How Do I Become Fully Committed?
I really believe it is a season of impartation so that people can scale through to another level, and not be dropped. I am taking steps, and if you don’t take your own steps but sit down, hoping your future is guaranteed, you will be a failure and you won’t be happy at all. The Lord will call you a lazy and wicked servant. There will be punishment and it will be worse because of all the opportunities you had and the words you heard. Paul said clearly that you can preach and after preaching to others you can be cast away and disqualified (1 Cor 9:27). So your being fully committed is super important.
Don’t make yourself a castaway; it doesn’t matter how spiritually advanced you think you are; you are going to have to be fully committed. Asa was king and God had done miracles through him. He defeated great armies, but here he was now, and God was saying to him, “From now on, your life will be full of battles” (2 Chron 16:9). He was so angry after this that he oppressed prophets and died a defeated, broken and sick man. His story was so happy at the beginning but it didn’t end well. And why? Because he stopped being fully committed. Full commitment is not a choice. Do what is needed, do your part, and do it sharply. Don’t be apathetic and you will be wise.
When your initial response to “Soldiers, we are going to take the enemy!”, is reluctance, then you should know that you won’t come back from the battle. You did not even start pumping like a soldier, you did not receive the pep talk – the fuel of motivation – so you’re not motivated.
Your attitude from the beginning matters.
I have heard people say, “It’s not about who shows up now. People can join up later…” Such people always fail because their attitude is that they will later be serious. They will be that second son permanently that we see in Matthew 21:28-31. You are never the one who heard the father, left and did what was said immediately. You always say, “No” first and that’s why you will fail 90 per cent of the time. Do not use the exceptions to form a doctrine, that story in Matthew 21 is an exception. Rather, show gusto from the beginning, as the instruction is given.
We are going to have to overcome sluggishness. You cannot maintain a relaxed sitting position and not expect to sleep off. You must sit up and not maintain that posture, ignoring the correction to sit up. The person who will win is the person who adjusted himself as soon as the correction came. Years ago, when I taught things like jabbing your hands when you feel sleepy, I saw the people who started obeying it at once and overcame. I also saw the ones that disobeyed from the beginning, and years have passed and they are still sleeping during meetings. The proud people will still be the same till they’re 55 years old, and by then, it will be far worse, because then, they are full of pride and the Lord resists the proud.
Full commitment is instant commitment.
Those who act at once; are the people who succeed the most. It is better you do it at once and then slow down and get lazy than to start slowly and plan to improve. The one who always says, “I will do it later at my own time” cannot prosper. You do not want it to appear like you are doing it because of the person who instructed you. You have demonic issues.
God wants to help us, but full commitment will require action. This is a rallying call to everyone; let us enter full commitment and have ourselves accomplishing a lot.
How Does Strengthening from God Manifest?
We can do everything we ought to have done and still have extra hours. You’re still the same person, but the difference is that you are getting the strength of the Lord because your heart has become fully committed. I know a servant of God who says that whatever he does, he achieves it faster than anyone. For example, he cuts grass with a lawn mower 2 or 3 times faster than anybody else. It is supernatural. He doesn’t know how because the difference is so massive, it seems impossible. It’s like covering a 2-hour distance in 30 minutes. That is strengthening; it is the Spirit of might and it is supernatural.
We can have this capacity. It can happen to you as a student with your academics. That is what Samson had when he would go out to fight; it didn’t make sense. Daniel had it – knowledge and understanding. He was 10 times better than his mates (Daniel 1:20). You can be sure Daniel was fully committed. We can have that in every area of our lives.
Pride says, “I don’t have to use your method, I will come up with my method”. I have taught people how to fight sleep and one of the methods is by jabbing or pinching themselves. Then I’ve watched people who never obeyed it. I watched them sleep like thick blankets were thrown over them. They have no strength in that area because the Lord gives grace to the humble (James 4:6) and they have appointed themselves to not be humble. For some people, the more it is said, the more they determine not to agree. They will end up as old people who never accomplished purpose and destiny and will find out why pride is called the sin of the devil. It is a terrible thing.
Remember, be practical.
Identify the places where you are expected to operate and note them down. Those are the areas you are going to act on and God will give you grace. God is faithful, so stop saying, “God I have done my part”. Which part have you done? It does not matter if you said it directly or not, you may have been thinking it, so repent.
Thankfully, the eyes of the Lord are still running, they always do. Be positioned properly for the next time they pass. Mark Johnson talked about a time when he was 13 or so and would forfeit his and his father’s favorite TV show to go aside and seek the Lord. It went on for about a month or 3 months, and then one day, he was just there and the Lord Jesus walked through the wall physically, looked at him and walked through the other wall. His life was transformed.
Commitment isn’t onions. Do the needful where you are. The Lord can come to you in the kitchen like he did to Brother Lawrence who was cooking in a monastery for thousands of people. He wrote books and kings went to sit and listen to him. God is everywhere.
The Weapon of Praise
The praise dimension is the major way you keep spirits of discouragement, laziness and passiveness from resting on you. When something depressive comes to mind, throw it off. Don’t dwell on it. Move on and praise God. Go and do what’s expected of you, put things in order. If you have fallen short already and someone was dependent on you, apologize for it and move on. Throw it off quickly and don’t let it rest.
Depression is a shroud that goes over the face of the earth. It is the first death at work and it sits on you and manifests and slips weakness, slowness, and lack of motivation, all of that. Now you must substitute it. When we allow that heaviness that comes from falling short, it perpetuates, worsens and increases. Don’t wear it at all, tear it. You have the word of God, the sword of the spirit; use it to tear off that cloak of depression. Then start giving thanks.
Put on praise; wear it like a garment. Praise is the empowerment to full commitment, that is why when you are doing something you are fully committed to even without knowing, you find yourself singing. Use that as a marker: Am I praising? Then I am likely in the right place.
Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word to us. We understand that we find victory through understanding. Thank you for your understanding. I ask that you help us go forward; rid us of the spirit of lethargy, pride, passivity, and complacency. I ask, Father God, that the replacements come. Every spirit of passivity, I ask you to depart in the name of Jesus. Every spirit of pride, I command you to be removed from our life spaces in the name of Jesus. Spirit of complacency that attracts judgement from God, I command you broken. Lethargy and Hopelessness, I command you broken in the name of Jesus. Leave our life spaces, do not stand around us, do not stand over us and within us. May the angels of our Most High God be sent to drive them away, let none of them be left behind, not a single one.
As a people, we are committing to full commitment, we are asking and pursuing full commitment as we go forward. May we excel, and may we look back to this state with joy and gladness. Father, we are appealing for that extra help and if you do this for us and help us mightily with that extra dose of capacity that comes from your spirit, we will help our brethren and others. Lord, you know the fruit that comes from full commitment, we will be able to help others for decades to come.
You know how even our old stories help people, even things we are no longer doing, even areas we have fallen from like the King Asa. Although he had fallen and this word was a word of judgment, this word has helped many people. His little full commitment for the time he had been has been a source of encouragement to many others pursuing you.
So, Father, see and consider us as those who will be a source of help to others for the sake of your house, for the sake of your people, of our spiritual and physical children and your purposes on the earth. Help us break through what we have strained and fought against, walls and prisons and limitations, let them fall and stay fallen in the name of Jesus. Help us keep our foot on the throttle and listen to lies no more.
Thank You, Great Father. In the place of that shroud or weakness and carnality, let us have beauty, the oil of joy, and let a garment of praise stay upon us constantly. Let a new song be upon our lips, let the songs of the Lord be upon our mouth. Let us lift weapons of war, let the praise of God be heard continually from our lips. Yes God, thank you. Forgive us for hearing and disobeying. Let praise be the oil. Thank you, Father, blessed be your name, thank you so much, Amen.
