What Is Inside Of You Make All The Difference

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

" 'So often we mar God's designed influence through us by our self-conscious effort to be consistent and useful.  Jesus says that there is only one way to develop spiritually, and that is by concentration on God . . . pay attention to the Source, and out of you will flow rivers of living water.  We cannot get at the springs of our natural life by common sense.'  (Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost For His Highest)

The problem is that we tend to get this all backward, and then we wonder why we never gain victory of our sins.  We think that we grow spiritually when we set out to do what we 'ought,' and do not do what we think we 'ought not.'

As God was revealing this through a couple of devotionals I was reading not long ago, He knew that He had prepared an extra special treat for me in my personal Bible study.  That morning I was reading in Zechariah 3-4, and my eyes can across this very familiar verse, and it took on a new and fresh meaning.  God's revelation to me was so awesome, and needed!

This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel saying, 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' says the Lord of Hosts. (Zechariah 4:6)

Now this was a word to Zerubbabel from God through Zechariah, and He was referring to how Zerubbabel was to finish the temple--neither by his own might nor by his own  power or strength.  God's Word to Zerubbabel was that the temple would only be completed by the Spirit!  Did you get that?  The temple, the house of God, is our hearts!  How will we complete and perfect our own hearts?  Not by our fleshly might or power!  We will see our hearts perfected , completed, and made holy by the Spirit alone!  Our hearts are the home of the Living God, and they need to be built up appropriately so that He is comfortable living there.  Our hearts are to be built up according to God's perfect design in accordance with His whole Word.  How could we ever possibly get that done?  The only way to repair, and thus complete, our hearts is by the Spirit.  There is no other way.  Not by our might nor by our power, but by the Spirit,  my heart and yours will be transformed into a wonderful home for God, if we will but surrender to His work in our hearts.  It is the Spirit's work to do.  It is His job to complete the good work Jesus began in us."

Spiritual Healing Begins With Surrender

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

"For quite a while now I have believed that a heart can never be transformed by an act of our will, mostly because our will resides in our flesh, and that flesh is ever-decaying and can never be improved.  I believe that, in the same way that we may not be saved without an act of God's will, we cannot be sanctified and transformed without the same kind of act of God's will.  When God transforms my heart, then my obedient actions follow.  If I choose to act out of my flesh, as I have when I have made New Year's resolutions, it is possible that I might get some results to begin with, but they are always short-lived.  I am capable of changing some things for a period of time, but only God can change my heart.  When God is given the opportunity to work out His will in my heart and life through my surrender and obedience to Him, there is a lasting, even eternal, transformation that takes place in me and in  my heart.

But there is one act of my will that God requires of me.  God is looking into hearts, not just to see if we will stop a particular sin.  He is watching to see if our will is desirous of lining up with His.  The specifics of our sin are far less important than the act of our will that wants to surrender and obey in child-like faith.

Our surrendered heart is seen when we are faithful to ask the Spirit to reveal our sin.  Our surrendered heart is seen when we are faithful to confess what is revealed to us as sin, knowing that it is displeasing to God.  Our surrendered heart is seen when we are faithful to place that sin under His full control so that He might be Lord over it.  This is the surrender that He requires of us.  When we bring this sacrifice of surrender, He, who is capable of transforming the heart we bring to Him, will be faithful to accomplish His goal in us--a spiritually healed heart.

When we put our sins and idols into His hands to deal with, God will then, by His Spirit, give some directives for our surrendered hearts to follow, directions that will challenge us to obey Him.  This obedience will then reveal to Him and the world around us that we have given Him Lordship over the sin and idol-stained chambers of our heart.  When we choose to obey His directives, and continually walk in surrender, heart change will occur.  This is the work of the Spirit, and this is the reason I refer to it as spiritual healing.  Spiritual healing will always be a matter of the Spirit's work with in us, not an act of human will.  Spiritual healing is only experienced when we surrender, and that surrender will bring victory to our spiritual lives."

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 Dangers Of The Sin-Confess-Sin-Confess Cycle

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

A diagram of a heart with broken chambers and a giant tear down the middle can be found in Chapter 6 of my book.  An assignment was give to the reader to fill in the broken chambers with known sins, idols, wrong attitudes, or anything in their life that does not align with God' Word.  It is always difficult to look at the truth of who we are when it is staring back at you in bold black and white.  But acknowledging our sin is the critical first step to removing it from our daily lives.  Today's blog addresses what can happen when we never really put our sin to death.

"How did you do with the soul-searching assignment in Chapter 6?  Did you fill in the heart with your now illuminated, identified, and magnified sin?  Did God reveal to you some things in your heart that you didn't even know were there?  Have you begun to keep charge of your heart by confessing these gods and sins to the Lord, and have you been praying consistently for Him to transform these areas of your heart?  Do you realize that once He has transformed each part that He showed you, it will be time to fill in a new heart diagram, and that this will continue for the rest of your life?  Have you completed the assignment?  Have you shared your testimony with anyone?  This is taking full vengeance on your enemies!  This the the hard work of the Inner Court.

With our gods and sins exposed, with our minds now set on their removal from our hearts, and with our prayers reaching the heavens for God to take control of these areas of sin, we begin to see just how important this process is to God.  Our sins are the very walls that separate us from intimacy with Him.  Sin makes God's children impure, unholy, and no longer set apart for Him.  To spare any of our sins for our own benefit breaks the heart of God.  In sparing the gods of our own hearts, we hinder, and even threaten, a deep and intimate relationship with God, and we stay in a constant 'sin-confess-sin-confess' cycle that so easily becomes our lifestyle.  We are not living authentic Christian lives when we try to keep alive the sins that can eventually destroy us.  These sins that we ignore, and thus spare, will have devastating effects on our walk, our witness, and our ministry."

God Will Settle For Nothing Less

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

"Everyone's heart is in some form of disrepair.  It is our individual responsibility to do the hard work of the Inner Court experience in order to show that we have our priorities right and that we desire to be obedient to God's call into His presence.  This pleases and glorifies God, just as when the Israeli remnant went to the mountain to gather wood for the rebuilding of the temple after they returned from their exile in Babylon.

Once we have realized our wrong priority of and disobedience in doing everything else but obeying God's command to rebuild and transform our hearts, we can finally begin to seek the Spirit so that we might be informed by Him of the gods, idols, and sins that are still in our hearts.  Ironically, it is these dark places in our hearts that reveal our most predominant affections.  They keep us from having right and godly priorities.  For example, the sin of loving to watch television, and therefore investing too much time sitting in front of it, will often be the very reason that we are not spending much time with God, or that we are not accomplishing the ministry He has given us to do.

God is a patient God.  He did not require us to 'get perfectly clean' before we could be His child.  Jesus' sacrifice was enough for us to join His family as we declared our need of and belief and trust in Him.  However, He is now patiently waiting for us to come before Him with each flesh affection that separates us from intimacy with Him.  What He has graciously and patiently let remain in us may now be the very idol or sin that He requires us to give up for Him today.   Yes, God is a patient God, but He will not be patient forever when it comes to our sin.  God would cease to be God if He continually winked at our unholy sin and love of the other gods that we have place before Him.  His desire is for our sin to be chopped out of us at  the root, leaving nothing left to grow back.  He wants to be the only God that we worship, serve, and bow down to.  He will settle for nothing less."

What are your heart affections that are keeping God in some other seat rather than first?  Have you not already spent enough time bowing at their thrones in your heart?  God is not winking at your sin; He wants these sins to be crucified in your flesh.  He wants to be your ALL IN ALL.  To crucify your flesh is  surrender.  Your sacrifice of gods allows you to walk in obedience to the one true God.  This is walking in the Spirit.  Shall we continue asking God to settle for the idolatry found in our heart and lives?

The Graft That Produces Godly Fruit

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

Yesterday, I revealed to you that I would be sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's book Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World.  She let's us have a peek into her thought process before she understood the meaning of being grafted in to the Vine, which is Christ Jesus.  Can you relate to living with wrong suppositions, only to discover the truth later?  I surely can.  Here is her testimony.

"'It is not enough simply to be associated.  To be acquainted.  We have to be spiritually grafted on--to draw our life from [Jesus], to be so closely attached that we would wither and die if we were cut off. 

I missed that point for a long time.  I had spent so much of my life concentrating on the 'fruit' of my own personal holiness, that I missed out on the connection, the sweet intimacy of being attached to the Vine.  And as a result, what I tried to do was as ludicrous as an apple tree branch trying to produce apples by its own effort.

"Be good, be good.  Do good, do good," the broken branch chants as it lies on the orchard grass.  "That apple should be popping out anytime," says the helpless lifeless stick.

But that is not how it works.  It's the tree, not the branch, that determines the fruit.  The tree is the life source.  The branch has no power of its own.  But once it gets connected, once that sap gets flowing and those leaves start growing, that insignificant little twig will find itself loaded with fruit.  And it didn't have to do anything--except abide.'

Our lesson from the Israelites is that hard work will be required of us to rebuild our hearts and bring them under Christ's full control.  But the hard work of learning how to walk by the Spirit, to make the Word our life's road map, and to worship as God desires will reveal to both God and others something of great significance--our surrender."

If you are a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are a grafted in branch.  Having now been grafted into Jesus the Vine, you must now begin to recognize and accept that the Holy Spirit is the life-transforming, fruit-producing sap.  He is the life of Christ inside of you.  It is His job to cause fruit to be produced out of you.  Your only job is to surrender to Him.  And as you do, you will become the bearer  of the fruit.  He produces through you; you simply bear what He produces.  In essence this is the definition of abiding in Christ the Vine. 

Have you been a successful graft?

Discovering The Sin Within Your Heart

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

"Theory must always give way to practical application, otherwise all of our 'head knowledge' becomes wasted and worthless grey matter.  Can we turn our focus for just a moment to the Inner Court of our heart transformation?  I would like us to magnify that court right now so that we are not looking at the beginning or end of our spiritual journey, but just at the present, the here and now.

It is in the Inner Court where God allows us to see just how dark and sinful our hearts really are, and can be.  This court is a place of illumination.  Once in the Inner Court, once we have taken a good 'look around' at what is really hidden there, we often find that the sins, the gods, and the idols we find inside of us are so many that they are overwhelming to us.  We know that we are to be busy building our hearts into a proper and pure home for the Lord by sweeping out all that He would not enjoy.  Just like the Israelites of Haggai's day (that we looked at in Chapter 6 of Spiritual Healing), we know that we are to 'rebuilt' our sin-scarred hearts, which is the temple, the Tabernacle of the Holy Spirit. But again, just like the Israelites, we typically respond just as they did, don't we?  We put satisfying the desires of our own flesh ahead of the priority of cleaning out those very flesh-sins found in our hearts.

We follow after our own priorities, and we leave our sin-filled hearts in disrepair, desolate, and open to destruction while we continue living flesh-ruled lives.  Our breaches, fractures, and sins remain.  Our walk with the Lord and our very lives do not even remotely resemble the life of Christ!  We continually go our merry way, prioritizing everything else in life except our walk with Jesus and a desire to achieve a holy and pure lifestyle.  Following in the footsteps of the Israelites, our wrong priorities lead us straight to the obvious consequences, and some of them will be severe.  Our ministry for the Lord becomes fruitless, barren, and even non-existent.  In the end, when we do not concentrate on obediently living the commandments and repenting of our sins and idols, our lives reveal that our hearts have not been transformed.  Such transformation only takes place when we have been walking intimately with the Savior."

Tomorrow I will be continuing in this vain, by sharing a quote from Joanna Weaver's Having A Mary Heart In A Martha World.  Her personal testimony might help you more clearly see what you are doing that is keeping you from that very intimacy.