Consecration

after we have believed into the Lord, there is still much work for God to do in our lives, in our walking and working. but God has created us with a free will, and God does not treat us as robots. God is great and loving, and He is a gentleman. therefore, He needs our consent, our permission, before He can start to work in us, to use us, or to direct our path. He is very patient. if we do not want God to work, He will patiently wait until we become willing. Our consecration is our consent to allow the Lord to start working. 

in our Christian journey, we may be loving the Lord, reading the Bible everyday, even active in so-called "church work". but without a true and genuine consecration, we will not have much spiritual worth or value in the eyes of God, because we have not handed over our being to the hands of the Lord. how much we can be used by the Lord, depends on how much we have consecrated oursevels to the Lord, and how much we allow the Lord to work on us first. 

1. the basis of consecration 

1 Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:20 For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body.

Romans 14:8 For whether we live, we live to the Lord, and whether we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore whether we live or we die, we are the Lord's.

because the Lord has purchased us with the hightest price, His precious blood, we do not have right over our own. the Lord has the righteous basis to claim His right and authority over us. 

2. the motive of consecration

Exodus 21:5 But if the servant plainly says, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I will not go out free;

the slave in Exodus chapter 21, who could have entered into freedom, because of his love to his master, was willing to serve the master as slave forever. 

love is the motive of our consecration. without being touched by the love of God upon us, we will not respond God with loving Him, and our consecration will be such a bitter thing, like many slaves in history, who were forced to serve the master with sufferings and enduring. The security of our consecration depends upon its basis; but the vitality and sweetness of our consecration depends on its motive power, i.e., the love of God. 

3. the significance of consecration

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.

our consecration to God means that we have become a sacrifice to God. when God's love lays hold of us, we immediately put ourselves on the altar of the burnt offerings. this is such a waste, a huge tragedy to our family, our friends and the people who know us. but deep within our heart, we know and feel that we are producing food to God, bringing satisfaction to God, a sweet fragrance ascending to the heavens to satify God. 

4. the purpose of consecration

Isaiah 64:8 But now, Jehovah, You are our Father; / We are the clay; and You, our Potter; / And all of us are the work of Your hand.

"But the New Testament sacrifice, in contrast to the Old, is a “living sacrifice.” Wherever a real consecration to God has taken place, His purpose comes into evidence in the life consecrated to Him. That life becomes active for God. Our being for God is based on our having offered ourselves to God. If we have not presented ourselves as a sacrifice to Him, we shall never be able to do anything for Him. Only those who have been reduced to nothingness on the altar can serve Him acceptably.

When we present ourselves to the Lord, we want to remember that the significance of our consecration is that we are a sacrifice to God. He wants us to be a “living sacrifice,” to live for Him and work for Him. Then the doing will not be our doing, but His doing through us."

5. the result of consecration

Leviticus 1:8 Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, the head, and the fat in order on the wood that is on the fire which is on the altar;

Leviticus 1:9 But its inward parts and its legs he shall wash with water. Then the priest shall burn the whole on the altar, as a burnt offering, an offering by fire, a satisfying fragrance to Jehovah.

in the book of Leviticus, we can see that the result of God's accepting the burnt offering sacrifice was that the fire coming from heavens would consume the sacrifice laid on the altar to ashes. the ashes are good for nothing. this shows us that the result of our consecration is that we will be reduced to ashes, good for nothing in the world, even good for nothing in the Christian realm. we may think that we consecrate ourselves to be great preachers or evangelists. NO. we will not have any fame in our Christian life. we will not become popular celebrities in the Christian world.