When Jesus was on His knees surrendering to God’s will in the Garden of Gethsemane, He urged the disciples who were with Him to follow His example. He told them the prayer of consecration was the key to overcoming the trial that lay ahead. “Your spirit wants to do what’s right,” He warned, “but your flesh is weak!”
That’s often the way it is when it comes to surrendering ourselves to God. Our hearts want to obey Him, but our flesh rebels. If we try just in our natural strength to overcome that rebellion, our fleshly weakness overcomes us and we find ourselves failing again and again. We may even get trapped in such a terrible cycle of condemnation that we give up all hope of a consecrated life.
But if we’ll pray the prayer of consecration, we can break out of that cycle. The Holy Spirit will help us do it! He will empower us to carry out our wholehearted surrender to God. He will give us the divine strength to come up to a higher spiritual plane.
So let’s practice praying the prayer of consecration more often. Let’s make it our custom every day to obey Romans 12:1 and “present our bodies a living sacrifice” unto God. As we do, we can release our faith and believe that He is sending the fire of the Holy Spirit down on our altar of prayer and receiving our sacrifice. We can believe that as we give ourselves to Him, He is receiving us and filling us more fully with Himself than ever before. We can trust that as we give ourselves to Him, He gives us the strength to overcome the weakness of our flesh and do His will.
Our Father needs us. Let’s give our all to Him.
Scripture Reading: Luke 22:39–46
Source: Devotions for the Praying Heart by Lynne Hammond.
Excerpt permission granted by Lynne Hammond Ministries
On the chilly March night in 1972 when Lynne Hammond took her first step into a life of Spirit-led prayer, she had no idea what was about to happen. All she knew was the hunger in her heart for God wouldn’t let her sleep. In the few short months she’d been born again, her desire to fellowship with Him had grown so strong she could hardly contain it. “Help me, God!” she cried. “I want to know you. I want to be able to talk to you. Please, teach me to pray!”
Suddenly, a heavenly presence flooded the room. Lynne sensed waves of spiritual fire sweeping over her and a beautiful language began to flow like a river from within her. Although she’d never heard of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, she knew instantly, without a doubt—this was God!
What began that night soon blossomed into a life of prayer that ultimately became a ministry of prayer when, in 1980, Lynne and her husband, Mac, founded Living Word Christian Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Under Lynne’s leadership, the prayer ministry at Living Word has become an internationally recognized model for developing effective pray-ers in the local church.
A teacher and an author, Lynne publishes a newsletter called Prayer Notes, has written numerous books, and currently serves as the national prayer director for Daughters for Zion. Her passion for inspiring and leading others into the life of Spirit-led prayer continues to take her around the world to minister to believers whose heart cry, like hers, is “Lord, teach me to pray!”