ou want to know God, your life must be full of consecration. There are three basic consecrations every believer must make:
1. Prayer and the world
In Acts 6:4, the apostles said, “We will not give ourselves to tables.” They say we’ll give ourselves to what? To prayer and the ministry of the world. If you want to know God, your life must be full of prayer and the world. You must pay the price now.
Now, I want you to understand that Prayer is not a gift; you pray prayer. The world is not a gift; You must read, you study, you meditate for it to come to you. This is why many people don’t know God, because they don’t spend time in prayer. All these things we are saying here, in the place of prayer, you encounter them.
So when you find believers who don’t pray and study, after 10 years they are still where they were. Even after 20 years, they are still where they are, and so they begin to pride themselves on when they gave their heart to Christ. So, you are talking about God moving; you are talking about healing, and they will be so quick to tell you, “I’ve been a Christian for 30 years now,” “That Christian for 30 years.” Okay, so my question now is: if you’ve been in Christ for 30 years, how does that affect this cancer? How does it impact this diabetes? How does it impact this headache?
We want God to show up now; we are not asking when you came, but there’s no labour of prayer in the world. Every Christian must pay the price of prayer. Listen, prayer is hard, but it’s the only way. Nobody loves praying; I can tell you. Prayer is hard work for the soul and the flesh. Whatever you live on, prayer is a hard labour. Nobody loves praying, especially when they are trying to give their life to Christ and become closer to God.
But I will urge you to start learning to pray today, and you will see what happens when you start praying and the Spirit of prayer enters you. The Spirit will now baptise you, and only after you are baptised will you start enjoying prayer. You enjoy it because, when you start, it’s like a vehicle that carries you.
But for you to get to that point where you start enjoying the journey of prayer, you will first of all labour until you break through. When you break through, prayer will make meaning to you. But many Christians haven’t paid the price. They can sit and watch movies for hours; they can talk with friends for hours, but when you say, “Let us pray,” they start to feel dizzy.
You can’t know God like that; you can only know God by engaging him in prayer and in the world; it’s labour, even when it comes to the study of the world. The Bible says the elder who rules well is worthy of double honour, especially those who labour in the world and in doctrine. So, prayer and the world are serious labour, but if you want to know God, you will engage in it, because that is how God reveals Himself to men.
Then the second level of concentration requires purity.
The Bible said: “Your eyes cannot behold iniquity.” Most of us have an iniquity lifestyle, and this is the cheap doctrine they taught us: that when you ask for forgiveness, you will be forgiven. Yes, you’ll be forgiven, and though you are loved by God, you will remain a child. You know who a child is? He lacks understanding. That’s why, although you are operating like a servant because you are still like a child in the spirit, you don’t have understanding, and the reason you don’t have understanding is that you are pretty much like a child.
A child also sins and always asks forgiveness first. John 2: 12 says: I write to you, children, because your sins are forgiven. You have to migrate from that level of sin and come to the level of young men. The young know how to overcome the evil one, and before you can overcome the evil one, you must pay the price of purity.
In 2nd Timothy 2: 21, he said, “if a man purges himself from these things.” So, it is a responsibility you carry out. You must purge yourself; it is a Christian responsibility. So, you must pay the price of purity if you want to work with God.
They have watered down sin in our generation, and they make you feel everybody’s doing it. Everybody is not doing it, sir. It’s not everybody that is sinning. Not everybody is making a practice of sin; some people are living holy. Not everybody is living the same. Actually, if you want to know God, you must pay the price of purity
Another reason you must pay the price of purity if you want to know God is that when God discovers that you have committed iniquity in your lifestyle, He will withdraw His oracles from you.
In 2 Timothy 2:19, He said the standard of the lost is short. It said: therefore, the Lord knows those who are His; it also says that they that named the name of the Lord must depart from iniquity.
Go and ask about those who know God. They didn’t know God in their bedroom. They knew God when they were walking in the House of God. They knew God when they were evangelising the nation. They knew God when they were giving to God. There is a dimension of God you can’t come into contact with until either you are serving as an intercessor, praying for God’s agenda, or you are serving as a giver, or you are serving as an active member of the team
And finally, you must pay the price of service and consecration.
Mind you, in the place of your service to God, he will meet you and bless you even beyond what you have asked for. God asked Solomon, ” What do you want? And he asked for wisdom. He said Give me wisdom; and God said to him; because you have not asked for the head of your enemies and riches in addition to wisdom, I will give you victory over your enemies. And we will also give you the riches you asked for.
Meanwhile, somebody else is praying. Father, bless me. Father, give me money… But another person entered there through service. And some have entered through prayer. The Bible spoke about Hanna the prophetess. She prayed in the temple for 84 years after her husband died, and she knew that salvation was coming to Israel. All the elders who were leading Torah did that. That’s what they didn’t know. Same with Simeon: they were praying; that’s service.
When Jesus was brought into the temple, the Bible says Simeon entered by the Spirit; the Holy Spirit pulled him: “The child you have been praying for has come,” and when they looked at Jesus, he said, “Behold, my eyes have seen the salvation of the Lord.”
No textbook could give him that kind of knowledge. It was revealed to him as he devoted his life to service; it was given to him.
So, what has happened to us? There’s no longer consecration in the area of service. Nowadays, Men cannot support with their bodies; they cannot support with their time in prayer, and they cannot serve God with their resources. This is why our generation is bankrupt of the knowledge of God. There’s no consecration. If you want to know God, you must pay the price of consecration.
