Presenting Our Body a Living Sacrifice
Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:1,2—NIV)
Since the late forties we have witnessed several people who have been prophesied over concerning what they were called to do in the Kingdom of God. There is no doubt in my mind these were genuine prophecies. The prophecies were given by godly ministers, sometimes confirmed by two or more elders. The settings have been orderly assemblings of Christian people, not wild or disorderly meetings.
More often than not the ones prophesied over continued on with their life, no radical change taking place.
Why is this? Why was there not an evidence at some point that the glorious prophecies were being fulfilled or were soon to be fulfilled?
Is it because they are going to be fulfilled during the thousand-year Kingdom Age? I don't think so. I think the answer lies in Romans 12:1,2 (above).
If I am correct, then most Christians, prophesied over or not, have been given gifts and assigned roles in the Kingdom that never will be activated or fulfilled. They do not do what God said.
Paul urged us:
To offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God.
To not be conformed to the pattern of this world.
To be transformed by the renewing of our mind.
Paul said if we would do this we would be able to determine God's will for our life.
Christian people, at least in America, are not presenting their body as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God. They are being conformed to the pattern of this world by the television, the newspaper, and now the Internet. They are not being transformed by the renewing of their mind in the Word of God.
Because they are not obeying Romans 12:1,2 they do not know what God's will is. They suppose if God wants them to do something He will wake them up in the middle of the night and tell them. But this is not how it works for most of us.
The reference here is to the burnt offering, described in the Book of Leviticus. There were several kinds of animal sacrifices the Jews were taught to observe. Some of them, such as the sin and trespass offerings, were obligatory. When you sinned or committed a trespass you had to make the prescribed offering or be cut off from Israel.
But the first offering listed, the burnt offering, was voluntary. It was a gift from you to God, a freewill offering. The Altar was named after this offering, being called The Altar of Burnt Offering.
He is to lay his hand on the head of the burnt offering, and it will be accepted on his behalf to make atonement for him. He is to slaughter the young bull before the LORD, and then Aaron’s sons the priests shall bring the blood and sprinkle it against the altar on all sides at the entrance to the Tent of Meeting. He is to skin the burnt offering and cut it into pieces. The sons of Aaron the priest are to put fire on the altar and arrange wood on the fire. Then Aaron’s sons the priests shall arrange the pieces, including the head and the fat, on the burning wood that is on the altar. He is to wash the inner parts and the legs with water, and the priest is to burn all of it on the altar. It is a burnt offering, an offering made by fire, an aroma pleasing to the LORD. (Leviticus 1:4-9—NIV)
Remember, this was not an offering for sin. Its purpose was to show the devotion of the worshiper. It was an act of worship, a desire to please God.
Notice (above) that the Israelite slaughtered his own bull and then skinned it and arranged and washed the pieces. The worshiper performed part of the service and the sons of Aaron performed their part.
All of it was to be burned on the altar. Paul tells us that our entire natural man, our adamic nature, is to be crucified with Christ in order that the sin in us may be destroyed.
There is a tremendous lesson here. We Christians look to God to carry a greater part of the service than He is willing to perform. There are things we have to do.
We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God. God is not going to do this for us. We have to slaughter our bull, arrange the pieces on the fire, the head and the fat (our carnal mind and fleshly, lustful nature), and wash the inner parts and legs (our heart and our walk with God) with the water of the Word.
We are to make sure we are not conformed to the pattern of this world. God will not do this for us. We have to turn away from the worldly media and entertainment.
It is up to us to make certain we are being transformed by the renewing of our mind in His Word. God is not going to read the Bible to us.
God always stands ready to help us when we call on Him for advice and strength. But we have to make the effort to seek God.
"You will find Me when you look for Me with all your heart."
How many Christians drift through life, never growing in the ability to choose the good and reject the evil? They may attend church for fifty years and never grow an inch spiritually. At seventy they are still the same person they were at twenty. Why is this?
It does not help that the churches are preaching grace, grace, grace, rapture, rapture, rapture. These are candy the way they are preached. There is no nutrition for people to grow on and so they continue as adult babies.
What is the key to growth? What chemical triggers spiritual growth? What catalyst is missing?
The missing chemical is death with Christ and life with Christ. We are not teaching the people to count themselves dead, to really count themselves dead! We are not teaching the people to offer their body as a living sacrifice, a whole burnt offering, to really offer their body as a living sacrifice, a whole burnt offering!
We may talk about forsaking the world and carrying our cross behind Jesus but we do not do it. The Christians are saving their lives, not losing their lives in the Lord Jesus.
If we would learn of our assigned gifts and roles in the Kingdom of God we must do the following at once; not when some golden moment comes, not after the summer, but right now—now when everything tells us it is the wrong time.
We may be thinking, "tomorrow maybe, but not right now."
Two of the most practical people you will ever meet are God and Satan. Both of them understand fully that yesterday and tomorrow never come. Salvation always is now. In fact, as the Lord told me just before my heart attack, "all there is, is now."
If you do not offer your body as a living sacrifice right now you will never do so.
If you would find God's will, this is what you absolutely must do right now!
You must declare that when you were baptized in water you died. I mean, you really died with Christ on the cross. No monkey business, you are dead—a goner. Your life is over. Adam is crucified. Get the message. Make a steel resolution in your soul that this is the truth and there are to be no changes.
If you have to, get alone by yourself and yell at the wall: "I AM DEAD!" Make sure nobody hears you, especially the neighbors.
Now you are ready to join the Lord Jesus Christ in His resurrection from the dead and ascension to the right hand of the Father.
Now God will begin to judge you, helping you unwind your graveclothes of worldliness, lust, and self-will. It is appointed to man once to die and after this he is resurrected and judged. This is what will happen to you, in a terrifically real spiritual sense, once you are willing to declare yourself dead.
Whoa, that isn't all. You have to do this every moment of every day for the rest of your life. It isn't difficult once you get accustomed to it.
Now, what else must you do? You absolutely must press, press, press into the Lord Jesus so you are instantly aware of His Presence. You need His Divine Life to strengthen you as you walk with God.
What else? You must make sure you are not being conformed to this world. Conformation to the world and its ways comes through the various media that assault us. We are in the world but not of the world, Jesus said. Therefore we have to continually guard ourselves against the values of the world.
Americans worship professional athletics. We must avoid such worship. Jesus Christ does not spend his time worrying about professional football scores. There are thousands of Christians being martyred every day in various parts of the world. These are your brothers and sisters. You are a rich American. Therefore redeem the time!
Americans worship money. No one can serve God and money. Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness if you want to find God's will and grow in Christ. What you need will be added to you or God is a liar.
Americans worship sexual lust. Do you want to destroy your nervous system and end up as a silly fool? If you do, worship sexual lust. Dwell on it. You will never find God's will for your life. Your next stop is the nursing home.
Americans worship entertainment. Are you going to spend the precious hours of your life watching the moral filth projected on the screen? Do so and you will have eternity to wail because of opportunities forever lost.
Americans worship material goods. They are persuaded a person's life consists of the abundance of things he or she possesses. You want to be dead while you are living? Surround yourself with more material goods than you actually need. Spend your time guarding them, dusting them, and fixing them. You will never have enough time to wait on the Lord to the extent you know what He is saying to you. You do not own your goods, they own you. They are killing your spiritual nature.
America is a degenerating culture, ready to be taken over by a more disciplined nation. Are you prepared to walk with Jesus through atomic fire?
If you would prove God's will for your life you absolutely must be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You do this by praying, meditating on the Word of God, gathering on a regular basis with fervent Christians as possible.
As I said before you must press, press, press into the Lord Jesus constantly. The hour of temptation is rapidly approaching, the period of darkness when no man can work.
God has gifts and a ministry for you, a role you are to play in the days to come. Of this I am certain.
Are you going to wait for the golden moment to prepare yourself to do your Lord's will? Believe me, that moment will never come in the future. It is now. Now is the time for you to count yourself dead with Christ and risen with Christ. There is no other process that will cause you to grow in the knowledge and will of God in Christ.
Are you going to wait until the summer is over? It will never be over for you. There always will be a lion in the street. Jordan will always be overflowing its banks.
Just when you get ready to set aside time to seek the Lord, here come the relatives for a month. Your boss is downsizing your department and you have to do twice as much work. Your home is in an uproar. The church just split. Your company wants to move you. You are offered a higher position that will keep you out of church and away from your family. The corporation has tripled your workload but you have only three years before retirement.
You are so busy that you are sick.
What do you do? You go to God and tell Him of your determination to quit fooling around. You want to present your body a living sacrifice and do His will as described in the Bible.
Do you think God will hear you? Do you think your Father in Heaven will ignore you? I tell you He will hear you the moment it comes into your mind to bring your bull and slaughter it. The One who spoke the incomprehensible bodies of matter into space and time has heard your cry. It has come up before Him. There is no power in the heavens, on the earth, or in the dark regions below the earth's surface that in any manner can prevent His hand from reaching down and making it possible for you to live as a Christian should.
He can and shall help you. Call on Him right now!