Amazing Things

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Anytime God is about to do something amazing in our lives, He calls us to consecrate ourselves to Him. That pattern was established right before the Israelites crossed the Jordan River and conquered the Promised Land.

    “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you.”

 Here’s our fundamental problem: we try to do God’s job for Him. We want to do amazing things for God. And that seems noble, but we’ve got it backward. God wants to do amazing things for us. That’s His job, not ours. Our job is consecration. That’s it. And if we do our job, God will most certainly do His.

 Before I tell you what consecration is, let me tell you what it isn’t.
It’s not going to church once a week.
It’s not daily devotions.
It’s not fasting during Lent.
It’s not keeping the Ten Commandments.
It’s not sharing your faith with friends.
It’s not giving God the tithe.
It’s not repeating the sinner’s prayer.
It’s not volunteering for a ministry.
It’s not leading a small group.
It’s not raising your hands in worship.
It’s not going on a mission trip.

 All of those things are good things, but that isn’t consecration. It’s more than behavior modification. It’s more than conformity to a moral code. It’s more than doing good deeds. It’s something deeper, something truer.
The word consecrate means to set yourself apart. By definition, consecration demands full devotion. It’s dethroning yourself and enthroning Jesus Christ. It’s the complete divestiture of all self-interest. It’s giving God veto power. 

 It’s surrendering all of you to all of Him. It’s a simple recognition that every second of time, every ounce of energy, and every penny of money is a gift from God and for God. Consecration is an ever-deepening love for Jesus, a childlike trust in the heavenly Father, and a blind obedience to the Holy Spirit. Consecration is all that and a thousand things more. But for the sake of simplicity, let me give you my personal definition of consecration.

 Consecration is going all in and all out for the All in All.



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