Joshua told the people, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.” (Joshua 3:5)
I remember visiting a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) base in Harpenden, England when I was a university student, sometime in the years 1998-2000. I don’t remember the exact date but it was a special weekend around the theme of ‘Consecration’ involving a discipleship initiative called The Factory, led by brothers Tre and Trent Sheppard. There was a group of us sleeping in tents and worshipping with the band Onehundredhours twanging guitars and giving full throttle praise in a brick building until late at night and it was an intense, wonderful time. I hadn’t really surrendered my life back then to Christ, on the basis of grace. But I had a sense of being on a journey with meaning: taking steps to Jesus himself. There was an emphasis throughout those special days on consecrating one’s self to the Lord – giving Him absolute, undivided devotion and precedence.
I’ve been thinking of consecration recently after having a conversation with a wiser owl about a painful time in my life many years ago. This devotional blog does not serve as a public confession box so I don’t want to say further. But it has surprised me how we can carry baggage from the past without really seeing it. It can actually distract us from the calling upward to Christ in heaven. That is why it’s important to heed the call of consecration and put to death whatever holds us back from embracing the love of God, “…let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith,” as the apostle Paul put it in Hebrews 12. Cleave any distractions to run freely to Jesus who opens his arms wide to embrace us.
Consecration is beautiful. It means saying to God: “I live for you alone.” It requires a heartfelt dedication from the deepest parts of the soul. “I am my beloved’s and He is mine,” as the old worship song used to resound.
I have been struggling with the dark dog of depression of late. And so reminding myself of what God himself means to me is essential for restored mental health and the call to follow the narrow path with Him and to Him. Smith-Wigglesworth, the healing evangelist, used to prioritise three things every day [I believe, correct me if wrong!]: reading the Bible extensively, taking Communion to remember what Jesus did for Him, and simply loving the Holy Spirit and praying to Him. Those are wonderful principles to adhere to, under the umbrella of consecration: setting ourselves apart from the world, whilst being engaged in it; looking to God consistently and subsequently finding hope to live properly and encourage others.
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