Real surrender
Striving to not strive; fighting to stop fighting. Doing whatever it takes, stretching every spiritual muscle, denying self all its demands, in order to get to Jesus, so that He can then do the right-doing, so that He can do the striving to overcome sin; us laboring to enter His rest.
Isn’t this what surrender is all about? How else can perfect surrender be perfect acquiescence—not my will, but Thine be done—yielded to the Spirit of grace, who is also the Spirit of truth.
What loving parent would desire his children to grovel at his feet before preparing their food or before giving them a gift? What parent would enjoy his children begging him? What a gross picture that paints! Is this what we see in the natural world? No, we see children asking in perfect expectation, in faith that their beloved parent will quickly grant their request. Yet, groveling is what Satan leads us to do to God. And God has suffered greatly as a result. No, rather, true service to God, in order to really relieve His great heart of love, is to come to Him as His precious beloved children; repentant, forgiven, and happy to be near Him. This is what surrender does for us.
“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1Tim. 1:5). After God is finished instructing His undisciplined children, they have His heart of gold, a cleansed conscience, and a true, natural, unpretentious trust and love in Him. They are fully surrendered to Him.
But surrender is not something we can accomplish. It is God’s work. It is due to the endlessly attempting surrender that multitudes of Christians are the saddest, most exhausted, distraught people in the world. We can say, “I surrender to You, Lord.” We can sing it. And we must surrender to the fullest extent possible. Yet, that is only the beginning of a long process. Our commitment to surrender is only the green light for God to set Satan to the side, and to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
God alone can work surrender into us; and we must lay there on His operating table and let Him do that miraculous work. Since our fall under Satan’s dominion, we cannot produce surrender to God. Through His providences, in cooperation with His Holy Spirit working in our minds and hearts, He brings us to that long-sought-for condition. “Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jon. 2:9).
But how does surrender happen? What can I do to ensure it? What must I do to be saved?
Even repentance is the gift of God, and is called forth from us when He has fully prepared us for it. All we can do toward our own salvation is to accept His gifts when He offers them; here is where our will must work. But the timing of the gift of surrender is His decision, and His alone. Can you trust Him to make the right decisions in your behalf, and for your good? Can you trust Him that He will accept you and stay with you and not let you go until He brings you to that full faith He and you desire? “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25).
“Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.” (Is. 30:18).
Yes, He will do right. Happy are all they that have patience with His work. He works not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. We can trust His strategy, though we must do so somewhat in the blind at the beginning. There is a chain of events that leads to that trust.
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? …So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:13-17).
We must not necessarily be working in the blind. We have a mighty tool for enlightening the mystery of godliness, the hidden work of God in our salvation. The word of God will reveal to us, through precept as we study it and through experience as we heed it, the work of God for our individual case.
We need not worry ourselves out of His hands; if we accept His promises and hold them close, then they are all for us and He will reward us in them. But if we neglect His word we will be nerveless and confused, and sooner or later we will flee the difficulties associated with His task of extracting a sinner from the grip of Satan, and from the guilt and power of sin.
There, in the Bible, Jesus shows us what and how He has dealt with other sinners in the past. We see what wrestling He evoked from them, their pains and sorrows, and their final glorious end. When we come before the Holy Writ in prayer we are sitting at the very feet of Jesus.
There are three things that pave the way to trust: talking and listening with someone who is perfectly trustworthy, and doing things together with that person. When we do those three trust naturally and automatically springs up where there was no trust.
Whenever anyone has done those things they always found it impossible not to trust in their trustworthy friend. Jesus is perfectly trustworthy. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.” (Rev. 19:11).
We must do those three exercises with God if we are ever to trust Him. We must listen to His voice as we daily read His word, we must pray with Him, and we must share His love with others. If we will do these simple measures we will have for ourselves what seemed impossible to happen. Trust in His love will spring up out of nowhere. We will have faith and will walk in the light of that wonderful gift.
You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. So Jesus said to His disciples, “It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Matthew 10:20. Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works—works of righteousness, obedience . Steps to Christ, p. 62.
Notice that all of the above statement was not due to our willpower. Our willpower comes into play only in initiating our connection with God. Nothing happens until God meets us, His power joined to ours, His mind with our mind, His will imbuing ours. Then we manifest the works of righteousness, and then Satan and his temptations are routed.
We can choose to surrender, but it is not until God brings His forces to bear in us that we finally do surrender. And then we surrender all . We surrender to His love, His just and holy love; we bow in humility and contrition. As it is written, “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.” (Ez. 36:31). In the sight of love toward unworthy sinners, our heart melts and we become reconciled to His Law and reconciled to all the hardships we endured while He escorted us out of Satan’s dominion.
No one can baptize himself. No one can crucify himself. It takes someone else to do that for him. And isn’t baptism a sign of being birthed into a new man child, a man fully surrendered to the Lord? Since baptism represents surrender, “planted together in the likeness of His death,” (Rom. 6:5), and no one can baptize himself, then no one can bring himself to surrender. It must require a second person.
But we consciously must do all that we can possibly do to surrender. We must come to the place where surrender happens—God’s book, constant prayer inspired and educated by that Book, and by serving others and sharing the love of God as revealed in the Bible. If we will put 100% of our effort and willpower toward surrender here, and 0% in trying to achieve the end result by our choice alone, then real surrender will happen, sub-conscious surrender, natural, unforced, yet powerful, surrender—God-given “possession by the heavenly agencies.”
When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. Desire of Ages, p. 324.
Then we will be the children of Israel God always wanted—happy, surrendered, trusting little ones whom He could dandle on His knees. No more trace of spiritualism’s groveling. No more obeisance and worshipping like John’s and James’s mother tried to do to Jesus. (Matt. 20:20).
Instead there will be simple faith, a child’s trust and willingness to please. A dandelion and a big expectant smile to God weighs more than all the great sacrifices that the unbelieving soul thinks he must drum up to force Him to love us. Except great men become as little children, they will suffer the wrath of Satan until the devil has his character indelibly stamped in their mind.
“And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:0,11).
Isn’t this what surrender is all about? How else can perfect surrender be perfect acquiescence—not my will, but Thine be done—yielded to the Spirit of grace, who is also the Spirit of truth.
What loving parent would desire his children to grovel at his feet before preparing their food or before giving them a gift? What parent would enjoy his children begging him? What a gross picture that paints! Is this what we see in the natural world? No, we see children asking in perfect expectation, in faith that their beloved parent will quickly grant their request. Yet, groveling is what Satan leads us to do to God. And God has suffered greatly as a result. No, rather, true service to God, in order to really relieve His great heart of love, is to come to Him as His precious beloved children; repentant, forgiven, and happy to be near Him. This is what surrender does for us.
“Now the end of the commandment is charity out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned.” (1Tim. 1:5). After God is finished instructing His undisciplined children, they have His heart of gold, a cleansed conscience, and a true, natural, unpretentious trust and love in Him. They are fully surrendered to Him.
But surrender is not something we can accomplish. It is God’s work. It is due to the endlessly attempting surrender that multitudes of Christians are the saddest, most exhausted, distraught people in the world. We can say, “I surrender to You, Lord.” We can sing it. And we must surrender to the fullest extent possible. Yet, that is only the beginning of a long process. Our commitment to surrender is only the green light for God to set Satan to the side, and to do for us what we cannot do for ourselves.
God alone can work surrender into us; and we must lay there on His operating table and let Him do that miraculous work. Since our fall under Satan’s dominion, we cannot produce surrender to God. Through His providences, in cooperation with His Holy Spirit working in our minds and hearts, He brings us to that long-sought-for condition. “Salvation is of the Lord.” (Jon. 2:9).
But how does surrender happen? What can I do to ensure it? What must I do to be saved?
Even repentance is the gift of God, and is called forth from us when He has fully prepared us for it. All we can do toward our own salvation is to accept His gifts when He offers them; here is where our will must work. But the timing of the gift of surrender is His decision, and His alone. Can you trust Him to make the right decisions in your behalf, and for your good? Can you trust Him that He will accept you and stay with you and not let you go until He brings you to that full faith He and you desire? “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Gen. 18:25).
“Therefore will the Lord wait, that He may be gracious unto you, and therefore will He be exalted, that He may have mercy upon you: for the Lord is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for Him.” (Is. 30:18).
Yes, He will do right. Happy are all they that have patience with His work. He works not to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. We can trust His strategy, though we must do so somewhat in the blind at the beginning. There is a chain of events that leads to that trust.
“For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? …So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” (Rom. 10:13-17).
We must not necessarily be working in the blind. We have a mighty tool for enlightening the mystery of godliness, the hidden work of God in our salvation. The word of God will reveal to us, through precept as we study it and through experience as we heed it, the work of God for our individual case.
We need not worry ourselves out of His hands; if we accept His promises and hold them close, then they are all for us and He will reward us in them. But if we neglect His word we will be nerveless and confused, and sooner or later we will flee the difficulties associated with His task of extracting a sinner from the grip of Satan, and from the guilt and power of sin.
There, in the Bible, Jesus shows us what and how He has dealt with other sinners in the past. We see what wrestling He evoked from them, their pains and sorrows, and their final glorious end. When we come before the Holy Writ in prayer we are sitting at the very feet of Jesus.
There are three things that pave the way to trust: talking and listening with someone who is perfectly trustworthy, and doing things together with that person. When we do those three trust naturally and automatically springs up where there was no trust.
Whenever anyone has done those things they always found it impossible not to trust in their trustworthy friend. Jesus is perfectly trustworthy. “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and He that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.” (Rev. 19:11).
We must do those three exercises with God if we are ever to trust Him. We must listen to His voice as we daily read His word, we must pray with Him, and we must share His love with others. If we will do these simple measures we will have for ourselves what seemed impossible to happen. Trust in His love will spring up out of nowhere. We will have faith and will walk in the light of that wonderful gift.
You are to maintain this connection with Christ by faith and the continual surrender of your will to Him; and so long as you do this, He will work in you to will and to do according to His good pleasure. So you may say, “The life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20. So Jesus said to His disciples, “It is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.” Matthew 10:20. Then with Christ working in you, you will manifest the same spirit and do the same good works—works of righteousness, obedience . Steps to Christ, p. 62.
Notice that all of the above statement was not due to our willpower. Our willpower comes into play only in initiating our connection with God. Nothing happens until God meets us, His power joined to ours, His mind with our mind, His will imbuing ours. Then we manifest the works of righteousness, and then Satan and his temptations are routed.
We can choose to surrender, but it is not until God brings His forces to bear in us that we finally do surrender. And then we surrender all . We surrender to His love, His just and holy love; we bow in humility and contrition. As it is written, “Then shall ye remember your own evil ways, and your doings that were not good, and shall lothe yourselves in your own sight for your iniquities and for your abominations.” (Ez. 36:31). In the sight of love toward unworthy sinners, our heart melts and we become reconciled to His Law and reconciled to all the hardships we endured while He escorted us out of Satan’s dominion.
No one can baptize himself. No one can crucify himself. It takes someone else to do that for him. And isn’t baptism a sign of being birthed into a new man child, a man fully surrendered to the Lord? Since baptism represents surrender, “planted together in the likeness of His death,” (Rom. 6:5), and no one can baptize himself, then no one can bring himself to surrender. It must require a second person.
But we consciously must do all that we can possibly do to surrender. We must come to the place where surrender happens—God’s book, constant prayer inspired and educated by that Book, and by serving others and sharing the love of God as revealed in the Bible. If we will put 100% of our effort and willpower toward surrender here, and 0% in trying to achieve the end result by our choice alone, then real surrender will happen, sub-conscious surrender, natural, unforced, yet powerful, surrender—God-given “possession by the heavenly agencies.”
When the soul surrenders itself to Christ, a new power takes possession of the new heart. A change is wrought which man can never accomplish for himself. It is a supernatural work, bringing a supernatural element into human nature. The soul that is yielded to Christ becomes His own fortress, which He holds in a revolted world, and He intends that no authority shall be known in it but His own. A soul thus kept in possession by the heavenly agencies is impregnable to the assaults of Satan. Desire of Ages, p. 324.
Then we will be the children of Israel God always wanted—happy, surrendered, trusting little ones whom He could dandle on His knees. No more trace of spiritualism’s groveling. No more obeisance and worshipping like John’s and James’s mother tried to do to Jesus. (Matt. 20:20).
Instead there will be simple faith, a child’s trust and willingness to please. A dandelion and a big expectant smile to God weighs more than all the great sacrifices that the unbelieving soul thinks he must drum up to force Him to love us. Except great men become as little children, they will suffer the wrath of Satan until the devil has his character indelibly stamped in their mind.
“And he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Rev. 14:0,11).
posted by David | 5:59 AM
1 Comments:
Real Surrender,
David, I have been so much impressed by your current post real surrender. Surrender is a sign that you have totally given up and that you are weak, It means that you're ready to abide by your captors. When we surrender to God and we are taken captives of His word, It means we do not do anything on our own but what those who have taken us as captives demand. Its indeed a joy to surrender to God. For there is joy in this present world and the world to come.
Thanks Again, it has been so nice. I will add it to my radio talk show with a little edting to suit the people I preach to some of which have never heard Christ. I love these posts and they are indeed for me and my radio listeners.
Daniel In Uganda
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