Consecration is a two-way dedication; being set apart from and being set apart to. We set ourselves apart from to set ourselves apart to. The One who is pleased when we set ourselves apart to Him does not want us entangled with any other thing. Thus, the need for consecration.
The truth is, the devil doesn’t mind sharing you with God. After all, it’s the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Evil people are allowed to do good. That’s the real definition of deceit. Darkness is devised to operate like light. You can have both feet in the two kingdoms and the devil will count it as a plus for his kingdom. It is God who wants you to worship Him only!
That’s why the true essence of consecration is Holiness. Holiness means uniqueness. No alloys, no impurities; pure containment and dedication to the predestined purpose. Look at the human body. Each part is unique! In fact, so unique that when you put the right instrument in the wrong hole, it’s an abomination that causes desecration. What use is your eyes if it was below your waist and behind your head? That’s perversion; the wrong version.
To Be Set Apart From
This is why we fast. Fasting sets you apart from the appetites of the flesh. If your flesh always dictates its desires to you, sin can take advantage of it. This is why we go on retreats. To set ourselves apart from. To constrain yourself from worldly dictates. Sin is a 🦠 virus. It behaves exactly like it. A virus is dead outside a living organism but comes alive when in one. Sin craves you as its vessel. It wants to grow in you until the fruit is no longer undeniable. Yes, there’s a stage in sin where you’re too far gone to restrain yourself from obeying its lust. At worst, you’ll be a die hard addict who has no hope of escaping its prison. At best, you’ll sin, repent but repeat.
Consecration is the ordinance that makes sure you don’t fall into the trap of sin or open any gate for it to enter your heart, the control room. In the Levitical order, coming into contact with anything that death has touched made you ceremonially unclean. Some uncleanness lasted until evening but some lasted for 7 days and included purification rituals. The sacrifice of Jesus puts an end to the ceremonial laws but the precept is still eternal. It means purge yourself from things (people, places, posits etc) that are fashioned to defile you.
Consecration demands that you not only hate sin but avoid its slippery slopes. Once you begin to ask “how far is too far?”, your process of desecration has already begun. Consecration demands that you not only abstain from sin but abstain from any environment likely to give room for sin to enter. Being alone with a person you’re not married to in a cool dark room with a locked door is not a sin in itself. However, you don’t understand consecration if you entertain that. Avoid anything that sets you on the path of destruction or increases the tempting lure of sin.
The seductive power of sin is in deceit. Once you begin to loosen your guard little by little, you surround yourself with stings of death. Don’t make it easy for sin to reach you. He who digs a pit will fall into it, and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent. Don’t believe the lie that you’re not susceptible, that it’s not your weakness, or that nothing will happen. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?
You drove recklessly a couple of times and nothing happened but you forget that it only takes one fatal accident for you to destroy yourself. It’s better to be laughed at human beings for looking weak than to be laughed at by the kingdom of darkness for falling prey to their snares. Can a man scoop fire into his lap without his clothes being burned? Can a man walk on hot coals without his feet being scorched?
I have realized that the misconception of grace (or should I say, the conception of hypergrace) is why Christians don’t want to take consecration seriously. “After all, when I fall into the temptation I have long been entertaining, God will forgive me.” You see, Grace was not given so that sin will abound. No! The reason why where sin abounds, Grace abounds much more is so that there’s no instance where a person does not have more than enough grace to live above sin. The work of Grace is Titus 2:11-12. You have been given grace to consecrate/set yourself apart from sin.
A man who consecrates himself demonstrates his love for God in action, and set himself apart for God. To be continued….
God bless you 🔥🙏