Victorious PowerSample

The Offering

Romans 12:1

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

As a child, there was nothing more exciting than the anticipation of gifts on Christmas day. Every year there was at least one thing that was top on my list. The one I remember the most was the remote-controlled airplane that I got when I was about 11 years old. That was definitely at the top of my list that year! 

That Christmas afternoon my dad and I went over to the junior high school to fly it. I think it was airborne for about 30 seconds before it exploded into the side of one of the buildings. After the initial shock, we laughed until it hurt. It was classic.

Believe it or not, God has a wish list, too. And the gift He so desperately wants is you. Your complete and total abandonment to Him. He wants YOU. 

The word picture Paul paints of what it means to be all in with God and totally sold out to Him is a “living sacrifice,” referring to the Old Testament ritual of animal sacrifice. It’s a bit of an oxymoron. How can a sacrifice be alive? By nature, a sacrifice is something that is killed!

I think Paul’s point is that God wants you to die to everything that keeps you from Him, and then live fully for Him. As a sacrifice, you give up all control over your life. You abandon all rights. It’s another way of saying what Paul says in Galatians 2:20, that he has been crucified with Christ. He is dead, but now fully alive because of the indwelling Christ.

That’s why God wants you to sacrifice your life to Him – to trust Him with your life. Because that is when the fullness of the indwelling Spirit can truly live His life through you. The key is TRUST!

In another reading plan I’ve written called Perfect Trust, I show why you can completely trust God with your life. Why you can make such a “living sacrifice.” Why? Because God is perfect. He has no flaw. He never comes up short. He is perfectly trustworthy because He is: 

• Perfect      love – unquenchable, all-consuming love.
• Perfectly      good, with absolutely no darkness in Him. 
• Perfectly      righteous, never failing to do what is right. 
• Perfectly      holy, with a purity that has no blemish. 
• Perfectly      wise, so His counsel is never flawed. 
• Perfectly      faithful, which means He cannot deny Himself (that is YOU).
• Perfect      in power, able to always deliver on His promises.

Why wouldn’t you want to trust Him with your life as a living sacrifice and put your life into His hands?

When you truly die to everything that is keeping you from God and abandon your life to Him, you allow the full measure of the indwelling Holy Spirit to live through you. This is what Paul is alluding to in Ephesians 5:18, when he admonishes us, Do not get drunk on wine, which leads too debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. In looking at the original language, Paul is commanding you and I to be full of the Spirit. To allow the full measure of the indwelling Spirit to live through us.

The fact that Paul has to command you and I to be full of the Holy Spirit means it’s possible for us to not allow Him to fill our lives, which I believe is the norm for most Christians. We quench His work in our lives because of a lack of trust. We hold back and don’t really trust Him. Or we allow sin into our lives which grieves the Spirit and quenches His work.

The remedy? Fully entrusting your life into God’s hands each and every day. Consciously giving your life over to Him as a living sacrifice, trusting Him for that which you cannot control, and applying, by faith, the direction and commands of scripture in your life.

Will you die to yourself today and fully trust Him with your life?