I SURRENDER ALL   #396

Good Morning, Meetpastordan Readers…One of the gifts of the Holy Spirit is to lead us into all truth. We see this when Jesus asked His disciples, “Who do people say the Son of Man is?” They replied, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and still others say Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.” Then He asked, “What about you? Who do you say I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Messiah, Son of the living God.” Jesus said, “Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you through human reasoning, but by revelation from My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 16: 13-17) This is how the Holy Spirit leads us into all spiritual truth and understanding; it is not through our own understanding, but through revelation.

I began with this example, because the subject I want to write about today can only be understood on the spiritual level through revelation of a fundamental truth. Now having said that, the obvious question should be, “Is there another answer, or definition of this truth, in the natural realm?” The answer to that all-important question is, “yes”, but the answer in the natural realm has the opposite meaning of its spiritual counterpart. The truth in question here is the concept of “surrender.”

In the natural realm, the worldly concept of “surrender” is defeat. When one surrenders, he has given up; he has been overpowered. In the spiritual realm, the result is quite the opposite. When one surrenders, he has just opened the door for empowerment; he will be equipped to do something he here-to-fore could not do through his own effort. (That supernatural power IS the success factor in living the abundant life that Jesus Christ promised us.)

Let’s look at how these “words of truth” are used in the classic hymn, “I Surrender All.”  “All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give; I will ever love and trust Him, In His presence daily live.
(Refrain) I surrender all, I surrender all, All to Thee my blessed Savior, I surrender all.  (Vs.2)  All to Jesus I surrender; Make me, Savior, wholly Thine; Let me feel the Holy Spirit, Truly know that Thou art mine. (back to Refrain)

Let’s look at these word groupings: “All to Him I freely give”, “…love and trust Him”, “In His presence daily live.”, “Make me, Savior, wholly Thine.”  All of these lovely, encouraging words require an action on our part, and that action is “surrendering”. We must become willing to surrender “self” to something greater than ourselves.  But the truth is, we can’t surrender until we know without a shadow of a doubt that we can trust the object of our faith. As Christ-followers, our object of faith is Jesus; we believe, with confident assurance, that He is who He says He is, and that He did what He came to do.  We know that because we have experienced the truth of His word, and His promises, come alive in our lives. Therefore, we have become the living word!

Let’s take for example, Jesus’ directive to Jairus, “Don’t be afraid…trust Me!” (Mark 5:35-36) To be afraid is our natural response to unwelcome or challenging information such as Jairus had just received: “Your daughter is dead.” But Jesus challenged him to rise above his natural inclination when He said, “Don’t be afraid, trust Me.” So, what would be required for that trust factor to kick in?

We are told that Jairus came to Jesus and pleaded with Him to come to his house to heal his daughter; “She is about to die. Please come and place your hands on her; heal her so she can live.” (Mark 5:23) Obviously, Jairus knew who Jesus was; perhaps he had witnessed previous miracles. But when he came to Jesus, he came with the confident expectation that Jesus could and would heal his daughter. Jairus knew he could trust the object of his faith, that special One, the One with supernatural power.

The quality that sets Christianity apart from other religions is the fact it is not based on works, but on faith and Truth…God’s Truth.  Hebrews 11:6 tells us, “It is impossible to please God without faith. Anyone who wants to come to Him must first believe He exists, and that He rewards those who seek Him.” God created us for a relationship with Himself, therefore He revealed His character, His standards, and His Truth by speaking through prophets. “Above all you must understand that no prophecy or Scripture ever came from the prophets themselves. It was the Holy Spirit who moved the prophets to speak from God.” (2Peter 1:20-21) Those Scriptures have been collected over the centuries and codified into what is now referred to as the Holy Bible. 2Timothy 3:16-17 describes its purpose. “All Scripture is inspired by God, and is useful to teach us what is true and what is wrong in our lives. It straightens us out, and teaches us to do what is right. It is God’s way of preparing us in every way, fully equipped for every good thing He wants us to do.”

When Jesus Christ walked on this earth, He was the Word of God incarnate. John 1:14 tells us, “The Word became flesh and dwelled among us.” Jesus was the living Word, that is why He told His disciples, “If you follow My teachings, you will know the truth (God’s Truth), and the truth will set you free.” (John 8:32) This is also the root of our faith and trust, because it is not just the words that were spoken, but our faith and trust is in WHO spoke those words!  The same God that said, “Let there be light” is the same God that said, “Don’t be afraid…trust Me!”  Wow!  Let that sink in.

Before one can surrender, one first has to trust and believe. God’s awesome Truth (His Word) is the foundation upon which we build our faith, because all of those words were spoken by the Creator of the universe, the Godhead of the Trinity, the omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, immutable, and timeless One. While we can stand in awe of His majestic qualities, we can never really relate to them because we are limited by our finite thinking. These attributes are far beyond our human capacity to relate, but we certainly can relate to Him through His love. Therefore, God revealed Himself to us through His Word so we could come to know Him, then choose to participate in that all- important relationship. God is described in 1John with only one word: LOVE! In fact, 1John 4:19 tells us, “We love because He first loved us”, and 1John 1:5 gives us another perspective of His love: “God is light; there is no darkness in Him!”  

So, the question might be, “How does all of this relate to surrender?” And my answer would be, “without surrendering to a power greater than ourselves (the Holy Spirit), our natural tendency is to try to overcome through our best effort.” (In fact, that describes the Old Covenant.) Before Christ came, Man proved himself to be “utterly helpless” (ref. Romans 5:6) to overcome his sinful-nature, regardless of how hard he tried.) But now that God’s plan for our salvation has been implemented (ref. Ephesians 1:3-14), those who are in Christ have been gifted with the indwelling Holy Spirit so we can be victorious in our battle with the enemy. (Ref. Ephesians 6:10-13).

Here is the bottom line. In order for the Holy Spirit to work in and through us, we have to get out of the way (we have to surrender) and call on the Spirit to give us His wisdom, His courage, His strength, His perseverance, His words to speak, whatever it is we need, to make choices that bring honor and glory to God. When we surrender to the Holy Spirit, we allow ourselves to tap into a supernatural power that will lead us to a victory, which is already ours to claim!  2 Peter, 1:3 confirms this: “The more we grow in our relationship with Jesus, His divine nature (the Holy Spirit) gives us everything we need for living a godly life.” Surrendering is the first step in the process of becoming the person God created you to be. Have YOU surrendered to Jesus? Remember, “to surrender” means, you’re all in!

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May God Bless You abundantly,

Dan Presgrave (a.k.a. Pastor Dan)