Consecration is a critical part of the preparation stage for transformation. Until the church is restored to whole-hearted devotion she cannot impact the community around her. “Face to Face” is a small step in the preparation stage. As more of the Body of Christ is consecration and He is dwelling in her midst, God will fulfill His promise to those who live the lifestyle of 2 Chron. 7:14 by “hearing their prayer, forgiving their sin and healing their land”!
Ground that is attained in the consecration process must be retained and built upon until the church transitions into a new lifestyle of corporate identity, lifestyles centered around the presence of Christ, and prayer and worship become more than religious routine. If new lifestyle is not established, the breakthrough gained during the 21-days will not be retained. It’s important to press in right away to intentionally move forward toward this new lifestyle or momentum will be lost.
The “Face to Face” process closes the gap between what we say we believe and how we live our faith in our personal and corporate lifestyle. If we successfully transition our 21-day encounter with Jesus into a new lifestyle, a new “root system” of righteousness will take hold and begin to bear the fruit of transformation. If a new spiritual root system is not established the breakthrough will be temporary.
The encounter with Jesus during the consecration process is the motivation for pressing in and contending for transformation of your heart, family, congregation and community. You can’t be half-hearted or you will get sucked back to the captivity of the status quo. The temptations of the spirit of the world and status quo are too familiar. Only a whole-hearted presence-based lifestyle will keep our intimacy with Jesus alive!
Following the consecration process, it’s important to re-evaluate programs, agendas and priorities of your lives, in your homes and in ministry activities of the church. Then, we encourage you to prayerfully reassess with the Lord and your leadership team what to add back in, what changes to make permanent. If you don’t intentionally choose a different path forward you will slip back into the “ruts” of the status quo and its fruitlessness.
Consecrating ourselves to the Lord is not a program that we “do” for a period of time only to revert back to our old ways and lifestyles that are infiltrated by the spirit of the world. Rather it’s a process of returning to intimacy with God that is intended to become a lifestyle in the church.
One of the primary focuses in the transition from the 21-days to lifestyle is to establish a house of prayer in the community to retain the corporate identity, prayer and worship of the participating believers. The house of prayer is a unified, praying church walking in humility and holiness that attracts the manifest presence of God. As the church becomes the dwelling place of the Lord, the incense arises before the Lord in heaven, drawing Him to the community – it’s His presence that makes transformation possible!