CHAPTER SIX

CONSECRATION BEING 
TO TAKE THE LORD AS OUR PERSON

EXERCISING THE SPIRIT

I would like to touch a few things. First, our spirit needs to be fresh so that we will not be old. When we are in the meetings, we must exercise our spirit and open our being to the Lord. We should not follow any forms. Second, we should not pray-read the Bible in an old way or make it a ritual. We should exercise our spirit so that it will be strong and fresh; otherwise, the spirit of the meeting will sink. In our earlier meetings all the saints were beside themselves. Now, however, none of the saints are beside themselves. We must consider whether their being beside themselves was genuine. If it was genuine but could not stand the test of time, then we need more practice. We should not have the Spirit today and lose Him tomorrow. Hence, we must practice being proper and skillful in the exercise of our spirit.

Some saints are rough in their pray-reading, but the spirit is gentle, not rough. As long as we are rough, we will not be able to follow the spirit. The Bible compares the Holy Spirit to a dove (Matt. 3:16), not to a wild bull. For this reason, it is easier for a gentle person to cooperate with the Spirit. Some of the saints even pray-read 1 Corinthians 6:17 as if they were wild bulls. This proves that they still need more practice. Although our spirit needs to be strong, living, and fresh, it still needs to be fine and gentle. We should not be too quick.

THE PROPER CONCEPT OF CONSECRATION

Many of us have spent sufficient time with the Lord and have thoroughly consecrated ourselves to Him. Perhaps we feel that since the Lord loves us and since He died and lives for us, we also need to love Him and give ourselves to Him for His use. We may be willing to do whatever the Lord wants us to do. We are even willing to make [174] great resolutions in our heart. Perhaps we resolve that one day we will preach the gospel overseas or declare the Lord’s love to the aborigines. We may even be resolute and ask the Lord to cleanse us, fill us, and equip us for His use, even though we are not qualified, useful, or gifted. Nevertheless, this kind of consecration is religious.

Suppose a brother is weak, lazy, impatient, and cannot overcome his temper, and therefore he consecrates himself to the Lord in order to receive grace. He feels that without consecration he has no way to receive grace in order to become a spiritual giant. This is the consecration of a pitiful Christian. This is not a religious consecration; it is a pious consecration. Some Christians are diligent, gentle, pious, patient, and good-tempered from birth; therefore, their family, neighbors, and classmates say that they are perfect. According to our natural, pious thoughts, Christians who are gentle and patient and who never lose their temper do not need to consecrate themselves. Some consecrations are even based on strange concepts, such as being a ball for the Lord to throw wherever He wants.

These examples should help us to understand what is a religious consecration, what is a pious consecration, and what is a consecration that is based on strange concepts. Now we should consider our own consecration. If we ask the Lord to be our person so that we will not lose our temper, then we are still the person; the Lord is not our person. This kind of consecration is a pious consecration. Religion means that a person has something to worship and believe in and that he develops a set of teachings based on his beliefs. This is religion.

CONSECRATION BEING 
TO TAKE THE LORD AS OUR PERSON

We want neither a religious consecration nor a pious consecration. Our consecration must take Christ as our person. Every consecration should be to take Christ as our person. Consecration is not for us to do something for the Lord but for us to hand ourselves over to the Lord. We give the Lord our bad parts as well as our good parts. This means that we let the Lord be our person, and we acknowledge that we are finished. Furthermore, we no longer ask the Lord to tell us what to do; rather, we let Him do things in us. We should not deal with our temper. In fact, we do not even know how [175] to deal with it. We should let the Lord handle our temper because He is our person. We do not bear that responsibility.

Some saints may be concerned about the uncertainty of their future but say that the Lord, not they, should worry about their future. Such a thought is a religious concept. Concerning our future, we need to be simple. The Lord is among us, He is in us, and He is our person. We simply need to say, “Hallelujah! It is no longer I who live, but it is Christ who lives in me.” There is no need to explain further. Any explanation is religion.

The Word says that we are vessels to contain the Lord (Rom. 9:23). We are also His house for Him to dwell in (1 Cor. 3:16-17; Eph. 2:22) and be our person. It is easy for a person to go in and out of a physical house that is lifeless and void of a will and a personality. However, as the Lord’s house, we are living creatures with a personality, a will, preferences, and inclinations, all of which are our person. In other words, even though we are the Lord’s house, we are persons. Consecration means to let Him dwell in us by taking Him as our person; hence, our original person has to “move out.” The Bible says that our old man has been crucified with Christ, dealt with. Now we have a second person, Christ. Even though we are the Lord’s dwelling place, we have life, a personality, a will, preferences, and inclinations; hence, we are still our person. Now that we have received the Lord as the person, our former person must “move out.”

Giving ourselves to the Lord means that we neither do anything for Him nor ask Him to do anything for us. We give ourselves to Him so that He can live in us, that is, make His home in us, to be our person. Although the old man is buried, in our experience he continually returns. The old man is buried, but we always seem to resurrect him. Even though our old man may be crucified and buried in the morning, he often is resurrected in our experience before noon. The next day we have the same experience: he is dead in the morning but returns in the afternoon. The old person frequently returns to be our person. This is where our problem lies.

BEING DELIVERED FROM A MISTAKEN CONCEPT

By the Lord’s mercy we were brought into the light of His Word to see that His salvation is practical, complete, thorough, and simple. The influence of tradition and our Christian background [176] have given us a mistaken concept. Our concept is that we need salvation because we are sinners destined to perish in hell. We say that we need His salvation to be forgiven of our sins, to be delivered from hell, and to be spared from God’s judgment. We also say that we need another life because our life is corrupt and evil. When we believe in the Lord, He gives us another life, His eternal life. Not only does the Lord give eternal life, but He gives His Spirit to live in us as our power, sanctification, and everything. For this reason, we should love Him and give ourselves to Him. All of the above are right. Nevertheless, in our subconsciousness we still have a religious concept that we should do something for the Lord.

May the Lord have mercy on us so that we would be completely freed from tradition and religious concepts. The Lord’s wonderful way of salvation is to work Himself into us. We are vessels created by Him. He puts Himself into us not only to be our life but even more to be our person. As soon as we receive Him, He enters into us to be our person and our everything. This means that as soon as we receive the Lord as our person, spontaneously our sins are forgiven; we are delivered from the lake of fire and spared from God’s judgment. Furthermore, we have God’s life and His Spirit. As long as we receive the Lord as our person, we have everything.