A PERFECT CONSECRATION
“I DELIGHT to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8).
There is nothing so honored of God as a holy, consecrated life; nothing so essential to the growth in Christian experience, and nothing that will as surely bring the power for service, as consecration; and seemingly nothing is so scarce in the world today as perfect consecration, keeping the life constantly on the altar and at the bidding of God’s great will.
Consecrations of years back will not suffice; but continuously, daily and hourly, your life must be yielded up to God, as you grow in grace and retain the simplicity of faith in Him who made such a sacrifice for you in giving His own Son to die on the cross.
A great lesson may be learned through the perfect consecration Jesus made in obedience to the Father’s will. The most difficult thing to be conquered is the will of man, but the will is surrendered and brought into subjection when a soul is born again; and when the heart and life are sanctified wholly, the will is completely swallowed up in the will of God. And retaining this wonderful experience, constantly walking before Him with the fear of the Lord ever upon the heart, will bring obedience, in every part, to the whole will of the Father.
The Perfect Will of God
The most sacred place on earth, to every soul, should be in the bosom of the will of God. Many covet and long to know His will; but they do not live in close touch and constant communion with Him, with a consecrated heart and life open to God, where He might continually reveal His will to them. The joy of Heaven on earth is to know God’s will, and to do it.
The mission on earth and whole delight of the Son of God was to do the Father’s will. He said, “Not my will, but thine, be done.” This was His greatest joy. He, for the joy that was set before Him, endured the cross. He knew the cross lay before Him and He must give His life’s Blood for the salvation of the world. But the joy that was ever before Him was to do His Father’s will. It was the love and loyalty in His great heart to the Father, that caused Him to go through the awful torture on the cross.
He might have looked forward to the joy of lost souls that were to be saved, both through His life and His death; or He might have looked to the glory of sitting at the right hand of the Father, or serving the ones who were prepared to be with Him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. He could have looked to the joy of the Millennial Reign on earth, when those whom He had purchased with His own Blood, through the humiliation He suffered here, would reign with Him—the King of kings and Lord of lords. But not so. His whole soul’s delight, above all, seemed to be in doing His Father’s will. He was our perfect example in all things.
The Steppingstone
The steppingstone to the deep things in God is a deep experience of consecration. Many believe themselves to be living consecrated lives, while they are not wholly following the Lord. They reject some part of His Word, many times desiring healing for their afflictions. Others are seeking sanctification and power for service without making a perfect consecration to Him; but positively no heights nor depths in Christian experience can be obtained without perfect obedience to His will.
There is nothing that God has for one of His children but that He will give to others; but they must meet every condition of His Word, consecrate to the depths with a perfect heart. Then, and only then, will the desire of the heart be found. God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
The Inner Consecration
When the outward consecration is complete, you then go down before God for that deeper, inner consecration so needful and priceless. Your very innermost soul and life is borne by the Spirit unto God to obey His sacred will, to live or die, go or stay, to be or not to be anything but a broken vessel at His holy feet—like Hannah of old when she went before the Lord, and her lips could not utter the desires of her heart, but only her lips moved. She had gone far past words. She had made the outward consecration; she had sacrificed to God and had done all that the Lord required. She said, “O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt . . . give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life.” God gave her the desire of her heart. You make the inward consecration and you will keep it. The most wonderful thing about the inward consecration is that it can hardly be expressed in words, but is understood by those who are pressing into God for His very best. Those who make these deep consecrations keep them, as a rule, unto life eternal.
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Beauty in a Crushed Life
Suffering with Christ is easily borne by the consecrated life. Many rejoice when God is pouring out His blessings upon them; but when He calls them to suffer a little for Jesus’ sake, too many fail. Often His hand of affliction is laid heavily upon the life, and the soul is caused to go through suffering and humiliation for Him. Many times this is permitted, to test the faith and the consecration that has been made to Him. When the child of God is misjudged, and when things are said of him that are untrue, if accepted in the spirit, as Christ said, with all lowliness and meekness and long-suffering, it will work out the peaceable fruits of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby.
If you desire real fragrance from a rose, crush the petals, and the fragrance will flow out. The same is true with the children of God. Crush them with trial, affliction, suffering, and you will see that out of that crushed life will come forth perfume and beauty that will bless those who come into contact with them, as well as make them a blessing to a lost world. Every Blood-washed saint who weathers the storm and make the Port will thank God through all eternity for the molding of His mighty hand and will say then, if not now, “His ways are best.” And not one would draw back from the guiding of His hand if He knew the glory that is to be revealed on that day. Many, through test and trial, have blossomed into the most useful, unselfish, and consecrated lives for God. The sweetness and beauty of the Holy Ghost have been manifested in their lives in such a way that one would scarcely recognise them as the same persons.
Cheerful Obedience
Every honest heart is earnestly desiring to know the deeper things of God and to walk in deep consecration and obedience, willing at any cost to have God reveal the truth to him, in any way He sees fit. He is willing to have the Word of God and the Spirit reveal to him the true condition of his soul. It is a wonderful thing to have the whole heart open to God, that He may talk to you and show you your heart’s condition before it is too late. Do you long for God to speak to you? If you fall before Him with a broken and contrite spirit, He will do the work. Open your heart to God and His Holy Word; consecrate your all. God will do the rest and make use of the consecrated vessel.
He will use anyone who is wholly consecrated to Him. Throw your life upon God, every avenue of your soul; have no ambition to be something great, but prostrate yourself at His feet; lay your life before Him; consecrate your all. And how quickly He will pick it up and make it a blessing!
There are heights and depths in God yet to be attained; and we are pressing into the Holy place with Him, that will might draw the Divine life of the Son of God into our lives daily, as the Spirit of God is drawing His children deeper and deeper as the day approaches, as His coming draws near.
We cannot afford, in the last hour, to let the Word of God slip. We cannot afford, for one moment, to let the simplicity of the pure Gospel, the holy power of God, leave our lives; but we must press on through every test, trial, and opposing power of the enemy, to shed, if necessary, every drop of blood in our bodies for these great and glorious Gospel and God’s eternal Word. Oh, for a million lives to give! Oh, for a million voices to proclaim! The true child of God can say that everything is as nothing when compared with one moment in the service of God.