CONSECRATION

1.) CONSECRATE YOURSELF AND BE READY FOR TOMORROW.
-Consecrate means "pagtatalaga ng buhay".Itodo mo na kay LORD!
Consecrating yourself to something (or someone) can determine your success.
Lance Armstrong, a world record holder who is battling with cancer, teaches us about "CONSECRATION". His doctors tried to stop him from cycling because of his worsening conditions but he never listened to their advices. He was so consecrated to his cycling career and to get that ever coveted gold medal. When he already got 8 medals, that is the only time he stopped competing. When asked why, he said: "I stop because I am fully aware that I got it."
Lance Armstrong was a successful athlete because he consecrated his entire life in his cycling career. If a man like Lance was successful because he consecrated his life in sports, how much more if one consecrates his/her life to GOD?
You and me must consider ourselves as GOD's best weapon and SATAN's worst nightmare!
Start consecrating yourself to the Lord and start becoming a threat to the Devil!
Consecration prepares you for the battle ahead!

2.) CONSECRATING YOURSELF TO THE LORD PRODUCES AMAZING THINGS I YOUR LIFE.
In the bible, Joshua reminds us of consecrating ourselves to the Lord.

joshua 3:5 (New International Version)
5 Joshua told the people, "Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the LORD will do amazing things among you."

Consecrate your self to new pattern and these new patterns will result to a new life!
CONSECRATION ENDS OUR WAITING TIME.
"es tu turno"
it is your turn!
The waiting is over!

3.) CONSECTATION MAKES GOD BEGIN SOMETHING NEW IN YOUR LIFE.
Consecration means "dying to self."
The day that we die is the day that we live.
In order for God to begin something new in our lives, we must first bury our old selves and consecrate our new lives fully to Him.

4.) CONSECRATION BRINGS EXALTATION
JOSHUA 3:7

7 And the LORD said to Joshua, "Today I will begin to exalt you in the eyes of all Israel, so they may know that I am with you as I was with Moses. 8 Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: 'When you reach the edge of the Jordan's waters, go and stand in the river.'

We should convince God to exalt us and we can only do this if we consecrate ourselves fully to Him. Through this, others will desire what we have. Thus, we should be obvious that we are CHRIST's DISCIPLE!
Certainly, we must give God a reason to bless us!
We must consecrate ourselves to HIM!
and HIM alone..

- excerpts from Pastor Oriel's CONSECRATION last SUNOG MINDANAO 2

INtimacy

James 4:8
8Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

Are we for INTIMACY of for MINISTRY?
Sometimes, we put so much focus on the ministry God has left us that we set aside the most important bulk of our lives: our intimate relatioship with the Lord.
God wants us to draw close to Him. He invites us, everyday, to spend time with Him.

How do we draw close to GOD?
We chould come out from among them and He promised us that He shall be our GOD and we shall be His people.

2 Corinthians 6:14 (New International Version)
Do Not Be Yoked With Unbelievers
14Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness?

There are two relationships you can choose to establish with God.

1.) People-GOD relationship (God is our God)
In this type of relationship, we consider God as our God and we are His people. This usually happens when we do more of ministry than being intimate with Him. We lose that "closeness" we have with our God. We consider Him as a being that is distant from us.

or we can have...

2.) SON-FAther relationship (God is our Father)
God wants us to have this type of relationship with him. The CROSS reminds us that God wants you and me to be His children. He let HIS only begotten SON shed His blood for us - a living proof that God wants us close in His heart.

The parable of the Ten virgins tells us one important thing: OIL is the product of Our Intimacy.

Matthew 25 (New International Version)
The Parable of the Ten Virgins
1"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. 2Five of them were foolish and five were wise. 3The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. 4The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. 5The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
6"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
7"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. 8The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'
9" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'
10"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.
11"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'
12"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'
13"Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

As you can see in the parable, there are five virgins who were foolish enough not to bring enough "OIL" for the waiting period that at the time when the master came, they ran out of oil and bought some more for themselves. In effect, they missed their master. These are the people who thought more of ministry rather than intimacy.

On the other hand, the five virgins are wise enough to bring extra "OIL" so that the oil lasted until the master came.

Sometimes, we want to do more but what we do not recognize is that GOD wants us to stay still and spend time with Him.

ITIMACY VS SIN
What Intimacy means?
INTIMACY..
meas being close to somebody else...
friendship bound together...
abscence of limits and walls...
Don't you wanna be intimate with the LORD?

SIN...
is the enemy of intimacy.
Our impure desires, our lustful thoughts, the very sins that we commit..
these hinder our intimate relationship with the Lord

Do you know what is the saddest day for God?
...
It was the day when man cut off that personal and intimate relationship when they ate the forbidden fruit..
It was on this day when God took man out of the garden and drove Him out...
The day when God could no longer walk side by side with man..

and do you know what is the happiest day for HIM?
...
It was when Jesus was nailed on the cross.
It was at this time when the curtain between the Holy place and the Holy of Holies was torn.
This curtain represented SEPARATION
But when Jesus was nailed on the cross, this veil has been broken and That made God very happy because we are once again reunited with HIM.

Exodus 33:11 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
11 The LORD would speak to Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend. Then Moses would return to the camp, but his young aide Joshua son of Nun did not leave the tent.

Exodus 33:11 tells us of JOSHUA, a man having the heart of INTIMACY.
Everything that we do is determined by our level of intimacy for the Lord!
Do not forget that the veil represented separationand PRIVACY.
God doesn't want PRIVACY!
God wants INTIMACY!

Revelation 2:2-5 (New International Version)
2I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. 3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

Revelation 2:2-5 reminds us that God never says ENOUGH of us, WE ARE THE ONES THAT GIVE UP!


Let us be inspired with the life of SMITH WIGGLESWORTH, he lived a prayerful life.
And let us ask ourselves..How much time do we spend with GOD?

We have to begin with the presence of God.
The book of Revelation reminds us that we should:
1.) Remember where we have fallen
- Remember what it is to be intimate with God and what it felt like when you feel God's presence consuming you.
2.) Rependt, Return, Go back and Change
- Stop. Relfect. Turn and come back to YOUR FIRST LOVE.Just fall in love with Jesus.
In JOhn 10:39, He reminded us that we should go back to that time when we first knew Him and accepted Him as our personal LORD and SAVIOR. Go back to that point of reference in your life!
3.) Begin to do the first works.
- Remember that some fall down because they stop doing the things
that brought them to SUCCESS
Don't worry, for Intimacy will create doors for ministry. But while doing ministry,we must be aware that we CANNOT CONTAIN NATURAL THINGS WITH THE SUPERNATURAL.
In 2 Cor 2: 9-12, HE promised us that the things we have not see are the things that God has prepared for those that love Him.

Ephesians 2:14 (New International Version)
14For he himself is our peace, who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,

God broke down the wall of separation.
It the door is open, the veil has been broken..
then why are you atill outside?
He has been waiting for you. What took you so long?

God is calling us for intimacy!
and Devotional time is the key..
Climb up that mountain with the Lord everyday...everyday!!!

-excerpts on my notes last SUNOG MINDANAO 2 on Pastor JOhnny Touzet's lecture on INTIMACY

The New Nature

Genesis 1:26 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)

Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society
[NIV at IBS] [International Bible Society] [NIV at Zondervan] [Zondervan]

26 Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, [a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground."

You and I resemble the Lord.
We are perfect because God made us in His own image and likeness.
When God made you, He broke the mold so that you'll be one of a kind.
One of a kind. Not anyone of us resembles somebody else because we are one of a kind.

Ephesians 1:6 (New King James Version)
New King James Version (NKJV)

Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
[NKJV at Thomas Nelson] [Thomas Nelson, Inc.]

6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.

In Ephesians 1:6, The Lord said that He accepted you just as you are.
So you should accept yourself and love yourself the way that you are because God made you PERFECTLY the way that you are.

If somebody rejects you for being imperfect,
it does not matter because he is also imperfect.
What matters most is that how God sees us because He is the PERFECT BEING.

the truth here is, YOU and I are perfect. Its just that we do things imperfectly but at the end of it all, it does not really matter because God sees us perfectly!

Before we recognize our new nature in Christ, we should first determine where do we belong in these group of people...

1.) people who let things pass by
2.) people who does things
3.) people who make things happen

The following are the characteristics of each group:
1.) people who let things pass by - are the people who are passive. They are the ones who die at 20 and get buried at 80. They do nothing active in their lives and they just wait for opportunity after opportunity to pass them by. They give themselves by parts and not the entirety of themselves.

2.) people who does things - are the people who does SOMETHING and fulfill SOMETHING and achieve SOMETHING. They do things because they have to do things. They dont go the extra mile and strive hard to do, fulfill and achieve things they dreamed of.

3.) people who make things happen - are those people that triumph the most. They want more, desire more, do more that is why they receive more. They make things happen and they change the course of history!

(kindly refer to Genesis 32 for Jacob's story)

Jacob was a man who had problems with his characters. As you can observe, He had these said problems because He did not worked on his character.Jacob forgot that He was made in God's nature during the first part of the story. He gave only parts of himself to Jesus.
Most of the time, we are like Jacob, we give God only portions of our lives but not our entire being. We must remember to give Jesus our all because He gave His life entirely for us when He died on the cross.

There came a time when Jacob wanted to change his nature and just like Jacob there is also a time when we will feel the urge to change for the better..from natural to supernatural...from ordinary to extraordinary...
If we want to change, all we have to do is to come to Jesus and get a new nature with Jesus.
Live a victorious life!
That's what Jesus wants for your life!

Mark 10:46-52
Blind Bartimaeus Receives His Sight
46Then they came to Jericho. As Jesus and his disciples, together with a large crowd, were leaving the city, a blind man, Bartimaeus (that is, the Son of Timaeus), was sitting by the roadside begging. 47When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to shout, "Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!"48Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, "Son of David, have mercy on me!"49Jesus stopped and said, "Call him." So they called to the blind man, "Cheer up! On your feet! He's calling you." 50Throwing his cloak aside, he jumped to his feet and came to Jesus.51"What do you want me to do for you?" Jesus asked him. The blind man said, "Rabbi, I want to see." 52"Go," said Jesus, "your faith has healed you." Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road.

Like Bartimaeus, now is our opportunity to be noticed!

"Today is my day...to be transformed! I wanna be healed!
NO WAY TO ANOTHER DAY!
We'll CHANGE the HISTORY of our NATION..
But I must change ME first."

To have that new nature, we need CONVICTION more than EMOTION.
Just like Jacob, we need to observant of the following:

1.) Spend time alone with God

Genesis 32:24 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
24 So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak.

*It is good to be with friends and families when we worship the Lord but we need to be alone with God for us to be transformed.
We need to climb to the mountain of God every single day! Devotional life should be done eveyday! Every single day is non-negotiable.
We should be tired of that same weakness, of that same habit, of the same things that keeps us from being victorious and the thing that keeps us from being with the Lord.
God wants us to have RADICAL and VIOLENT HOLINESS just as Jeremiah(chapter 13) talks about radical change and John(chapter 2) talks about violent holiness.
Jacob's dislocated hipbone is a mark of holiness. All his life, he needed to use a cane for him to walk properly. And this cane reminds him, every single day, of that time when he had been broken before the Lord.

Just like Jacob, we must remember of the time that we have been broken before the Lord so that when the climb gets uphill, or when we don't understand that is happening around us, or when we despise life...WE WILL REMEMBER OF THOSE TIME WHEN WE WERE BROKEN BEFORE THE LORD!WE WILL THINK OF THAT "DISLOCATED BONE", OF THAT "CANE" AND THIS WILL REMIND US THAT WE HAVE ONCE ENCOUNTERED THE LORD, OUR GOD!

2.) Be Persevering
G

enesis 32:26 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
26 Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."

"PERSEVERANCE is not doing things PERFECTLY
rather is is doing things CONSISTENTLY."

*When we are sincere, God hears us. Just like Jacob who persevered and even battled with the God's angel.

3. Start seeing yourself the way God sees you.

Genesis 32:28 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
28 Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, [a] because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."

"Don't look at yourself the way you are
but look on the things that you can do.
Do not look at the battles you live
but with the way how you can win them."

*Start seeing things the way God sees them because GOD will mark a difference in YOU!

Genesis 32:30 (New International Version)
New International Version (NIV)
30 So Jacob called the place Peniel, [a] saying, "It is because I saw God face to face, and yet my life was spared."

* Things will change in our character. Our fears, doubts, lack of purpose, God will remove all of them.Just always pray to God with an involved HEART.

Change you nature!
Because when you change, everything changes...
Because when you change, God puts everything into your favor!

-excerpts from my personal notes on Pastor Ricardo Santiago's talk about "NEW NATURE" in the event of SUNOG MINDANAO 2 held at CAP AUDITORIUM, DAVAO CITY