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Prayer of Consecration –
The Invitation to Jesus to be Fully Lord ~ Ray E Horton
Inviting Jesus to be fully Lord: So often we say Jesus is Lord of our lives, but He can only be Lord of that which we release to Him. We don’t fully count the cost. As the saying goes, “He must be Lord of all, or He isn’t Lord at all.” There is some truth to that, since the areas we hold back can keep Him from transforming us to be the vessels and instruments of His grace that He has made us to be.
You want to give it all to Jesus, but…
Like me, many of you want Jesus to have your whole life, but it is so easy to just surrender partially or superficially, even in passing, taking our consecration for granted. We may be coming out of complacency and conformity to many of the world’s ways. But let’s return to our first love and go all the way, giving ourselves over completely to His Lordship, giving up our way for His.
I cannot live a holy life or be fruitful except by His life in Me, if I will let Him, and I cannot yield fully but by His grace
I cannot live a holy life or be fruitful except by His life in Me, if I will let Him. And, truth is, we can’t yield fully but by His grace. It’s a matter of intention, then a matter of prayer. It’s never will power – that doesn’t work in the long run. Even if we don’t want to cling to areas of sin, but rather want our souls to be pure before Him even as our Born Again spirits are pure, there are areas of our lives that we may be secretly holding back. If we know of those areas, we can choose to give them to Him; but even if we are unaware, we can give it all to Him by faith.
First of all, to be willing to fully consecrate our lives, we need to fully trust. We must know beyond the shadow of a doubt His great love for us, His good will for us, His great faithfulness to us. We must trust that He won’t go against our will, but knows the desires of our hearts, and what concerns us. He will never force. Rather He gently draws and transforms our thinking and emotions and helps us make our will His will if we let Him by submitting our will to Him.
It is then, when we choose to trust Him with all, that we can pray the prayer of consecration. There are as many ways as there are believers, but here is how the Lord has had me praying in recent months. I share it since it may jump start you, but do allow the Holy Spirit to help you formulate it your way, or just be open to pray spirit-led, maybe even with tongues and interpretation for your own life:
Sample prayer of Consecration:
While you need to use your own words from your heart, I’ll just pray this now, similar to my usual way, but has Holy Spirit gives me the words to write:
“My Father, and my brother, my Lord Jesus, I love you with the love You have placed within me by Your Holy Spirit.
“Lord I believe Your great love for me. You gave Your life to redeem me from the curse, forgiving all my sin, even with all my weaknesses and imperfections. And You rose to give me new life, eternal life, now, and made me a New Creation.
“And You gave me Your Word, yes the Living Word, and Holy Spirit to reveal all truth and to lead and guide me in Your path; and You delegated to me Your authority over all the work of the enemy. For these I can never thank you enough, but I will praise you for all eternity, and I thank you and praise You now, Lord Jesus.
“And Lord, I trust Your intentions toward me implicitly. For You have made it clear to me in so many ways, in my life and in Your Word. As you said through the prophet Jeremiah (29:11):
For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord; I know the plans that I have for you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, plans to prosper you, plans for your welfare with no harm to you or calamity, plans to give you hope and a future.
“So, Lord, I take You at Your Word and receive that truth in my heart now, and I press in, I draw near, by faith, past all my thoughts and concerns and feelings and busyness that would stand in the way. I press in to You to be where You are, seated with You in heavenly places, even the deep place, the secret place where You are enthroned in the temple of my heart.
“I draw near, for You are already near. It is here, in that secret place that I will hear Your voice, know and receive Your immense love, intimately come to know Your heart and be transformed as You more deeply reveal who I am in You, and grow from glory to glory. It is here in Your presence that I experience the fullness of joy. And that joy will be my strength; I will rejoice in You, anxious about nothing, deeply thankful, and experiencing Your perfect peace.
“Jesus, I know I could stay in charge. You created me that way in Your great love, with free will like You. But I don’t want my way, I want Yours. And so, dear Jesus, I invite You to be Lord of all of me. I let go of my way for Yours in every area of My life, by faith.
“I welcome You this day to be Lord of all my thoughts and feelings, the words of my mouth, my decisions and actions. Be Lord of my health and Lord of my wealth. Increase me that You might live big inside me. Increase me so I will supernaturally have what I need to serve You and Your Kingdom here and now. Be Lord of my desires – put Your desires within me. Be Lord of my plans – let them only be in accord with Your plans and purposes. Be Lord of my will – Your will be done, on earth, in my life, as it is in heaven.
“Live through me Jesus. Love through me, Lord. Minister to others through me, I pray. I stand up big; I stand up strong; I stand up with Your glory residing in my spirit. Let that glory shine forth to touch the world around me. Bear much fruit through my life.
“And I pray these things for those I love as well; those who you have put in my life, family and friends, spiritual brothers and sisters, and even the lost that cross my path, that they would come to know You and Your great love, and the truth of Your Word, and the fullness of Your Spirit, as You live through me in their presence.
“Use me to encourage others to yield to You and Your way as well. Let the Ministry of Reconciliation flow through me. Let me join in unity, in one accord, with the true Body of Christ, with You, Jesus, as Head, joining in corporate prayer, corporate worship and corporate faith, so that the world will see Your love and power and the light will drive back the darkness.
“Use me in the Great Awakening that is upon us to change our community, our nation and all the world. Use me as a part of Your Body to wake up Your children, to set them on fire in preparation for Your coming, to reach out to the world, heal the sick, raise the dead, mend the broken-hearted, and disciple them into a Mighty Army of laborers to bring in the end-time harvest, all who will, in preparation for Your coming.
“I choose to be Yours, my Lord and God; Maranatha! Come Lord Jesus! Amen!“
Staying Yielded
I see praying like this not as a one time or occasional event, but continual, yes daily. We need to stay yielded to the Lord:
- because He is worthy
- to remain thankful
- because we live in a world that says “do your own thing”
- human nature tends to be self-righteous
- we have an adversary who wants to “steal, kill and destroy”
Probably many other reasons as well.
“Submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee.”
I pray like this every morning, sometimes long, sometimes short, as the spirit leads. This was just a sample – use your own words. Pray out loud so you can hear yourself. Read life-giving scriptures out loud as well. We have the victory. As you pray like this day by day, you’ll stay out of complacency, be delivered from worldly conformity, and more and more experience the joy of your first love.
Also, you will gain confidence and strong faith; you will speak with authority to stop the enemy; you will overcome, then start bearing more fruit for the Kingdom. And the Lord will speak to your heart and direct you in His plans and purposes for your life, much to your fulfillment and peace. And the Spirit of God will grow big in you and overflow to the world around you with the transforming love of the Lord.
