Full Surrender

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It is an easy mistake to make.  My children have stumbled on this throughout history.  I require obedience above altars, but often My children offer up their altars and sacrifices in place of true obedience.  Jacob, after wrestling with Me, began to do some very right things.  He began to walk in faith, even leading the way to meet his brother, Esau, instead of cowering in fear at the end of the procession.  He humbly made peace with the brother that he had gravely deceived, in the days that Jacob walked apart from Me.  Yet, Jacob, whom I had renamed Israel, found it difficult to walk in his new name, meaning "God rules".  Once again Jacob deceived his brother by committing to follow Esau southward to Seir, but instead he let Esau get a few days journey ahead of him and then headed north to Shechem. 

In the end, much sorrow would come to Jacob for this decision, for it is in Shechem that his daughter would be raped, and his sons would take out their revenge on the guilty party.  Yes, he did some right things, but I told him to return to the place where he first made a vow to Me, to that place where he dreamed of a ladder to heaven, to that place where he built a pillar for Me and anointed it with oil.  I called him back to Bethel, but he went his own way.  He was not surrendered to My will, therefore, he could not obey Me.  Israel went against his name, and chose to rule his own life.  In Shechem, he erected an altar and he called the place, El-Elohe-Israel, God, the God of Israel (Jacob), his true time of conversion.  But his altar-building was more important to him than his OBEDIENCE to My word.

My precious one, are you making the connection?  You do some very right things as well, but just like Jacob, you have learned to put right sacrifices ahead of the one sacrifice I require of you--your surrender to My FULL will.  Even after you conversion, you have stumbled on the idea of FULL surrender to Me.  Like Jacob, you push others out to meet meet Me more intimately, yet you cower behind them, afraid of what this might mean in YOUR life.  You speak right things, yet you do not follow your own teaching.  Repentance, Surrender, Obedience.  You speak My words all the time, but  "Sayin' ain't doin!'"   Your teaching is one of the altars you have set up.  Yes, they are good words.  But where is your obedience to My word that I have put in your mouth?

There will always be repercussions for lack of obedience.  The way you have been feeling spiritually is a sign of "altars above obedience."  The remedy is clear; obey My words and My will.  Set your goal to seek My face.  Strive after ME!  MY Presence!  For I am the Showbread, your BREAD OF LIFE, the Living Word.  Ingest Me and digest Me!  Search ME out!  I am here.  I can be found, if you would but surrender your all and come to Me!  I know that you are weary of how you live your life.  Let Me revive you.  Let me resuscitate you...              

(Gen. 33; Ps. 27:8; Matt. 11:28)

Following in the Footsteps of a Legacy

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The last words of a man are most often his wisest.  When you have lived a long life, having experienced what is common to man, you strongly strongly desire to pass on, to anyone who will listen, the knowledge which you have gained.  Everyone who has an ear to hear can learn from a sage's last words.  They become the legacy that is carried forward, wisdom to the next generation.

King David was about to die, and he had just appointed and anointed his son, Solomon, as the new king of Israel.  What he had to say to his son was the legacy of his own life.  He didn't speak of his accomplishments, nor his failures.  David spoke to Solomon the ageless truths of walking with the God of the Ages.

David challenged Solomon to be a strong man.  David knew that there would be many difficult decisions that he would have to make as king, but just as many difficult decisions regarding his own life.  "Be a man," David said to Solomon.  Life is no place for shallow and weak living.

Then David's words turned and focused on the LORD God, and Solomon's obedience to every word which God spoke.  David spoke of 3 ways that Solomon must live in order to experience the blessing of success in all that he did and wherever he would go.  We, too, should order our lives by these three principles for successful Christian lives:

• Consider God to be your Commander ("keep the charge")
• Follow in the footsteps of Jesus ("walk in His ways")
• Obey all that He says ("keep His statutes, commandments, ordinances and testimonies")

This is the way that David lived his life. Though he was not a perfect man, David had a God-ward heart, and he greatly desired his son, the heir to the throne, to follow in his footsteps.  David recalled to Solomon the promise that God had spoken to him long ago. That promise was that David would always have a blood relative on the throne of Israel if his sons were obedient to God.  Full obedience was the condition that God required if the promise was to be carried out.  This is exactly what God said,

". . . if your sons are careful of their way, to walk before Me in truth (faithfulness) with all of their heart and with all of their soul. . ."

The condition of the promise was a king's heart that was fully following in the faithful footsteps of  their father.  This king would be blessed, his kingdom would be blessed, and they would keep a man on the throne if their hearts totally belonged to God.  

God is still looking for those who will totally surrender themselves to Him.  He doesn't desire a part of our heart and soul.  He wants us to give Him all of it.  And when we do, our lives reflect to others the blessing of God upon us.  The lost of the world can only see the amount of God in us that we have surrendered to Him.  On a scale of 0 - 100% how much of your heart truly belongs to God?  What legacy are you leaving for others to follow?  Can they see your footsteps?

Is It Really All About Me?

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Is it really all about me?

We are very capable of creating our own gods. When we begin to worship them, we are opening a door not only to feed our flesh, but a door that many others might follow us through. Our self-created gods have one purpose. In the end, they make US god. As we worship them, our flesh gets to be in control and do what it wants, making us the god of our own lives. Life then becomes all about me, not the God I claim to worship.

There is a woman in the Old Testament who gave her silver to her son to create an ephod (Israel's priests already had one that they used in worship at the Tabernacle) and other household idols (teriphim that were worshiped to gain prosperity and guidance).  In the end, her son created graven and molten images that were idolatrous duplications of the priestly ephod and ark of the covenant.  He even hired a wicked Levitical priest to be the priest of his family.

You might ask how this story is relevant to us.  The answer is found in the historical account of what Israel was like in the days of the Judges.  This one sentence is repeated throughout the book of Judges:  "Every man did what was right in his own eyes."  Doing this very thing, this Jewish son re-created a religion that would be to his liking and his benefit, a religion in which he was in control.  He already knew what was right in God's eyes, and turned from it to what he deemed right.

This man led his family astray.  And he could not have known that the creation of his own god according to his desires would also lead one of the twelve tribes of Israel into idolatry as well.  The tribe of Dan discovered this ephod, fake image of the god, and the priest who absolved this family of any guilt, and the tribe of Dan stole them!  Now following this "god" instead of Jehovah, Dan is led astray and is not even mentioned in the twelve tribe in Revelation 7: 4-8.  By the same token, Eve would have had no idea that putting herself first would affect every other human being!  One person's sinfulness can have disastrous consequences in the lives of many.

What are the gods of your life?  What is it that you have created to protect you, bring pleasure to you, make you feel good, put you in the driver's seat, let you do what you want?  What is it that seems right in your eyes because it is not hurting anyone else?  Is it tobacco, alcohol, television, exercise, Facebook, pornography, working too much, material goods of any kind that you just can't get enough of, ministry?  Is it self-sufficiency that says you don't need anything or anybody, pride and arrogance, self-absorption, believing that everything is just fine in your life, false humility otherwise know as the "Eeyore syndrome"?  Every day we should be looking deeply within our hearts so that we might see the gods we have created.  Then we should be about the business of destroying them by surrendering to the only God who can.  

What is damaging our walk with God has the potential to damage others as well.  Who is your "collateral damage?"  Is it your spouse, your children, your parents, your co-workers, your friends, your brothers and sisters in Christ.  Putting your flesh first is destructive to the kingdom of God and the work He wants to do before Christ returns.  

Think about it.  Ask God to show what your gods are.  Pray about it.  Surrender to the God Almighty, confessing your idolatry (agreeing with God that it is true).  Then stand up and walk in faith in the only God, as a witness to the whole world!

Gods of the Flesh BecomeThorns in our Sides

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The land belonged now to Israel, but instead of removing everything (and everyone) that was vile to their God, Israel chose to "live among" the pagan worshipers. God had committed to the removal of the Canaanites, but Israel chose to keep them around. So God punished them by allowing the Canaanites to stay. They became thorns to Israel, the source of their destruction. What are your pagan strongholds?  What sins have you left "living among" you?

Israel stumbled yet again.  Israel had been given a promise from God that He would drive out every enemy before them.  They promised to obey His every command so that they might experience His victories.  But Israel didn't keep its end of the bargain.  When they walked away from God, He gave them exactly what they wanted.  He chose not to drive out the Canaanites since Israel would not join Him in the battle to drive them out.  The pagan people, with all of their idol worship, led Israel even farther away from God.  His beloved Israel, called to be set apart and pure, intermarried with the impure and became pagan in their belief, joining Canaanite gods to THE God.  The result of Israel's defiance and idol worship was that they would not become who God designed them to be.  His allowance of Canaanites in the Promised Land would forever be a test to Israel.  Would they follow and obey Him,  or follow their pagan neighbors and the gods of their flesh?

But have you noticed that we are not much different?  We have the same God, and we behave toward Him in exactly the same way.   God's word to us is full of His promises that He is waiting to fulfill in our lives, but we experience few victories over our sins because we are unwilling to "put them out of our midst."  So those sins and idols become thorns to us, taking us away from God.

God is not obliged to wave a wand and remove our sins, those things we worship rather than Him.  But the funny thing is this:  He is willing to destroy every one of them in us!  Most of us ignore His willingness to drive out our sin. Until we are willing to surrender them to Him, putting into His hand those sinful, pagan things that have become apart of our lives, we will not know the victorious life He has planned for us.  

The Israelite men desired and lusted after the Canaanite women.  They wanted what they wanted!  And we behave the same way when it comes to wanting what is in opposition to God and His will for us!  We have a choice set before us several times a day:  Will we remain pure and set apart from the world or will we partake and join with the world in all kinds of sin.  How long will we try to join the two together?  When will we understand that holiness can never be joined to unholiness?

Our defiance and disobedience keeps us from becoming everything that God designed us to be.  Will you settle for less by keeping your sins among you, or will you strive, by the Spirit and surrender and obedience, toward a deeper, more vibrant and victorious life?  You are choosing between the thorns and the beautiful, fragrant rose bud.  We shouldn't have to think very hard!

Comfort Vs. Surrender

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Many battles had been won; it was time for Israel to take full possession of their homeland. It was parceled off to each of the 12 tribes. God had done what He said He would do--He brought them to a secure land and equipped them to take it. He was utterly faithful, but Israel was not. They did not take it all, leaving God's land polluted. What is polluting your heart? Does He have full possession of it?

The consequences of not taking all of the land would be disastrous for Israel.  Because they chose to "relax" once they received their land, instead of driving out the Canaanites, they would fall prey to the spirit of the land.  They did not conquer it all, so their victory would be short lived.  Though God had given them everything they needed to reach this summit, they sat down in the easy chair and were quite content to dwell with the pagan people in the land.  They shared with the Canaanites what had been promised to them alone.

Don't we do the same thing?  We have been given entrance into the Kingdom of God, and the moment we come through the Door, we sit down in our comfortable salvation.  We enter into comfortable and enjoyable ministry, and we take on an attitude that is comfortable saying, "I am so grateful that I have Jesus in my heart."  

In the life of every believer there will be a moment of true heart reckoning.  Our attitude and mindset must come to the place where we ask, "Is the Holy Spirit 'comfortable' dwelling in my sinful heart?"  If you are like me, you have become comfortable hiding your sin within the walls of your heart, the very walls that contain the Holy Spirit.  This is the battle between our flesh and the Spirit.  We walk more often in our flesh, completely ignoring the Spirit's counsel.  Just like Israel was given the tools to overcome every sinful group of people in their land, we too have been given "everything we need for life and godliness."  We can dispossess the sin in us by daily putting our flesh to death.  How?  By that "everything" we have been given!  Our "everything" is the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  They are enough to overcome every sin in our life.  But in order for them to be operative in us, there is one thing that God will require of us.  He requires our surrender to Him.  Without our surrender we will continue to walk in our flesh, not overcoming and dispossessing sin from our lives.  We truly are like the Israelites when we walk in this manner.

God's ways are not our ways.  In order for us to gain victory in our spiritual lives, cleaning out what God does not want in our hearts and lives, we must surrender.  Are you ready to surrender to Him ALL of your heart?  Leaving sin inside your heart reveals complacency with your sin.  Make today a day of booting out something that God says must go!

 

Garbage Removal

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Several huge battles had been won. Israel was conquering their new homeland. But the time had come for the land to be divided between the 12 tribes. Each parcel of land still had small cities and towns that would have to be destroyed. The individual tribes would be on their own now to fully possess their property. Have all of your gods been destroyed? Does our God fully own your heart? What are you holding back?

Every working day all over the United States, streets are lined with garbage cans filled with our trash.  Junk yards are filled with cars that have been disposed of.  Sinks are built with garbage disposals.  They all serve one purpose:  to rid our lives of the stench and clutter that garbage brings to our lives.  Leaving this trash just laying around our homes is unthinkable.  We seem to have no problem with the routine of removing junk in our lives, and if we miss putting our trash cans out to the street on the right day, we might be caught accomplishing the task in our pajamas the very moment we hear the garbage truck in our neighborhood! I know, because it has happened to me.  Trash is not something we want to live in or with.  We want it removed; it makes life much more pleasant.

Let's relate that now to the story of the Israelites who were entering in to conquer the long-Promised Land.  Many kings in Canaan had been killed and the cities and peoples destroyed as God had commanded them.  But there was still a lot of work to do.  God had a plan for that as well.  As the Promised Land was "sub-divided" each tribe was charged to go into their piece of the land and remove every person.  (These people were worshipers of false gods, and would have had a negative effect on Israel's purity and separation unto their God.)  When they removed the people, they were removing the false gods, idols, and pagan practices which God abhors.  Some of the tribes were obedient to remove all that offended God; but others were lazy.  They did not remove the people and the gods, and there would be a great price to pay, down the road a bit, for their disobedience to God's command.  

You can leave this information in your mind now, thinking on it as a great history lesson.  That is what most would be prone to do.  However, there is great truth to be gleaned from the lives of God's chosen.  We must always introspect after we have learned a principle from the Word.  So, here are just a few questions to ask yourself.  I will be asking myself as well.

What gods (idols, sins, attitudes) have you already destroyed in your life?

What gods still remain, alive and well, operating in you as "your flesh"?

What prevents you from destroying them?

With the stench of sin and the clutter of your "garbage" in your life, what kind of an example of Christ to the lost world are you?

What do you think God thinks of your "junk"?

Are you willing to continue in your disobedience, allowing your "trash" to accumulate in your life?

Looking down the road, what are a few logical consequences if you continue walking in your flesh?

What is your spiritual application today as you consider your "garbage"?

How much more uncluttered would your life be if you surrendered your "trash" to God, and removed it from your life?

Stuck in the Mud

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 Israel was preparing to enter into the Promised Land. Only the rain-swelled Jordan separated them from it. Under the wise direction of Joshua, the priests and the ark of the covenant entered the river first. A thousand yards behind the ark the 2 million plus group crossed over on dry land with their eyes firmly fixed on the Presence of God, the ark. If you are in a raging river, who are your eyes fixed on, yourself and your circumstances, or the Almighty God?

God has a "promised land" for you and me.  It is called the abundant life of Spirit.  It is a life in which we are to walk in the power of the Spirit and leave our crucified flesh on the altar of surrender.  The Israelites are such a great example for us today.  The spring rainy season was occurring, and the Jordan River constantly was out of its banks.  Yet, this is the very moment that God chose to bring His people into their new land--2 million people and all of their animals and belongings!  But Joshua, their new leader, trusted God and called the priests to bring the ark and set out across the river.  The very moment they exercised their faith, the dangerous river pulled back into on big heap upstream.  When the priests feet hit the riverbed, it was completely dry, as well!  One by one, the entire company crossed over on dry ground. 

So why do we struggle so with our faith in God to take us through our journey to that "impossible" heart transformation that He desires in us?  Why is it that we refuse to see that God is waiting for us to put our full focus and trust in Him so that He can do that "impossible" work in our hearts?  He is capable of helping us cross the great divide between walking in the flesh and walking in the Spirit.  He has the path laid out for us and He wants His Son to lead us to that abundant life by His Spirit within us.  Yet, we continually attempt to "cross the river" in our own strength and power.  Consistently, we keep drowning in our self-efforts to accomplish what we were never fashioned to do.

The Israelites were not to just sit on the banks of the Jordan, though, as if waiting for God to pick them up and move them.  On the contrary, when it was time to walk across, they were expected to walk!  But they could never have pushed the water back into a heap, and they likely would have drowned had they attempted to swim across.  God did the impossible so that it would make the "walking" easier.  The same is true in our journey to holiness.  God awaits your surrender to His will and His way.  He awaits that trusting gaze upon Him with a heart that says, "I believe YOU can do this in me; and I know that I cannot; so please GO AHEAD!"  When you get to that kind of surrender, watch out!  You might just see the "water" rolled back and the way become very clear--AND NO MUD dried up so that you do not get stuck along the way! 

Personal Freedom vs. Spiritual Surrender

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Every 7 years Israel was to set their slaves free, but if that slave loved his master he could choose to stay with him forever. To show his loyalty he would allow his master to pierce his ear as a sign of his commitment. Jesus committed Himself to the Father this way before coming to earth (Ps. 40:6--"My ears You have opened.") It is our choice. Have your ears been forever "opened?" Do you love Him that much?

Becoming a bond-servant of the Lord Jesus Christ is not a simple, verbal commitment made to feel good or guarantee your place in Heaven.  It is a personal choice; one that only you can make.  Jesus can't make it for you; neither can your family members or friends. Becoming a bond-servant of Christ will require your total surrender.  It will affect everything that you think, say and do.  It will make your relationship with Christ permanent and eternal, but it will require that you give your life up for His to be lived through you.

In the days of the Israelite, a slave could declare his love and loyalty to his master by refusing to be set free from his servitude.  His master would then "take an awl and pierce it through the ear into the door." (Deut. 15:17)  The slave's choice resulted in a marking that would prove to the world that he truly would forever be  a member of his master's family.  And in making such a choice, he willingly gave up his right to personal freedom.  His master's rules would be his rules.  He would not be "his own man," but would forever belong only to his master.  His "mark" revealed his loyalty.

In our world today we have been content to let the "marks" of our loyalty be our attendance in church every Sunday, our ministries, our tithes and offerings, our fellowship with the saints.  The world knows that we are Christians because we talk about and do these things.  But is this the "mark" that Christ desires or requires of us?  While all of these are good things, their mark becomes much more insignificant if the real, true mark is not there.  What is that mark?  It is surrender of our lives into the hands of Christ.  This mark in us reveals we do not live for our  personal freedom, but that we now live in complete spiritual surrender to Christ!  My personal freedom is willingly given up so that I can permanently serve my Savior.  When the world sees that kind of freedom in us, it takes note of it, and might even be attracted to it.

Paul's marks were the scars of a life surrendered to the will of God, scars from whippings and beatings.  Christ submitted Himself to the Father by having His ears "opened" before He came to earth.  And then He committed Himself to us by allowing 3 spikes and a sword to pierce His hands and feet and side.  Have you willingly and loyally laid you ear against the doorpost, allowing God to put His mark on you?  God is looking for your surrender to Him.