The Surrender That Brings Victory!

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(Excerpt from Cheryl Gnagey's Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 12)j

"Obedience is required in order for us to fully put to death our gods and sins.   Without our fully following God's commands, we will never kill those things that can kill us spiritually, and possibly even physically.  If we really want to become fully obedient to the Word, we will have to get to the place where we are confessing our sins as they come to our attention, and turning away from them by repentance.  We can no longer allow them to slide by for the moment while giving God our 'I'm sorry.'  God isn't as interested in our apologies as He is in our brokenness and true repentance of the heart.  If we do not grasp the severity of our willful disobedience and how much it hurts God's heart, we will never see the need to turn away from those sins, giving them up for good.  Instead, we will return over and over to our idol worship.

If you choose to continue in sin, you must remember that God will let your sin find you out!  In case you have never been there, removing sin from your life as the Spirit reveals it to you is far easier than have to remove the sin that you have been caught in!  Humiliation is a tough teacher, but she is highly effective!  Our surrender is the only weapon that can be used to dispossess the idols that remain in our hearts, and the sins that trips us up.  And remember, surrender is not waving the white flag to the enemy.  It is giving ourselves up totally to the power and control of the God who loves us with a holy passion. It is our surrender that will bring spiritual victory to our lives.
Let these definitions of scriptural surrender guide you in your own surrender.

SURRENDER is choosing to:

• walk in the control of the Spirit, instead of in the control of your own flesh
• die to your selfishness and become a new creation
• worship God through your love for Him that is displayed by your crucified flesh and obedience to His Word
• be humble before God in order to pray to Him, seek His face, and turn from the things that you do that are evil in His sight
• allow your flesh to be crucified and die every day so that you can walk through the veil and into His glorious presence
• focus on God's will as your only priority instead of what your flesh desires
• be broken by God for sin you have left unattended for too long
• be willing to make a 180-degree turn in an action, thought, or word
• be open to the Spirit taking control of your entire life so that He can gush out of you
• die for the glory of God!"

The Dreadful Consequences of Sin

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(Excerpted from Cheryl Gnagey's book, Spiritual Healing:  The Surrender That Brings Victory, Chapter 8)

"What are the results of not driving out the inhabitants (sins) of your heart, when you willfully disobey God's command to remove them?  Two verses in the following chapter [of Numbers] show us what the consequences of our disobedience will be.  Let me warn you, though...you probably won't like what you find here any more than I did!  God spoke these words to Israel as He directed them to remove everyone from the land He had promised them.  He could not have been more clear and exact.  His words are prophetic, for this is just what happened to Israel.

But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then it shall come about that those whom you let remain of them will become as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will trouble you in the land in which you live.  And as I plan to do to them, so I will do to you.   (Numbers 33: 55-56)

When we let our sin off of God's hook and ours, this is the result:

1. Your sins will become as pricks in your eyes.
2. Your sins will become as thorns in your side.
3. Your sins' will cause you continual trouble.
4. Your sins might cause your very destruction.

Do you see that the sin that you allow to remain in your heart, possessing God's home in you, will become the very snare that traps you in its bondage?  Our full obedience to God's commands, to His call to holiness, is critical when it comes to dispossessing our sins and gods from our hearts.  And our full obedience is critical to our spiritual growth.  God takes very seriously our following Him fully, as you can see by these stories recorded in Numbers for our instruction.  When it comes to our gods and our sin, what God intends to see destroyed in us can actually end up destroying us!  As always, it is our choice as to whether we will fully follow God's commands to take full vengeance on our sin or willfully disobey Him and ignore them.  It seems beyond ridiculous that we would choose any other way but the way of obedience!

Neil Marten, a member of the British Parliament, was once giving a group of his constituents a guided tour of the Houses of Parliament.  During the course of the visit, a group happened to meet Lord Hailsham, then Lord Chancellor, wearing all the regalia of his office.  Hailsham recognized Marten among the group and cried, 'Neil!'  Not daring to question or disobey the 'command,' the entire band of visitors promptly fell to their knees!  (from Today in the Word, July 30, 1993)

Can God say that you are taking such a proactive approach to obeying His command to take full vengeance on your sins and idols?