Consecration

"Consecration" is a theme that keeps coming to me in the prayer slots that I have had so far. It is a theme that I believe I may weave into my message this Sunday. This coming Sunday is Missions Sunday at Immanuel Fellowship in Frisco. We do this four times a year. I keep remembering that on one of our trips to Paris a few years ago, that was a word God kept speaking to us. More specifically, it is only as we consecrate ourselves before God, that we will be anointed to do all that He has called us. And it is only as we consecrate ourselves before God, that we will be able to stand against the enemy. Are we fully consecrated or have we deceived ourselves in thinking so?

I just finished reading the biography of Hudson Taylor, a missionary who served in China over a hundred years ago. This was probably the 8th or 9th time I have read this biography. Anyway, on the last page of the book, there is a quote from Hudson Taylor that characterized his life:

"An easy-going non-self-denying life will never be one of power. Fruit-bearing involves cross-bearing. 'Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.' We know how the Lord Jesus became fruitful---not by bearing His Cross, but by dying on it. Do we know much of fellowship with Him in this? There are not two Christs--an easy-going one for easy-going Christians, and a suffering, toiling one for exceptional believers. There is only one Christ. Are you willing to abide in Him, and thus to bear much fruit?"

That is consecration. And that is what God is looking for among us.