We now need to consider the practice of consecration, that is, how to practice consecration.
Consecration is a gate, and we must be determined to enter through this gate. Consecration is entering through a gate. We cannot regard this as a doctrine. A person who has not consecrated himself is outside of the gate. Only a person who has consecrated himself is inside of the gate. Therefore, we need to enter through this gate with determination.
We need to have thorough prayer in which we confess our sins and hand ourselves over to God. The sins, mistakes, contamination, and corruption that we sense before God need to be confessed one by one. All that we are, all that we have, and our everything then need to be handed over to God. We cannot casually and generally say, “God, I consecrate everything to You.” This is insufficient. We need to thoroughly hand everything over, item by item. We need to hand ourselves over to the Lord. We need to hand over our wife, husband, and children to the Lord. We also need to hand over our education, career, future, and everything to the Lord. This is similar to a merchant selling his business. He hands over everything of his business, including furniture and stock, to the buyer. We should have this type of prayer alone before God. For some Christians, consecration is like a second salvation. Therefore, the more thorough it is, the better.
Consecration is not only a gate but also a path. In all spiritual matters, we must first step inside the gate and then walk on the path. The principle in the Bible is not to walk on the path and then enter through the gate. The biblical principle is that we first enter through the gate and then walk on the path (Matt. 7:13-14). This is the God-ordained order. Therefore, after we enter through the gate of consecration, we must continue to walk on the path of consecration. Although entering through the gate is once and for all, walking on the path requires a continual renewing, a daily consecration. Numbers 28 through 29 show a type of consecration. God charged the Israelites to offer the burnt offering daily. They had to daily offer the burnt offering in the morning and in the evening. They could not say that they had offered a sacrifice yesterday and therefore did not need to offer one today. Consecration, like eating, is a daily matter. Furthermore, the Israelites had to present burnt offerings on every Sabbath, at the beginning of every month, and during every feast. They also had to present an offering at other important times. This shows that after we have entered through the gate of consecration, we need to consecrate ourselves before God every morning. The first thing we should say after we get up every morning is, “Lord, I place myself in Your hands again this morning.” At night when the day is over, we should go before Him again and say, “I give myself to You again.” When we need to do specific things, we need to say, “Lord, I present myself to You once again.” Whether we are going to study, teach, take up a post in the government, give a message, or visit the brothers, we should first present a burnt offering, consecrating ourselves to God. Even if we want to see a movie, we should first kneel down before the Lord and say, “Lord, I am a consecrated person. I want to see a movie, but I acknowledge my consecration to You!” Once we acknowledge our consecration in this way, we will be clear whether we should go to see the movie or not. When we are about to quarrel with our spouse, we should acknowledge our consecration first. Once we do this, we will know whether we should quarrel or not. Therefore, we need to live a life of consecration practically. Consecration is not only a gate but also a path. After entering through the gate, we need to walk on the path.
God accepts every sacrifice that is presented to Him. He even accepts a sacrifice presented to Him by mistake. God burns every sacrifice that is placed on the altar. To accept is to burn. Therefore, we should not be concerned with whether God will accept our sacrifice but only with whether we are consecrated. God accepts every consecration. Even if our consecration is not completely sincere, it will eventually become real; a partial consecration will become a full consecration. Whoever puts himself on the altar cannot run away from it. God accepts whatever we put on the altar. Therefore, we should believe that our consecration has been accepted by God. We will be accepted as long as we consecrate ourselves to God. We also need to be aware of Satan’s cunningness. He either tries to hold people back so that they will not consecrate themselves, or he causes those who have consecrated themselves to doubt God’s acceptance of their consecration. Once a person consecrates himself to God, Satan always whispers in his ear, “Your consecration is not solid, not thorough, not pleasing to God; it has no value and is insignificant. Your consecration is meaningless.” Satan makes us doubt our consecration. He always works in these two ways. Therefore, we need to guard against his schemes and reject his words. We must stand on the ground of our consecration and say to him, “Even if our consecration is not thorough, and even if it is not fully genuine, God has accepted it. God does not question the things placed on the altar. God accepts them all.”
The experiences of many Christians confirm this. Many people consecrated themselves to the Lord when they were young. Afterward, they began to love the world and became prosperous. After ten or twenty years God still called them back to the ground of the consecration they made in their youth. Even though they had long forgotten the consecration made in their youth, God did not.
Jacob’s consecration in Genesis 28 was a kind of bargaining. He said to God, “If You will be with me and keep me in this way that I go and give me bread to eat and garments to put on, so that I return to my father’s house in peace, then You will be my God.” In other words, if God would not keep him, not give him food, not give him clothing, and not bring him back to his father’s house in peace, he would not take Him as his God. Jacob’s consecration had conditions. When Jacob went to Paddan-aram and stayed there for twenty years, he completely forgot his consecration. God, however, not only took care of his food and clothing but also gave him two large camps. Although he returned home in an imposing manner with two large camps of wives, children, cattle, rams, and servants, he had forgotten about his consecration. But God had not forgotten. When Jacob was living in Shechem, God came to him and told him to arise and return to Bethel. God wanted him to return to Bethel, the place of his consecration. Man can forget his consecration, but God never forgets. Jacob’s consecration in Genesis 28 was not completely sincere and proper. Our consecration is probably much better than his. His consecration was an attempt to bargain with God! Nevertheless, God did not reject Jacob’s consecration. God remembered it. Thus, once we consecrate ourselves, God counts it and accepts it.
Once a man presents himself to God, he is in the hands of God. God can wait ten, twenty, or even fifty years for him. In God’s eyes, ten years are about the same as twenty years. Eventually, God will gain him. After more than twenty years, God told Jacob, “Go back to Bethel to set up an altar for Me. I am the One who appeared to you when you were running away from your brother. You made a vow and consecrated yourself to Me there. You need to go back to the ground where you first consecrated yourself.” Therefore, the Bible and the experiences of the saints show that God always accepts a person’s consecration.
No one can revoke his consecration. Anything that has been presented on the altar cannot be taken back. Leviticus 27 reveals that any offering a man presents to Jehovah is holy. He may not exchange or substitute either a good one for a bad one or a bad one for a good one, but if he attempts to substitute an animal for an animal, then both it and its substitute are holy (v. 10). Whatever is offered on the altar cannot be taken back or exchanged because God has accepted it forever. Likewise, when a person consecrates himself to God, the consecration is irrevocable.
A person who has consecrated himself is different from a person who has never consecrated himself, just as a person who is married is different from a person who has never been married. Even a person who is divorced has no way to annul the fact that he has been married. Similarly, a person who has consecrated himself is still consecrated, even if he falls, fails, or stumbles. Such a person is still different from someone who has never consecrated himself. Likewise, a consecrated person who has fallen and failed is different from an unconsecrated person who has fallen and failed. Our first experience of receiving God’s grace is salvation; our second experience is consecration. A sinner needs to be saved, and a saved person needs to be consecrated. A person in the world needs to be saved to become a Christian. After becoming a Christian, he needs to consecrate himself in order to walk the way of the Lord, to live the life of the Lord, to let the Lord work in him, and to enjoy the riches of God’s salvation. Only in this way can he be a proper Christian to enjoy the blessings that God has prepared in Christ.
Dear brothers and sisters, consecration is a gate. We need to enter through this gate with determination. Consecration is also a path. After we enter through the gate of consecration, we need to walk on the path of consecration, renewing our consecration daily and continually. Moreover, once we consecrate ourselves, we need to believe that our consecration has been accepted by God and can neither be revoked nor altered.