Renewing the Nazirite Vow

This has really been a neat week! The Lord has confirmed 5-6 words and/or verses to me just this week. God is so awesome! I will briefly tell about the coolest one.

For a few months now my spirit has been stirred to go after God at a new level. I felt like the Lord was stirring in me to make a concentrated separation to Him. Also called a consecration. We actually had talked to some people one night about what this consecration could entail, and started to pray about when and to whom this should be presented. 

So this weekend the Bradley Epworth and the garage had a guest speaker in named Rhonda Hughey. She is a world renown author, speaker who is commissioned by God to speak breakthrough and transformation into cities. She felt she had a message and a God given challenge for Peoria. She presented a call to a 21 day separation and consecration period unto God dwelling in and transforming this city. It is actually entitled “The Divine Experiment”. 

God took what was burning in my heart and several others and sent us an answer to our prayers. What we thought would be great if we could get ten or fifteen people committed to doing turned out to be a city wide fire that is soon to be lit.

Ok…… So God is definitely leading and we need to be following. Today I am finally going to write on this topic that has been burning in me for a while. Renewing our vows with God. Separating ourselves from this world in order to have intimacy with Jesus. I am going to talk about some very conventional steps we can take to experience some unconventional results.

Numbers 6:1-3  ”Now the Lord said to Moses, “Speak to the Israelites and say to them: If a man or woman wants to make a special vow, a vow of separation to the Lord as a Nazirite, he must abstain from……….

I encourage you to read the rest of the chapter. It then lists what they are to abstain from and what they are to do. The word nazir in the Hebrew means “to separate.” This was not a specific origin of people. It was simply a name given to the Israelites who chose to make this vow.

I believe God is raising up a remnant of people that He is ready to give a new name. He is raising up a John 3:30 people whose heart desire is that He must increase and they must decrease. A people that love not their own lives to death. Wow, what could He do with a group of people with that attitude and desire? I will tell you; He could flip this world upside down!

Acts 17:6 says, “And these who have turned the world upside down have come here also!” It is possible! We can be world turners! We are going to need to walk in Godlly wisdom and power if this is to happen. We can gain this power through intimacy with Christ which is separation from sin. We have to stop feeding the flesh. We will  need some serious grace to walk this out, and we know that the Word says that His grace is enough.

So, how do we kill our flesh and strengthen our spirit? It is time to take drastic measures! It is time to put aside the norm once and for all. We need to stop entertaining ourselves with what quenches the Holy Spirit! What is our primary entertainment source? That’s right…The TV, boob tube, box to Babylon. Just think about the programs we watch to “relax” or “unwind”. Murder, sex, profanity, idolatry, cheating, divorce. This is what saturates our media, which in turn saturates us. The Spirit of God can not hang out in that environment. It is time to declare a separation from all media that sets itself up against the knowledge of Christ!

Music is another area that we have seen the benefits of separation. Our house has not listened to any secular music for almost one year now. What a sense of freedom that brings. Music plays such a huge role in our lives today and it affects our heart, emotions, mood, and our spirit. Again, you can choose to listen to music that glorifies God, or music that doesn’t. Worship is such a strong form of spiritual warfare. So you can actually choose to be fighting the enemy on your car ride home from work! I know my choice. 1 John 3:8 says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. I want to partner and fight along side Jesus any way I can.

Bottom line, we just have to steer clear of any area of our life that does not glorify God. We need to be very intentional about it. It is time to start making some sacrifices to show the Lord that we are desperate for His presence. I think we all know what doesn’t work by now. 

Mike Bickle quotes, “To a people without mixture, He will give His Spirit without measure.” To the people that decide they are sick of having one foot in the world and one foot in the church. God desires wholehearted commitment. I personally am going to start to take drastic measures to see the presence of God in my life. Steps that I have never taken before. You have to go a different direction to get to a place you have have never been. God will give the grace needed to do this! Lets all go for it together!

Jarod