In the bible, consecration is revealed as the setting apart of an individual, an artifact, or anything at the LORD’s request or command. Setting apart means to separate something and make it special or distinct. It can also mean being distant or separated from the crowd. When God commands that a person be set apart for him, it means he has a special assignment for them. Therefore, he will require the individual to operate with a different mindset from that which is common among men and to be unique in values, conduct, and deeds. Not all men enjoy the privilege of receiving assignments from God hence the one who has been set apart for a specific assignment should know that he will journey on a road not common to the ordinary man. Anybody who is destined to journey on a road less traveled must be prepared to be different from the average person. 

The concept of “setting apart for special use” is present in the everyday life of the average person. For example, people often reserve nice, costly, or flamboyant clothes for special occasions. These clothes could hang in the wardrobe for days, months, or even years until there is a special occasion that befits the wearing of such clothes. This very much typifies how God sets people apart for special use. He first chooses them, then separates them from the lot and prepares them, often behind the scenes, to be used for special assignments. It is one of God’s observable ways of dealing with his children both in the Old and New Testaments of the bible as shown below:

In the first verse, God commands Moses to separate or set apart the entire tribe of Levi from among the people of Israel for the LORD. Before God made this statement, he instructed Moses to perform some purification rituals to cleanse the Levites. God, after he struck down the firstborns of the Egyptians, consecrated for himself all the firstborns of Israel. In effect, every firstborn Israelite belonged to the LORD. But on the occasion of commanding the consecration of the Levites, God replaced the firstborns of Israel with the tribe of Levi (v 18). The Levites, on this day, were set apart from their brethren, to belong to the LORD and to perform the special assignment of doing “the service for the people of Israel, at the tent of meeting…”. From that day forward, the Levites were tasked to take care of the tent of meeting and also to make atonement for the people of Israel that there may be no plague among them (v. 19). In this story we can see the theme of “setting apart for special use” clearly illustrated. 

In the second verse, we see Paul and Barnabas being set apart for a special assignment. According to the story, there was a group of Teachers and Prophets who were fasting and worshipping God in the church at Antioch. While doing this, the Holy Spirit instructed them to separate Paul and Barnabas for the work which he had called them to do. This is quite similar to the instruction given to Moses about the Levites. In this case, the special “ritual” that was done afterward was the laying of the brethren’s hands on Saul and Barnabas, after which they were sent off to go and execute the task the Lord intended for them to do. Right after this, they went to Cyprus to preach the word of God and perform miracles. 

In the anchor verse for this article (Exodus 19:23), we are made to understand that in consecration, boundaries are set around the consecrated thing and little or no access is given to it. I will explain. God scheduled a meeting with the children of Israel. As you would know, the characteristics of all physical meetings include the venue, date, time, and the individuals involved. In this case, the venue was the camp of Israel, the date was three days after the meeting was scheduled, and the attendees were God and the entire congregation of Israel. God, being the “chairperson” of this meeting told Moses that he would “…come down on Mount Sinai”. This means that during this meeting, God would be “seated” or “stationed” on Mount Sinai. God is holy, hence, anywhere he dwells must be treated as such. “Anywhere” here includes the hearts of men. He gave Moses clear instructions as to how his “seat”, Mount Sinai, should be treated during the meeting. God expected his “seat” to be consecrated and the attendees of the meeting to be consecrated as well. He commanded Moses to consecrate the children of Israel for two days by washing their garments (v 10) and by staying away from sex (v.15). About the mountain, he said in Exodus 19:12:

And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.

One interesting fact about this instruction is that even animals would be put to death if they touched the mountain. Having direct access to the mountain was such a grievous act that the person or animal that did it would not be touched but stoned to death. 

In verses 21 and 22, the LORD elaborates on this instruction by telling Moses to warn the people not to penetrate the limits Moses had set around the mountain. He also instructed the priests to consecrate themselves before they came near the mountain lest the LORD breaks out against them. In this passage, we understand that the mountain had been consecrated unto the LORD therefore he permitted little or no access to it. Why? Because he was going to be stationed on Mount Sinai. It is very important that as a consecrated individual you set boundaries around you. Not everybody should have access to you nor should you be influenced by any thought, philosophy, idea, or way of life. You must learn to set boundaries around you. Imagine how Samson’s life would have turned out if he had a strong principle against going near Philistine women or allowing them to have access to him. Who or what has access to you is very important in your consecration. The following are a few thoughts I noted down on this sub-theme:

• Access is very important in consecration. The level of access that people have to you and the level of influence and control material things and worldly ideas have over you has a bearing on how well you will keep the terms of your consecration. 
• There must be a cap on who and what has access to you when you are consecrated. Everybody should not have access to your time and everything shouldn’t have your attention. Especially when it comes to people or things that can have a negative influence on your life. 
• You must set boundaries all around you for this purpose. Implement strict measures to keep things out and be intentional about who and what gets in. 
• Boundaries are set to keep things within a specific area and/or to keep things from entering that area. Setting boundaries around you as a consecrated person means you are consciously taking steps to prevent yourself from indulging in unholy activities and from overindulging in the mundane. It also signifies that you will be content to indulge in that which God has sanctioned for you personally.
• Your heart could morph into a wild beast if not put on a leash. For the sake of the occupant of your heart, learn to set boundaries around his place of abode. Be strict about it and don’t compromise your standards. 

In conclusion, as a person who is undergoing consecration, you must learn to keep the terms of your consecration. Carry yourself with dignity and respect. Just as Moses treated Mount Sinai, do the same with yourself. For the Holy Spirit of God is domiciled in you (1 Corinthians 3:16). Walk in this consciousness and do not indulge in unholy things and overindulge in the mundane. Set boundaries all around you. Not everybody is supposed to have access to you nor are you supposed to be influenced by any and every person. You are the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, act like it.

Feature image: @frankfmx on IG

Many people believe that there is an inherent evil dwelling in the heart of all men. Christians would like to call it “The Original Sin”: the sinful nature we inherited from Adam. By this, we were sinners before we could even speak. One man’s sin, brought a curse unto all of creation. One doesn’t have to comb through a pile of newspapers to find a story on a heinous crime perpetrated by the most unassuming person. There is bad news everywhere. In the midst of it all, the bible calls Christians Holy People. It is more than a tag; It isn’t like a honorary doctorate degree either. For an honorary doctorate degree is given to someone in recognition of his excellence in a particular field. The Sainthood of the New Testament believer is a mystery that can only be described in one word, Grace.

Before we proceed, I would like to lay the foundation of this truth: we are holy by being Christians. Our holiness was not achieved by anything we did, but purely by our faith in Jesus Christ – especially in his finished work on the Cross. Therefore, when a person becomes a Christian, apart from his conduct, there is no physical evidence of his newly found faith. All the difference and tremendous transformation take place in the spirit. Hence, it is referred to as being born again. Literally that is what happens. Heaven discards all past records of the said individual and so he doesn’t have a past. The bible says, *Eph 4:24 KJV* And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness”. The new man that you become (spiritually) after accepting Christ has righteousness and holiness preinstalled in him. It is just like upgrading the operating system on your computer – same device but new operating system. In Christ, you remain the same physically but there is a total transformation on the inside of you.

What next? You are holy, so what? Does it mean you must fold your arms and go to sleep? Well, not so at all. This is where the Mirror Effect comes in. In the bible, both God and his Word are referred to as mirrors. The interesting thing here is, only God and his word can change the condition of the heart of a man. David said “thy word have I hidden in my heart that I might not sin against you”. James admonished us to be doers of the word and not just hearers, for any man who hears the word and doesn’t practise it is like a man who stares intently at his image in the MIRROR, walks away and forgets what he looks like. Interesting analogy there. It means, the definition of ourselves we are privy to in the Word of God should of a necessity be visible on us in our conduct. God has made you holy and righteous not to amuse himself but so that it will reflect in your works. Remember, God calls the things that be not as though they were… and they become. It is also said that we are God’s workmanship (inventions), created unto good works. God wanted to invent a ‘device’ that is holy and righteous… so he created you. He created you and called you holy so that you can be holy. In Christianity, we don’t work to get rewarded, we work because we are rewarded. It is in reverse. We don’t do holy deeds to attain holiness, we are first holy so we can do holy deeds. It is very easy to act out your nature than to act outside your nature to attain a certain status. That is the stress in the Old Testament. They were sinners who were trying to attain holiness by following a bunch of rules hoping their deeds would be pleasing to God enough. That is stress!

Christians sin. Yes we sin. If God is holy and never sins, and we are also as Holy as Christ is, then why do we sin? The walk with God is really a matter of who we are and not merely what we do. It is a matter of which camp you belong to and not just actions. That is why no matter the good deeds of Cornelius, God still required him to be saved, hence he sent Peter to preach to him. This doesn’t mean our deeds mean nothing, just walk with me and we will arrive at the truth together. I would like to outline a few things first:

Our holiness is service to God

God has made us holy and expects us to present ourselves to him holy and acceptable. Just like the parable of the Talents, the master will one day come and ask what we did with what He gave us graciously. Therefore scripture says:

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, HOLY, acceptable unto God, which is your REASONABLE SERVICE. Romans 12:1

Perfecting Holiness

Perfection is not acquisition. You can only perfect that which you already have. So the bible says, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, PERFECTING HOLINESS in the fear of God (2 Cor7:1)”. It only means we are holy already but need to perfect it. Back to the operating system analogy, when you are more comfortable using Windows XP on your computer, upgrading to Windows 10 is a huge difference. Therefore, though you may have a new operating system there is the need to perfect how to use it. You may still want to do things the Windows-XP way and get stuck or realize it isn’t the way things are done on the new operating system. This is what happens with Christians and our holiness. We were once sinners, but we were transformed instantly when we accepted Christ. Therefore, we need to perfect this new life we have received. The verse above says, it can be done only in the fear of God. So hear me loud and clear, when a Christian sins, he is betraying his nature. A Christian betrays who he is when he sins. That is why 1 John 3:9 says, Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.

How do we perfect holiness?

I am not preaching the law here. I am not saying there are a bunch of things we need to do to attain holiness. We are holy; we do holy deeds because we are. The flesh is in a constant battle with the spirit. The spirit wants to please God, the flesh doesn’t. This is why we need to perfect the act of making the spirit win everytime. In 2 Corinthians 3:18, it says  But we all, with open face beholding as in a MIRROR the glory of the Lord, ARE CHANGED INTO THE SAME IMAGE, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. Once again, we see the Mirror Effect here. Basically, we are glorious beings. But when we keep our eyes on God, we will be transformed from glory to glory… from our level of glory to his level. This is what it takes to perfect holiness: keeping your eyes on God. It sounds like an easy task but really, it is a lot more than gazing at an image. It involves praying, reading the word, fasting etc. consistently. These are all deeds that stimulate the spirit in you to win the battle against the flesh.

You may be wondering what relationship holiness has with glory because of the verse I quoted above. Well, the truth is, holiness has a very strong relationship with glory. Glory is the visibility of holiness. Isaiah 6:3 says And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory. In Isaiah’s visions, the Seraphim called God “holy” and said that the whole earth is full of his holiness? No! They called him holy and proclaimed that the whole earth is full of his GLORY.

Holiness is the highest level of intolerance for sin. Most people think the bible referring to us as holy and the righteousness of God means we should fold our arms and go to sleep. Indeed it is a status conferred on us by grace, but it is a duty too. We are the righteousness of God. Meaning, when the world is looking for a righteous God, God won’t have to come down again to show himself, we are his righteousness so we need to show up on the scene. To me, this is a responsibility and not merely a title. Only Grace can empower us to do this perfectly. Grace got us here, Grace will keep us. Therefore, be ye holy because the LORD your God is holy and He has made you Holy.