Last week we discussed how God not only maintains our surrender , but He blesses our surrender! This week I would like to look a little deeper into how God blesses our surrender. So, when was Peter delivered? When was he converted and surrendered his life completely to Jesus? As often happens, his change came with a crisis. Peter discovered that instead of being strong and good, he was weak and sinful. Have you ever come to this crisis in your life? I sure have! And we must, because it’s really hard for God to save good people. And when I say that, I mean people who have not come to the point that they realize their good deeds are not what saves them. It is when we realize as Peter did, just how sick and helpless we are, that God can finally start that process in 2 Corinthians 5:17
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
It is only then that we start the discipleship process and our walk with Jesus. Peter’s change began with weeping, and he finally allowed the Holy Spirit to come down and fill his heart.
Our loving Heavenly Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit, so that we have the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts. When we can bow before Him, confessing how we have grieved the Spirit and we have put ourself before Jesus, then God can strengthen us with the power of His Spirit by reveling Jesus to us, so He can come and dwell in our lives and cast out the self-life. Andrew Murray puts it this way,
“Let us bow before God in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole church. No words can tell the sad state of the church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes
feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of normal Christians, or professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God’s will!” Absolute Surrender page 16
We may be tempted to say, well that was in his day. Certainly it’s different in our day, and most certainly in our church! Is it really? Is it different in my life? Is it different in your life? Or are we those “good” people who like the Rich Young Ruler had done good his whole life, and yet when Jesus showed him his true heart, he went away sorrowful? What does absolute surrender really mean, and how does our Lord bless our surrender?
I’m trying to be honest with myself here, and I hope you will as well. We are members of a last day church which is rich and in need of nothing! All to often I find myself in a partnership with the world, loving the things that the world loves, and showing the same coldness toward my fellow man that the world does. It all to often becomes about me, and what I want instead of giving myself entirely and wholly to Jesus. How much Christian work do I do in the spirit of the flesh, and in the power of self? May I be that real with you? I think these are questions we need to give some thought.
Friends, how many of us truly long to be delivered from the self-life? How many of us are willing to admit that much of our life is just the power of self, and are we ready to cast all at the feet of Jesus, the only place we can find deliverance? I pray that death will be the most desirable thing in the world to us - death to self, replaced by fellowship with Jesus! That is how God blesses our surrender and gives us that life more abundant. Giving all to Jesus! I look forward to seeing each of you. Have a wonderful Week!
I love you!
Brad
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!”
It is only then that we start the discipleship process and our walk with Jesus. Peter’s change began with weeping, and he finally allowed the Holy Spirit to come down and fill his heart.
Our loving Heavenly Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit, so that we have the Spirit of God dwelling in our hearts. When we can bow before Him, confessing how we have grieved the Spirit and we have put ourself before Jesus, then God can strengthen us with the power of His Spirit by reveling Jesus to us, so He can come and dwell in our lives and cast out the self-life. Andrew Murray puts it this way,
“Let us bow before God in humility, and in that humility confess before Him the state of the whole church. No words can tell the sad state of the church of Christ on earth. I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes
feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you. I do not speak of normal Christians, or professing Christians, but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest Christians who are not living a life in the power of God or to His glory. So little power, so little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered to God’s will!” Absolute Surrender page 16
We may be tempted to say, well that was in his day. Certainly it’s different in our day, and most certainly in our church! Is it really? Is it different in my life? Is it different in your life? Or are we those “good” people who like the Rich Young Ruler had done good his whole life, and yet when Jesus showed him his true heart, he went away sorrowful? What does absolute surrender really mean, and how does our Lord bless our surrender?
I’m trying to be honest with myself here, and I hope you will as well. We are members of a last day church which is rich and in need of nothing! All to often I find myself in a partnership with the world, loving the things that the world loves, and showing the same coldness toward my fellow man that the world does. It all to often becomes about me, and what I want instead of giving myself entirely and wholly to Jesus. How much Christian work do I do in the spirit of the flesh, and in the power of self? May I be that real with you? I think these are questions we need to give some thought.
Friends, how many of us truly long to be delivered from the self-life? How many of us are willing to admit that much of our life is just the power of self, and are we ready to cast all at the feet of Jesus, the only place we can find deliverance? I pray that death will be the most desirable thing in the world to us - death to self, replaced by fellowship with Jesus! That is how God blesses our surrender and gives us that life more abundant. Giving all to Jesus! I look forward to seeing each of you. Have a wonderful Week!
I love you!
Brad
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