"What Is Consecration and Why Do I Need to Consecrate Myself to God?"
The birth of a child is an exciting and happy event, and we all recognize it’s the beginning of a new life. We’d never say it’s an end or conclusion.
It’s the same with us believers. Our being saved and born again with the life of God is truly wondrous and joyful. But it’s not a conclusion. Our regeneration is only the beginning of our spiritual journey. And just as babies need to grow and develop, we Christians need to move forward step by step.
After we’re regenerated, the next step in our spiritual, life-long journey is to present, or give, ourselves to the Lord. This is to consecrate ourselves to Him.
What does “consecration” mean?
The word consecration isn’t a commonly used word, but even so, we might have an existing concept about what it means. In religion, the word consecration has been used in relation to the official ordaining of a person to be a preacher, a priest, or a missionary. This use implies consecration is for a special category of people.
But the consecration revealed in the New Testament is for every believer in Christ. It’s not something only for knowledgeable Christians or spiritually mature ones. In fact, as we’ll see, we cannot subjectively know the life of Christ in us or reach spiritual maturity without consecrating ourselves to the Lord. This is because consecration is the basis for every spiritual experience.
So what is consecration? Consecration is our giving ourselves to the Lord to become “a living sacrifice,” as Paul says in Romans 12:1:
“I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God, which is your reasonable service.”
In the Old Testament, a sacrifice was something set apart for God by being put on the altar. When people offered that thing to God, it no longer belonged to the one offering it. It belonged to God, for His use and His satisfaction.
Today, when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we become a living sacrifice. We give up our own claims on ourselves and put ourselves completely in His hands. Previously, our life was for our use and our satisfaction; now it is for His.
When we present ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice, we’re simply saying, “Lord Jesus, I am for You. I’m no longer for myself, the world, or anything else. I am for Your use and Your satisfaction.”
Now we need to ask, How important is it for us to present ourselves to the Lord? Does it matter whether we do or don’t?
Four reasons why we should consecrate ourselves to the Lord
1. So we can walk in the Lord’s way
Before we were saved, we walked in our own way, made our own decisions, and chose our own direction. But after we’re saved, God wants us to walk in His way, follow Him, and be led by Him. But if we don’t give ourselves to Him, how can we know what His way is? How can He lead us? Consecrating ourselves to Him keeps us in His way and saves us from taking our own way. We can pray, “Lord, I don’t want to make my own decisions or take my own way. I want to be kept in Your way. So Lord Jesus, I give myself to You.”
2. So we can grow in life
With any physical life, after birth comes growth. In the same way, when Christ comes into us His intention is for His divine life in us to grow. But any kind of life, even the divine life of Christ in us, needs the proper environment and opportunity to grow.
Our surrendering ourselves to Him provides the best opportunity for His life to grow in us. As we surrender every part of our being and every aspect of our lives to Him, we give His life the best opportunity to grow in us.
Whether or not we give ourselves to the Lord makes a big difference in our experience of Christ. When we keep ourselves in our own hands without consecrating ourselves to the Lord, we may not feel certain things are wrong, and we’re unable to tell whether or not something is of God. Our lack of consecrating ourselves to the Lord hinders the life within. The life in us simply doesn’t function that well because it doesn’t have the opportunity to grow or develop.
But when we surrender ourselves to the Lord, we provide the best opportunity for His life to grow and develop in us. Spontaneously, we can sense what is pleasing to Him and what is not, what is of God and what is not. This sensation comes from the functioning of God’s divine life in us. Our consecration is what activates this life function that gives us the sense of God’s life in us. As we go along with and obey God by this sense, we grow in the divine life in a real and practical way.
3. So God can work in us
Before we can go and work for God, God needs to work in us. Even though we’re saved, we all have to admit that He still has much work to do in us to conform our thoughts, feelings, decisions, and inner disposition—our whole being—to the image of His Son.
God is surely omnipotent, but in His relationship with us, He is not a dictator. He respects our human will and doesn’t force His work on us. He wants and needs our consent in order to work freely in us. Our consecration is our consent.
Since God will only work in us if we allow Him do so, this explains how a person can be genuinely saved for years and yet have little to no growth in the divine life, and little real change in their being. God will wait until we give Him the permission to work Himself into us for His purpose.
So instead of letting our time slip away or resisting His work in us, we can pray to Him, “Lord, I give You permission to work in me. I offer myself willingly to You. Lord, I open the door of my heart to You. Come into each room of my heart and conform me to Your dear Person in every way.”
4. To enjoy the riches of God’s salvation
God’s salvation is full of riches. It includes being saved from eternal perdition, certainly, but God’s salvation encompasses so much more. When we were saved, God blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Christ. The divine life, Christ’s perfect humanity and living, His effective death, His powerful resurrection, His victory over Satan, His ascension over all things—all are ours. But without consecrating ourselves to Him, we have no way to enter into the enjoyment of all of these blessings. We have them in fact, but for us to enjoy them in our daily lives, we must consecrate ourselves to God.
In this respect, consecration is like a gate or a door. To enter into 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. It’s there, but we’re on the outside. Consecration is the door for us to enter through to enjoy all the riches of God’s salvation. When we give ourselves to the Lord, He will lead us in our experience into the enjoyment of the rich blessings of God’s full salvation.
We can pray, “Lord, I don’t just want to know about the riches of Your salvation; I want to enjoy them. So Lord, here I am. I give myself to You fully. I belong to You. Lead me by Your Spirit into the experience and enjoyment of all You have for me in Your salvation.”
Purposes for Fasting:
Matthew 6:16-18 “And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you.”
Isaiah 58:3-7 “Why have we fasted, and you see it not? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you take no knowledge of it?’ Behold, in the day of your fast you seek your own pleasure, and oppress all your workers. Behold, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to hit with a wicked fist. Fasting like yours this day will not make your voice to be heard on high. Is such the fast that I choose, a day for a person to humble himself? Is it to bow down his head like a reed, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him? Will you call this a fast, and a day acceptable to the Lord? “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked, to cover him and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?”
In Scripture we see several purposes for fasting. It’s part of the discipline of self-control; it’s a way of sharing that we depend on God alone and draw all our strength and resources from him; it’s a way of focusing totally on him when seeking his guidance and help, and of showing that you really are in earnest in your quest; it’s also, at times, an expression of sorrow and deep repentance, something that a person or community will do in order to acknowledge failure before God and seek his mercy.
We tend to think of fasting as going without food. But we can fast from anything. If we love music and decide to miss a concert in order to spend time with God, that is fasting. It is helpful to think of the parallel of human friendship. When friends need to be together, they will cancel all other activities in order to make that possible. There’s nothing magical about fasting. It’s just one way of telling God that your priority at that moment is to be alone with him, sorting out whatever is necessary, and you have canceled the meal, party, concert, or whatever else you had planned to do in order to fulfill that priority.