Insight from Rick the Nazirite

This is a portion of an email from Lead Pastor Rick Whitfield, who has been a Nazirite since September 2007, written to a few of his friends to help explain what this vow is all about, and how it can be applied in our present context:

These are excerpts from the book "Elijah Revolution" by Lou Engle and James Goll.. Forgive me if they are random, but I'm just giving you the meat, so you can pray about it and decide for yourself. In the Scriptures, Nazirites were people of extreme devotion to God who, among other things, left their hair uncut as a mark of their consecration. By their long hair they were saying, in effect, "We are not interested in seeing how little we can get by with in our devotion to God, but how far we can go. We are literally exploring the lengths of consecration." Another characteristic of Nazirites was that they did not drink wine or eat raisins or grapes, all of which represented the sweet pleasures of life. Abstaining in this way from the product of the grape was a Nazirite's way of saying that none of the pleasures of this life could equal the pleasure of knowing God intimately.

Nazirites are special people. As the Old Testament reveals, God raises them up when His people are in great distress because they have succumbed to spiritual and moral decay. Time and time again throughout Israel's history, Nazirites turned the tide of spiritual and national degeneration. In ancient Israel Nazirites were often the hinge of history, a crucial part of God's strategy to bring revival and restoration to His people. From the beginning, Nazirites had a powerful influence on the spirit and conscience of the nation.

MARKED BY GOD
The Nazirite vow consists of 3 restrictions to be observed by those making the commitment:

1. A Nazirite fasts grapes, raisins, grape juice and alcohol. Wine is the symbol of natural joy-- grapes, the source of God given sweetness and pleasure. For the Nazirite, we fast the legitimate pleasures of this life in exchange for the extreme pleasure of knowing God. My advice, fast these things and also ask God, "are there any other worldly pleasures that aren't sinful, but that you still want me to lay down during this vow?"
2. Don't cut your hair, don't shave your face. Long hair symbolizes the strength of our commitment to God, makes us accountable to others for our faithfulness to the vow, and serves as a public mark of our consecration. "Keeping their hair long reminded Nazirites that the eyes of both God and men were on them. It encouraged them to walk carefully before the Lord." If we break any part of our vow, we shave our head/face immediately and start over.
3. Nazirites are also forbidden by their vow to come into contact with anything that is dead, including members of their own family. This prohibition symbolized two things. First, it spoke of abstaining from anything that would bring death to their soul, anything that could usurp their passion or pollute their power. Secondly, it referred to renouncing dead works and legalism. This kind of sacrifice, this kind of extreme commitment to God, was not to be performed as a dead religious duty, but out of passion. I would also recommend praying and asking the Lord, "what things cause death in my life, or are dead to me?" T.V. was a huge one for me and video games!

Nazirites always seemed to show up just when there was great religious upheaval in the land. They were a counter cultural movement of holy warriors committed to waging a godly counterattack against the spiritual rebellion that characterized most of the rest of their nation. Psalm 11:3 says, "If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?" THEY CAN CALL ON GOD AND OFFER THEMSELVES AS LIVING SACRIFICES, AS ALTARS UPON WHOM GOD'S FIRE CAN FALL!!!

Thought for Day 10: Tools versus Works

Samuel, Samson, John the Baptist, and probably the apostle Paul all did it. Some were set aside from birth (the OT guys). The others likely did it for a defined period of time. What is it?

These men all took Nazirite vows. What does this mean? To put it simply, a Nazirite is one who takes overt measures in daily life to be separated unto the Lord, away from the details of life that have the potential to pull the Nazirite away from him. A Nazirite takes overt steps--some that are very visible (such as not cutting any hair from the neck up)--to make the holiness of God a focus of his/her life.

That is the commitment we, as a community, have made for these 40 days. Now, let me ask you a question: does the Nazirite vow make you or I any more holy?

It is easy to be tricked into thinking the answer is "yes." After all, life feels more holy during a time of such overwhelming intentionality to be with God and away from things that keep us from him. But that is only a feeling. Pay very careful attention to this: after the redeeming work of Jesus Christ, which is already complete in your life, a commitment like this is NOT a "work" that can make you ANY more holy than you were before. Why? Because through the blood of Jesus and your obedience of faith in his good news, you are already fully, completely, totally holy. Nothing you can do will make you more holy, more pleasing to God.

However, in the muck of a world that is still running from the knowledge of God, it is very tempting to "offer our members to sin as instruments of wickedness" rather than "to God as those who have been brought from death to life" (Rom. 6:13). Things like a Nazirite vow (as it is called in Numbers 6), or a fast, or times of devotion, study, or service, do not earn us one single brownie point with the Almighty God... because we already have the maximum! These practices are merely tools, identified as principles in Scripture, that help us connect with the reality Jesus has already created within us. That's it.

If you are taking a full Nazirite vow during these forty days, or if you have decided to focus on the Lord in a different way, let this truth sink into your mind, soul, spirit, and body: you are simply reminding yourself of who you REALLY are, and training yourself to live life to the fullest (John 10:10). This vow is a tool, meant for our benefit. It doesn't make God love you more (he loves you infinitely), it doesn't mean you'll receive more (you will receive Christ's reward), it doesn't mean he'll hear you any more clearly than before (he already heard you better than you can hear yourself). It does allow a method for YOU to clear away the gunk that limits YOUR experience of God. In it, I believe you will connect with the joy he has placed in you in a new, exciting way.

So, how has this tool benefited you in the last 10 (or so) days?

Mentally Engaging

Let us go into this with our eyes open:

Read Numbers 6. Study the prophet named Samuel (the first few chapters of I Samuel). Study John the Baptist. Now, think about what consecration will look like for you.