Living in the Principle of the Nazarite by Overcoming Worldly Enjoyment and Rebellion

We are not our own: we belong to God, He has bought us with the high price of the death of His Son, and now it is an honor and a privilege for us to consecrate ourselves to the Lord to live to Him and no longer to ourselves (2 Cor. 5:15). All those who love the Lord and pursue Him out of a pure heart need to live in the principle of a Nazarite, having a voluntary consecration to God for His purpose.

As seen in Num. 6:1-8, there are four main aspects of our consecration to God as a Nazarite: overcoming worldly enjoyment and pleasure (wine and anything that comes from grapes), overcoming rebellion (not cutting our hair), overcoming death (not being defiled by death), and overcoming natural affection (not making himself unclean even for immediate members of his family).

Day by day we need to have a fourfold consecration, realizing that our breath is in God’s hands and all our ways belong to God (see Dan. 5:23). In this blog post we want to dig deeper into what it means to overcome worldly enjoyment and pleasure and what is the spiritual significance of not shaving our head as a Nazarite.

As Nazarites, we need to avoid and overcome worldly enjoyment and pleasure – signified by the Nazarite abstaining from wine, grapes, and anything related to its source (see Num. 6:2-4). We need to flee youthful lusts and not be involved with or seek worldly pleasures which lead to lustful intentions and lustful conduct.

We need to abstain from “the worldly wine”, the pleasures which the world offer us, by enjoying Christ as the new wine to make us people who are happy with God and cheer man and cheer God! Day by day we need to maintain our joy in the Lord by spending time with Him, confessing and repenting, and going up to His altar to enjoy Him and worship Him.

Also, as Nazarites we need to overcome any rebellion. The spiritual significance of the Nazarite not cutting his hair or shaving his head is that he needs to be absolutely subject to the headship of Christ and to the deputy authority He has ordained (Num. 6:5).

It is a blessing for us to be under Christ as the Head and under the deputy authority He has ordained, and it is precious in the Lord’s eyes for us to “have long hair”, being submissive to Him in all things.

Overcoming Worldly Enjoyment and Pleasure by Enjoying Christ as the New Wine

A Nazarite is one who abstains from and overcomes worldly pleasure and enjoyment, signified by his abstaining from wine and anything related to its source (see Num. 6:3-4).

Physical wine is the source of man’s worldly pleasure and enjoyment, and wine “makes man happy” even when he is not, drugging him and giving him a feeling that causes him to be beyond his natural condition and situation. Abstaining from wine, grapes, dried grapes, seeds, grape skin, and anything related to grapes and wine, signifies that we need to overcome worldly enjoyment and pleasure.

Seemingly, the enjoyment and pleasure in the world is harmless and makes us happy (at least temporarily); actually, worldly pleasure leads to lustful intentions and lustful conduct. We must abstain from worldly enjoyment and pleasure by enjoying Christ as the new wine so that He can cheer us and make us happy, and then we will become cheering wine to make God and others happy also (see Judges 9:13; Matt. 9:17; 1 John 2:15-17).

We need to be those who love God as our person and not be lovers of self. We need to be lovers of God as our wealth and not lovers of money. We need to love to enjoy God as our pleasure and not be lovers of pleasures, as many are at the end of this age (see 2 Tim. 3:1-5).

Day by day we need to maintain our joy in the Lord by spending time with Him, coming to Him, enjoying Him, and rejoicing in Him. We need to go to the altar of God, to God our exceeding joy (Psa. 43:4), because in His presence there is fullness of joy (Psa. 16:11).

When we enjoy God, we are saturated with the fatness of His house, and He causes us to drink of the river of His pleasures; with Him is the fountain of life, and in His light we see light (Psa. 36:8-9). Hallelujah, there is a river whose streams gladdens the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the Most High (Psa. 46:4)! It is so good to be in the city of God, on Mount Zion, the city in elevation, the joy of the whole earth (Psa. 48:2).

May the Lord restore to us the gladness of His salvation, and may He sustain us with a willing spirit for His building as we enjoy Him (Psa. 51:12).

When we come to the Lord in His word, He causes us to rejoice; we can find His word and eat His word, and they will become in us the gladness of our heart (Neh. 8:8, 10; Jer. 15:16). It is God’s lovingkindness that we are not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning; great is His faithfulness (Lam. 3:21-24). God is our portion, and we hope in Him.

Even when we are in the lowest pit, we can call on the name of the Lord, and He hears our voice – He is not hiding our ear at our breathing, at our cry (Lam. 3:55-56).

May we learn to day-by-day maintain our joy in the Lord by enjoying Him in His word, by calling on His name, by being in His house, and by hoping in Him and in nothing else. Don’t drink the wine of the world: drink Christ as the new wine, and you will be happy indeed!

Lord Jesus, we come to You to enjoy You and delight in You. You are our joy, and with You is the fountain of life. Keep us drinking from the river of Your pleasures. Keep us drinking of You as the heavenly new wine that cheers us and makes us cheerful to God and man. Lord, restore to us the gladness and joy of Your salvation, and sustain us with a willing spirit for Your building.

Overcoming Rebellion by Being Absolutely Subject to the Headship of the Lord

A Nazarite is one who is not allowed to shave his head or cut his hair; not shaving the head signifies not rejecting God’s headship but being absolutely subject to the headship of the Lord (see Num. 6:5).

All creation is rebellious against God, and man as the head of creation takes the lead in this. If there were no policemen or law courts there would be lawlessness and crime everywhere. Even the “justice system” today is unjust, unrighteous, and not right.

We as believers in Christ have God’s life in us, and we need to realize that in us there’s rebellion against God and against the authority appointed by God over us. As Nazarites, the ones consecrated to God for His purpose, we need to overcome rebellion by being absolutely subject to the headship of the Lord as well as to all deputy authorities God appointed.

Christ is the Head of the Body, and God desires to head up all things in Him; He is Head over all things to the church (Eph. 1:10, 22b-23). Christ is the Firstborn of all creation that He might have the first place in all things (Col. 1:18). We need to give Christ the preeminence and take Him as our Head in everything.

Also, God has ordained authorities over us, and there’s no authority except from God, and those which exist – no matter how unrighteous they may seem – they are ordained by God and we should not oppose them but be subject to them (see Rom. 13:1-2).

1 Cor. 11:3 But I want you to know that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of the woman, and God is the head of Christ.

In the family life we need to be subject to one another in the fear of Christ, and God has ordained that Christ would be the head of the husband and the husband would be the head of the wife (see Eph. 5:21-23; 1 Pet. 3:1-7); the children need to obey their parents in the Lord, for this is right (Eph. 6:1).

In the church life God has ordained certain leading ones to which we should submit and pray for, for they watch over our souls as those who will render an account (see Heb. 13:17). Younger men should be subject to elders, and we all need to gird ourselves with humility toward one another (1 Pet. 5:5).

In the world, God has ordained certain authorities over us such as parents, teachers, policemen, instructors, bosses, managers, supervisors, etc; we need to obey them in the Lord. A Nazarite is a person “full of hair”, that is, full of submission.

With a Nazarite there’s a submissive atmosphere and intention, and this draws a great blessing for him, for those around him, and for his future. Brother Lee once said,

It is a blessing to be under someone or some thing. It is even a blessing to be severely limited. I thank the Lord that from the day I came into the recovery, the Lord put me under someone, some thing, or some environment. (Witness Lee, Life-study of Numbers, p. 70; cf. Eph. 4:1)

In Eph. 3:1 we see that Paul, as a prisoner in a Roman prison, considered himself to be a prisoner in Christ Jesus; in 4:1 he said he is a prisoner in the Lord, and in 6:20 an ambassador in chain. He never complained or asked others to come and release him from prison but obeyed God’s sovereign arrangement over him.

From Samson’s story we see that in submission there is power (in his long hair there was the power, Judges 16:17; Josh. 9:14). Satan today is trying to wear out our consecration, not necessarily by drastically dealing us a blow to kill or consecration but slowly wearing us out (Dan. 4:25).

The devil doesn’t come in and “turns off the light” but slowly “dims the light” until there’s no more light. We need to keep our consecration fresh to the Lord and be absolutely submissive to Him and to the authorities He placed over us, and we will be the Nazarites of today!

Lord Jesus, we subject ourselves to Your headship. You are our head. Lord, may we accept and obey any deputy authority You have set over us. May there be a spirit of humility in us toward others, and may we live in a submissive atmosphere and intention. Lord, we want to have a fresh consecration to You as Nazarites. Save us from the enemy’s wearing out tactics, and keep our consecration fresh to You! Make us the Nazarites of today!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my Christian experience, bro. Ed Marks’ sharing in the message for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Numbers, msg. 8, as quoted in, the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Heavenly Vision, week 6 / msg 6, The Vision of Consecration.
• Recommending: see www.21centurynazarites.com for many testimonies of young lovers of the Lord who enjoy Him and overflow with His enjoyment as new wine.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # I have come to the Fountain of Life, / A fountain that flows from above; / I have passed from the waters of strife / And come to the Elim of love; / I have drunk of the heavenly well, / In the depths of my being it springs. / No mortal can measure or tell / The gladness the Comforter brings. (Hymns #523)
  # We’re walking in newness of life / And singing a joyful new song; / In newness of spirit we serve, / This new one accord makes us strong. / We’re drinking the new life divine, / Oh, how this new wine our heart cheers! / The new man will walk this new way / Until the new city appears. (Hymn on Drinking Christ as New Wine)
  # On Christ we here would focus, / No other center make; / With Christ in sweet communion / His riches to partake. / He is our Head and content, / His Body we express; / Whate’er we do while meeting / Himself must manifest. (Hymns #867)