Surrender is not for losers! It is one of the bravest things many of us have ever done. To surrender can be defined as the “laying down of arms”. When we remove the win-or-lose aspect of
surrendering we find a great spiritual truth-one that will change the scope and
direction of our lives as we live and breathe on earth! Though it is an act of “giving up” it has the
capacity to save us as well as mature us- in our hearts, minds and souls.
Here is the spiritual truth I’m speaking about:
There is victory in surrender!
In the culture that we live in, most of us have a huge blind
spot in seeing that there is victory in any sort of surrender! What I am talking about is spiritual in nature-so we must move away
from the physical act and into the spiritual realm to understand the spiritual
mechanism of which I’m referencing. Lets start with this thought: When we spiritually surrender our goals and desires and open our minds to God's ultimate plan for our lives- we will find ourselves on an incredible road to victory!! You see, our hopes for the future are limited by our human capacity but God's plans are not bound by earthly barriers for he is capable of moving beyond the limits of this world and can literally move heaven and earth to guide and provide for us. We just overlook this monumental truth at times.
In our cruel world,
where mercy is not always available, many of us do not comprehend this path to victory because we
don’t see godly surrender as useful or practical! Spiritual surrender does not come naturally to us. Perhaps, we simply can’t grasp this spiritual
concept because our worldly minds are
distracted and we’re “up in arms”;
dressed for battle, with our eyes and ears shielded and our adrenaline
pumping-as we strive to achieve our personal goals-thinking that Success and its
minion, Money, will fix our problems, usher in contentment and make us happy! Many of us are on this path because our eyes are fixed on earthly success and our hearts have forgotten to pump for godly pursuits.
The World’s salesmen have sold us on the mantra of Success
and we’ve suited up to take what we “deserve.
Success has been packaged to look a certain way and nothing else will
do. Deep in our hearts we believe
success to be the ultimate goal of our lives and some of us, with no real
substance to this sustain this deception, think we’ve earned it. The World taunts us into believing that a certain level of success defines us and
with the flashing lights of Hollywood and the echoes of roaring crowds chanting
the beautiful song of success in our culture, on our TV, in our books and magazines
–soon, our hearts are enchanted and we now know exactly what we want! Mesmerized and empowered with this overt AND
sometimes subliminal call-to-arms we chase every dream and fight every battle
to succeed and in the meantime we’ve left behind what is important and
neglected the Call of Truth.
What is the Call to Truth? God wants our hearts and minds fully committed
to him! Contrary to this godly call our worldly goals do not like this too
much! With the Genesis of Man the godly Tree of Life stood as pure encouragement asking humanity to maintain self-control-but original man failed-to the demise of all. Because of that, this thesis has been playing out from day one! Humanity has historically been
drawn into this dilemma-we could rightly call a world war- and the taunts of worldly success have paved an enticing, well-lit road where many a battle has been won-
or lost. This global battle takes place
on every level: personal and professional as well as economically, spiritually and
politically.
The world pulls us to this systematic grind and we battle it
out everyday: in our business environment,
in our personal lives, in our financial house, in our house of residence-that
sacred place where our family dwells and we call home! With modern culture as it
is- Self –Interest has been promoted
above anything godly and Self seeks to win no matter the cost! Survival seems to dictate this consuming
call-to-arms and our natural call to selfishness sees this as worthy. With our minds controlled by our consuming
desires and our foolish hearts caught up in the daily battle to win-neither
failure nor surrender is an option.
In the personal
battle of Pursuit of Success our brilliant minds are planning ahead and our
physical arms are busy clinking blades with our daily enemies; our obstacles! To our left and right are strewn the evidences
of some of our “wins”; our trophies, medals, certificates, and paychecks. Of course some of our losses and strewn about
as well; physical wounds from real battles, broken bank accounts, broken
marital agreements, broken homes and hearts- to name a few.
We would never willingly to lay down our personal orders
(our ambitions) or drop all our earthly goals (our personal desires and plans)
even though they overshadow God’s plans for our lives and even though they
overload us with concerns, dilemmas, obstacles, problems, stress, fear, unhappiness
and pain! Graciously, yes graciously, when we are forced to do so-as most of
us understand the act of “surrender” – we think defeat has just knocked us down,
devastated our lives and demanded that we relinquish our plans for the future!
Now, I welcome you to the Freedom and Victory of Spiritual
Surrender!!! Here is how it plays out:
Many of us have been down-for-the-count; at our wit’s end
and metaphorically standing in front a fortified brick wall-with no other
recourse but to yield. When we come to
this point we are truly at the end of ourselves…and our personal plans! Any motivating thoughts escape us! Our inquiring
minds are stumped, our breath is held and our world has gone quiet! Perhaps our money is gone, our plans are now
obsolete, our goals completely irrelevant, our future is uncertain and we are
as well. Our way seems lost; we’re
standing there alone, our physical body is limp and our Sword of Success is
lying in the dirt in front of us. We
fall to our knees out of pure exhaustion and only one word comes to mind!!! I
dare say at this moment, most of us, even those who are not particularly
religious, have cried out “God!!!” With this, we have just
been ushered into a place of spiritual
surrender.
Unfortunately, circumstance will at times bring us to this
place. This surrender, of sorts, may
happen in the private recesses of our hearts and minds but it may also happen
in the court of opinion or law. Many
times this happens as our friends and family stand looking on, bewildered. No matter when-no matter where, we are now
front-and-center of an obstacle that will not be moved except for the power of
something beyond our human mind and might.
Surrender has come with force and our heart of stone, that we thought
was honorable and worthy, can now begin to beat again because we have been
rescued from the battle and the revival of reality has set in! We can now flesh out truth from fiction and
find where we went wrong!
Let’s admit this: “When we’re at our wit’s-end it no longer
feels like the cowardly thing to pray”1 If we’re in touch with anything spiritual
at all- we can admit that we’re in desperate need of every form of salvation
and spiritual surrender begs us to
submit to God! It is now, however, our choice
whether we remain in the stance of godly surrender…. or not! Those who do find
victory –for the moment our knees hit the ground in honest faith we have
summoned a power beyond our understanding to battle by our side. At this time our prayer needs to be-
“Lord, open my eyes that I may see you.
Open my ears that I may hear you.
Strengthen my faith that I may be sustained by you.
Soften my heart that I may trust you.
Renew my mind that I may know you.”
Those who don’t seek God at this pivotal point in their lives remain bound and are prisoners in this Cultural War that has us chasing after temporary worldly success as we forsake the destiny of our eternal souls. Whether we know it or not-the choice to remain self-reliant or chose spiritual surrender as recourse has eternal consequences-for the longer we chose Self over God the longer we will dwell in the mutiny of the mundane and we bind ourselves to the material realm where our earthly trophies will be our only prize. But the second we surrender our Self to God we’ve opened the door to Victory and a success that is abundant and overflowing-for the Commander of an Army of Angels is now on our side!
Our own personal instinct to call out to God when we’re down-for-the-count
is our intuition that quietly tells us there is truth in surrender. Christians call this instinct “the Mind of
Christ” or the Holy Spirit. With this
understanding, we must be willing to let down our guard and spiritually meet
with something holy within our minds-for when we meet with God in a stance of
spiritual surrender we are truly in the midst of holy ground. Here is a breath-taking scriptural reference of this exact type of revelation:
…”Surely the Lord is
in this place, and I was not aware of it”
Genesis 28:16
End Note: For those of us already in Battle: Believing
that defeat is part of surrender- we wait to the last minute to relinquish our
battle plans and that is so typical of us humans. Who among us wants to abandon our goals, no
matter how selfish, quit something we had committed to-no matter how wrong it
now seems… or find the courage to say that we cannot continue on the path we
chose-because we were wrong! The courage
to do exactly that arrives when we have the spiritual clarity and courage to
kneel in surrender to a Holy God!
Spiritual Truth of it:
When seeking Spiritual change through surrender we must be willing to let go of all our desires and plans. Surrender can be defined as "a giving something up as a courtesy". That's a polite way of seeing it. But we humans don't comprehend courtesy as part of surrender and instead see it as a devastating blow. With our hearts spilled out we must find a willingness to only allow truth back into our minds and then freely allow God to speak to the recesses of our soul. We must pray, and wait for direction that will arrive only when our minds are quiet, our desires have truly ceased and our faith has risen to the point that we know without a doubt that God can and will work in our lives-visibly, literally, spiritually, practically, kindly, compassionately! With true faith, we must literally believe that He is a force that can move through the material realm to take care of the one He loves. We must firmly believe that He can be trusted to attend to our needs, our hearts, our minds, and souls and that He will indeed do it. We must believe with such a depth that unbelief is absurd!
When seeking Spiritual change through surrender we must be willing to let go of all our desires and plans. Surrender can be defined as "a giving something up as a courtesy". That's a polite way of seeing it. But we humans don't comprehend courtesy as part of surrender and instead see it as a devastating blow. With our hearts spilled out we must find a willingness to only allow truth back into our minds and then freely allow God to speak to the recesses of our soul. We must pray, and wait for direction that will arrive only when our minds are quiet, our desires have truly ceased and our faith has risen to the point that we know without a doubt that God can and will work in our lives-visibly, literally, spiritually, practically, kindly, compassionately! With true faith, we must literally believe that He is a force that can move through the material realm to take care of the one He loves. We must firmly believe that He can be trusted to attend to our needs, our hearts, our minds, and souls and that He will indeed do it. We must believe with such a depth that unbelief is absurd!
THIS IS SPIRITUAL SURRENDER!
“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely,
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
at the coming of our lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful and he will do it”
and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless
at the coming of our lord Jesus Christ.
He who calls you is faithful and he will do it”
1 Thess. 5: 23-24
Song Recommendation:
I Surrender
By: Hillsong Live
By: Hillsong Live
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