Do you ever struggle with waves of unusually deep darkness that frightens you and leaves you even momentarily paralyzed and unable to think straight? I certainly do. And when these times come, I am eternally grateful for the presence of God! My friend, if you are born again, that does not mean you are not affected by darkness. We are in a real battle—the most important one—for the souls of humanity. We have a fierce enemy.
And the more you are living for Jesus, the harder the enemy tries to take you out.
He is the prince of darkness, and he lives to make us afraid and confused. The enemy wants you to be immobilized by fear and overwhelmed by a sense of complete hopelessness and worthlessness. This is why consecrating ourselves by God’s Word is so critical!
This is the time to turn on God’s Word in your mind and let it be a “lamp” to your feet and a “light” to your path.
Psalms 119:105
As soon as I sense the darkness begin to close in, I reach for the light of God’s Word. It’s time to spend some SIGNIFICANT time in His Word and seek the presence of Jesus, Who is the light. This time is critical. As I have time alone with God and apply myself to studying His Word and opening my soul to His presence, He always reveals things in my life that are blocking His light. Some of the things are not necessarily unholy—they are just in the way. For example, I like a routine which includes a good workout; but I need to always be open to God breaking that routine for something more important—like a soul who may need salvation.
There is irreplaceable value in taking time alone with God to re-consecrate yourself to Him.
To consecrate yourself to God doesn’t necessarily mean you go live in a cave or a monastery. In fact, I’ve never read about even one person in the Bible whose life was sold out to serve God—who lived this way. Our purpose is to glorify God—to others! Consecration is part of a daily decision to make Him Lord of all things. We let Him run our life. We desire to quit saying and doing things that are unholy and contaminate our relationship with Him. Sometimes this means even the small decisions like giving up social media time wasters and unhealthy thought patterns.
For regular born-again folks, like moms, lawyers, teachers, street sweepers, court clerks, etc., “consecration” means we develop the attitudes of Christ and we take them with us everywhere we go. After you are born again, your spiritual man has been regenerated by the holiness and purity of God. But—our body wants what it wants and—it has a voracious appetite for sin.
The Apostle Paul, in Romans 7:14-22, aptly describes the warfare between his born-again spirit and his sin-infested body. He makes four concise observations about himself
- I am carnal, sold under sin.
- What I want to do, I don’t do; but what I (his soul) hate, that I do.
- The good I want to do, I don’t do; but the evil I don’t want to do, that I practice.
- Evil is present with me—even when I want to do good.
When you understand your design—that God made you with a body, soul, and spirit—you better understand your own internal warfare. We need to know our enemies well enough to know what they look like. Then, we need to intentionally work towards being Christ-like by developing the attitudes of Christ!
When we set aside every area of our life for the glory of God—we are consecrating ourselves for His work.
Consecration opens up our life to God’s miracles. When Joshua gave the Israelites the command to consecrate themselves; he followed up that command with a promise from God:
“Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” Joshua 3:5
When the Jews consecrated themselves, God opened the Jordan River and took the Jews into the Promised Land. This was just the beginning of the miracles God performed for them in the conquest of the Promised Land. When we strive to be controlled by Christ, we enter into His power platform. The Psalmist wrote:
“Your ways, O God, are holy. What god is so great as our God? You are the God who performs miracles; you display your power among the peoples.” Psalms 77:13-14
When Paul urges us in Romans 12:1 to “offer your body as a living sacrifice” and “be transformed by the renewing of your mind,” he is reminding us that we belong to THE King of Kings. We are Divine Royalty. Consecrate yourself for God and you will be part of the miracles He has for you today!
