A Living Sacrifice
George Asbury McLaughlin
Chapter 8: With Certainty
"But how may I know when I am wholly consecrated to God?" is the question often asked.
There are many who do not know whether they are entirely the Lord's or not. There is so much
uncertainty in some quarters that it has actually voiced itself in this query of a hymn,
We once asked a sister coming from a service if she was wholly the Lord's. The reply was,
"I do not know." Being told that this was a matter that she ought to know for herself, she said, "Ask
our minister."
A wholly consecrated soul will know that it is a fact without having to ask preacher, priest
or bishop. If we do not know that we are wholly the Lord's, we are not wholly the Lord's. He who
has settled this matter knows it, just as really as he knows anything in this world. He has two
witnesses to his consecration.
First, he has the witness of his own spirit - the consciousness that the matter is forever
settled, the great transaction is done. We know this the same way that we know we have decided
on any other transaction. If we have been in doubt about buying a piece of property, but have
finally decided to purchase it and announce ourselves as ready and willing to fulfill all the
conditions and lay the money down, we know we have done it. If there are future conditions which
we cannot now fulfill and are not required of us until some future time, if we have decided in
advance to fulfill them, we know we have thus decided. And if we give ourselves thus to God -
all we know and all we do not know - we certainly know we have done it. Consecration is a
business transaction between us and God. Any one who knows how to do honest business, knows
how to consecrate himself to God. And no one yet ever honestly made the full covenant with God,
no matter if he did it without any emotion, just as he would do any business with a party in whom
he had confidence, without finding it to be the gateway to a new, richer and more glorious
experience.
Second, we may know it by the testimony of the Holy Spirit. The object and end of
consecration being entire sanctification (see next chapter), the latter should follow as soon as the
consecration is made complete. To this work of entire sanctification the Holy Spirit witnesses.
Thus he becomes a witness, not only to our entire sanctification, but naturally also to our
consecration which precedes it. Consecration is our work; to this we have the direct witness of our
own spirit. Sanctification is God's work to which he witnesses, and in thus witnessing to his own
work, he witnesses to ours, for he cannot sanctify us till we are wholly consecrated. This is the
completeness of the test. The first evidence (of our own spirit) must be supplemented by the
testimony of the Holy Spirit. To think we had the testimony of our spirit, without the testimony of
the Holy Spirit, is presumption based upon self-deception. To think we have the testimony of the
Spirit, on account of some feeling or emotion, if we have not the testimony of our own spirit that
we have given ourselves to God, is fanaticism. It is the office of the Holy Spirit to witness to every
installment of grace that is given. Jesus said that the Holy Spirit was not only the Comforter, but
the Comforter that witnesses. When Daguerre was perfecting the process of portrait making by
means of the camera, which has revolutionized that art, he found it impossible to retain the picture
upon the glass slide. As soon as it was drawn out into the light, the picture vanished. After
experimenting for a time he spread a coating of chemicals upon the glass and then drew it out in a
dark slide, and in a dark closet with other chemicals fixed the image on the glass to stay. There are
a great many who waver in their consecration. They get there and stay a little while and then
recede. What we need to do is to wait until God comes, sanctifies and seals us by the witness of
the Spirit and enables us to make our consecration permanent. When Abraham made his covenant,
he sat down and watched it, keeping away the unclean birds until the burning lamp and smoking
furnace attested by their appearance that the sacrifice was accepted and hence complete. So Paul
says we are to present our bodies a living sacrifice in order that we "may prove what is that good
and acceptable and perfect will of God." When we get this divine proof from God by the
witnessing Spirit, then we know that the consecration is complete.
Many are confused over the witness of the Spirit. Some are looking for great manifestations
of glory, rapturous visions, etc. But the witness of the Spirit is an inward persuasion, wrought by
the Holy Spirit, that the work is complete. It may have no great, miraculous manifestations at all.
This is indescribable. It is the white stone with the new name which no man can read save he who
possesses it. Until we have this comfortable persuasion, we can never be sure that we are wholly
consecrated to God. Reader, if you have not yet "proved what is that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God," it is surely because you have not given up to him wholly. You are holding on
to something. If you do not know what it is, then guess at it and ask God to help you in your
conjecture. If you are honest he will show you, if you are real anxious to know.
Many are not wholly consecrated because they are seeking a blessing merely; others
because they have marked out a certain way for God to come and bless them -- in their way instead
of his way. Some are thinking their consecration will buy sanctification and are trying to be saved
by its merit. Very many are not consecrated because they fear what the people will say. They are
trying to take care of their reputation themselves instead of giving it to God. Very few are willing
to be of no reputation for Jesus' sake. If the holy fire has not yet fallen upon the sacrifice, find out
at what point you have failed to put it all on the altar. If you really want to know at any cost, the
Spirit will surely tell you. "And if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this
unto you."
Continue to Chapter 9: For A Purpose
