazing.
Full Consecration
Christians become dangerous to the enemy when they start living consecrated lives that are fully dedicated and sold-out to God. This kind of devotion means we give God everything; we cannot hold anything back. As you know by now, when we consecrate ourselves, everything about us becomes fair game for God to deal with.
If we really are serious about being set apart for God’s use, we must ask ourselves if there are any areas of our lives in which we are holding out on God. What little, hidden secret places do we have in our hearts? What are the things about which we say, “Well, God, You can have everything but that,” or, “Oh, no, God! I’m not ready for that!” or, “God, just don’t touch that relationship yet,” or, “Lord, just don’t ask me to quit doing that”? Full consecration is not saying, “Lord, I’ll read my Bible every day; I’ll memorize verses and hide Your Word in my heart and pray many hours a day, but please do not ask me to give up my one little favorite vice!” No, full consecration is saying and meaning with all of your heart: “I give myself—entirely—to You, Lord.”
I don’t mean to sound as if we should expect God to take everything we enjoy away from us, because He won’t do that—but everything must be available to Him. He must make the choices about what is really good for us and what is not; our job is to trust Him completely.
God’s primary goal in our lives is to make us like Jesus. Romans 8:29 says that He wants us “to be conformed to the image of His Son” (NKJV), which means that He wants us to continue to become more like Jesus in our thoughts, in our words, in the way we treat other people, in our personal lives and in our actions. Becoming like Jesus does not happen overnight. It requires a process of consecration and it means that our soulish, carnal, fleshly tendencies have to be eliminated.
Romans 12:1 reads: “I appeal to you therefore, brethren, and beg of you in view of [all] the mercies of God, to make a decisive dedication.. . .#8221; This means that we have to make a choice—a deliberate decision—to give ourselves to God. God has given us a free will, and the only way we will ever belong to Him is to give ourselves freely to Him. He will never force us to love Him or serve Him. He will lead us, guide us, and prompt us, but He will always leave the decision to surrender up to us. God created human beings, not robots, and He will not try to program us to behave a certain way because He has given us the freedom to make our own choices—and He wants us to choose Him. He wants us to lay our lives willingly on the altar every day and say, “God, Your will be done, and not mine.” That is one of the most powerful prayers we can pray when we really mean it. It is short and simple, but it represents the kind of full surrender God requires. If God has been dealing with you about anything, I encourage you not to put off surrendering it any longer. In your thoughts, you may intend to surrender at some later time, but remember that good intentions do not equal obedience—and obedience is what God requires.
Present Your Members to God
Paul continues in Romans 12:1 and exhorts us to “make a decisive dedication of your bodies [presenting all your members and faculties].” If we really dedicate our bodies to God, we cannot lie on the couch all day and eat donuts and watch soap operas and think we are living consecrated lives. In order to live consecrated lives, we need to get up in the morning, get out our Bibles, spend time with God, and dedicate ourselves to Him. When we see our bodies as gifts to the Lord and instruments that He wants to use, we will not abuse our bodies; we will not continually fill them with junk; we will not deprive them of proper rest. We will dress appropriately, in ways that honor God; we can dress fashionably and still dress appropriately. We must remember that we represent God, not the world.
In order to obey Romans 12:1, we will also need to choose to give the Lord our “members and faculties.” In other words, we offer Him our minds, abilities, and emotions. We should not let the devil use our minds. The human mind is his favorite battleground and he will fire thoughts at us all day long. Most of the time, they will be sly, subtle, and deceptive thoughts so that we will find them easy to believe. He will lie and accuse and tell us anything he can think of to steal our joy, rob our peace, and make us feel rotten and unworthy. He fills our minds with ungodly thoughts about other people. We cannot stop him from sending thoughts our way, but we can resist, rebuke, and fight back. Attacking God’s people is a way of life for the devil, so prayer also needs to be a way of life for us. To be honest, there are days when I have to cast down a dozen thoughts just in the time it takes to put on my makeup! But, thank God, I know how to do it. One of the best ways I have learned to combat the devil when he gives me wrong thoughts about someone is to begin to pray for that person immediately. When we fill our thoughts with right things, the wrong ones have no room to enter.
The Word of God gives us power to resist the enemy.
How do we stop the lies of Satan? We need to do what Jesus did; open our mouths and say, “It is written. . .#8221; Then we need to quote a Bible verse that proves what a liar the devil is. For example, if he is telling lies about a certain person, refute those lies by saying, “The Bible says that love believes all things and hopes all things. I am walking in love, and love always believes the best of every person. I have no proof that so-and-so is like that, and I am not going to believe it, devil.” The Word of God gives us power to resist the enemy. For example, when the devil tries to tell me my future is dim, I quote Jeremiah 29:11, which states that God has a good plan for my future. One of the reasons we learn the Word is so that we can defeat Satan with it. It is our offensive weapon against him, and we must use it.
When we consecrate our “members and faculties” to the Lord, we also give Him our abilities, our skills, and our talents. Many people use their abilities at work, which means that their professional lives—their integrity on the job, their time management, their stewardship of company resources, and the way they treat their coworkers—should bring Him honor. We need to see ourselves as working for God, instead of working for a boss. We need to go to work every day with the determination to do everything right, with excellence.
If a person goes to work every day and surfs the Internet when no one is watching, he or she is stealing. That is no different than going into the accounting department and taking money. If people have agreed to work a specific number of hours a day for a certain wage, then they need to keep their commitment. We should not try to get away with things we are not supposed to be doing when no one is looking; we should not try to figure out how we can leave early or cut corners without being noticed. People whose lives are consecrated to the Lord know that He is always watching, they are aware that they are living their lives in His presence and they want to please Him with their thoughts and with their actions. They want to live in the light, before God, and to obey Colossians 3:23, which basically says, Whatever you do, do it unto the Lord with all of your heart, knowing that you will get your reward from God and not
from man.
Here to Make Him Happy
Doing everything unto the Lord with all of your heart is one mark of a consecrated life. It is one way to say, “God, I belong to You.” The greatest revelation I could impart right now is that you do not belong to yourself. First Corinthians 6:19–20 says, “Do you not know that your body is the temple (the very sanctuary) of the Holy Spirit Who lives within you, Whom you have received [as a Gift] from God? You are not your own, you were bought with a price [purchased with a preciousness and paid for, made His own]. So then, honor God and bring glory to Him in your body.”
We have been bought with a price—the blood of Jesus Christ. God purchased us for Himself, we do not belong to ourselves, and if our lives are consecrated to God, we have deliberately laid down any rights we thought we had. We are not here on earth so that God will have people to please. His job is not to make us happy. On the contrary, we are here to serve Him and to make Him happy and to carry out His purposes on earth. Personally, I cannot think of a greater privilege, nor can I imagine doing anything that would make me happier than fulfilling the call of God on my life.
Some people are so afraid no one else will make them happy that they think they have to do it all for themselves. They believe they have to take care of themselves because no one else will. But the truth is, God really will give us a life we enjoy and He will take care of us. That is what happens if we say, “God, I am not going to live to please myself. I am going to live to please You, believing that if I live for You and Your pleasure, You will take care of me and my happiness.”
To the best of our ability, Dave and I have consecrated our lives to the Lord. We have done that in a general, big-picture sense, and we do it regularly in the specific matters we face on a daily basis. We want everything about us to belong to God. We work hard. We travel all the time. We pour our hearts out to other people, and do you know what? God takes such good care of us! He meets every need and makes arrangements for special things we could never, ever experience on our own or provide for ourselves.
For example, it is no secret that Dave loves golf. When we first started traveling, he was in golf leagues and had a Saturday--morning golf group and all sorts of activities that revolved around golf. But as part of consecrating his life to the Lord, Dave had to put his favorite sport on the altar. He had to go to the golf course all by himself when he wanted to play, because he was not home on the weekends when his friends played. That was a sacrifice for him, because golf was something he really enjoyed.
Now, years later, God has blessed Dave so much. He gets to play on most of the best golf courses in the world—often at no charge! He gets to play with some of the professionals, and sometimes they even send him new clubs or the latest golf gadget. Golf was difficult for Dave to give up for God, but he did it willingly. Now God is giving him things he could never have received if he had kept trying to take care of himself. When we give ourselves to Jesus, He gives us favor. Things begin to happen that amaze us and bring us great enjoyment!
Consecration brings blessing. It is an honor to give your life to the Lord; you do not do it to get blessed, but blessings do follow. Setting your life apart for God’s use brings Him joy, and He, in turn, will take care of you and help you enjoy your life.
Give It Time
Just as Dave had to wait several years before he was able to play golf the way he does now, the process of consecration and the blessings of a consecrated life have a gestation period for all of us. When God is dealing with us and setting us apart for His use, we have to be patient. He does not waste time when working with us, but He takes as much time as is necessary to do a deep, thorough, lasting work in our lives. We need to be diligent to guard against “fleshly zeal,” which means trying to “make something happen,” trying to figure it out or trying to accomplish God’s purposes in our own strength.
Even when our hearts are dedicated to God, we have to submit to His timing as He continues to purify us so that we can serve Him most effectively.
I have seen so many believers attempt to rush God or try to “help” Him as He works in their lives. I have done that myself—and that kind of striving in the flesh absolutely wears people out. Even when our hearts are dedicated to God, we have to submit to His timing as He continues to purify us so that we can serve Him most effectively. We may not understand His timing and we may even grow frustrated or impatient with it. If so, we have to keep our eyes on the prize. The Bible says we inherit through faith and patience (see Hebrews 6:12). We honor God when we consecrate our lives to Him, and in order to do that fully, we have to allow Him to take us through the process of consecration on the timetable of His choosing. When we have done so, we will reap rich rewards of His presence and power in our lives, and we will experience the indescribable blessing of being used by God.
I hope you see that the prayer of consecration is not to be prayed lightly without sincerity. But, if you do pray it sincerely, you will never be disappointed with the result.
THE PRAYER OF COMMITMENT
If you have ever met another human being, ever been in a relationship, ever tried to manage your money, ever held a job, ever tried to discover and fulfill God’s purpose for your life or grow spiritually—then you have probably encountered some problems. Problems are a part of life, and when you get rid of one problem, you will most likely have another one right behind it! That is true for all of us, and even though we can develop and mature in our abilities to confront, endure, be steadfast, and live in victory, we will always be contending with one problem or another.
If you have problems, then the prayer of commitment is for you. What is the prayer of commitment? Simply put, it is giving our problems to God. It means committing things to Him, releasing the pressures and the problems of life and letting Him work everything out. If we will learn to commit our stresses and situations to God, we will enjoy our lives more, we will be more fun to be around, and we will be happier and more relaxed. God can do more in one moment than we can do through a lifetime of struggles. Nothing is too big for God to accomplish, and nothing is too small for Him to be concerned about. He cares about everything that concerns you, so give it all to Him and start enjoying your life.
Give It to God. . .
Most people respond to problems in a similar way: they immediately begin to try to solve the problem themselves. If that does not work, they pick up the phone to call a friend or someone else they think can fix the situation. But I like to say that we need to run to the throne before we run to the phone! As I wrote earlier in this book, prayer needs to be our first response to every situation.
When does God really begin to intervene in our lives? When we stop trying to live them for ourselves and according to our own good ideas. When does God begin to straighten out our problems? When we give up our attempts to solve them. When does God get involved in our situations? When we quit worrying about them. When does God give us answers? When we finally cease trying to figure everything out for ourselves. Psalm 37:5 says, “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass,” and Proverbs 16:3 says, “Commit your works to the Lord, and your thoughts will be established” (NKJV).
Many times, our “works” are the things we “work” in our minds—our reasoning, our analyzing, and our attempts to figure out what is going on or what we should do. But God says that if we will commit our works to Him, our thoughts will be established. In other words, if we can get our minds to calm down, we will be clearheaded and God can give us ideas and strategies and directions. When we get the wrong thoughts out of our minds, God can give us the right thoughts. When we clear out the bad ideas, God can give us great ideas.
What does it really mean to commit our ways to God? It means to “roll” them off us and “roll” them onto God.
The first step in the prayer of commitment is to stop worrying and reasoning and to commit our works (our thoughts) to the Lord. The prayer of commitment says to the Lord: “God, I give this to You. I g
ive You this problem. I give You this situation. I give You this relationship. I completely release it and let it go. It is too much for me. I cannot handle it. I am going to stop worrying and stop trying to figure everything out—and I am going to let You take care of it. God, I also give myself to You because I can’t do anything about myself, either. I give it all to you. I give you my weaknesses and problems. I want to change, but You have to change me.” It was a great day for me when I finally learned that it was God’s job to change me, and my job was to believe!
What does it really mean to commit our ways to God? It means to “roll” them off us and “roll” them onto God. The Amplified Bible expresses it beautifully in Proverbs 16:3: “Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed.” When we roll our problems and human reasonings on God, which means to trust them wholly—completely—to Him, then He changes our thoughts and makes them agree with His will. In other words, His thoughts become our thoughts so that we want what He wants. When that happens, our plans will succeed because they are in complete agreement with God’s plans. So many times, we have problems because we try to resist God’s will or we do not want to agree with His way, but when we roll those problems onto Him, we end up happy and blessed.