The Prayer of Consecration and Dedication
Have you ever heard people pray this as part of a prayer? "Thy will be done..." or "If it be Thy will..." There are two places that I know of that this is prayed out in the New Testament. One, of course, is found in what is commonly known as "The Lord's Prayer". In this prayer, Jesus is teaching the disciples to pray, and is asking God that His will be done on earth, even as it is in heaven.
The other place that we see Jesus praying this prayer is in his prayer at Gethsemane, before He went to the cross. Jesus knew what was coming, and was in agony. Those who observed this prayer time, said that great drops of sweat dripped from him like blood. It was in the garden that his will was laid down.
Matthew 26:36-39
"The cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples,
Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder.
And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me.
And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying,
O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.
And he cometh to the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter,
What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak
He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying,
O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done."
I believe that we all come to our own "garden" at one time or another. There is a time when God will require of us, complete consecration and dedication and nothing less. To those who lay down their lives and die to themselves, there is a "higher call". A call of the Spirit.
Many of those people who have received that call of separation and holiness to God are men like John G. Lake, Reese Howells, and Smith Wigglesworth to name a few. I believe that if you study the lives of these men, or others that have flowed mightily in the Spirit of God, they all came to that place of death, where their will was laid down and they could pray "Not my will, but Thy will be done."
The Apostle Paul said that Know ye not, that "
to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?" Romans 6:16
Who will you yield yourself to? This is a daily process, and we die to ourselves and lay down our will as a process. Do you want God to use you? He asks us for all of ourselves and nothing less. Complete devotion. Spirit, soul and body. Do you want to go to a higher place in God? Then you need to go to the altar. It is a place of death, where you put your all on the altar and let it die. We must become less and less, and He must become greater and greater inside of us, until we come to the place where it is all of Him, and none of us.
Father God,
I come to you in the mighty Name of your Son, Jesus.
I want more of You in my life.
More of You, and less of me.
I yield myself to you in every facet of my being.
I yield my spirit to You.
Do with me what you want to do.
I am Yours, and make myself available for Your service.
I yield my soul to You.
I yield my mind and will and emotions to You.
I yield all of my gifts and talents to You.
They are Yours, Lord.
I lay them all down at Your feet.
I yield my body to You for Your service.
I yield my mouth, to speak Your Word.
I yield my ears to hear what You want me to hear.
I yield my eyes to see what You want me to see.
I yield my hands to lay hands on the sick
and they WILL recover.
I yield my feet to go where you want me to go.
I yield all of myself to You.
Fill me with Your Spirit
Completely and totally.
When people see me,
Let them see You in me.
Show me my heart,
And change me, Lord...
Into the image of Your Son.
Amen
James 5:16 -- "Confess your faults one to another, and pray for one another, that ye may be healed. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much."
