28 Days 2020: Day 1

Welcome to our 28 Days of Prayer and Fasting.  Our focus this year is on the harvest.  I am believing God for a great harvest of people coming to know Him as a result of the ministry of DSC.  For the next 28 days our regular SOUL Journal will be suspended and we will be doing a prayer and fasting devotional.  A couple of things I would ask...

Purpose to read the devotional each day.  Using the app on your phone you can easily access the devotional by going to SOUL Journal entries.

The other thing I would like is for you to interact.  Use the comment section to share what God is saying to you.  In order to make comments you must sign in to Disqus (it does not take very long to do so) and on your phone or computer click on the blog title in order to see the comment section at the bottom of the page.

 

Get ready for a great 28 days.

 

DAY 1: CONSECRATION

Read 2 Chronicles 29

 

Hezekiah succeeds his father Ahab to the throne.  Ahab was a wicked and idolatrous king.  He did not follow God’s commands.  Now along comes Hezekiah and his first act of rulership is to assemble the priests who have been out of commission because of his father.

I like what the sequence...

Hezekiah realizes that they have sinned and they are under a curse not God’s blessing.  He recognizes his place is not to be king and priest, but to be king.  The king sets the moral tone but the priests performs the spiritual duties.  So instead of trying to act as the priest he gathers the priests who have been inactive and speaks vision to them. This was the way that God had set it up and Hezekiah's father had disobeyed God.

Now the priests spring into action - the action was to consecrate themselves.  They did not just go into action they prepared themselves spiritually.

Hebrews tells us that God rewards those who passionately seek Him.  The consecration is the beginning of that diligently seeking Him.

Only after the priests have consecrated themselves did they go into the temple to purify it and to do what God had commanded them to do.

What does it mean to consecrate ourselves?

In a general sense, the term “consecration” refers to the act of dedicating oneself to a specific purpose or intention. To “consecrate” yourself essentially means to wholly dedicate yourself to something of greatest important.

It means to be set apart, to be holy, to show oneself holy, to treat as holy, to dedicate, to be made holy, to declare holy, to behave, to act holy, to dedicate oneself. 

It is the act of  withdrawing someone or something from profane or ordinary use. 

• The Lord set aside Aaron and his sons, consecrated them, and made them holy for the priesthood (Ex. 29:21).
• The altar was made holy, and anything coming into contact with it became holy (Ex. 29:37).
• The Tabernacle, the ark, the table of showbread, the altar of burnt offering, and all the smaller accessories and utensils used in worship in the Old Testament were anointed with a special anointing oil so they became holy. Whatever came in contact with them became holy (Ex. 30:26-29).
• The men accompanying David as his military were declared holy (1 Sam. 21:5)

So consecrated things are set apart to be holy and anything coming into contact with them was made holy.  Think about that for a moment and what are the implications for you and your life.

 

In this first week we will be looking at this understanding of consecration.  Will you take time today to ask God to give you more insight into what it may mean for you to consecrate yourself for His purposes?  Using the definitions above what are some ways you think a consecrated life would look like for you?