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I. The motive for consecration.
II. The significance of consecration:
А. Following the will of God.
B. Responding to the requirement of God’s compassions.
C. Allowing the Lord to enjoy His legal right.
D. Expressing love for the Lord.
E. God’s testing of us.
F. Testing and proving the Lord.
G. Enjoying what the Lord has prepared.
H. Gaining the Lord’s blessing and supply.
I. God’s giving of grace.
III. What to consecrate:
А. Ourselves.
B. Our bodies.
C. Everything.
IV. How to consecrate:
А. Voluntarily.
B. In secret.
V. The goal of consecration:
А. To live to the Lord.
B. To be a living sacrifice.
C. To serve God.
D. To follow the will of God.
E. To let God work.
F. To glorify God.
VI. The results of consecration:
А. Understanding the will of God.
B. Being able to be enlightened by the Lord.
C. Being able to have faith.
D. Being able to have spiritual experiences.
E. Enjoying all the riches of the Lord’s glory.
Consecration is a great topic in the Bible.
1. “The love of Christ constrains us because we have judged this, that One died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all that those who live may no longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised” (2 Cor. 5:14-15).
Every consecrated believer is motivated by the Lord’s love. We have a desire to consecrate ourselves because the Lord’s love constrains us. We no longer live to ourselves but to the Lord because we have been constrained by the Lord’s love. In the original Greek constrain means “to press.” The Lord’s love in our hearts becomes a great power pressing us to love the Lord and to live to Him. His love is like a rushing flood. We cannot help but consecrate ourselves to Him; we cannot withhold ourselves or what we have from Him.
Paul says that the Lord’s love constrains us because we judge that the Lord died on our behalf. If we consider how the Lord died on our behalf, we would be constrained by His love. We should take time to consider how the Lord suffered for us, bore our sins, and tasted death on our behalf so that His love could constrain us. We should consider His love in His dying on our behalf, especially when we break bread to remember the Lord. The more we consider His love, the more our hearts will be touched and turned to Him. The Lord’s love is the greatest love in the universe. Just as this love caused the Lord to die for us, it also causes us to live to Him.
2. “I exhort you therefore, brothers, through the compassions of God to present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1).
Paul exhorts us through the compassions of God to consecrate ourselves. Exhort may also be rendered as “beg.” The Holy Spirit within often begs us through the compassions of God, through God’s love, to consecrate ourselves to God. The love of God is a great power used by the Holy Spirit to move us.
3. “Do you love Me more than these?...Do you love Me?...Follow Me” (John 21:15-22).
Peter was called by the Lord to follow Him, but he backslid and returned to his old profession of fishing. When the Lord came to seek him, He did not rebuke or blame Peter. He only asked, “Do you love Me more than these?” that is, more than his boats, his nets, the sea, the fish, the coals, and the loaves of bread. It is as if the Lord was quietly saying, “On the night that I was accused, you went to warm yourself, and you loved a charcoal fire to such an extent that you denied Me before those people. When I hid My visible presence from you, you went fishing to make a living and did not pay attention to My command. You warmed yourself but were put to shame. You went fishing to get something to eat but came up empty. Now I have prepared a charcoal fire, bread, and fish. You do not need to expend any energy; you do not need to do anything. If you want warmth, here is a charcoal fire. If you want to eat, here are bread and fish. But I want to ask, Do you love Me more than these — more than the charcoal fire, bread, and fish? Do you love Me? Follow Me!” The Lord’s questioning in love touched and gained Peter. The Lord’s love caused Peter to follow the Lord for his whole life until he was martyred for the Lord and glorified God by his death. (According to tradition, when Peter was arrested for the Lord’s sake, he asked to be crucified upside down at the time of his death.)
In His love the Lord questions us in the same way. He often asks, “Do you love Me more than the world? Do you love Me more than your father, mother, wife (or husband), children, brothers, sisters, and friends? Do you love Me more than education, position, fame, family background, money, and life? Do you love Me?” Many have been truly conquered by the Lord’s loving questioning and have become lovers of the Lord, pouring themselves and all that they have on the Lord for His gain. Oh, who can stand before the Lord’s questioning in love? Who can resist the constraining of the Lord’s love? When the Lord’s love is revealed to us and works in us, we cannot escape. We can only consecrate ourselves and all that we have to the Lord. Once we are touched by His love, we must consecrate ourselves. This motivating power is not outside of us but inside of us. It burns like a raging fire that cannot be quenched.
1. “They gave themselves first to the Lord...through the will of God” (2 Cor. 8:5).
It is the will of God that the Lord would gain us. God called us and saved us so that we could be gained by the Lord. Therefore, when we consecrate ourselves to the Lord, we are following God’s will. If we do not consecrate, we will obstruct the will that God purposed for the Lord. We will damage God’s purpose for the Lord.
1. “I exhort you...through the compassions of God to present your bodies” (Rom. 12:1).
Through His Spirit with His compassions, God’s requirement in love for each of us is that we would present our bodies to Him. Consecration is a response to God’s requirement.
1. “Do you not know that...you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19-20).
The Lord not only saved us but also bought us. The Lord paid the price of His precious blood to buy us. Therefore, we are not our own; we are the Lord’s. We do not have authority over ourselves. The authority over us is in the Lord’s hands. Since we have been bought by the Lord, we should be completely His. Since the Lord bought us with His precious blood, He has the legal right to gain us. When we consecrate ourselves to the Lord and allow the Lord to gain us, we allow Him to enjoy His legal right. Without consecration, we are ungrateful with respect to His salvation, and we are also negligent with respect to His legal rights over us.
2. “None of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself; 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” (Rom. 14:7-8).
Since we are the Lord’s, we should live to the Lord. We should not only live to the Lord but also die to the Lord. Whether we live or die, we should be to the Lord, not to ourselves. Consecration is needed in order for the Lord to gain us to this extent. Unconsecrated believers cannot glorify the Lord through their life or their death. Only those who are consecrated, who do not care about life or death, can glorify the Lord in their life or their death.
1. “Do you love Me?...Follow Me” (John 21:15-22).
Consecration comes out of loving the Lord. Therefore, consecration is the proper expression of love for the Lord, and it is also the highest expression of love for the Lord. The Lord told Peter that if he loved the Lord, he would follow Him. To follow the Lord is simply to give ourselves to the Lord. If we really love the Lord, we will consecrate ourselves to the Lord. The extent of our consecration is based on the depth of our love for the Lord.
1. “God tested Abraham and said to him...Take now your son...and offer him there as a burnt offering” (Gen. 22:1-2).
God’s desire for us to consecrate ourselves is a test of our love for God. Abraham loved God, so God asked him to offer his only son to Him. By doing this, God tested Abraham to see whether his love was absolute toward Him, whether Abraham loved Him more than everything else, even more than his only son.
2. “Proving also the genuineness of your love” (2 Cor. 8:8).
Proving is related to consecration — either in the consecration of our money or the consecration of ourselves. All consecration is a test — a proving — of our love toward the saints or toward God. It proves the level of our love.
1. “Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse...and prove Me...whether I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing” (Mal. 3:10).
Consecration is God’s testing and proving of us. It is also our testing and proving of God. God said to the children of Israel, “Bring the whole tithe to the storehouse” — to offer up what should be consecrated — “and prove Me, if you will...whether I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing.” God meant that we could use our consecration to test Him, to prove how He will bless us because of our consecration. This was the case in Old Testament times but even more so in New Testament times. Throughout the ages many lovers of the Lord have tested and proven that God’s blessing is practical and rich through their consecration. Many can testify of this from their experience. Oh, brothers and sisters, we can test God’s riches by our consecration. God wants us to test Him and likes us to prove Him in this way.
1. “Come, for all things are now ready” (Luke 14:17).
The Lord’s grace has prepared everything for us. All things are ready. We need to come and enjoy. The way to enjoy what the Lord has prepared is not only by faith but also by consecration. Faith is for our initial participation, whereas consecration is for our practical enjoyment. An unconsecrated believer can only participate in what the Lord’s grace has prepared. A consecrated believer can practically and experientially enjoy all that the Lord has prepared. All that the Lord’s grace has prepared for us needs to be received and enjoyed through faith and consecration.
2. “Go...and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you...On the mount of Jehovah it will be provided” (Gen. 22:2, 14).
Through his offering up of Isaac, Abraham enjoyed what God had prepared, and he experienced the reality of a particular name of God — Jehovah-jireh, which means “Jehovah will provide.” Many like this name, but we must realize that the reality of this name is revealed on the mountain of consecration. If we do not go to the mountain of consecration, we cannot taste the sweetness of Jehovah-jireh. If we do not consecrate, we cannot enjoy what God has provided. When we offer our beloved “Isaac,” our only “son,” to God, we can meet and enjoy what God has provided for us in His precious name, which is just in Himself. When Hudson Taylor was first called, he visited the sick wife of a poor man. When the man begged him for help, he had only one coin in his pocket, which he was planning to use for food the next day. He thought, “In order to help this poor man, I have to give him the coin, but then I will not have anything to eat tomorrow. If only there was a way to give half of the coin’s value to him while keeping the other half to buy food, but this is not possible.” The man continued to beg for help, and at the same time the Holy Spirit spoke within him to give the coin to the poor man. Then he gave the man the coin. The next morning he received a packet containing a pair of gloves wrapped in a sheet of blank paper, and there was a coin in the gloves. The coin was worth four times as much as the one he had given to the poor man. Through this he enjoyed God’s special provision; he later made Jehovah-jireh the motto for the China Inland Mission.
1. “Because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will surely bless you and will greatly multiply your seed like the stars of the heavens and like the sand which is on the seashore” (Gen. 22:16-17).
Because Abraham offered up his only son, God blessed him greatly, multiplying his seed as the stars of the heavens and as the sand upon the seashore. Abraham offered up one son, and God gave him many descendants. Abraham’s consecration to God caused him to gain something from God. If we want more blessing from God, we must consecrate what we have to God. Consecration brings in God’s blessing. It is the way for us to gain God’s blessing.
2. “Bring the whole tithe...I will open to you the windows of heaven and pour out blessing for you until there is no room for it” (Mal. 3:10).
God told the children of Israel that if they would bring the whole tithe — consecrate — He would open the windows of heaven and pour out immeasurable blessings to them. Consecration can open the windows of heaven for us and bring down God’s blessing.
3. “Honor Jehovah with your substance / And with the firstfruits of all your produce; / Then your barns will be filled with plenty, / And your vats will burst open with new wine” (Prov. 3:9-10).
If we honor God with our consecration, God will cause us to be “filled with plenty” and to “burst open” with blessings. A poor and lacking person is an unconsecrated person. Consecration will not make us poor nor will it cause us to decrease. Instead, it will give us plenty, even to the point of bursting open. If we want to be a person with plenty and bursting open, we must consecrate.
4. “We do not have anything here except five loaves and two fish. And He said, Bring them here to Me...And they all ate and were satisfied. And they took up what was left over of the broken pieces, twelve handbaskets full” (Matt. 14:17-18, 20).
When the Lord fed the five thousand, the disciples had only five loaves and two fish. If they had kept this food for themselves, there would not have been enough even for themselves. However, they brought the loaves and fish to the Lord. This brought in a great blessing in which the disciples and more than five thousand people ate and were satisfied. The leftovers were more than what they had originally offered. When we consecrate, putting ourselves and what we have into the Lord’s hands, many are blessed. Our consecration can bring in and express the riches of the Lord’s blessing. The Lord often expresses the riches of His blessing through our consecration.
5. “Give, and it will be given to you” (Luke 6:38).
The Lord said that if we give, it will be given to us. This can be illustrated by a water faucet. The more that water flows out, the more that water can flow in. If water does not flow out, nothing can flow in. If we want to gain, we must give. If we want to receive, we must give. Our giving is our receiving. Our consecration is the path to gaining the supply. Often we do not receive a supply because we have not consecrated or given anything out. Our economics are different from that of the world. We do not count how much we gain in order to see how much we can spend; we count how much we have given out to measure our gain. We must give before we can receive. We should not be like the Dead Sea, which has no outlet. We should be a channel of living water that flows without ceasing.
6. “He who bountifully supplies seed to the sower...will supply and multiply your seed” (2 Cor. 9:10).
According to the apostle’s word in this verse, consecration is a sowing. The result of sowing is not loss but gain — multiplied gain. If we sow one seed, we will reap thirty, sixty, or even one hundredfold. Therefore, in order to gain, we must first sow our seed. If we want to reap, we must sow. Only consecration can give us a rich harvest. A person who is not consecrated cannot see God’s riches, but praise the Lord, a truly consecrated person cannot help but express God’s riches. Although he is not as rich as many worldly people, he is always a channel of transmission, flowing out God’s riches and enriching many (6:10). This should be our condition. We should let everything flow out so that God’s riches can flow in. We should sow everything to bring in the abundant harvest of God’s riches. We should not save up, shut up, or withhold. We must flow out, sow, and consecrate. Consecration is always the way to bring in God’s blessing. The more we consecrate, the more we bring in God’s blessing. The degree of God’s blessing depends on the degree of our consecration. When we withhold ourselves and what we have, we block the path for God’s blessing. What we put forth and give up for the Lord, the gospel, the church, and sinners may seemingly empty our hands to the point of having nothing, but something great will flow in and out of us. This is true in regard to spiritual things even more than material things. Oh, the way of consecration not only brings in God’s blessing but even more, God Himself! May we all take this way. May we all consecrate.
1. “We make known to you...the grace of God which has been given in the churches of Macedonia, that...the depth of their poverty abounded unto the riches of their liberality” (2 Cor. 8:1-2).
We often think that consecration is giving something to God, but according to the apostle’s word, consecration is the grace of God given to us. The liberality of the churches in Macedonia was the grace of God that had been given to them. God gives us grace within so that we can have a consecration without. Because the grace of God operates and supplies us within, we experience the act of consecration without. Thus, the act of consecration is grace received from God.
1. “They gave themselves first to the Lord” (2 Cor. 8:5).
God wants us, not our money (12:14); therefore, the first thing that we should consecrate to the Lord is ourselves. The churches in Macedonia gave themselves first to the Lord and then offered up everything that they had according to God’s will. We must offer up ourselves first; otherwise, our consecration has no value. In 1948 in Shanghai, a wealthy man wanted to buy us a bus from America to use for the gospel. However, we were concerned that he had not given himself to the Lord, so we could not receive it. Christianity has misrepresented God in the matter of consecration, placing more emphasis on money than on the person. This is a terrible shame! It is not pleasing to the Lord. The Lord wants man, not the things of man. We must first offer ourselves to the Lord and let the Lord gain us before our things will be acceptable to Him.
2. “Present yourselves to God as alive from the dead” (Rom. 6:13).
We must present our resurrected new man in Christ to the Lord, not our old man. Our old man was crucified with Christ and terminated. In Christ, we are those who are alive from the dead. In our standing in resurrection, we should present ourselves to God so that God can gain us in His resurrected new creation.
1. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice” (Rom. 12:1).
We are in our bodies. If we want to give ourselves to the Lord, we must present our bodies to Him. If we do not, our consecration is abstract and vague; it is not substantial or practical. In order to work for God, we must substantially and practically present our bodies to Him for His use. This is the way to be a consecrated person living to God.
2. “Present...your members as weapons of righteousness to God” (Rom. 6:13, see also v. 19).
It is not enough to present our bodies a living sacrifice in a general way. We must specifically present our members to God as weapons of righteousness. Each of our members should be presented to God for His use through our consecration. They should not be used as weapons of sin or the world. For example, if we use one of our members to sin, such as wearing an improper article of clothing, we allow our members to be weapons of sin or the world. Through consecration we must bring all our members back from sin and the world and give them to God for His use to do righteous acts and to serve Him. In this way we glorify God in our members, which is to glorify God in our bodies.
1. “The firstborn” (Exo. 13:2).
The firstborn speaks of God’s redemption (v. 15). God has the right to gain what He has redeemed. Therefore, we should present the firstborn to God. Furthermore, the firstborn represents what is strong. We should present what is strong to God.
2. “Your only son, whom you love” (Gen. 22:2).
The only begotten is the unique one; the beloved is the most dear. We should consecrate these things to God. If our consecration does not touch what is most precious to our hearts, it is too superficial. We should present our unique and most beloved thing.
3. “The first of the fruit” (Deut. 26:10).
We should consecrate the first of the fruit, that is, the things that are first. We should not present the things that are last to the Lord.
4. “The best” (Num. 18:12).
We should present the best to the Lord. The Lord always touches our best things. He always contends with us over the things we consider best and important. There was once a mother who had three sons. The eldest was very bright, so she told him to study medicine. The second son also was bright, so she told him to study business. However, the third son was very stupid, so she told him to enter a seminary and become a preacher. It should not be this way. The best should be offered to God. Mr. George Müller once stayed in a brother’s home, and he noticed that this brother rose up very early every morning to touch the Lord. He asked him why he needed to get up so early. The brother said that in the Old Testament God required people to offer the fat of the offering, not the dung. (The fat was the best part of the offering, and the dung was the worst.) We must give our best time to the Lord. Indeed, we should consecrate the best to the Lord.
5. “Your substance” (Prov. 3:9).
Since our person is consecrated to the Lord, our substance, our money, should also be offered up. If we do not present our money, there is a problem with our consecration.
6. “All” (Luke 21:4).
We should offer up our all. Throughout the ages the Lord has used those who offered up their all. They spent their money and strength for the Lord and the gospel. If a person truly loves the Lord, he must love Him to such an extent that he puts forth everything for the Lord. If we love the Lord, we will not hold anything back. When the Lord comes, all things must go.
1. “Of their own accord” (2 Cor. 8:3).
The Lord is precious. He is worthy of our consecration. Therefore, our consecration must be voluntary. We devalue the Lord with an involuntary consecration.
2. “As a blessing and not as a matter of covetousness...Each one as he has purposed in his heart, not out of sorrow or out of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Cor. 9:5, 7).
God never forces people to consecrate; it is a matter of our free will. God loves a cheerful giver.
1. “Do not sound a trumpet before you...Do not let your left hand know...Be in secret” (Matt. 6:2-4).
Our consecration should be in secret. We should not advertise it before man, that is, to “sound a trumpet.” We should not let people know, lest we receive praise and glory from man but lose the reward from God. For the glory of God and the benefit of others, our consecration should be hidden, not revealed.
1. “No longer live to themselves but to Him who died for them and has been raised” (2 Cor. 5:15).
The goal of consecration is to live to the Lord. This does not necessarily mean that we must become missionaries. It means that, according to the Lord’s purpose and arrangement, we testify of the Lord and glorify Him in all that we do. Our whole living should be according to the Lord’s will and pleasing to the Lord. The choice of our clothing and food, the spending of our money, the use of our time, the visiting of our friends, and everything in our living must be according to the Lord’s heart’s desire and to the Lord, not according to our own will and to ourselves. Such a person, even if he is not a missionary, will be living to the Lord. Although he may not be able to give a message, he will be able to live the Lord so that others can see the Lord in him and sense His presence.
1. “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to God” (Rom. 12:1).
A sacrifice is pleasing to God and satisfies Him. When we present our bodies, we are a sacrifice to God. In the Old Testament people offered sacrifices that were dead. Today, however, we present our bodies to God as living sacrifices so that they may be used by God and work for God. This does not refer to “dedicating ourselves to be a missionary.” It refers to presenting our bodies to be used by God according to His will to serve Him. Our body moves according to the leading of the Holy Spirit within us. In this way our body is a living sacrifice for God’s use. Although God has no intention that all His children would be missionaries, He wants each of us to present our bodies as a living sacrifice to serve Him.
Once a sacrifice is offered to God, its activity and destiny are determined by God, not by itself. Once we present ourselves to God as a living sacrifice, we should act according to God rather than our own ideas. We must be limited by God and follow His will.
1. “Present your bodies...which is your reasonable service” (Rom. 12:1).
We present our bodies to God as a living sacrifice for serving Him. According to the context of Romans 12:1, this refers to our coordination in the service of the Body of Christ, the church. This should be the goal of our consecration.
1. “Present your bodies...that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and well pleasing and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2).
Our real and proper service toward God must be in accordance with God’s will. Therefore, since our consecration is to serve God, the goal of consecration must also be to follow His will.
1. “We are His masterpiece, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand in order that we would walk in them” (Eph. 2:10).
Our consecration to God is not only for the purpose of working for God but even more to allow God to work. We are not only God’s workers but also His workmanship. As God’s workers, we should work for God. As God’s workmanship, we should let God work. We must let God work before we can work for God. God wants to work Himself and all that He has into us, so He has much work to do in us. This requires our cooperation. If God wanted to work on wood or stone, He would not need their cooperation, because they are not living. But when God wants to work on us, He needs our cooperation, because we have a mind, emotion, and will. Without our cooperation, He cannot do anything. Our cooperation is our consecration. When we consecrate ourselves to God, we express our willingness to let God work in us. From the time we were saved, He has been waiting for our consecration, waiting for us to hand ourselves over into His hand to let Him work in us. If we do not have this kind of consecration, God has no way to do the work that He wants to do in us. Therefore, we must give ourselves completely to God to allow Him to work in us as He pleases. The amount of work that we can do for God depends upon the amount of work that we allow Him to do in us. If we let Him work in us, He will work His riches into us by the Holy Spirit, and we will be able to work His riches into others by the Holy Spirit. Will we let Him work? The answer depends upon our consecration.
1. “You have been bought with a price. So then glorify God in your body” (1 Cor. 6:20).
The final goal of our consecration is to glorify God. To glorify God is to express God, to live Him out. The light shining out from a light bulb is its glory. We consecrate in order to put everything of ourselves aside and to let God become our everything so that He has the complete position within us to express Himself through us and to be glorified.
1. “Present your bodies...prove what the will of God is” (Rom. 12:1-2).
The first result of consecration is that we can understand the will of God. Only those who are consecrated to God to live to Him can understand the will of God.
1. “Whenever their heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away” (2 Cor. 3:16).
The Lord is light. When our heart is turned from the Lord to something else, a veil covers us from His enlightenment. If our heart turns to the Lord, we can be enlightened in the light of His face. Turning to the Lord is our giving of ourselves to Him. It is a true consecration. Therefore, consecration can cause us to see the Lord’s light. If we consecrate ourselves to the Lord from our heart, if we are turned toward the Lord, we will obtain His enlightening. Some brothers and sisters have no light because their heart has not been fully consecrated to the Lord. It is still attracted to things other than the Lord. Miss M. E. Barber said that a small leaf can cover the stars in the night. If we want light, we must have a complete consecration to take away every covering.
1. “Commit your way to Jehovah, / And trust in Him” (Psa. 37:5).
We must commit our way to God in order to trust in Him. To commit is to consecrate. To trust is to believe. Therefore, only a consecrated person has faith. If we do not let go of ourselves and our matters and place them in the Lord’s hand, we cannot believe that the Lord will be responsible for us.
1. “Do not let sin therefore reign...Present yourselves to God...Sin will not lord it over you” (Rom. 6:12-14).
If we want to experience freedom from sin, we must consecrate ourselves to God.
2. “Present your members as slaves to righteousness unto sanctification” (Rom. 6:19).
We must present our members in order to experience sanctification. This verse and the preceding verses prove that consecration enables us to have spiritual experiences. Prayer, faith, joy, peace, overcoming, sanctification, and being filled with the Holy Spirit for power are all experiences that come out of consecration. This is confirmed by the experiences and writings of many saints who have gone before us. In order to have any spiritual experience, we must be consecrated. Consecration is a crucial gate. To enter into the reality of any spiritual experience, we must pass through this gate. We cannot expect any kind of spiritual experience without consecration.
1. “An acceptable sacrifice, well pleasing to God...God will fill your every need according to His riches, in glory, in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:18-19 see also the verses related to the points above, “Enjoying What the Lord Has Prepared” and “Gaining the Lord’s Blessing and Supply”).
We enjoy all the riches of the Lord’s glory through consecration. If we offer what is well pleasing to God, He will cause us to enjoy the riches of His glory.
