Dedicated to a Master You Never Chose

"You are not your own. For you were bought at a price." — 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Every Religion Dedicates Its Children

Baby dedications are performed in every church and in every religion on earth. Christians do it. So does everyone else.

This is worth sitting with. A dedication is a formal act in which a child is presented and committed to a particular power for a particular purpose. Christians present children to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask for His covering over their lives. That is a beautiful and biblical act.

But the same ceremony exists everywhere, aimed elsewhere.

Were you dedicated, blessed, named, or initiated in a religion that is not Christian? Then you were formally committed to something other than the Lord Jesus Christ, regardless of what you understood at the time.

Do you have parents or grandparents who belonged to a lodge or fraternal order? The oaths of many such organizations contain statements committing not only the member but his offspring and descendants to the order — which means to whatever that order actually serves.

In many cultures throughout the world, every child is dedicated at birth to the gods of the people. This is not obscure history. It is ordinary practice across most of the globe.

What a Dedication Does

When a child — or even an unborn child — is dedicated to a power, spirits are assigned to see that the dedication is kept. Their task is to ensure the person remains in that service for life.

The wording of the ceremony may be vague or entirely secular-sounding. That does not matter. The intent is inherent in the ritual itself.

Children dedicated in certain religious systems are formally endowed with spiritual power intended to keep them faithful to that system all their lives. Lodge oaths bind descendants. Tribal and folk dedications assign a child to a spirit from infancy.

What Happens When You Come to Christ

Here is the part that explains so much.

When a person who was dedicated in this way accepts Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, the dedication is effectively broken. He now belongs to Someone else.

To the spirits assigned to enforce that dedication, he has become a traitor.

And a curse of destruction is frequently activated at that point. The reasoning is simple and brutal: if the person cannot be held to his dedication, then he will be destroyed.

This is why so many believers report that everything in their lives fell apart after they were saved rather than before. It is why the assault so often begins at conversion rather than ending there.

How to Deal With It

This is a specific procedure. Follow it in order, out loud.

  1. Confess the sins of your forefathers, asking the Lord for forgiveness and cleansing. Ask Him to separate you completely from their iniquities.

  2. Formally renounce any dedication placed on your life to the service of any power other than Jesus Christ. Declare aloud that you are now a Christian in the service of the Lord Jesus Christ.

  3. Command every spirit placed in your life through that dedication to leave at once in the name of Jesus Christ.

  4. Take authority over the curse of destruction activated by the broken dedication, and command it broken immediately in the name of Jesus Christ.

  5. Command every spirit associated with that curse to leave you at once in the name of Jesus Christ.

Point to Ponder

You may have been given away before you could speak. You can take yourself back now that you can.

Verse to Remember

"You are not your own. For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's." — 1 Corinthians 6:19–20

Question to Consider

Was I ever dedicated, blessed, named, or committed in a ceremony belonging to something other than Jesus Christ?

Today's Practice

Find out. Ask your parents, grandparents, or the oldest relative who will talk to you. What ceremonies were performed over you as an infant? Was I baptized or dedicated anywhere, and by whom? Was anything promised on my behalf? What organizations did my father and grandfather belong to?

Then walk through the five steps above, out loud, in a private place. Take your time and mean every sentence.

If you do not know whether a dedication was made, renounce it anyway, in general terms. There is no cost to renouncing what was never there.

Prayer

Lord Jesus Christ, I belong to You. You bought me with Your own blood, and Your claim on me is the only claim that stands.

I confess the sins of my forefathers and ask You to separate me from them completely.

I now formally renounce every dedication ever made over my life to any power other than You — by my parents, my grandparents, or anyone else, whether I knew of it or not. I renounce every ceremony, every naming, every blessing, and every commitment made on my behalf to anything that is not You.

I declare that I am a Christian in the service of Jesus Christ alone.

In Your name I command every spirit assigned to me through any such dedication to leave me now and forever. I take authority over every curse of destruction activated in my life, and I command it broken now. I command every spirit associated with that curse to go.

I am Yours, Lord. Amen.

Someone may have given you away. Jesus bought you back — say so out loud.