In chapter 6 of Isaiah we see an example of real dedication. In the year of King Uzziah’s death, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple. Seraphim stood above Him, each having six wings; with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet and with two he flew. And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of His glory.” And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of Him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.
Then I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of un-clean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me, with a burning coal in his hand which he had taken from the altar with tongs. And he touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your iniquity is taken away and your sin is forgiven.”
Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I, Send me!” Isaiah 6:1–8.
It is important for us to recognize certain things in the dedication that occurred here. The dedication that Isaiah made was based upon a revelation of the Lord and how great and exalted the Lord was. It was not that Isaiah became concerned about his place in the world, what function he was going to perform, or how wonderful it would be to be a great prophet. There was nothing of personal ambition or personal thinking in this call upon Isaiah nor in the ministry that followed throughout his life. The only thing that we see in Isaiah’s life is that he had a revelation from the Lord.
Instead of it producing an ambition within him, it produced just the opposite, a great sense of sin and unworthiness. But this too, was not his dedication: “Well, I’m going to be dedicated so that I’m going to be better and better, and after awhile I’ll be worthy to be a servant of the Lord.” The Lord took care of the need with the coal of fire taken from the altars of God and placed it upon his lips, a burning searing coal that cleansed his lips of all impurity. God said, “Your sin is forgiven, and you’re purged; it’s absolutely gone.” Then He said, “Whom will I send?” and Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me!”
This causes us to look deeper into dedication. I would say that the Lord Jesus Christ, in His dedication to the Father, is the only real example of perfect dedication. Paul would come very close to it in the, Word of the Lord. There are other examples of people who came close to real dedication, but sometimes those dedications involved a dedication to self or self-improvement in a left-handed way. I have listed seven different types of dedication. Put yourself in a category. If your dedication falls in a category of an inferior type of dedication, you should make some real steps about it because this will never be a walk with God for your heart if your dedication is inferior. It has to be something within your heart for which you strive in that perfect concept of dedication to the Lord Jesus Christ.
One of the most common types of dedication, and very deceptive to an individual, is dedication to self-improvement. It still falls under the category the Lord describes as “He who would save his life shall lose it” (Matthew 16:25). Suppose you say, “Well, I want to be dedicated. I’m going to read a book on how to live to be a hundred, and I’m going to become dedicated to health foods, etc.” Be sure you know why you want to live to be a hundred. Be sure that you have the right motivation. Is it for the Lord, or is it for self-improvement? You may think, “If I die, then I can’t serve the Lord.” Maybe you are dedicated though to self-improvement in the saving of your life. This is very possible.
A second type of dedication is when you become a little less selfish, but you become dedicated to another person. Do you remember the dedication of Ruth? “Entreat me not to leave thee nor from following after thee. Where you go, I will go; where you lodge, I will lodge; where you die, I will die. There will I be buried” (Ruth 1:16, 17). We quote that and sing about it because it is such an excellent type of dedication, but it is not perfect dedication. It is Ruth’s dedication to her mother-in-law. That served a real purpose of God. She had a love for the Lord that she had attained by being married into a Jewish family from Bethlehem during the days of famine. Yet it shows one person’s dedication to another person on a human level. And that is not as perfect as the dedication the Lord wants.
We strive for something a little bit higher than Ruth’s dedication when we see a young couple come to be married. We ask that they not only be dedicated to each other with this same love Ruth had, but we’re requiring that they be dedicated to fulfill the will of God in their relationship to each other. It is not enough to love another person and be dedicated to that person. You have to be dedicated to the Lord first, and your relationship together has to be related to the will of God or you do not walk in perfect dedication.
Sometimes that’s very hard because your relationship to each other, if it is based upon a dedication to each other, has a certain element of fulfillment. But when you are dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ, a relationship between two individuals is constantly brought to real decisions. Demands are made upon it because that relationship is subject to the Lord first of all.
A third type of dedication is one in which we are dedicated to a cause. There are people who are dedicated to a political party. Some of them work for their party so earnestly that they put to shame the way Christians serve the Lord. Many Christians aren’t as dedicated to the Lord as people in the world are dedicated to a cause. You could even apply that to this walk and say, “I’m dedicated to the restoration; I’m dedicated to the New Testament Church,” and you might be settling for something a little bit lower than what God wants for you. You should be dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ; all of these other things are related to it. Be sure you are not just dedicated to a cause or to a truth or to a doctrine or to an experience.
Dedication to a project is number four in the types of dedication. Many artists are like that. I think Michelangelo was dedicated to projects; he would always work to a point of exhaustion in order to create beautiful drawings such as those he painted on the cathedral ceiling. Dedicated to a project? Yes, you can be so dedicated to a project that it consumes you because you feel, “Here I am, doing something very, very important.” I’m not minimizing any of these types of dedication. These are good ways of being dedicated, but I want to point out the limited dedication you have if you are just dedicated to a project. “Well, I’m dedicated to building a church. I’m dedicated to doing certain work to see this living word go forth.” That is very, very good, but it is still a limited dedication.
Number five is a dedication to a personal expression or a personal fulfillment. That can be on a natural plane or a spiritual plane, but nevertheless, to a personal expression or to a fulfillment. There are people who love to preach because they want the personal expression of preaching; not because they have a message from God, particularly, but they are dedicated to preach because it is a personal fulfillment, it is an expression. There are people who like to play musical instruments for that reason, not because it is pleasing unto the Lord, but because they want to fulfill something in themselves, a personal expression or a personal fulfillment.
There are those who want to get married because it is a personal fulfillment. To them that is a part of life. Forget it. That is not reason enough to get married in this age or in this walk. You may want to get married because of one reason or another. You had better marry only because it is the perfect will of God for you to get married and because you love the Lord so much that you see this as part of the fulfillment of your life in His will, yet as unto the Lord. “Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ” (Colossians 3:17). “Well,” you say, “this begins to narrow it down a little bit.”
You can also be dedicated to an extension of yourself, like those who are dedicated to their families: not because they are serving the will of God in producing a little prophet or prophetess, but because they see that child as an extension of themselves. People are dedicated to their families because they are extensions of themselves and carry their names. It is very human, very natural, but it is an inferior type of dedication. If you are dedicated to children because they are all running around the room looking like you and they have your characteristics and mannerisms, that is not enough. You must see and minister something in the perfect will of the Lord to a child if you would have a perfect dedication. It is all right to be dedicated to your children because they are an extension of you, if you can’t be dedicated on any other basis. That’s one type of dedication, but it’s not the greatest.
Finally, there is the seventh and the highest type of dedication, the dedication that we saw in the text of Isaiah. This dedication was a little different. Isaiah was moved, but not with any ambition. He was overwhelmed with his own unworthiness. God took the unworthiness away, so he wasn’t just dedicated to become worthy. He wasn’t dedicated to have the Lord touch his lips. God did that because Isaiah sensed his need of it. But he was dedicated when the Lord said, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then Isaiah said, “Here am I, send me! It was a dedication to the Lord who had filled the whole earth with His glory. It was a dedication to serve the Lord above all.
If I preach because it is a fulfillment or a personal expression—if it is something I feel is a very interesting cause, or a very wonderful project, or it makes me feel important—I’ve missed the whole thing. But if I preach the Word because I love the Lord so much, and my focus is upon Him and I want to please Him, then I don’t just create sermons and sermonize. I listen to what the Lord wants to say. A beautiful sermon in the opinions of men is not important. If it is what God wants said, then that is what is important, though it may be an inferior style of preaching. Someone may suggest, “Well, we could use another form of sermon or something which would be much more attractive to men.” But we seek only one thing; “What does the Lord say? What does He want?” We want to please Him above everything else.
The best speakers are not men who are masters, conscious of the speaking arts. The best speakers that come forth are men who have a message burning in their souls from the Lord. They love Him so intensely that they minister that word out of their love for the Lord. They can hit you with the word like a jackhammer, and you still take it because you are aware it is a message from God. It is delivered almost on an impersonal basis, yet with such a personal impact that you are shattered by it on a personal level.
It does not come as the word of a preacher. If a man thinks, “Now it’s time for me to dress the people down because they’re doing ‘this’ and they’re doing ‘that’,” and he starts out with his own wisdom to mold and shape the congregation, resentment will sweep through the people. But a man who speaks the word of the Lord can tear the congregation to shreds, yet they’ll stand and weep before the Lord. God will put them back together again if it’s a word that comes from the Lord through a vessel who loves the Lord too much not to speak. The consequences, how the people react, are not important. The love and compassion of the Lord are important: conveying the Lord’s feelings, the Lord’s compassion, the Lord’s purposes. A man has to be a faithful servant of the Lord to deliver the word of the Lord to the people. This is the basis of real dedication.
I can become dedicated to try to rid things from my life, for example: “Lord, I just want to dedicate my all to you. I want every habit, everything out of the way. I want every bit of my emotions and feelings under control, Lord. That’s what I’m dedicated to.” Fine, but that’s an interior type of dedication. Real dedication forgets self and is lost in one thing: “Lord, I’m dedicated to what You are. I’m dedicated completely to what You say because I’m dedicated to You. I’m dedicated completely to what You’ve done, what You’ve provided. Lord, I’m dedicated to what You will. I’m dedicated to what You are now doing in the earth.”
Some think, “It’s way out; it’s not popular; back off a little bit; get into one of the popular movements so there’ll be more people.” Yet, this is where God is moving. This is where He is speaking; this is what He is saying, I want to be dedicated to this, even if I walk alone: dedicated to what the Lord is doing and what He is saying, dedicated to His order.
“Well, it’d be a lot easier if we’d use a little more psychology and ways of organizing. If we begin to contend for divine order we’re running right up against a wall.”
Nevertheless, we are dedicated to His order in the church.
“Well, it’d be so much easier if we had Sunday School using all the helps and literature that are published in the world. This ‘Church at Study’—limps along; it surges forward and then backward.”
We will still stick with it, because it is what the Lord is doing.
“Well, isn’t the other more popular?”
Yes.
“Isn’t the other effective?”
It seems to be, but let us stay with what the Lord is trying to teach us. Somewhere along the line we will become pioneers in the most effective program that ever hit the world. We are dedicated to His timing, when God wills it to be done—walking with Him, not running ahead, not lingering behind. We are learning to walk with the Lord.
If dedication to yourself, and all that is involved in your life and all of your relationships, becomes the basis to your dedication, that’s not enough. Nor is it enough to serve the Lord on your own terms. You can’t be a prima donna, “Well, I’ll serve the Lord if ‘this,’ and ‘this,’ and ‘this’ work out for me. This is the way I’m going to do it, or I’m not going to do it at all.” None of you will do anything for too long a time before the Lord calls you to question, whether or not you are trying to serve the Lord on your terms. You say, “I’ll work for the Lord if I can do ‘this’ and ‘that’ in a certain way.” There is much liberty for you to do your thing, but there is also a great deal of liberty in the Spirit to stick you right down to cleaning the toilets, if that’s what God wants you to do. We will do what God wants done. You say, “Does it boil down to that?” It sure does. That’s exactly the way the Lord treats me; I see no reason for Him to make an exception with you.
You’ll not serve the Lord on your own terms, you’ll serve Him as a bond servant of Jesus Christ. You’ll not serve Him with limited submission, a submission that is fine in all areas until the Lord puts His finger on certain things and you say, “These things I won’t do. I won’t be submissive, I’ll rebel in that.” You’ll be submissive with an unlimited submission. You’ll not have a qualified dedication to the Lord.
This is not the kind of message you really enjoy unless there’s something in your heart that yearns after the Lord and you can say, “Oh, let the righteous smite me, and it is a kindness,” and because you want anything that is short in your life to come up to “the full measure of the stature of Christ.”
Let’s look in the Scriptures at the dedication of Jesus Christ. One of the most beautiful references on dedication in the Old Testament is Psalm 40:7, 8: Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of me; I delight to do thy will, O my God; Thy Law is within my heart.” It is quoted again in the book of Hebrews. It is the reference concerning the Lord Jesus Christ and His dedication. It is a Messianic prophecy of what the Lord does. He comes to the earth—“I come to do Thy will, O God.”
When Jesus came, His dedication was not primarily to die for sin. That was prophesied by the angel, “He shall save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21). Nor did Jesus come primarily to heal the sick. Jesus came primarily to do the will of the Lord.
“Well what about the fact that He healed and delivered people, it was fantastic!”
Look in John 4, where Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman. She opened her heart, and it was marvelous. The disciples said, “Here’s something to eat.” But Jesus said, “I have meat to eat that you know not of. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work” (John 4:32, 34). That was what fed Him. It wasn’t because He had such a pleasant hour talking with the woman from Samaria: “Well, it was a good project. I started someone on the right path.” That wasn’t the idea; He was doing the will of the Father.
The chapter starts out with something very significant, And He must needs go through Samaria. John 4:4. Geographically it was the route, but spiritually it was ordained before the foundation of the world that the heart of the Father wanted Him to meet that woman. He said, “I have come to do Thy will, O God. My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work.”
In John 17:4 He lifted His heart in a beautiful prayer to the Father: “I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do.” That was what filled His heart. “Lord I did it. Father I did it! I glorified You. I did the work You sent Me to do.” In John 8:29 He said, “I do always those things which please the Father,” because He had that one basic drive. The people could come and go in multitudes, and to those lonely disciples standing over in the corner He said, “Will you go also?” What if they had gone? It would have made no difference. He was there to do the will of the Father. Then when He hung on the cross He said, “It is finished.” He had done what the Father wanted Him to do. “If it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not My will, but Thine be done” (Matthew 26:39).
“O Father, it is Your will, whatever You want. If it’s suffering, if it seems to be failure in the eyes of men, if it’s something like Noah, laboring a hundred and twenty years on a thankless task in order to bring forth a remnant that shall bring civilization to the world again: whatever it is Lord, we’ll do it because we want to please You.”
It is our dedication to the Lord that is most important. There are so many other examples in the Scriptures of real dedication, but this one example that Christ gives is just too wonderful for us to go on to the human level of dedication. What is your dedication? Of all of these seven types of dedication, six were beautiful, but there is something very much lacking if your dedication is not to the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. Is your dedication to self-improvement, a relationship to another person, some cause, a project, a personal expression, a personal fulfillment in your life, or some extension of yourself? None of these dedications will be quite enough without this dedication just to Him and to Him alone, regardless of what else happens on any other plane, only being dedicated to the Lord.
If we seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, these other things will be added to us. These other dedications are not wrong. To be dedicated to a family is not wrong. In fact, I would be guilty of a great wrong, having preached all these years on divine order for the home, if I would turn around and say, “That’s not good enough.” It has to be a part of the will of God. But the basic dedication is a dedication to the Lord, absolutely to Him, and yet with these other things included. I am dedicated to causes, to projects, and to other people. I am dedicated to the improvement of every area of my life to please Him. I am dedicated to many of these things. I have family dedications, but those dedications are subordinate to my dedication to Him.
There are times when discipleship requires that your loyalty and your dedication to Him exceed all other loyalties and responsibilities. There are times when He says, “Let the dead bury their dead, but you go and preach the gospel.” Let everything else be brought subordinate to it. If you have been serving the Lord for what you can get out of it, for what you want Him to work out in your life, back off. Serve Him for His own name’s sake. Love Him and let Him add the other things to you. Don’t serve Him with a motivation that is anything short of loving Him with all your heart, with all your soul, all your mind, and with all of your strength.
The Apostle Paul teaches us something we need to know about dedication. But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from among the dead.
Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus. Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as are perfect, have this attitude; and if in anything you have a different attitude, God will reveal that also to you. Philippians 3:7–15.
Notice especially the eighth verse, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ. It is difficult for us to really understand dedication until we see it in its purity. And then it’s hard to define it and analyze it.
To read the life of Paul would inspire you, but you would wonder, “What makes Paul run? What motivates him?” Was he driven with an ambition to see if he could start more churches and labor more abundantly than all the other apostles (which he did)? Was that his motivation? Was it some vindictiveness within him that wanted to assert itself against the Jews who persecuted him? I think he was a little vindictive at times, but in a righteous sense. I wouldn’t condemn him of that at all. What was it that Paul did? Was it the adulation of the churches that he sought, a place that he would have as an apostle? No, he never seemed to be after anything, only how much he could give.
Paul was dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. He counted anything but loss, forgetting everything that was behind. He wanted only one thing—the surpassing value of knowing Christ. He wanted a walk with the Lord. He wanted to do the will of the Lord. He wanted to please Him.
I have found that it is easy to be dedicated to different things. There are different levels of dedication which I believe are a part of discipleship, yet very definitely an incomplete part. You can be dedicated to a person, a project, or a cause, and still not be really dedicated to the Lord like you should be. Dedication can come to a person’s life, overwhelming dedication, but still it can be short of pure discipleship. Paul had the pure discipleship that would follow the Lord and do what the Lord wanted him to do. There were no other ulterior motivations in his heart.
People in the world are dedicated to causes. Have you noticed the dedication that some Communists seem to have? They’d lay their lives down for Communism. You can’t understand it. They’re not dedicated to God; they don’t believe in God. They’re dedicated to a cause. They do not even think that they themselves are going to reap that much from it, but that maybe their children will.
We could find among us people who would be dedicated to prophets and say, “Well, if you give a glass of water to a prophet in the name of a prophet you’ll receive a prophet’s reward (Matthew 10:42).” We have those who say, “I’m dedicated to what I can do, or anything I’ll be, even to lay my life down for the Apostle.” You can be dedicated to this walk! You can enter into all those things and still miss the real thing—to be dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ. You may say, “That sounds trite.” No. You have to be dedicated to the Lord, then, as the Lord lays other things upon you, be dedicated to them in a secondary sense. They have meaning and value, but unless it’s basically and primarily unto the Lord, you’ve missed it all. You have come so far under the dealings of the Lord only to miss the real thing the Lord was trying to do in your life.
Paul said he had one dedication—to please the Lord. When people loved him—fine! When they stoned him—too bad! But he went on his way. He’d get out of a Philippian jail and have a midnight baptismal service in the river and take off the next day to go onto the next place and be beaten up again. “Paul, you must have a real hunger for that kind of punishment.” I don’t think he enjoyed it more than anyone would, but he wanted to please the Lord. And because he desired to please the Lord, all these secondary things didn’t matter. When a man is really called of God and he loves God with all of his heart, if he preaches and the people all turn away from him, it doesn’t shake him, because he isn’t basically preaching out of a dedication to the people. It is the dedication to the Lord.
I was dedicated to the ministry and to the people I preached to, but I was dedicated to the Lord more. And when this walk came, I opened up to it and was liberated from bondage to the people because I came into a bond-servant relationship to the Lord. You can’t serve two masters. So, I served the Lord, and then in the Lord I served His people. This element of dedication has to be understood. Sometimes I think we’re motivated in all of this by the negative side of dedication. The negative side of dedication is where you become dedicated to eliminating faults and problems, the things that are wrong in your life. When we have a consecration service, people come and say, “Oh, I’ve got to come down and get rid of my temper. I’ve got to get rid of this habit! It has to go. O God, take this thing out of me!” Many times they do not realize that a dedication that eliminates things is only half the picture.
It’s not enough that we scrub the pot out; let’s fill it with some good soup. Let’s have the positive side. Emptying a man out can create a vacuum in his life and he’ll be doing that every six months because all nature and all the spirit world hates a vacuum. That is what makes hurricanes and typhoons—where there is virtually a vacuum, everything rushes in to fill it. When the devil was cast out of a man, it went out in the dry places seeking rest and found seven other devils more powerful than himself. They returned and possessed the house that was swept and garnished because there was a spiritual vacuum. The latter end was worse than the beginning (Luke 11:24–26). I don’t think dedication or consecration ends when we eliminate certain things from our lives which can create a spiritual vacuum. It just begins. It’s not what you get rid of, but it’s the fullness of Christ in you that counts. You must become dedicated wholly to Him. It’s not enough to say, “I got rid of those things which were goals and objectives in my life. I had an act of dedication and I removed these other goals from my life.” Fine. Now what’s your goal? “I’m sort of enjoying myself now. I’m not tormented by the old.” You should be obsessed with the new. You should have the desire burning in your heart. It’s not enough to say, “I’m going to get rid of all of these problems.” Go a little step further and say, “I’m going to enter into the perfect will of the Lord with all of my heart!” This, of course, is that positive side.
Have you ever been dedicated to self-improvement? “Well, I’m dedicated now.” What do you do? “Oh, I read the Bible a half hour every day now.” That’s fine. “And I pray every day.” You still could be going through the motions of a self-improvement program. Are you dedicated to the Lord so that the reading of the Word and the prayer flows out of your life? You still could be doing it out of a sense of religious duty instead of that spontaneous love when you have come to the place where you love Him first above everything else. How easy it is to get into a rut because you miss the real objective of dedication which is to love the Lord. “I love the Lord!” Then move right into what He has to say.
The entire chapter 8 of II Corinthians on giving is of interest, not because it’s going to increase the finances of the church, but because it is beautiful the way the Macedonians were called upon to give. Paul said, “They just didn’t do what we expected them to do.”
In a great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty overflowed in the wealth of the liberality. For I testify that according to their ability, and beyond their ability they gave of their own accord, begging us with much entreaty for the favor of participation in the support of the saints (they begged to be able to do it), and this, not as we had expected, but they first gave themselves to the Lord and to us by the will of God. II Corinthians 8:2–5.
They just begged for an opportunity to give for the support of the saints. But that wasn’t enough, they made a dedication of themselves to the Lord. “They gave themselves to the Lord first and then to us by the will of God.” It was not a magnanimous gesture of someone remote from the situation giving his money. They became involved themselves with the Lord, and then anything they would do for Him. That’s dedication. It’s the easiest thing in the world to be withdrawn and uninvolved. And it’s very dangerous in this walk to listen to the truths and to listen to all that God is saying, and still keep yourself back a little bit remote. It’s a thing that I’ve watched and prayed about. I want everyone involved in the battle. But you have to give yourself first to the Lord, and then in the will of God to the ministries, and then your money. The churches in this walk become outstanding in giving, because we give ourselves first to the Lord. When the Lord gets the heart, you don’t have to worry about the pocketbook—it opens up automatically. “Just let me be around where I can give something”; that is what you feel when you’re involved.
One of the common things we’ve said many times is, “Whatever God is doing in the earth, I want to have a little part of it. I want to have an investment in it.” It isn’t that old adage, “A fool and his money are soon parted.” It’s a matter of laying up our money where our heart is. Our heart is there so we lay our treasure there. We can’t help it. It becomes a thing that burns within our being, and we give ourselves first. That’s dedication.
Don’t get the idea that you’re dedicated because you’ve given up something to the Lord. You’re only dedicated when you have wholly followed the Lord. Then you’ve reached the level of real dedication. This is what the Bible is all about—this thing of dedication. One of the references to the coming of the Lord tells how the people, going about their business as usual, will miss it. But we are to be as servants who wait for the Master’s coming. Then when He knocks, the door can be opened immediately to Him (Luke 12:36). An instant readiness is right there because the dedication is there. It is a dedication first to the Lord.
To get married just to get married is not enough. Even to have the dedication to another person is not enough, because the dedication has to be to the Lord. Marriage is for you only if you find that this is within the will of the Lord for you, in the scope of His perfect will. The young people here seem to sense that, and they’ll drop a relationship, no matter what they think of each other, if the Lord isn’t in it. Because they know this one thing, if they seek the Lord first, and they love Him first, and He is their first dedication, then their other relationships and dedications are all right. But they can’t be to each other what they should be if the basic dedication to the Lord is not there. This dedication has to be viewed very carefully.
We could have a wrong emphasis in this day of the end time when the Lord’s coming is at hand. There were times when I came to resent the sermons that would be on the signs of the times that would scare the living daylights out of a person. I’d go home and think, “The Lord’s going to come! That was a good altar call: ‘If the Lord would come tonight, would you be ready? or would you be left behind?’ ” And it was a frightening thing in a way. We lived with that thing that the Lord was coming. But it was a thing of fear, not a blessed hope. Now we live, “Oh, the Lord is coming!” But we could become more aware of tribulation, of problems, of many things. We just want to please Him.
To me, the gospel of the kingdom is not a chore. I’m not a courier to run around the world as fast as I can and dump off manuals and tracts wherever I can and say, “That’s it!” The gospel of the kingdom is something more. It’s a relationship to a King. It’s a love of Him. “O Lord Jesus, come quickly. Your rule will be in my heart! Be the Master over this bond servant.” And because we love Him so much, we proclaim it! In a world that is entering into extensive judgments, the one witness that He would have is that His servants who have the seal on their foreheads will run before His face and say, “He’s coming. His kingdom is coming!” The cry of our heart is, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” It is a dedication to a Person. It is not a dedication to a message, or a cause, or a project. Those are involved in a lesser plane. It is our dedication to Him and to love Him. You may find yourself degenerating to the lower planes of dedication if you don’t learn to walk with Him and to love Him first in every way. A walk with God is what it’s all about!
It is a time that the Lord has brought great victory to the house of the Lord. Many things have been begun for you that you have prayed for, embraced, and possessed by faith; now they are springing into sight. It is a precious time for you to hold fast in all your confidence in the Lord, lest at any last moment the enemy should come in to rob you of the full blessing of the answer that you have sought. Keep your heart set on the Lord. Prepare yourself even today with an expectation and the hope of the things in which you are to walk. Don’t be fearful in heart, for the Lord has ordered your steps.
Sometimes it seems to you that the thing is not changing as rapidly as you wish, but how suddenly can the Lord cause the thing to spring forth in thy sight that He hath promised to you. It is not a need that you should be given to long delays or that you should accept that there shall be long seasons before the Lord brings things to pass. If the Lord can do a quick work in the earth, believe for Him to do that in thee. Believe for Him to do that for thee in your prayers for they could spring forth speedily. Does He not say of these in the end time, “When the Lord cometh, will He find faith in the earth?” And yet, He said, “The Lord will avenge speedily those that cry day and night unto Him though He bear long with them.” Speedily will He avenge thee. Let not your hearts waver. Press in—in the name of the Lord. You have need of patience that after you have done the will of the Lord you might receive the promise. And therefore, cast not away your confidence. The Law and the prophets were until John, and since that time the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it. Amen.