Consecrated For The Journey…
Joshua 3:5-7 Amplified Bible (AMP)
5And Joshua said to the people, Sanctify yourselves [that is, separate yourselves for a special holy purpose], for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you. 6Joshua said to the priests, Take up the ark of the covenant and pass over before the people. And they took it up and went on before the people. 7The Lord said to Joshua, This day I will begin to magnify you in the sight of all Israel, so they may know that as I was with Moses, so I will be with you.
When my God daughter got married last year there was a time of preparation. We spent months getting ready for her big day. But it was the night before when we were in rehearsal that things took a more serious turn. The staff of the Wedding ministry set her apart. They limited access to her and put her in a place where people had limited access to her, only I as the Maid of honor. I remember them saying that this was being done to protect her and keep her in a place of calm and away from distractions, drama and upset. It was to purge her from outside stimulus that could ruin her day and what God wanted to do in it. It was a process of setting her apart for the journey she was about to undertake.
Last night I was not feeling well, and as I lay tossing and turning I began to pray and I could here so clear in my spirit that I needed to consecrate for the journey ahead. The new places God was taking me required me to be sanctified and consecrated. Sanctification is what God does in us, when we consecrate ourselves with purpose to become readied for a holy or God ordained purpose. For many of us when it is time for us to move in God we may feel lead to fast and to pray; God may have us shut ourselves away from people or our normal routine. When God wants our full attention, when He is working things out in us and through us, when God is moving us, preparing us and fulfilling in us His good works or promises He will often require us to consecrate ourselves, to place ourselves in a place of being sanctified…Being consecrated is a posture that requires us to stop doing the things that we may normally do in some way shape or form, to become a sacrifice and place the flesh under subjection in order for God to deal with parts or the whole of who we are. This affords God access to us in a manner that our normalcy may prevent. It encourages us to draw closer to God and to detach from the things that captivate our attention away from God.
You see many of us God is calling to come into the land of promise or into a deeper relationship with Him, but we want to go just as we are, on the same directions that we came into this season on. We don’t want to stop and give God our full attention. We want to come into our next dimension doing just what we have been, and not taking a moment out to allow God to purify us, deal with our hearts, minds and to place His imprint upon our spirits and our hearts. You see all too often if we try to go into a new day anew journey a new season carrying old habits and ways we will die in the new land because we will be unprepared to deal with the enemies and the climate changes in the new land. Or we may be carrying way too much that will slow us down and make us a target for the enemy, or unable to navigate the terrain of the land of the promise, or the new assignment.
This is a dawning of a new day. Many are entering into a place we have never seen before and heights in God that we have no reference point for, it is important for us to be plugged into the source and to quiet down the noise of who we are to hear God and to gain the knowledge and instruction needed to possess the land or successfully navigate the course that has become our journey. We need to understand that when God asks us to come away to consecrate ourselves and get into a posture to be sanctified it is not because He is trying to make things difficult; it is that He is trying to ensure that we get what we need and we are equipped to and in a state of readiness to begin the journey or enter the place God wants us to be. It is all about being in the right place, at the right time in the right posture!
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