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.