Sacrifice

One of the things that we have been doing in the last two weeks is listening to messages by Peter Tsukahira. He is a Japanese American who is currently a citizen of Israel. He pastors a church at Mount Carmel. He was invited to speak at the recent NECF Prayer Conference. Listening to him reminded me of my days in Glad Sounds where I had many opportunities to listen to David Pawson’s preaching / teachings. (I think this gave birth to my passion to preach God’s Word). My heart just burnt as I listened to him expounding the Word of God.
One key thought that has sort of left a deep imprint in my heart since I heard Tsukahira’s message was the word “sacrifice”. I think many of us don’t think much about it since sacrifices were no longer needed after Jesus did the ultimate sacrifice on Calvary. Yet, God through Tsukahira reminded me that we are called to be living sacrifices, which is our spiritual act of worship. When we offer our lives as sacrifice – pleasing and acceptable to God, the power and anointing of God will rest in our lives. It must be said, and I must emphasize this that the laying down of our lives is not to receive any particular benefits from God. As Tsukahira rightly pointed out, the act of bowing down before God (worship) is in response to who God is. He is the Lord, and we His children worship Him for who He is; not what we can get out of Him.
I think it makes a world of difference when we see our walk with God as an act of laying down our will at the altar of His grace. I think it would be much easier to let go of things if we realize that our life is no longer our own.