It’s amazing, how much the world generally or the church specifically is looking for better methods. They are continually looking for a better way to do something. Have you ever asked yourself, what does God look for? God does not look for better methods,  he looks for better men. This is not about righteousness here. This is not referencing your positional stand before God. Consecration is about availability; being available for God to use you. Living a yielding life to the Spirit of God so that God can do something with your righteous position in Him. Better men are available men. They are consecrated men.

[Tweet “God does not look for better methods, he looks for better men –  E.M. Bounds.”]

Wanted: Men of Consecration and Sacrifice

• D.L. Moody, the famous evangelist, was inspired by this quote

“The world has yet to see what God can do with a man that is fully committed to Him.”

• We seem to know very little about these terms today.
• You punch the word ‘consecration’ into a Google search and all you get is Catholic images.
• What happened to the Protestants?
• As we said in the opening remarks, God does not look for better methods, he looks for better men.
• There are many Christians who are righteous and on their way to heaven but God cannot do much with their life because they are not giving Him much to work with.
• When was the last time you told God that you would do anything that He asked you to do?
• If it has been a while, you should tell Him.

2 Chronicles 16:9 (KJV)
9 For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.

• If God is looking, that means ‘a perfect heart is hard to find’.
• If it was easy to find, He would not be in the looking business.
• The newest demon inspired craze? arose a few years ago in Florida.
• People with HIV are taking their needles and taping them to the underside of the gas pump handle so that people, when they go to fill up their cars and grab the handle, would be pricked and contract HIV. Out of the 18 reported cases, ten of them had contracted HIV.
• That is the enemy we are up against.
• So while we are getting annoyed because someone took our favorite seat in church,  upset because the church staff replaced our favorite worship leader, got mad because Pastor stepped all over our favorite doctrine, demons are running crazy in the world outside.
• How different is all of this minutiae than this statement Jesus made?

John 15:13 (ESV)
13 Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.

• If you get offended about every little thing in church  ‘greater love is not operating in you.’
• We talk about having holy habits so we can be highly effective believers.
• We talk about pray so that the anointing can become a part of the fabric of our lives.
• But, none of this will be any good unless we are willing to commit to it.
• None of it is worth spit in the wind if you do get out of your comfort zone and sacrifice.
• Here is an excerpt from one John G. Lakes sermons entitled ‘The Trumpet Call’.
• It covers the idea of being a consecrated Christian.

John G. Lake’s Consecration

Satan attacks the work in Africa

Lake and his churches had one hundred and twenty-five men out of on the field at one time. They were a very young institution, not well known in the world. One day, certain men in England and America began rumors about Lake.

Finances got so low under the awful attack, as people withdrew their support, that they soon could not even mail $10 a month to the workers. Then it got so bad he could not even send them $2. Lake did not want to take the responsibility of having men and their families on the frontier under such conditions.

The staff at headquarters sold their clothes, jewelry, pieces of furniture, and in one case their house to bring those one hundred and twenty-five workers off the field for a conference. One night in the progress of the conference, Lake was invited by a committee to leave the room for a minute or two. The conference wanted to have a word by themselves. He stepped out to a restaurant for a cup of coffee and returned soon after.

When John came back in, he found the chairs arranged in an oval, with a little table at the end, and on the table was the bread and wine. Old Father Van der Wall, speaking for the company, said, “Brother Lake, during your absence, we have come to a conclusion; we have made our decision. We want you to serve the Lord’s Supper. We are going back to our fields. We are going back if we have to walk back. We are going back if we have to starve. We are going back if our wives die. We are going back if our children die. We are going back if we die ourselves. We have but one request. If we die, we want you to come and bury us.“

The next year he buried twelve men, sixteen wives and children. Lake sadly recounted, “There was not one of them, if they had had a few of the things a white man needs to eat, but what they might have lived …. That is the kind of consecration that established Pentecost in South Africa. …”

• This is the power of sacrifice.
• What was the result of such sacrifice?
• Was it in vain?
• In five years’ time (1912) in South Africa, they went from no preachers to 1,250 preachers, 625 churches, and 100,000 converts.
• Lake further writes…

Friends, the group of missionaries that followed me went without food and went without clothes, and once when one of my preachers was sun struck and had wandered away, I tracked him by the blood marks of his feet. Another time I was hunting for one of my missionaries, a young Englishman, twenty-two years of age. He had come from a line of Church of England preachers for five hundred years. When I arrived at the native village, the old native Chief said, “He is not here. He went over the mountains and you know mister, he is a white man and he has not learned to walk barefooted.”

• These men believed in the gospel to such an extent that they walked barefooted to go preach it.
• You can argue with this and say it does not take all of this but how many converts has your ministry unto God produced?
• You don’t have to go to Africa and walk barefooted to prove your consecration to God.
• But, what about walking barefooted to your living room and praying?
• Consecration does mean I am willing to go if He asks me to go.
• It means being willing to do whatever He asks you to do.

Call to Action:

Praying prayers along this line, prayers of consecration unto God should be part of your prayer arsenal. Tell the Lord that you will do whatever He asks of you to do. Tell Him you are willing to go wherever He wants you to go. Even though God is ‘all-knowing’, you still have to vocalize those words from your heart.

Question: What areas of your life, have you set aside exclusively for God? Would you consider sharing that? Please leave a comment in the comments section below.