Episode Transcript
PRAYER OF CONSECRATION
Wake up, sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.
Jesus, I belong to you.
I lift up my heart to you.
I set my mind on you.
I fix my eyes on you.
I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice.
Jesus, we belong to you.
Praying in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
Exodus 19:9–15
The Lord said to Moses, “I am going to come to you in a dense cloud, so that the people will hear me speaking with you and will always put their trust in you.” Then Moses told the Lord what the people had said.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. Put limits for the people around the mountain and tell them, ‘Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live.’ Only when the ram’s horn sounds a long blast may they approach the mountain.”
After Moses had gone down the mountain to the people, he consecrated them, and they washed their clothes. Then he said to the people, “Prepare yourselves for the third day. Abstain from sexual relations.”
CONSIDER THIS
The word of the day today is: consecrate.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. Have them wash their clothes and be ready by the third day, because on that day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.”
What does that word mean to you—consecrate? The Hebrew word is qadash, and it means to set apart something or someone as holy unto the Lord. Why would God want the people to be consecrated? There is only one reason—because God is holy.
“Holy! Holy! Holy!” roars the voices of the angels and the archangels and the elders and the living creatures gathered around the throne of God. They never stop shouting, “Holy! Holy! Holy! is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8).
“Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory” (Isa. 6:3) cried the six-winged seraphim, calling out to one another around the throne of God.
“Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord God Almighty . . . God in three persons, blessed Trinity,” sings the great hymn.
“Holy! Holy! Holy! Lord, God of power and might. Heaven and earth are full of your glory,” declares the ancient rite spoken around the Lord’s Table all over the world.
God is holy. Yet, we live in an age with such a thin and sentimental vision of God. If the Bible says anything about God, and it says many things, it says this: God is holy. How have we come to speak of and approach God so casually? There is only one explanation: We have lost sight of his truest nature, of the character that defines all his qualities—God is holy.
God is love, to be sure, but the character and quality of his love is holiness. It is not just another wispy projection of human love. No, the love of God is holy love. It is of another order and comes from another place. The Spirit of God is called “the Comforter,” yet we must be reminded he is called “the Holy Spirit,” and he comes like a fire. God’s holiness burns with the blaze of ten thousand suns. Indeed, as the writer of Hebrews reminds us, “For our God is a consuming fire” (12:29). Did you catch the extreme nature of the instructions?
"Be careful that you do not approach the mountain or touch the foot of it. Whoever touches the mountain is to be put to death. They are to be stoned or shot with arrows; not a hand is to be laid on them. No person or animal shall be permitted to live."
When was the last time you meditated on the holiness of God? It has been too long for me. Perhaps, like you, I have an awareness and understanding of the concept of the holiness of God, but it is far from top of mind in my daily life. Upon reflection, my view of God tends to lean toward the more approachable and embracing features of God we see in Scripture. The problem with this is when I lose immediate awareness of the holiness of God, my relationship with God becomes casual. From here, I slowly but surely begin to see God as the mirror image of myself. Holiness is just the opposite—seeing myself in the mirrored image of God.
And the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow."
Consecration is the move to offer oneself wholeheartedly to God. It's why every day on the Wake-Up Call, we begin with the prayer of consecration. Consecration prepares the way for personal transformation, and personal transformation opens the way for public demonstration.
Far from a ramped-up religion of striving, which is so often signified by earnestness and zeal, consecration is the pathway of humility and surrender.
THE PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE
Lord Jesus, you are my Deliverer.
I join the cries of heaven's throngs: Holy! Holy! Holy!
I receive your deliverance from a casual relationship with Almighty God and into an awakened and ever-awakening way of consecrated life.
Holy! Holy! Holy!
Would you awaken me to your holiness? And would you forgive me for getting the closing words of my prayer backward? I repent, which is to say, I reverse myself in now saying:
It will be for your glory, for others' gain, and for my good.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.
As it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be. World without end, amen! Amen!
