Mistah's Space

"All to Jesus, I surrender, all to Him I freely give…I surrender all."  A beautiful song, right?  But while singing this "beautiful song", how many of us actually lie to God, others and ourselves?

Surrendering (submission) is not popular to talk about. (Talking about submission in church is like talking about money.  But I come to find out, that every problem in a believer's life, leads back to one question: "Have you surrendered it to God".  More believers are getting divorced than "sinners" and I have found that in these cases it's hard for one or both to submit to each other if they have not submitted to God.  Same as dealing with love – or slight contrast, how can one submit to their spouse if they haven't submitted to God.  So today we're going to deal with the surrendering/submission problem.)  Most people don't like to think about relinquishing control or being a servant (slave) to anyone.  The fact of the matter is all of us submit (surrender) to someone…daily.  Children submit to their parents; employees submit to their employers; citizens submit to the government of the country they reside in.  As it is in the natural, so it is in the spiritual: daily, we find ourselves submitting to God or Satan.  Who have you surrendered (submitted yourselves) to today?

Surrender – To give oneself up to another; to submit; to yield oneself to the will or authority of another.

Surrender = Submit

We must surrender ourselves totally to God.  What do you mean?  Surrendering to God is not a passive submission; nor is it an excuse to sit back and do nothing (…in fact, once you surrender to God, that's when the real work begins).  Surrendering to God is sacrificing yourself in order to change whatever needs to be changed in your life; its relying on God to work things out instead of trying to control the situation or force your own agenda.

The best definition of surrendering (submitting) to God is being obedient to God.  Its saying "Yes, Lord" to whatever God asks (…even God's command(ment)s comes in the form of a request because He's given man free will…the right to choose…) you to do (…you'll know its God because he won't go against His Word).  Surrendered people obey God…even when it doesn't make sense.  God told Abraham (Abram) to leave his country and family, to go (…at that point…) to "only-God-knew where".  Abraham obeyed.  Peter obeyed Jesus (God in the flesh…God the Son) even after he worked all night and caught nothing.  In both cases, God had an awesome and overwhelming reward for their obedience.

Yes, there are benefits to submitting to God:

1)     PEACE & PROSPERITY:  Job 22:21 (Amplified) says, "Acquaint now yourself with Him [agree with God and show yourself to be conformed to His will] and be at peace; by that, [you shall prosper and great] good shall come to you."  The prophet, Isaiah also said you will have perfect peace if you commit yourself to, lean on and keep your mind (in attitude and character) on God.

2)     AUTHORITY & VICTORY: James 4:7 says, "Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you."  All of our stubborn temptations (trials and/or tests) and overwhelming problems are defeated by (through) Christ once we surrender (submit) to God

There are others.

Surrendering to God is not just the best way to live, it's the only way.  Any other way ultimately leads to frustration, disappointment and self-destruction (death).  The bible says that surrendering ourselves to God is our "reasonable service".

Eventually, everyone surrenders to someone or something.  If you don't surrender to God through righteousness, you will surrender to Satan, through the opinion and expectation of others, fear and resentment and/or the lust of the flesh.  E. Stanley Jones -- an author-- once said, "If you don't surrender to Christ, you surrender to chaos."  While you are free to choose to whom you surrender; you are not free from the consequences of that choice.  Who will you surrender to today?

God has set some options (life and death, blessing and cursing) before us to choose.  He also lets us know to choose life.  Jesus comes along in John to let us know that He is Life.  I will charge you as Joshua did to choose this day (tomorrow is not promised) whom you will serve.  But allow me to testify and let you know (as Joshua did), as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.  We will serve:

The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob

Him which was, which is and which is to come

(Who will you serve today).

We will serve:

The Faithful Witness

The First Begotten of the Dead

He that lived, was dead and is now alive forevermore

(Who will you serve today).

We will serve:

The Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End, the First and the Last

(Who will you serve today).

Me and my house, we will serve:

JEHOVAH Jireh (God, my Provider)

JEHOVAH Nisi (My Protector)

JEHOVAH Raffah (My Healer)

JEHOVAH Shalom (My Peace)

JEHOVAH Tikistido (My Righteousness)

WHO'S YOUR DADDY?