Day 5 – Day of Consecration

Today was our day of consecration. Dale spoke beforehand to help us prepare. He shared about Paul and his encounter with Jesus. He challenged us to press God for this kind of life-changing encounter during internship. Dale also explained that there are two kinds of consecration:

• Consecrate out of…
  
• Consecrate unto…
  

He encouraged us to ask the LORD how He wants us to be consecrated with respect to both types. Then, he sent us to the prayer room for the next 6 hours to work through our consecration assignment.

I really appreciated this assignment because it helped me to organize all of the things that I have already been working through. We began with Thanksgiving. When I reflected on where I have been and what God has already done, I felt very grateful. I am coming from a place of high anxiety and the heavy burden of tremendous expectations. I used to feel disconnected from my feelings and separated from the parts of me that I thought were undesirable. Truly, God has been setting me free. Like in 1 Peter 2:9, I am coming out of the darkness of fear and into the marvelous light of God's love.

I definitely want to consecrate myself out of anxiety of all kinds. As I spend time in the prayer room, I am becoming more aware of how often I feel anxious. I worry about what other people think of me. I worry about what God thinks of me. I worry about the future. I worry about my finances. I worry that God will not provide for me. I worry that I'm not good enough. Worry. Worry. Worry. It's almost always there. Gnawing at the back of my brain. And, I'm actually much less anxious then I used to be! But, I really want to be free. I want to feel sure that God loves me, forgives me and accepts me. I want to believe that He is always good and that His goodness is always towards me. I want to believe that He enjoys me and that He wants me to enjoy Him. I want to believe that He is really enough for me. I want to form new and healthy thought habits that are characterized by peace rather than anxiety.

So, I am consecrating the next 12 weeks out of anxiety and unto God. I want to separate unto receiving the love of God and enjoying worshipping Him. I want to separate unto knowing God more and meditating on the WORD. I want to separate unto intercession and just resting in God's presence. I want to be separate so that I can contend for breakthroughs here and at home.

This afternoon, we went to the Forerunner Christian Fellowship service and Mike Bickle preached. He talked about how one of the things that we are contending for during our 21-day Daniel fast is receiving the gift of anointed prayer. He told us about some of the prophetic words that they have received about a coming revival unlike anything that we have seen since the last great awakening. IHOP-KC is posturing themselves to receive this by cultivating a lifestyle of prayer, but they want to lean in even further and contend for a greater outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

I got really excited about this, but more for Rockford, than for Kansas City. God has spoken a number of prophetic words over us too. I know that our HOP is small, but I believe that our sincere desire to posture our hearts before the LORD in humility and to cultivate a lifestyle of prayer is the same. I am asking God to add to our number other people living with an unusual affection and radical dedication to Jesus. I really want Rockford to be a revival center too. So, I am also going to contend for this during my season of consecration.