This word on dedication may open the door to active faith, though principles of faith and trust in God won’t be referred to extensively. The following Scriptures on discipleship have a disturbing quality.
“Everyone therefore who shall confess Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever shall deny Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life (soul-life) shall lose it, and he who has lost his life (soul-life) for My sake shall find it. He who receives you receives Me, and he who receives Me, receives Him who sent Me. He who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he who receives a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward. And whoever in the name of a disciple gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water to drink, truly I say to you he shall not lose his reward.” Matthew 10:32–42. Weigh this for the disturbing effects these words have upon you.
“And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And when the disciples heard this, they were very astonished and said, “Then who can be saved?” And looking upon them Jesus said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, shall receive many times as much, and shall inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.” Matthew 19:24–30.
And He was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life (soul-life) shall lose it, but whoever loses his life (soul-life) for My sake, he is the one who will save it. For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses or forfeits himself? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words, of him will the Son of Man be ashamed when He comes in His glory, and the glory of the Father and of the holy angels.” Luke 9:23–26.
These words have a disturbing quality because they highlight the fact that the dedication the Lord asks of us is far beyond what most of us have attained. Yet the prophecies and the teaching in this walk have indicated that we are a chosen people. The Lord is going to bless us and fill us with His love, people will be drawn to us, and the word is going to flow out. The Lord desires worship and praise, and He has chosen us for that. In hearing the prophecies that speak of what God wants, we realize our attitudes of dedication show a discrepancy between consecration and dedication. Why do the ministries, called and anointed of God, fail to finish, or more often fail to start to do the will of God in their lives?
How is it that ministry can come over people and nothing comes out of it? Why do some people start to move in something and then it dies out? What is it that causes failure where God has specifically placed an anointing and revealed His will: what they are to walk in; what His plan is for them? They start out and they fail. That’s a real issue for us because there should never be any failure. There would not be failure if we understood the difference between consecration and dedication.
First of all, consecration must be understood to be God’s side of the picture. Dedication must be seen as man’s side of it. Here is a definition: Consecration is the divine designation, the divine authority, the divine presence, the divine power and provision to accomplish God’s specific will. All of those things are involved. You may say, “Well, I’m consecrated to God; I consecrate my life to God.” You can’t consecrate a thing. In the Old Testament the people came and brought their offerings to the Lord—that was the dedication, that was the surrender. Then the Lord laid the fire upon it—that was the consecration. They built a temple to Solomon and dedicated it with great sacrifices; the Lord consecrated it with a glory till no man could stand and minister any more in His presence. Dedication was always to be the prelude to the consecration.
Sometimes people’s dedication is inadequate and insufficient, so that the consecration is ineffective. Dedication means our hearts’ surrender to God; our hearts are set and eager to do God’s will at any personal sacrifice, at any personal reproach, at any personal effort, even when there is personal criticism against us—at any cost, whether that cost be financial, physical, mental, or spiritual. This is our part, setting ourselves to do the will of God.
The consecration and giving the anointing is God’s side.
A person may say, “I want to be sanctified”; that means the same as being consecrated. The word “sanctify,” in the Greek, means to set one aside, to put one aside for a specific purpose. If the priesthood were consecrated or sanctified to do the will of the Lord, there was an anointing placed upon them. They might not be thoroughly dedicated to follow through; then the enemy would come in. Where there was a designation of ministry, but not the dedication to fulfill it problems would come, troubles and defeat. The truth is, when consecration exceeds dedication, the door is opened to satanic assault and conflict. It actually opens the door to demonic oppression in many ways.
In the life of every great man or woman of God, when the dedication comes up to the consecration God has laid upon that person to fulfill His will (the heart set and eager to do the will of God at any cost), invariably this happens:
First, God anoints and opens the understanding of that individual to do the will of God. The problem is that many people just don’t know how to move, they don’t know what to do.
Second, God orders the individual’s life and circumstances so as to make the appropriation easy. He will order your life and your circumstances to make the appropriation of God imperative. He will crowd you into a place if your dedication is to do the will of God. I have moved into a place where I have felt the authority of God resting on me and it is based upon one thing: God has ordered my circumstances so as to make an appropriation of this authority absolutely imperative. If you are dedicated, then He will start working on you to crowd you into it.
Third, God chastens and disciplines us so that we move into even greater appropriation after we are started. This is what happens when the dedication comes up to the consecration.
Fourth, God orders responsibilities and pressures to come upon us that enlarge our capacity and thus we go on to enlarge our dedication.
David, I believe, was dedicated in his heart to the Lord as a little boy. When Samuel came over the hill to Bethlehem to find him, all his brothers were rejected and God picked David, because God said, “Man looks on the outward appearance, but God looks upon the heart” (I Samuel 16:7). David’s heart was already dedicated to do the will of the Lord. Samuel then anointed David with oil; this was God’s consecration. God set him aside and gave him an anointing.
Consecration means divine designation: the divine presence and power and provision to accomplish God’s specific will. David was designated to be king over Israel; the divine authority which was laid upon him was resting upon him from that moment.
It is one thing for a man to be anointed and consecrated to do a job; it’s another thing for him to do it. What takes place in between? David’s dedication came up to his consecration, so God began to order the circumstances and the pressures; step by step he moved in the will of God. Everything he lacked in himself, he began to appropriate and to grow into. He had Saul’s spear thrown at him; he had to face Goliath; he had to face jealousy; he had to face disappointment—one thing after another.
You may say, “I’m tired and sick of these things.” If you become dedicated, you will face them; if you’re not going to be dedicated, you will open the door to satanic defeat. When God has raised up people and put His anointing upon them, but they are reluctant to be dedicated and surrendered to it, or selfishness or some false motivation enters into their lives so that the dedication is not up to what God has set them aside to do, then what will happen? Satan will come in and hit them very hard, since he has an open door. Because they are not set to fight him or resist him they want to withdraw and be rebellious; they are constantly drawing back and unbelief takes over.
It is surprising how tricky the mind is. Unbelief is a subtle, dishonest emotion within people. If they set themselves to believe God, they will go into a real battle. The minute they set their hearts to walk in what God wants them to walk in, they will come against real assault of the enemy and be in battle.
When the dedication comes up, God orders the conflict for this reason: accomplishing God’s will involves not only the mechanics of performing your ministry, but also the special thing that He wants done in your life, that demonic powers have the victory of Jesus Christ manifested over them through you. That being the case, every time you are consecrated to do the will of God and you become dedicated to do it, demonic assault will be one of the elements to face, along with the anointing to do what God set you to do.
If God raises you up to be a minister and preach the word, it’s one thing to be anointed to preach the word and another thing to be anointed to fight the powers of Satan so you can preach the word. God will allow those powers to come against you because it’s His intention that Satan be bruised under your heel; and he is not going to be bruised under your heel until he is allowed to come and assault you. The victory of Christ on the cross over principalities and powers is to be manifested through the manifold wisdom of God in the Church, not somewhere else, but in the Church. We are going to come against the grips of Satan more and more; we cannot draw back from it, we thank God for it. “It shall please God to bruise Satan under your feet shortly” (Romans 16:20).
None of you are yet dedicated in your heart to serve God as much as you are anointed to serve Him. The anointing has exceeded your dedication. If you were dedicated as much as you have been anointed you could come into aggressive living against the power of Satan, and if you would come to grips with it, you could heal the sick, you could cast out demons. If you would set your heart to be dedicated, you would come up against all the powers of hell which would be loosed against you. When they were, if you were still dedicated and you pressed on, the victory would be yours in the name of the Lord; God would be glorified in the casting down of those demonic powers, and manifested in the healing and the victories.
When a man of God is anointed to heal the sick, he immediately goes into satanic conflict, tests and trials; everything is opened up against him. Why? Because he becomes a dedicated man, God knows He can trust the whole conflict to come against him, so that man will rise up and show the defeat over Satan in his own life for the glory of God. Everywhere he goes he will be applying the victory of Jesus Christ over demonic powers, healing the sick and delivering from sin. Isn’t this a tremendous truth?
You have one revelation from God of what He has anointed and set you apart to be, and by the Spirit you build in your mind the image of what God wants until you say, “I see myself in the light of faith.” Or, you can see yourself in the light of unbelief until you look upon your weakness with self-condemnation, self-pity and self-judgment. You come to the place where you say, “I am nothing and I can’t do anything”; and in that image of unbelief that is before you, you are completely defeated.
God has consecrated and set you apart as a church, as families, as individuals, to do great and precious things in the name of the Lord. Why aren’t you doing them? The con-secretion invariably exceeds the dedication. That is why we are disturbed when we read these Gospels about discipleship, about self-denial. It disturbs us because we love the anointing; we love the grace; we love all of these things to be in our life. We are going to be a miracle church, but to be a miracle church means that our dedication to God must reach the place where everything else is laid aside, everything else is secondary.
Dedication means our hearts are surrendered and set to do the will of God. David said, “My heart is fixed, O God, on Thee” (Psalm 57:7). The fixing of your heart on God—your heart set and eager to do God’s will at any personal sacrifice, reproach, criticism, at any effort that is demanded, and at any cost: financial, physical, mental or spiritual—that’s dedication!
The end-time ministry and the army of the Lord must give the Lord Jesus Christ the full measure of devotion and dedication. They must count it a privilege to try with all of their heart and to give all that they are in the service of the Lord, even if they fall short and fail. Count it a privilege! People say, “Oh, I’m afraid I won’t make it.” Count it a privilege to be able to run the race, to be a part of it even if you fail or fall on your face, to just say, “I thank you, Lord, You’ve given me the privilege of trying, of attempting it.”
When your dedication comes up to what God has consecrated and set you aside to do, what will happen in your life? First, God will anoint and open your understanding. People dwell in confusion and uncertainties; they don’t know the will of God until they become really dedicated. Immediately, the anointing of the Lord comes and the understanding is opened to know what God wants for them. In the wake of really opening your heart and saying, “Lord, I am set to do Your will at any cost,” He immediately opens up your understanding to know exactly what He wants of you.
Do you want to know what the will of the Lord is? The book of Romans tells us, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God. Be not conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you can prove what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:1, 2). Your understanding is opened in the wake of dedication. The dedication, the living sacrifice precedes it, and then comes the full understanding of God’s good and acceptable and perfect will. You prove what is that perfect will of God. When a man is willing to do the will of the Lord, immediately God shows him.
Second, God orders your life and circumstances so as to make your appropriation of Him easy and to make it imperative. If you say “Lord, I’m dedicated to move mountains,” He will put a mountain on top of you which you will have to move. No question about it; necessity is the mother of appropriation in this walk! Whenever you have to, you draw on God, you do it. You can see why God puts you in the place where you have to draw. God orders your circumstances so that appropriation becomes easy; not only easy, it becomes imperative!
God first works in you to will, then He works in you to do of His good pleasure; He works in your heart and you are willing, you are dedicated to it. He has already anointed you to do it. Then He puts you in a place where, in your conscious mind, there are limitations. The potentiality of the limitation spiritually is way beyond: “All things are possible to him that believeth” (Mark 9:26). Why then aren’t you walking in that? Because in your mind there are barriers that have to be broken down so that you can accept that all things are possible to them that believe.
You are consecrated and anointed to do great things, but you won’t do great things because your very mind will war against it. Nevertheless, if you reach the place where you are dedicated and you are willing at any cost to do the will of God, then He puts you in a place where the squeeze play literally begins and you have to appropriate great and mighty things to do the will of the Lord.
What do you think happened to the children of Israel when they obeyed the Lord? Logic would tell you that when God got them out of Egypt with the Passover miracle, their troubles were over. Their troubles were just starting! They had problems! Here they stood, with the Egyptian armies coming up to annihilate them and with the Red Sea before them. What were they to do? They did what God told them to do and He worked the deliverance. God is always ordering circumstances that drive you into Himself. Out of your understanding into His boundless, limitless grace, just stand and appropriate God.
After they crossed the Red Sea, what did they do? In a few days they met the Amalekites. Was it easy to beat them? No, not unless Moses held his arms up all day and they kept praying and believing God. Appropriation! Then they murmured, No water, no water!” Believe God! The waters were opened up. Believe God! “We’re hungry!” Then came the manna. You see, it is a daily appropriation! God drives you to that place where you have to trust Him.
You get to the place where you say, “After awhile when I become more spiritual, my life will become easier and I’ll get to the place where I can sail along.” The more spiritual you become, the more daily hazards and problems God will set before you. Why? Because He wants you to keep going. He brings you to a place where you bring forth fruit and then He purges you, He prunes you, so that you bring forth more fruit. Keep on working! After awhile you will be ladened with the fruit that God wants you to have.
Third, God chastens and disciplines for even greater appropriation. He deals with you almost harshly, so your appropriation will be even greater and you will be partakers of His holiness (Hebrews 12:10). Oh, to have the humility to rejoice in the chastening of the Lord.
Fourth, God orders the pressures and responsibilities to enlarge the capacity. My capacity for God is enlarged every time God puts pressure upon me. I squeal and howl under pressures and responsibilities and I move right up into God immediately. There isn’t any other process. The failure to accept the pressure of God causes many people to lose out to what God is doing for them.
Every time you become really dedicated, there are certain hindrances and oppositions that come against you. Now let’s define these hindrances and oppositions. In this category we would include circumstances. We would include various situations in your own home life as well as church life: the demonic assault and warfare that can become so subtle and deadly. We would include physical infirmities and psychological factors such as fear, withdrawal and insensitivity, various things that come in your mind, Satan coming against you to defeat you. All of these are hindrances and oppositions.
Why is God allowing this endtime army of the Lord to battle such satanic assault, such circumstances and hindrances? Why does God tell us to do something, and it doesn’t get done? It is being allowed for a purpose. We must understand why God allows the hindrances and the opposition and the circumstances to come against us as He does. Here are four reasons why they are allowed.
One: They are allowed to deepen and strengthen our dedication where it is weak. God does not allow the enemy to come against you except at your weak point. You say, “It will destroy me!” No, it will make you strong in that weak point.
Two: These things are allowed to press us on to a greater appropriation of His grace. It is the isometric principle. An isometric exercise is the best way without effort, without tearing yourself down, to increase in muscle and strength. It is called motionless exercise. Full strength exerted once a day on a certain muscle, tensed to the maximum for a period of seven seconds, will result in that muscle being activated in a way that it will grow in strength and size. No workout will equal it.
That’s what God does. He puts you in a place where you can’t move so you just push against it with real faith. The force is irresistible, but after a while you will move it, because day by day you come against it with faith. When a situation doesn’t move, your appropriation of God will become greater and greater until one day you will blow the lid off and be free. You may say, “Well, I’ve struggled against this thing—God let me walk into a circumstance, into hindrances, into demonic assault—I’ve been going against that thing day after day, for a year, for two years; I don’t know how to overcome it!” Have faith. Believe God. Keep pushing and then you’ll just throw that thing into the sea.
Faith grows, not by the prayers that are answered, but by the prayers that are delayed. If you want to develop faith in a person, give him a promise from God, then take a rain check on it for six months and watch him grow while he’s struggling with it. How is he going to get that first new appropriation of faith? He will get it by coming to grips with it. Resistance of the enemy is designed; it is allowed for that purpose.
Three: Hindrances and opposition are allowed, to force us into a greater appropriation of His authority. That has to be understood because it brings a corresponding lesser reliance upon ourselves. Doing the will of God is more than just appropriation of faith; there is real authority there. Have you sensed that?
Where ministry is really involved there is authority. When someone prays with faith, the authority is felt. Whose authority is it? It is the authority of Christ, the living authority that Christ works within an individual. The authority does not come except where there is real opposition in your life, the kind of opposition which brings you to the place where you abandon reliance upon yourself. Self-reliance is thrown out, but you have to move on some basis. What is it? You are not relying on yourself; you rely on His authority and His authority becomes active within you. That is a process that is at work only because God puts hindrances and opposition in your way.
A person will start in a ministry of intercession. Either it works or it doesn’t work. Listen to a person pray and take hold of God. When you hear some of the intercessors crying out to God, do you suddenly realize that the authority of the Lord is there? Why? It grows because they come up in intercession crying out, travailing, many times against things that do not yield right away. God allows the resistance, the hindrances, the opposition, so He can develop authority within them to believe Him for great things.
Four: Hindrances and opposition are allowed so that we may manifest Christ’s victory over the demonic and satanic forces. It is a dual victory: victory over sin and sickness, and victory over demonic forces so that God is glorified in it.
Again, why are we hamstrung by the hindrances and oppositions that come against us? Because our dedication is deficient. When the dedication measures up to the consecration, we are going to have the victory.
To be dedicated involves: Fix—Start—Evaluate—Channel. If you want to be dedicated so that God’s perfect will is wrought in your life, this is what dedication really means.
FIX. Dedication means the will must be set to overcome every demonic activity and the heart fixed in submission to God, to the Lord, and to do His will. You can’t be a disciple today because things happen tomorrow. You don’t know whether you’ll be a disciple or not. You must fix your heart. It’s that fixing of the heart, setting it on God, that is so important. That’s the first thing in dedication: a heart fixed to do the will of the Lord.
START. When you know the course of God’s will, start to do it. If you don’t take a step, you’ll never get there. Dedication is not an elusive thing: “Next week I’m going to start doing the will of God.” Dedication starts today, in the course of His will, and takes a step.
What does God want you to do? You say, “God has called me to minister His Word to the sick and the afflicted.” What are you doing about it today? “Well, I’m waiting for the anointing to come.” It won’t work. You start seeking God today and begin to live in the Word and pray. In the Spirit take every step you know toward that thing. Start now, not tomorrow, not next week. Make your start in God; every day do something. Every day pray specifically about what you know to be the perfect will of God for your life and keep working at it.
EVALUATE. When you know your present activity is not the perfect will of God and you are ready for the more perfect will of God, then drop what you are doing and do what you should. The perfect will of God doesn’t unfold to people because many insist on doing the thing that is not the perfect will of God. Now, how can we explain this? The perfect will of God for you yesterday may not be the perfect will of God for you today. This is an evaluation.
God’s perfect will unfolds to those who are continually sacrificing good service for the better. What makes a musician develop in his playing? He is constantly trying to play more complicated pieces better, and to develop facility and harmony to it. What was good yesterday does not satisfy today; he wants to be better tomorrow.
What makes a believer right? His prophecies of yesterday were good, but he is ready to abandon every good thing he has moved in, if he can prophesy on a higher plane tomorrow. He is ready to go through any dealing of God to get it. He is ready to study, to pray, to apply himself, or get any kind of ministry in order to bring himself up to that higher plane.
Consider a restaurant. It may have very nice quarters, and have a good business. In fact, the booths may be filled and people say, “My, that’s a popular restaurant.” Then what do they do? They remodel the place, tear it to pieces. Why? Because what was good yesterday can be abandoned; something better is coming tomorrow. Business does that all the time; Christians don’t. “Well, Hallelujah! Things are going pretty good. Praise the Lord for it.” They sit down, and take it easy.
The key is to evaluate. When you know that your present activity is not His perfect will and you are ready for a more perfect expression of God’s will in your life, drop what you are doing and move into it. You must be ready for frequent overhaul jobs. When God overhauls you He doesn’t leave anything there. You just have to move in by faith to a new place in God. You go through a molting season and you lose all your feathers; then you come up stronger than ever before. Evaluation is important. You must continually see there is something bigger. To be comfortable, happy, and reasonably successful in walking along with the Lord is not enough. God says, “I have something else for you.” It doesn’t matter whether you like it or not. You have a responsibility to walk as effectively for the Lord as you can.
What do you do to get there? Let God literally tear you apart, remodel you, get you ready for something that is coming. I have noticed that people with whom I come in contact in a business way are drawn, and they begin to smile and talk to me beyond what is necessary and they don’t know why. I have wondered about it, and I know what has happened. The Lord put on the pressure and beat me down for one thing: there was too much of me. Now there’s less of me and more of the Lord, and that radiance of the Lord is drawing people. It isn’t personality, because when the Lord stomps on you long enough, you can’t even smile straight; He is bringing you into place. The sons of God that are going to come forth are to draw men into the Kingdom, like huge magnets of the Lord. The Lord’s very grace and power is set up to bring people in. You evaluate until you can say, “His perfect will be done in my life.” That is what dedication means.
CHANNEL. The entire person, with all the resources-physical, mental, spiritual, or financial—must be channeled to the fulfillment of God’s will. That is very important. People are giving the Lord only a portion of their minds, intentions and efforts. They aren’t giving God all. There must be a channeling of everything that you are into the course of God’s will. If you want it enough to give enough of yourself to it, God will see that you come into it.
To help test your dedication, here are seven questions to ask yourself. I coined some new words that aren’t even in Webster’s dictionary, and probably won’t be for another generation or two.
One: are you a “seek-firster” or are you a doer of secondary things? Do you know what a “seek-firster” is? A “seek-firster” is someone who is determined to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness” and he is not doing secondary things, but is loosing himself for the primary things.
Two: are you a “staller” or a “starter”? A staller is always stalling around. God says what He wants in your life. Do you then stall around each day, and soon find the day has gone while you’ve been doing other things? You didn’t get at that praying, that worship, or that rejoicing in the Lord. What you should do is throw aside the things that are nothing more than an excuse. You’re stalling. Start in the will of God. Is there some visitation, some calling, some phone calls to visitors that you should be making? Is there something you can do for the church that you’re not doing? Look to God and when you are aware of a burden on your heart, even if it’s a disagreeable things, do it. Don’t stall. Start at it.
Three: are you a “time waster” or “redeemer”? This is the grandchild of number two, “staller or starter.” Time is most peculiar; when you have a job to do, that job will expand itself to fill all the time available, or you can cut it to a very small allotment of time. That is the way you redeem time. Suppose the Lord has laid it upon your heart to write a letter and there are two or three hours in which to do it. It could take three hours, or, you could write it in ten minutes. Are you a time waster or a time redeemer?
Four: are you an “aggressor” or a “withdrawer”? A withdrawer is a person with especially thin skin, almost transparent. At the first slight, the first little imagined thing, that person is crushed; that’s the end of them. Are you so thin-skinned that you become sensitive whenever you think somebody does not appreciate you? Do you withdraw at the least little sign of someone not thoroughly appreciating you?
Five: are you a “worrier” or a “committer”? I’m wondering how much energy is dissipated by people who worry and are anxious over problems, rather than really committing them to the Lord, trusting God, and doing His perfect will.
Six: are you a “holdbacker” or a “wholehearter”?
Seven: are you an “excuser” or an “attempter”? Anyone can make an excuse: “I can’t do it. I’m not worthy. Somebody else should do this. They can do it better than I can.” Suppose the Lord lays it on your heart. Do you make excuses or do you attempt to do it? Do great things for the Lord because you believe that God has called you to do them, and set about to do them.
The people who are going to live aggressively for God are the Caleb and Joshua type. The bigger the giants, the harder they fall when they hit the ground. They have the force of gravity working against them; they fall farther. It’s the same with those high walls; they’re going to come down. When you come to the place where you attempt a thing in faith, you say, “This is the will of God,” and the only way to do it is to follow this entire process; you reach the place where you are dedicated to do it.
It’s one thing to say, “I’m set to do the will of God at any cost”; it’s another thing to meet that cost—He works you up to it. He puts the squeeze on you and you appropriate a little more from the Lord. That’s one rung of the ladder. Just as you are settling down He puts the squeeze on you again. Wonderful things He sets before you—trials, tribulation, circumstances—and up another rung you go. You have to move up a little higher because the devil is nipping at your heels. The first thing you know, you are up there in the heavenly places. How did you do it? You don’t dare to take any glory because God constrained you. God put the pressure on you. He chastened, He disciplined, He pressured, until there you were dedicated to do the perfect will of the Lord.