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Day 21: Consecration (Bonus Lesson 3)

Consecration is the only thing Christ requires from His Bride. Every other act of obedience springs from a consecrated life.

Consecration simply means to be made holy, sanctified, or set apart. More accurately to be separated for a special purpose. It's like we've examined in the last two lessons how a betrothed woman in Jewish times is separated for her husband alone and no one else.

To hack consecration, we must establish in our minds that we are to live consecrated because we've been made holy not because we are trying to be. The Bible in 1 Peter 2:9 calls us a holy race. Many believers are trying to be holy when we've already been set apart for God.

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."

The first is to present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice:
Sacrifice in the Old Testament was an act of worship. There was no worship in the temple without burning or putting something on the altar. In this new dispensation, our bodies are the temple of God and we are the sacrifices we offer each day. For us to be appropriate sacrifices to God, Christ had to cleanse us with His blood.

As prayer is our tool for worship, consecration begins in prayer. Consciously presenting all that we are and is ours to God daily.

The second is the renewing of the mind:
At salvation, our spirit was recreated but our soul remains the same. Our soul is the seat of logic (our mind), will, and emotions. These three drive our everyday decisions. We must fill our minds with the ideologies of God found in His word, every day.  In simple terms, renewing the mind is aligning our thoughts with that of God as stated in His word.

Jesus said in John 17:17, in the Amplified Classic:

"Sanctify them [purify, consecrate, separate them for Yourself, make them holy] by the Truth; Your Word is Truth.."

Just like we take a bath daily because without doing any dirty work, our body picks up dirt from the environment, so it is with our minds. Because we live in a world with opinions contrary to God's we must each day bathe our minds in the word of God.

To live a consecrated life, we must offer ourselves and all that is ours to God in prayer and fill our minds with the word of God each day. I said in a previous lesson that sin cannot be dealt with by human will but must be exposed to the light of God's word. In the same way, total consecration to Jesus is not possible with the human will no matter how strong it is. It is the word of God and prayer that strengthens us for a life of consecration.

PRAY WITH ME:
Lord, I offer myself to you today as a sacrifice. Take my life: my body, my finances, my career, my family, my relationships, all that I am and have, and do with it as you please. Let your truth cleanse my heart of the ideologies of this word and grant me the grace to live set apart each day.

REFLECT AND ACT:
  • Set out time each day to pray the prayer of consecration and meditate on the word of God every day. If you have specific habits you struggle with, meditate on scriptures that address them.
  • Meditate on  2 Corinthians 5:15:
"And He died for all, so that all those who live might live no longer to and for themselves, but to and for Him Who died and was raised again for their sake."



 

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