Fourth Direction for Obtaining Holiness

This is the fourth direction for Obtaining Holiness:
“Make an entire consecration of yourself to God—your soul, body, time, talents, influence, and your all—a complete assignment of all to Christ. Search and surrender, and re-search and surrender again, until you get every vestige of self upon the altar of consecration. There is no sanctification without entire consecration.”

“You must consecrate yourself in detail, and get every item upon the altar. In order to grasp the whole, you must take in the items. The consecration must be perfect before the offering will be received. God will have a thorough work, and purity will never be given or retained but on condition of entire, universal, unconditional abandonment of all sin, and acceptance and approval of all the will of God.”

This is the point that many resist and fail to enter into the place where God sends the fire and sanctifies the seeker. We consecrate and God sanctifies. You don’t sanctify yourself. You place yourself in a position where you are ready for God to cleanse your heart from inbred sin. I have seen ministers that would not surrender their ministry to the will of God. I have seen business people that would not surrender their business to the will of God. There is a Christian movie called “Facing the Giants.” In one scene, the wife who desperately wants to have a child. The nurse has just informed her that the pregnancy test once again reveals that she is not pregnant. The woman walks to her car with tears streaming down her face and says, “Lord, I will still love you.” Even though this was a movie, the woman’s surrender to the will of God demonstrates a complete surrender of her will to God’s will. Of course, in the movie she has a child and it has a happy perfect ending. Real life is not always like that.

You may be living with a financial crisis, a health crisis or a relationship crisis. A movie type happy conclusion is not guaranteed, but are you willing to surrender your will to God’s will in the matter? We pray for answers we think best, but are you surrendered to the fact that He knows best? As you search and surrender every aspect of your life and your future, know that when you have completed this direction, you are ready for the final step.