FULL ABANDONMENT TO GOD

As a basis for the exercising of this faith of appropriation the child of God must make a full consecration or abandonment of himself to God. This is not merely a surrender of his will to God, he has done that in his surrender to be a child of God. He must yield the whole life, the whole self, fully into the hands of God for the specific purpose that He may fill him with His Spirit. No shallow conception of consecration will do in this case. It is not merely meeting a condition at one time for some blessing. It is a contract of a life relationship in which the full dominion of heart and life is yielded into the hands of God. The old hymn of consecration states it thus:

My body, soul and spirit,
Jesus, I give to thee;
A consecrated offering,
Thine evermore to be.

It is not merely giving all of the possessions to God, nor the renouncing of the opinions of friends or loved ones when such Opinions may contradict God's will for His children. It is above all the full yielding or abandonment of self to God, where self is no longer on the throne but where Jesus rules without a rival. We may do well sincerely to consider, "Am I fully yielded to God? Does He fully own me?" It is only as we consciously make such an abandonment of ourselves to God that we may meet the condition for the baptism with the Holy Spirit.