10 -- PERPETUATION OF CONSECRATION AND THE WILL
"If any man willeth to do His will." John 7:17. R. V.
"Consecration is the placing our all at Jesus' feet, placing our all on the altar for time and
eternity. It is the laying of our will down beside the Master's will, once for all and no longer
having our way, but His way in all things. Consecration, then is a complete act, an act performed
once for all, embracing what we know and what we do not know, and need never be repeated
unless something is taken off the altar. Having now made the consecration and thus agreed to
always, under every circumstance, will the will of God, the consecrated life is just begun. In living
this life we cannot now go away and leave that consecration upon the altar and have no more to do
with it. The consecrated life will not live itself without our aid, neither will the Master live it for
us independent of us. While consecration is a completed act performed once for all, it is also the
beginning of a life which is to be maintained in ever increasing fullness. While in consecration we
laid our will down beside our Master's will, this did not destroy our will, neither did it take our
lives away from being directed by our wills; it simply gave the Master charge of the will to direct
the life through it, we having agreed to constantly will the will of God. Thus we see that the
consecrated life calls for the constant exercise of the will in the keeping of our part of the
agreement. No matter how thoroughly consecrated a person may be he still lives out that which he
wills. The hand, the foot, the tongue move according as they are directed by the will of the person.
So with all the acts of the life. Sanctified persons are able to do the will of God when' they will
that will, but it will not be done unless they exercise their own will in each case. Sanctification
does not make machines out of us, but still leaves us as responsible, volitional beings. Too many
seem to forget this and act like they thought now that they are sanctified the life will live itself; and
how disappointing has been their experience and their example. We fear many are making this
mistake and, like the prisoners of old who had dead bodies bound to them and were compelled to
carry them around with them, these are carrying about with them a dead experience.
How then is the consecrated life to be lived? Having begun the life at the same time the
consecration was completed, the "old man" is now crucified and the Holy Spirit has taken
possession of the life. But as time moves on, each day and each hour there are new questions to
decide and acts to be performed. The Holy' Spirit, knowing the will of God, concerning each of
these things, reveals that will to us, but He will not perform the act or decide the question for us --
that is, He will not do the part that is to be done by our will. Never will the act be performed until
we will its performance. Though we are sanctified the Holy Spirit will not force us contrary to our
will. But at the time of our consecration we agreed to will the will of God in all things, and now
that the Holy Spirit has revealed this (new requirement) thing to be the will of God, if we stay
consecrated we at once (accept it), will its accomplishment. Having thus acted in accordance with
our consecration, the Spirit, who dwells in us, sees to it that we are able to perform this will of
God which we have willed. Thus, while in one case we willed the accomplishment of this in the
moment of our consecration, in that we then laid our will beside the Master's will and agreed to
always will His will, yet when the time came to accomplish this one act and it was made known to
us, it called for a special act of our will relative to this special act and at this special time. Hence
the consecrated life calls not simply for a complete act of consecration once for all but for a living
out of that consecration now made by a daily and hourly exercise of the will in willing the will of
God as the Spirit makes known that will to us, even as we agreed.
Friends, now that we are consecrated, let us continually do what we agreed to do when we
made the consecration. This is the secret of successfully living the sanctified life." -- Ellyson
The Unknown Element
Milton Lorenzo Haney in the "Story of My Life," gives the description of the consecration
of Rev. Quigley, as told Bishop Thompson, which fully compasses the "unknown" element in
consecrating for Perfect Love:
"Well, Bishop, when I came to Christ to be made perfect in love, under the searching light
of the Holy Spirit, I took all there was of my being and its Possessions that I could see or think of
and put them all in one bundle, and gave that bundle to Christ. Then I took all I could not see or
know, involving all the Possibilities of the future, and put them in another bundle; and I gave that
bundle to Christ. From that time on I have had a clear consciousness that I am all and forever the
Lord's, Whenever He is pleased to open that second bundle and show me any part of its contents I
respond, Yes, Lord, that you know was in the contract!"
"In the first gush of your sanctified joy you said, 'O Lord, I will do anything! go anywhere,
Lord! to Africa, China, or Japan! anywhere with Jesus.' And you meant it. The Holy Ghost put that
in your heart. The Lord takes you at your word, and when the time comes for you to do things you
promised to do it is not just play. You will find out, like the most of us find out, that in carrying out
the principle of your heart you will have to suffer; and that very suffering simply demonstrates and
proves to angels and devils that you are true. God knew you were true to begin with, but God
wants you to know you are true."
You go to the store to buy a spool of cotton. You put it in your pocket or your little satchel
and carry it home. Now, you sit down and stitch, stitch, stitch. You take the spool of cotton and
unfold and unroll the thread, and use it up into garments until the cotton is all gone. You get the
clean heart and the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and you have got the spool of cotton. "Lord, I will
obey. Here I am; anything you say I will do." You are happy and it is all right. The Lord says "Very
well." By and by the Lord begins to unroll you, and He begins to utilize all that spool of cotton,
and He begins to have you do this and do that, until the thread of obedience that was in your heart
has been stitched into a thousand garments" (Watson). But we must will the unwinding!
"A lady who had entered into this life hid with Christ, was confronted by a great
prospective trial. Every emotion she had within her rose up in rebellion against it; and had she
considered her emotions to be king, she would have been in utter despair. But she had learned this
secret of the will, and knowing that, at the bottom, she herself did really choose the will of God for
her portion, she did not pay the slightest attention to her emotions, but persisted in meeting every
thought concerning the trial with the words, repeated over and over, "Thy will be done! Thy will
be done!" asserting in the face of all her rebelling feelings, that she did submit her will to God's
will, that she chose to submit it, and that His will should be and was her delight! The result was
that in an incredibly short space of time every thought was brought into captivity, and she began to
find even her every emotions rejoicing in the will of God." -- H. W. Smith
