The matter of consecration became so clear to me at the recent college-age conference through the brothers’ speaking and the reading of the Word and the ministry. To consecrate yourself to God is first of all to realise that we are not our own. 1 Cor 6:19 says,
You are not your own… For you have been bought with a price.
Praise the Lord – we have been purchased and redeemed! We were purchased with the highest price in the universe, and now we are not our own – we belong to the Lord! Also, we consecrate to the Lord because we love Him – we give ourselves to the Lord not just because He purchased us, but also because He loved us and we just love Him! On the other hand, consecration means to serve God and “wait upon Him” – we as Christians have the honor to serve our almighty God and give Him the opportunity to use us for His dwelling place.
The way to experience a life of consecration is by putting everything on the altar. We need to learn to offer everything to God, and in order to do this we need to first fellowship with Him and say,
Lord, I want to serve You, I am willing to sacrifice all that I have and all that I am to serve You.
Actually, once we realise that we are a hopeless case and we are nothing without God, He will shine in us and show us what needs to be burnt at the altar. As we fellowship with Him, He shines on us to show us what in us can replace Him and what is it that takes His place in our heart.
Sometimes we may think we are “giving things to the Lord” and in reality we are treating Him like “a charity” – we give Him the things that we don’t really want or treasure. We cannot give to the Lord what we do not want – this is meaningless and pointless! For our consecration to be real, it must be detailed and specific – it may be regarding our studies or our job or any other matter! When He draws us with His love and we give ourselves to Him, He is very specific – He touches things and we give Him issues / matters / situations / things that are precious to us. Because He is worthy and because we love Him, we simply consecrate these things and even our whole being to Him! If we all would spend the time to truly consecrate ourself to the Lord we could experience the riches of loving Him and serving Him! [testimony from the recent college-age conference by sister Krissy]
The world has not seen what a truly consecrated person can do.
