Set Apart: Living a Consecrated Life | Pastor Emma Mullings

set free. But can I tell you, you can get the anointing on yourself. If you just commit yourself to this prayer and this fasting, you're gonna get oily. It's the crushing that produces the oil. It's the crushing that produces the oil. You can pray for yourself. It's so good to be sharing the word with you today. I've been taking a three month break from preaching. Did you notice? I paid them to say that. Did you notice? I've still been here each week, but you know, there's so much that goes into building church and leading the church and people and loving the people and growing the people and honestly bringing the Sunday message. People say it's 10% of the job. I think it's 5% of the job because maybe it's just my job has so many other things as well. But I had to take a little break to just come and receive on a Sunday and just recalibrate a few things a man. But I'm here and God is good. And have you enjoyed all the speakers over the last three months? They've been amazing. So, so good. And our next gen takeover last week, they did so good. I was so proud of them. So good. So are you ready for the word? We are in or on day four of our 10 days of prayer and fasting as a church. And I want to encourage you, even if you haven't started yet, you can start today. You can start tomorrow. Maybe you've never been part of a corporate prayer and fasting. I want to encourage you. Just be part of it, however you can, because God is doing something significant in these 10 days. The last full day of the fast is next Saturday. So next Sunday, our friends and family Sunday, there's going to be a time in here. I want you to take notes today. I've titled today's message set apart the consecrated life. Set apart the consecrated life. And today, I want to break down for you what a consecrated life actually looks like. What it looks like to live is set apart. What does that actually mean? And we're going to be looking at the life of Daniel found in the Old Testament. And before I go any further, I just want to make sure no one gets left behind or feels left behind by the language we use today, because some of you have grown up in church and you've heard words like consecration, sanctification, surrender. Some of you in the room, you love Jesus, but I don't really know what consecration means or what sanctification means. And some of you, well, you feel like you've got catfish here, like your auntie picked you up, said we're going to brunch. And then all of a sudden you stopped off at church and you're like, I don't know what's happening right now. I promise you, God is going to speak to you. Amen. Let me make this really simple for you. To consecrate something means to set it apart for a special purpose. To consecrate something means to set it apart for a special purpose. And in the Bible, consecration is the act of setting yourself apart for God. It's saying, God, my life

belongs to you. I'm yours. I'm available for your purpose. And consecration is not about acting strange or trying to look more spiritual than someone else. It's not about trying to get God's attention or get God impressed with you. Consecration is about ownership. Who owns your life? It's saying, Jesus, you don't just get my Sunday. You get my entire life. My body belongs to you. My appetite belongs to you. My schedule belongs to you. My relationships belong to you. Consecration says, God, you can put your finger on any area of my life and find surrender. Our life of prayer and fasting is the anchor that keeps us living a consecrated life. We're not fasting because God is impressed by how hungry we are. We're not trying to manipulate God. We're not trying to say, God, I fasted. Now, you owe me a miracle. We are quietening our flesh. We're quietening all the noise so we can hear God's voice loud and clear. We're temporarily saying no to what our flesh wants so that we can say a bigger yes to God. And I need you to understand this church. A consecrated life is a powerful life. A consecrated life is a powerful life. There is power when a woman and a man has already settled the who has ownership in my life. Who do I belong to? As Hosanna preached so amazingly well last week, I belong to God. Amen. Compromise gives the enemy room to work, but surrender. And consecration does not make us perfect. Don't misunderstand this, but it makes you available to God. It makes you sensitive to the Holy Spirit and it makes you teachable. It makes you teachable. And when I think about someone in Scripture who showed us what a consecrated life looks like, I think about Daniel. You know, Daniel didn't just have spiritual moments. He built a spiritual life. He was gifted. He was intelligent. The Bible even says Daniel was good-looking. He was humble. Daniel had influence. But underneath all of that, there was something deeper that we're going to see in Daniel's life. He was consecrated.

He was consecrated. He'd set himself apart for God to use. And before Daniel ever faced a lion, and when I say Daniel, some of you, that's all you know. Daniel and the lion's den. And we may not even get to that part of the story today because there's so much in his story. But before he got to the lion, he'd already built an altar of prayer and fasting in his life. It was already part of his lifestyle. And when we study his story, there are five things that stand out to me that I think they're really going to help you today. Five keys that show us how to stay set apart in a culture consistently trying to pull us in. I want you to write this down, consecrate what feeds you. Consecrate what feeds you. As we open the book of Daniel, I want to give you a little bit of context. Judah has been conquered by Babylon and Daniel and several other young men from noble families were taken from their homeland and bought into King Nebuchadnezzar's palace. And their Babylon was trying to deliberately reshape them. Teaching them a new language, a new culture, they give them new names, preparing them to serve the king. But when Daniel was asked to eat and drink from the king's table, he made a decision that Babylon could change his surroundings, but it could not change his devotion to God. Chapter 1 verse 7, let's read it. The chief official gave them new names to Daniel. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. And he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. And I love the word in this scripture resolved. Daniel made a decision before pressure arrived. Think about where he was, he'd been ripped from his homeland. They've taken him captive, they changed his name, teaching him a new language, changed his environment. Babylon was not simply trying to relocate Daniel, they're trying to change his identity. And there are different discussions around why this particular food would have defiled. Daniel, whether it violated Jewish dietary law, had associations with idol worship or represented to Daniel, assimilation to Babylonian life, but the point of the text is clear.

Daniel knew there was a line that he could not cross and remain faithful to God, and this was it. So he resolved, he resolved, he had already decided that there are things that everyone else around me may participate in, but I will not because my life belongs to God. Before there was a lion's den, there was a dinner table. Before there was public power, there was private obedience. And that is consecration. Consecration makes decisions before temptation arrives, and you need to make some decisions today church before temptation arrives. Before she calls you at 11 p.m. tonight, what's she doing? Before he texts you, I miss you. There's nothing else. Before you're angry and that message is typed out, ready to send. Before everyone is gossiping at the table and you know you got something real juicy you could add, before you click on that site that you know takes you somewhere where you don't want to go. Before somebody disrespects you and everything in you wants to show them the version of you before Jesus saved and sanctified you. I'm glad that's not just me, praise the Lord. Don't wait until you're standing in the middle of temptation to decide what your convictions are. We have to decide before the party, before the trip, before the relationship. right in front of you, before everybody is telling you, it's not that serious. Daniel decided Babylon can change my location, but it will never own my devotion to God. Babylon could surround Daniel without getting inside Daniel, and I think that is still the challenge for us, because we live in culture, we work in culture, we go to school in culture, we watch social media, we watch content, and the truth is church, we're actually not called to disappear from the world. In fact, in Matthew, Jesus says,

Matthew 10, 16, I'm sending you out like sheep among wolves, be as shrewd as a snake, innocent as a dove. We are called to live in the world without the world discipling us more than Jesus does. And this is where consecration becomes really practical. I wanna ask you church, what are you consuming? We talk a lot in the fast about what's going into our mouths, but what is going into our eyes? What is going into our ears? What are we allowing to enter our heart through repeated exposure? What conversations are you continually listening to? Because exposure creates desensitization. You can hear something long enough that it stops sounding wrong. You can watch something long enough that it initially troubled you, but now it's all good. You can sit at a table long enough where gossip starts to sound like normal conversation. You can be in conversations of cynicism long enough, that faith starts to sound really naive. You can consume so much over-sexualized content that purity sounds extreme. You can live around compromise long enough that conviction starts to feel like legalism. And I never want us as a church to lose our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. That's our superpower. We hear his voice, we follow his leading, we're obedient to him.

Psalm 103 says, "I will set no worthless thing before my eyes." Corinthians 1533, bad company, corrupts good character. And this does not mean that we become afraid of everybody who doesn't think like us, Jesus ate with sinners. He went towards broken people. We're called to love people and carry the gospel to the world. I like to say like this, we're called to be light in the darkness, not hide in the light from the darkness. But there is a difference between being sent into an environment and an environment shaping us. There's a difference between being sent into an environment and being shaped by that environment. You can love everybody without giving everybody equal access to your soul. And there are some tables that I have sat at and I have known, I will not be back. And I don't say that because I think I'm better than anyone, but because I know what certain atmospheres pull out of me. And I've been there done that. I lived in the world for a long time. I'm too old to sit in these conversations. I worked hard for my healing. Some tables feed faith and some tables feed offense. Consecration says I love you, but I'm not going to be shaped by you. And sometimes consecration means your circle gets smaller. You know, when I first came back to God, I was 22 years old. I'm a pastor's kid born and raised in church. But I left church when I was 14, but I had walked away from God many years earlier. It's just I was the pastor's kid. So it was kind of hard to leave church.

So I didn't leave till I was 14 and far away from God. And at 22 years old, I had a radical encounter with Jesus. A radical encounter with Jesus. And at the time I was very involved in the Australian music industry and I had a band and we were gigging and that was part of all of our income. And the songs I had written and the songs, the lyrics of the songs, were full of hatred, full of anger, full of multiple references to ending my life. And as I started to learn about the things of God and started saying, God, I just changed my life. He's like, I'm going to help you, but you need to change some things. And immediately he gave me a very clear conviction. The power of life and death is in the tongue and you will eat its fruit. That's what his word says. And it wasn't just about what I kept singing and what I kept declaring. He's like, you got rooms full of people and now they're singing this too. You're not helping what I'm trying to do, Emma. And I knew that I had to leave it all. These were my friends, and it's really interesting because in the many years away from God, I had deconstructed the whole church before it was popular to do so. And I used to say all kinds of things. If I found out you were a happy, clapping Christian, I'd be like you're in a cold, you're brainwashed. Like I had a lot to say. And now at 22 years old, the tables have turned and the very things that I had been saying, they were saying to me, Emma, what is wrong with you? What do you think? He kind of just quit.

Like this is our income as well. Like you're brainwashed. You know, reaping what we saw works both ways. And I had to make some huge changes in my life. The Australian music industry at the time, this is 25 years ago. I don't know what it's like now, but there was a lot of cocaine. And I just, I knew that I couldn't be around those environments anymore. I knew that I had to get strong in being able to know who I was, my identity in Christ. I knew that there was a season of separation 'cause I couldn't be in those environments and not be influenced by those environments. And let me tell you, sometimes this is for a season because about two years later, when I was strong and who I was, God actually sent me out on mission. That's how I know that scripture so well. I'm sending you out. But your shrewd is a snake and it's in as a dove. And he sent me into that environment and I was able to lead one of the most popular producers in Australia at the time to Jesus. But I knew I was there on assignment. So sometimes it is for a season. But there is a season of separation and some of you need to ask God for one faith-filled friend instead of 10 people who will continually normalize compromise. Let me be a little more specific

'cause sometimes it's that faith-filled friend that's actually getting us into trouble. Some of you need to ask God for one faith-filled friend who carries the same conviction as you in the areas you know God is trying to work on you in. Because the sad part is that there are a lot of faith-filled people who don't have convictions about things that I know I can't be around. And sometimes it means you stop watching something that everyone else is watching. Sometimes it means the Holy Spirit puts his finger on a certain music and he says, "Hey, not for you." And the mature question stops being, well, am I technically allowed to do this? I mean, what scripture actually says that? Like, the mature question starts to be, does this help me remain sensitive to the Holy Spirit? Does this help me remain sensitive to Jesus? What does this feed in me? What does this awaken in me? Where does my mind go to? What am I repeatedly being consumed by? You know, music is incredibly powerful. God created music. It's meant to get in your head. But we need to be aware of what we are listening to. He created it to bring him glory. I mean, I don't know about you, everyone who's like mid-40s, but I can tell you every lyric to a lot of songs from 1998, OK?

That was a long time ago. So during the fast, I think God is not only asking us, what are we eating? He's asking us, what are we consuming? Daniel guarded what fed him because Daniel understood that you continually, what you continually consume eventually shapes you. And I'll need you to understand this conviction is not condemnation, OK? Condemnation says you're too messy. Hide from God. Conviction says, I love you so much. I love you too much to leave you that way. I want to heal you. I want to set you free. Come closer. Conviction is a gift. So if it's these 10 days or the remaining seven days, I want to encourage you to just make yourself a child before God. Humble yourself. Make yourself a child before God. Ask him, Holy Spirit, is there anything that I have become desensitized to? Is there something entering my eyes, my ears, that is pulling me towards an old version of myself that you're trying to get rid of? Consecration protects our sensitivities to the Holy Spirit. Consecrate what feeds you. Write this one down.

Number two, consecrate your prayer life. Consecrate your prayer life. Fast forward now to Daniel chapter six. In Daniel chapter six, years have passed. Daniel is no longer the young man from Daniel chapter one. He has served under kings. He has grown in influence. He carries enormous responsibility. And Daniel's enemies start looking for something that they can use against him, but the Bible says they could find no corruption in him. Their problem was that they could not find a problem. and the say-traps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom." First of all, at this, the administrators and the say-traps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. Finally, these men said, "We'll never find any basis for charges against this man, Daniel, unless it has something to do with the law of his God." So these administrators and say-traps went as a group to the king and said, "Making Darius live forever, they're feeding his ego." The royal administrators prefects, say-traps, advisors and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next 30 days, except you, your majesty, shall be thrown into the lion's den. Now your majesty issued the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered. They convinced the king to sign a law that they were hoping would get Daniel killed. And in Daniel 6-10, it tells us what Daniel does when he has learnt of the decree. It says, "Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened towards Jerusalem, three times a day, he got

down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his god, just as he had done before." Just as he had done before, a stressful situation, the threat of death, it did not create Daniel's prayer life, it revealed Daniel's prayer life that already existed. Prayer life did not suddenly become spiritual because there was a crisis. Prayer was Daniel's rhythm. And we say this all the time, prayer is our first response, not our last resort. We cannot build a deep prayer life only in emergencies. If the only time we seriously pray is when a diagnosis comes or when the relationship breaks or we run out of money, then prayer is always going to feel like a panic. And prayer is a relationship. Daniel had built a rhythm in his life. Consecrated time is powerful, it's time that belongs to God. It's not, I'm going to put worship music on and just scroll my social media, yell at the kids, none of you yell at your kids. It's time that you've put aside and say, "This belongs to you, God." Put the phone away, open the word, listen, worship, sit quietly because if you want God to lead your life, you've got to make room to hear his voice. There's a beautiful picture in Leviticus 8 when Aaron and his sons are consecrated for priestly service. You can put that scripture up, Moses places blood on the right ear, the right thumb and the right foot. And in the context of the day at the time, it was part of the consecration ceremony for Israel's priests. But it gives us a beautiful picture. Consecrate your ear because how do you know where to put your hands and your feet? The ear comes first intentionally. Consecrate where you put your hands, consecrate where your feet go. The louder God's voice becomes, the quieter other voices of distraction will become. I always like to say it like this, "Man, you have a spirit man on the inside of you, and a flesh man.

Women, you have a spirit woman and a flesh woman. What your feet grow is what your staff does. Over these 10 days, you're feeding the spirit man on the inside of you. You're growing. You're growing. And I don't want you to finish this fast being like, "Oh my gosh, I lost five pounds." You've missed the point. I want you to finish this fast saying, "I hear him again." My heart is soft again. My discernment is clear again. When discernment becomes unhealthy, when you become unhealthy, discernment becomes suspicion. I want prayer to be your first response again. I want you to recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit again. I want the gentle conviction of the Holy Spirit to be louder than pride in your life. Pride is your flesh. And Daniel shows us that this is not just a one-week event. This is life. So consecrate what feeds you, consecrate your prayer life. The third key, when it comes to consecration, please write this down, church, consecration positions you for breakthrough. Consecration positions you for breakthrough. As we go deeper into Daniel, Daniel does not only pray as a lifestyle. In Daniel 9, it says that Daniel turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition and fasting. This is not casual prayer. He's burdened for his people by Daniel 9. Daniel has been living in Babylon for many years. Jerusalem has been destroyed, the temple has been devastated. And God's people are still living under the consequences of their rebellion and their exile.

And while Daniel is reading the writings of the prophet Jeremiah, he realizes that he's living in a prophetic timetable. That Jeremiah prophesied that Jerusalem's desolation would last 70 years and he begins to understand that there is a prophetic timetable and that the season of exile is moving towards its appointed end. But Daniel doesn't respond by saying, "Well, God promised it, so I'm just gonna wait for it to happen." Instead, the promise that he reads from God drives him to prayer. He turns to God with prayer and fasting and confession and repentance and intercession. Not only confessing the sins of the people, but identifying himself with them. He says, "We have sinned. There's a humility about him. He understood that prophecy was not an excuse for passivity." And I know some of you have had amazing prophetic words, but you also have free will. And so God has declared what he wants to do in your life, but it's not an excuse for passivity. You have to partner with what he is doing. You have to pray. You have to believe. You have to take steps of faith. He can't override your free will.

(audience applauds) We see Daniel interceding. And that is another mark of a consecrated person. A consecrated person stops being obsessed with everyone else's failures. And instead they say, "God, what are you doing in me? How can I help this person?" Church, I wanna ask you, what are you praying for in your prayer time? Is it only your own needs? Are you praying for other people? Your husband, your wife, your child, your parents, your church? In Daniel 10, as we fast forward through his story, Daniel enters another season of mourning and fasting, it says, "For three weeks he eats no choice food. Meat and wine do not touch his lips. He's seeking God." And as he is seeking God for how long? Three weeks, three weeks. Yo, it's day four in some of you are complaining. Three weeks, it says in Daniel 10, 12 that a messenger and angel comes to him, let's read it. The angel comes, it says, then he continued. Do not be afraid, Daniel. Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before God, your words were heard. And I have come in response to them. Since the first day, since the first day, Daniel prayed on day one,

heaven heard on day one, but nothing happened in the natural on day one. In this chapter gives us a glimpse beyond what even Daniel could see. While Daniel was praying and apparently seeing nothing, something was moving. While you have been praying and fasting and you feel like it's day four, Emma, nothing has changed. I promise you, everything is changing behind the scenes. God is shifting things, he's breaking things, he's building things. And he saw it on day one, from day one, heaven has heard your prayers. From day one, heaven has heard your prayers. Do not lose heart. Do not grow weary and doing good for at the proper time. You will reap your reward. Don't assume because you have not seen the answer yet that nothing's happening. Don't assume because day four today feels all in there that your prayers are powerless. Don't assume because you're still waiting that God has not heard you. There are moments when consecration looks like continuing to seek God even when you don't see his hand yet. Daniel kept praying, he kept fasting. He kept positioning himself before God. And this is where I wanna bring in something that Jesus said in Mark nine. In the New Testament in Mark nine,

the disciples encounter a boy who is suffering terribly. It says under an unclean spirit, under a demonic spirit. And they try to drive it out, but they cannot. And Jesus comes and he rebukes the spirit and the boy is set free, but later when they're alone, Which tells us that they've been able to do this before. So what made this different? And we read in Mark 929, the New King James Version, it says, "So he said to them, "This kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting." Some of you over this time of prayer and fasting, you're believing to be set free of some things that have kept you bound. And I want to encourage you, Church, as committed as you have been to that thing that has kept you bound. You need to be just as committed, just as committed to pursuing God, to pursuing the things of God, as committed as you've been, to writing down every single thing that you are offended by, every single thing they said, what date, and this is what happened, I need it clear so I can remember, so I can tell everybody. Oh, you're quiet. As committed as you've been to that thing that has kept you bound is just, that's how committed you need to be, to chase after the things of God. As committed as you were to finding that good weight

'cause you cannot sleep without it at night, you gotta be just as committed to pursuing the things of God that are gonna set you free. You know, all through my teenage years, all through my teenage years, I was very committed to finding whatever substance I needed to find, to make sure that I could sleep 'cause I could not be alone with my thoughts, the trauma of my childhood was so intense, I could not be alone with my thoughts. And so I was very committed to finding whatever I needed. And when I came into relationship with Jesus, he's like, you gotta give me access to that area of your life. And I'm like, I can't, I can't allow myself to feel everything, like I will die. He's like, ah, would you trust me in this area? He gives peace that surpasses understanding. So this peace that surpasses understanding, you're not even gonna understand, but you're gonna have peace, you're gonna have peace, you're gonna have freedom, you're gonna sleep well, amen? You're gonna sleep well? We have to pursue God in prayer and fasting with the same passion and commitment as we have pursued. The things that have kept us bound. I don't know if you really get this because some of you, you'll be committed to going to in a new environment to meet a new person, at a new address 'cause you're gonna pick something up

'cause you're gonna score. But you don't wanna go to a new environment, a new person enjoying a group, but history make his church, what is at the house? I don't wanna go to a new address, what? Some of you are okay with only fans having your email address, but you don't wanna like history make his church to have your email address, they're gonna invite me to a prayer meeting, they're gonna invite me, like, you gotta be just as committed to pursuing the things of God, the things that have been set you free as you've been committed to the things that have kept you bound. (audience applauding) I want us to read that scripture again 'cause I need you to understand this, Mark 929. Some of you need to write this down, this kind can come out by nothing but prayer and fasting. Some of you maybe can't relate to any of those examples, but you can relate to this, you want me to pray for you, you want pastor Terrence to pray for you because you think then you'll be set free. But can I tell you? You can get the anointing on yourself, if you just commit yourself to this prayer and this fasting, you're gonna get oily, it's the crushing that produces the oil, it's the crushing that produces the oil,

you can pray for yourself, you can pray for your own deliverance. Some of you have been asking God for things I wanna tell you, he's gonna do something amazing over these 10 days, he's already started, some of you have been praying for some of the gifts of this spirit, some of you have been praying to be able to pray in tongues, you ask him, ask him for the gifts, he gives his gifts to his children who ask for them, some of you have been believing, I see that his healing is for today, I wanna be able to lay hands on the sick and see them recover, ask him for the gift of healing, some of you are saying I want him to increase my faith, I wish I had faith for that, ask him for faith, ask him to increase your faith, some of you when you walk home at night, your family does not know what version of you they're getting, when you walk into work they don't know what version of you they're getting, you're up and you're down, they're like what's happening, everyone's walking on eggshells and you know it but you don't know how to fix it, ask God for joy in your spirit, ask him, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Ask him. Ask God what you need to repent of. Some of us have opened demonic doors in our lives because of words we're spoken and we just got to repent. We just got to repent.

For the words we've spoken over our child in frustration. For the words we've spoken over our marriage in frustration. The words we've spoken over our church in frustration. And watch what God can redeem and heal and make whole. Some of us need to repent of the words that we've spoken. We've used the words, I've heard this so many times, I'm just playing the devil's advocate. You know the devil has advocates, they're called demons. So you're just playing the role of a demon? Like how is that going for you in your life? Consecration is for the advancement of your life. He doesn't need you playing the role of a demon. There are enough. Put that scripture out one more time, I really need you to get this. So he said to them, this kind can come out by nothing, but what? And when you look at that whole conversation, Jesus is like, it's almost like he gets a little fresh read. And he says, how much longer am I gonna be with you? And he's saying that because he wants them to be prepared, he wants them to be able to advance the kingdom once he's gone. He's trying to advance them. Consecration is always for the advancement of your life. He's like, I'm not gonna be with you for much longer. There are some battles that church, she cannot strategize your way through. There are some battles that money will not shift. There are some battles,

and you know, I love people reading books, readers, eliters, but there are some battles that a book will not change, a great podcast will not change. There are moments when you realize that this is spiritual and I need spiritual strength. Daniel understood this. When Daniel needed wisdom, he prayed. When he needed revelation, he prayed. When he was burdened for his nation, outwardly focused, he prayed. When the answers seemed delayed, he kept seeking. And I wonder how many of us quit on day two. When breakthrough was forming in the unseen. How many times have we said nothing's happening? It's day four. I'm going out to eat lunch with my friends. Nothing's happening. I wanna encourage you. Oh, it's all happening. Keep praying. Keep fasting. Keep humbling yourself. Keep your heart clean. Keep your spirit sensitive. Number four, right, this down. Consecration gives you strength to stand. There is so much in Daniel. I mean, we're not even gonna get to him being thrown in the lion's den. We could do a seven week series on the book of Daniel,

but I wanna just show you an overview. In Daniel one, his appetite is consecrated. In Daniel six, his schedule is consecrated. In Daniel nine, his heart is consecrated in repentance and intercession. And in Daniel 10, his persistence. He gets some grit in his spirit. His persistence is consecrated. And that is why Daniel could carry everything that Daniel carried. He did not have influence without discipline. He did not have influence without discipline. He didn't have the revelation that God gave him without prayer. He didn't have the public authority without the private surrender. And I think sometimes we want Daniel's influence without Daniel's consecration in our life. God is looking for people who will pray when no one's watching, who will fast when nobody is applauding, who will keep seeking God when the answer is delayed. Number five, write this down. Consecration produces obedience. Consecration produces obedience. You know, at the end of the day, consecration is not about mainly what you give up, it's about what you become available for. Daniel says no to the food because he had already said yes to God.

He says yes to prayer, even when it could cost him his life. He says yes to seeking God. Even when the answer takes time, why? Because he'd already settled it in his spirit. My life belongs to God. And this is where Daniel points us forward to Jesus. Jesus shows us the fullest picture and he prays honestly he feels the weight of what he is facing and he says but not my will but your will that is consecration not my will god but your will i have prayed that prayer many times in my life and it can be a painful prayer to pray not my will but your will what would you have for my life over some relationships that i wanted to keep god said no okay not my will but your will over opportunities that i wanted to keep and god said no all right god not my will but your will over leaving australia not my will god but your will i know you've called me here i've wanted to leave many places and he's told me to stay okay god not my will but your will and sometimes i've so desperately wanted god to do it differently and sometimes i've obeyed with tears in my eyes it was actually really hard for me to leave australia i think harder for me than terence my sister is severely brain damage severely disabled and i knew that she would never be able to come my dad my stepmom they get two nights of respite at a time i knew they'd never be able to come i've seen them once in almost eight years but i knew this is where god had called us so god not my will but your will be done faith doesn't mean that you don't cry and obedience doesn't mean that you don't feel the weight of the decision consecration means that even while i feel this deeply god you get the final word in my life easy is not the evidence that god is leading i feel like so many people get this wrong daniel was led to the lion's den jesus was led to the cross easy is not evidence obedience is evidence and the more i am obedient to one whisper from the holy spirit the more sensitive i become to the next and some of us are asking god to speak and he's like i'm waiting for you to do the last thing that i told you to do you haven't done it yet

radical obedience is going to lead to your breakthrough if he's told you to wait stop trying to manufacture movement if he's told you to end the relationship stop trying to negotiate with him he was clear if he's told you to forgive forgive if he's told you to apologize apologize consecration says your will god your way your timing and sometimes consecration can look incredibly ordinary sometimes consecration is making a commitment to show up every sunday in the house of god making a decision no matter how i feel i'm going to show up i'm going to worship with my hands lifted to heaven i am going to sit under the word i am going to take notes i'm not going to reply to all the reddit comments i'm not going to scroll my social media reply to emails i'm going to sit under the word i'm going to lean in i'm going to take notes i'm going to be hungry for the things of god i'm going to pray i'm going to receive i'm going to keep putting god's presence in god's people first and god uses what may seem like some very ordinary rhythms to build Jesus in us so as we come to a close i want you to ask yourself over these remaining seven days what am i consecrating i don't want you just to ask yourself what am i eating what am i consecrating is that my eyes my ears my appetite my evenings my phone my speech my thought life my prayer life because church i want us to be a people who can live in babylon without babylon living in you i want you to still be able to hear heaven when culture is screaming i want you to be a church that prays as a lifestyle you pray before crisis it is your For me, I always wanna live in a posture where the Holy Spirit is able to put his finger on anything in my life and find surrender. And I want that for you too, church. I wanna pray two prayers as we come to a close. I wanna pray for every single person that knows God is speaking to them about making a fresh decision to consecrate an area of your life. And I believe he's gonna increase your faith today. But before we do that, I wanna give you an opportunity if you've never invited Jesus into your heart

to invite Jesus in, because you actually can't do this on your own, it's impossible. So what I'm gonna ask you to do is just to close your eyes and bow your head, and here's the thing, church, if you already know God, maybe this is your first act of consecration, I want you to start praying for those in the room who have never met Jesus, who have never invited him in. Or you're called to intercede, you're called to pray, so start praying, church, start praying. With every eye, close, and head, bound, you know, his word says if you invite him into your heart, if you accept Jesus into your life, then you will be saved. He went to the cross so that you could have this opportunity to be in relationship with him. So while every head is bound and every eye, close, if you wanna invite Jesus into your heart, we're gonna pray a prayer with you. Would you just be bold and raise your hand in this room, this raise it high, just raise it high. Thank you, sir, I see your hand, thank you, I see your hand, thank you, I see your hand, thank you, I see your hand. Raise it high, raise it high, thank you, I see your hand, thank you, I see your hand, I'll be back there, I see your hand. I see your hand, but heaven sees your heart, and heaven is rejoicing, heaven is rejoicing, heaven is rejoicing, thank you, I see your hand, thank you, let's pray this prayer together, say, dear Jesus, come on, pray it bold, dear Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me,

thank you for dying on the cross for me. Today I commit my life to you, today I commit my life to you. I wanna be led by you God, I invite you into my heart, thank you God, that today I am... Saved, amen, amen, come on, lift him up and shout a praise, lift him up and shout a praise in this house, sons and daughters returning home, heaven is rejoicing, church, I wanna pray for you if you know that there is an area that you need to give a fresh consecration to God, I want you to be bold and stand to your feet, and I really hope every single person stands in this house, and I want you to lift your hands to heaven in a posture to receive, and I don't know what it is, I don't need to know what it is, it's between you and God, but you know, you know, listen, God wants to do so much more in your life, he wants to set you free, he wants a deeper relationship with you, so would you lift your hands to heaven in this house, in a posture to receive from him, God I pray for every single person with their hand raised to heaven, God I thank you that you have called them to do great and mighty things, God I pray that you would give them a strength, a strength to step into the areas of deeper consecration, deeper consecration that you are calling them to, God I pray that they would hear your voice loud and clear, they would know the exact places,

the exact areas of their life that you wanna touch, that you wanna set them free, and God I pray that you will strengthen them, God I pray they will walk boldly into the things of you, they will walk boldly, God I pray that you would awaken their fresh fire in them, God I pray over this time that you would soften their hearts, God that they would hear your voice God, God that they would be an amplifier on your whispers, there would be no confusion, they wouldn't be wondering if they heard from you, they would know, God I pray you would increase their faith, increase their faith, increase their faith, God I pray that you would break chains over this week, break chains into things that have kept them bound, we are a few kids, anything that has held them back from being all that you've created them to be, we will break any demonic oppression in the name of Jesus, that will you have no place in their life, you have no authority in their life, Jesus God is a son of Jesus Christ, and God I thank you that you break chains in the name of Jesus, God I pray you, it's pour out your spirit, even right now, you had poured out, poured out, God poured out, poured out Jesus, poured out God, God we give you access to every area, God we hold nothing back from you God, we are going to keep them up with you. ♪ For you, yes, love them ♪

♪ You slay ♪ [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] >> Church, listen, I need you to understand this, he inhabits the praises of his people. And what he is doing right now, he's breaking some change. He's breaking some change, he's setting some things free. Because he's here, because he inhabits the praises of his people. But you need to know you can access him any time. You can play this same song and sing at the top of your lungs in your car, and he's right there. You can play this as you, driving to work and singing at the top of your lungs. He's right there. He inhabits the praises of his people, he wants to set you free. And I believe over these next seven days he's gonna break some change in your life that have kept you bound. I see him breaking pride off people's lives, pride, it's so sneaky. It's so sneaky, it's like it's on your back, you can't see it, but everyone else can. But I see him breaking it in the name of Jesus. Would you be willing to let him break some things off your life this week church? Would you be willing to sit at the feet of Jesus and make yourself like a child? Would you be willing to say, God, make me clay, moldable, and melt people in the Father's safe hands? God, not mine will, but y'all will be done, Jesus.

Break the pride of my life. God, show me if there's anything that is not on you. God, I give it to you. I loosen my grip. Would you be willing to praise my bold friends this week church? God, I thank you that you are pouring out your presence. I thank you, you are pouring out your spirit. God, I thank you that as your people go about their week that you are right next to them. God, I thank you that you finished the good work that you started. God, I thank you that you are breaking chains. God, I thank you that you are pouring out your spirit. God, I thank you, I thank you that you are awakening dreams that have been dead. God, I thank you, oh church, you have too much in front of you to remain incarcerated to what someone did to you. Would you let it go? Would you run free? God, I thank you that you reawaken some dreams in this house. God, I thank you for divine business ideas in this house, divine strategy from heaven. God, I thank you that you give them ideas, that you give them strategy, just like you gave Daniel strategy. God, that you would show them exactly what to do, exactly what not to do. God, you give them faith. Today we speak only the words that you place in their mouth. God, I pray. As a church, they would consecrate their lips. God, I pray that they would repent of the words of their spurs, that are directly coming in to what you are trying to do in their life. When you're trying to do in the people around their life, God, I pray that they would have a conviction from the Holy Spirit, and there would be a conviction that brings such a man's freedom. God, I pray that they would stop today.

God, I thank you for all you are doing in your people's life. And if you were coming to greet me with that prayer, would you say a man in this house? Amen. [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] [MUSIC] We are so proud of you, and honestly, God's vision for you, is to see you live that better story epic and eternal. We say like this to see you holy, healthy, happy, and bring in heaven to earth. And if you're watching and you want to help others find Jesus like that, you can partner with us, and together we can make that epic difference. Hey, giving details are coming up on the screen, and we just say God's blessed you. You can be a blessing to other people as well. And hey, if you're here in the South Florida area, we'd love to see you in person. Check out the description below for times and the location where you can come to a service. We would love to see you soon. This is History Makers Chat, where friends truly become family. See you soon. [MUSIC] (upbeat music)