Surrender is such a strong word. It's not wonder we really don't like it very much. The dictionary gives several definitions of this verb, I found this as one definition today: to yield (something) to the possession or power of another; deliver up possession of on demand or under duress: to surrender the fort to the enemy; to surrender the stolen goods to the police. Another definition is to give up, abandon, or relinquish (comfort, hope, etc.). I think when the Word says we are to surrender, it is a combination of both of these defintions. We do surrender everything, power, possession, etc. when we become His. But we also do this:
Give up death - receive life
Give up strive - attain peace
Give up hate - get love
Give up sin - gain freedom
Give up unforgiveness - for forgiveness
We could expand this list of surrender forever. I believe that as a the body, we just need to give up - period. It's time for us to give up control of HIS church, give up trying to change people and remember that it's the love of God that draws men to repent (John 6:44). Give up so we can as Paul said, "...press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward calling in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 3:14)
Freedom is not so much about being free to do our own will as much as as it is about allowing our own desires to be aligned with the freedom of Christ. We are free for no other purpose than to serve Him. WE ARE HIS BRIDE - MARRIED TO HIM. We should willfully and graciously submit our will to His and SURRENDER our desires and control to a love that deeper than the grave.
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Fleshly Faith (written 2/9/2010)
In our efforts to pray through all situations and circumstances this season at Dominion, to not shrink back in our prayer life but to believe God for great things, I wanted to share my morning prayer time with you guys.
Pastor Gregg said something in his preaching on Sunday that really rocked me. You see I’m having to trust the Lord in a very serious matter right now, and I’m telling you that it really is not easy for me. In fact going into Sunday I was ready to just relinquish my faith and not continue to allow God to move. Pastor Gregg asked us “how many times do we give up, or change our path, or just relinquish ourselves over right before God was about to show ?” I just think that my abilities to fix things and be organized are just what God needs in my situation, but I have had to take a back seat to His plans and totally and completely trust the Lord and rise up to walk in peace knowing that He is working even though I can’t see it. So as you may have guessed, all of my time with the Lord this morning he spoke to me about faith. My reading from Psalms was all about how David endured hardship yet still he knew that God was in charge (Psalm 21), my devotion was out of Hebrews 11, where we see the great generals of the faith, and even my quiet time as I sat and reflected on my own faith walk – the Lord began to show me even more and more about my own faith (or lack thereof).
So this morning, as I was studying, I coined this phrase in my journal of “Fleshly Faith”. What is this? It’s what another pastor friend of mine calls “stupid faith”. It’s faith does not line itself up with God or His promises. We see this a lot on TV, where if went send in some money and believe in faith that God will answer us, or we try to convince ourselves that we are standing in faith for some things that God has no part of in our lives. We want to believe God for the bigger house, bigger toys, bigger everything, but we can’t even make ourselves be faithful in little things. We are “blessed and highly favored”, the “head and not the tail”, yes we are all those things, but in the context of our modern church I’m afraid we have once again looked for the “things” to make us happy instead of God. Once again as Pastor said one time, we want the hand of God, but are not willing to seek his heart. Maybe it’s not things? Maybe it’s just an attitude, or a control issue (that would be me) or sometimes we just get too big for our britches and we think we need God less and we are able to do it much better than God could, because if we are really honest with ourselves don’t we all think at times that we are just better at fixing things than God is? Fleshly faith causes us to shrink back when we don’t get our way or see God answer in our timing.
True faith, if it is the evidence of things hoped for and the promise of the things unseen will always develop and bring the following character traits into our lives, patience (Hebrews 6:12), Trust (Proverbs 3:5), Perseverance (Romans 5:24) and prayer (James 5:15). It will also produce love in us that we cannot explain because in drawing close to God in prayer, we are just naturally drawn to a deep love walk. True faith is always trusting that God will show up, even if it is in the 11th Hour!
So I wanted to encourage us, that as we are learning about standing in the times of conflict and not giving up and becoming tenacious in our relationship with the Lord, to pray with that same mindset. Let us not just sing the He is the God of the City, let us believe it even when the news tells us crime is on the rise. When we pray for the sick to be healed, let us believe it with our whole hearts that He really does want to heal. Let us believe God for a moving and shaking not only in us, but in every person who fills every seat in Dominion each and every time the doors are open. Let our hearts be open to what the Spirit of the Lord is telling us in these days, and let us pray like there is not a doubt in our minds that our God is able and willing to meet our needs. Let us not take on any fleshly faith that requires us to bow down, give up or shrink back! Let us never say, well maybe this was God’s will if it does not produce evidence of the God we know and love. Let’s go into the enemy’s camp and take back every promise stolen for every single person we know. May we always stand like those generals in Hebrews 11 and I believe that if we stand like that, that we will see the results. Revival is looming, not some spiritual experience, but a forever changing of the lives of the people in our church, our communities, cities, counties and beyond!
Have a blessed day guys, I’ll see you tonight!
Cindy
Pastor Gregg said something in his preaching on Sunday that really rocked me. You see I’m having to trust the Lord in a very serious matter right now, and I’m telling you that it really is not easy for me. In fact going into Sunday I was ready to just relinquish my faith and not continue to allow God to move. Pastor Gregg asked us “how many times do we give up, or change our path, or just relinquish ourselves over right before God was about to show ?” I just think that my abilities to fix things and be organized are just what God needs in my situation, but I have had to take a back seat to His plans and totally and completely trust the Lord and rise up to walk in peace knowing that He is working even though I can’t see it. So as you may have guessed, all of my time with the Lord this morning he spoke to me about faith. My reading from Psalms was all about how David endured hardship yet still he knew that God was in charge (Psalm 21), my devotion was out of Hebrews 11, where we see the great generals of the faith, and even my quiet time as I sat and reflected on my own faith walk – the Lord began to show me even more and more about my own faith (or lack thereof).
So this morning, as I was studying, I coined this phrase in my journal of “Fleshly Faith”. What is this? It’s what another pastor friend of mine calls “stupid faith”. It’s faith does not line itself up with God or His promises. We see this a lot on TV, where if went send in some money and believe in faith that God will answer us, or we try to convince ourselves that we are standing in faith for some things that God has no part of in our lives. We want to believe God for the bigger house, bigger toys, bigger everything, but we can’t even make ourselves be faithful in little things. We are “blessed and highly favored”, the “head and not the tail”, yes we are all those things, but in the context of our modern church I’m afraid we have once again looked for the “things” to make us happy instead of God. Once again as Pastor said one time, we want the hand of God, but are not willing to seek his heart. Maybe it’s not things? Maybe it’s just an attitude, or a control issue (that would be me) or sometimes we just get too big for our britches and we think we need God less and we are able to do it much better than God could, because if we are really honest with ourselves don’t we all think at times that we are just better at fixing things than God is? Fleshly faith causes us to shrink back when we don’t get our way or see God answer in our timing.
True faith, if it is the evidence of things hoped for and the promise of the things unseen will always develop and bring the following character traits into our lives, patience (Hebrews 6:12), Trust (Proverbs 3:5), Perseverance (Romans 5:24) and prayer (James 5:15). It will also produce love in us that we cannot explain because in drawing close to God in prayer, we are just naturally drawn to a deep love walk. True faith is always trusting that God will show up, even if it is in the 11th Hour!
So I wanted to encourage us, that as we are learning about standing in the times of conflict and not giving up and becoming tenacious in our relationship with the Lord, to pray with that same mindset. Let us not just sing the He is the God of the City, let us believe it even when the news tells us crime is on the rise. When we pray for the sick to be healed, let us believe it with our whole hearts that He really does want to heal. Let us believe God for a moving and shaking not only in us, but in every person who fills every seat in Dominion each and every time the doors are open. Let our hearts be open to what the Spirit of the Lord is telling us in these days, and let us pray like there is not a doubt in our minds that our God is able and willing to meet our needs. Let us not take on any fleshly faith that requires us to bow down, give up or shrink back! Let us never say, well maybe this was God’s will if it does not produce evidence of the God we know and love. Let’s go into the enemy’s camp and take back every promise stolen for every single person we know. May we always stand like those generals in Hebrews 11 and I believe that if we stand like that, that we will see the results. Revival is looming, not some spiritual experience, but a forever changing of the lives of the people in our church, our communities, cities, counties and beyond!
Have a blessed day guys, I’ll see you tonight!
Cindy
Friday, February 19, 2010
Psalm 103
So this morning I’m just kind of walking through the motions of quiet time, not really digging in and waiting on the Lord to speak to me, but just very casually reading. You know that process don’t you – you know where you have read something so many times that you have memorized it and now so your attitude is one of “Oh I know this”, yet you really don’t you have just grazed over it so many times you think you do. Hence my experience this morning?
Do any of my bloggers sin? I’m just asking because I know I do and it just seems to me that today the whole issue of sin is just casually grazed over as well. I have this thing in my life, and every single day I have to fight it off. Every day I beg God to change me, fix me, yet I always seem to fall back and I often wonder – am I the only one because the devil sure makes me feel like I am. So this morning as I was doing my “crying out” I happened upon Psalm 103, and I am wrecked. Now that I read it again, I will probably add it to my next blog which is my parallel between Hebrews and Galatians.
I have read Psalm 103 a bazillion times. I sing (not very well) Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul and all that is within me, Bless His Holy Name So my question to the Lord this morning was “Why do I keep struggling???”. The answer came quickly – because “you don’t fear or believe me”. You don’t realize that the blood of My son can truly do all these things, and as long as you “struggle” and continue to row against the wind you will struggle, but be encouraged….I can and will free you, even if all you do is die to it every single day you will see freedom. David is blessing God for who He is and not because David is anything because let’s face it, we can’t do anything without screwing it up. But God…
David is telling us, let’s Praise God and oh by the way, while your praising Him, let’s not forget some things along the way! What should we not forget?
• Vs. 3 – He pardons our sins and heals our bodies
• Vs. 4 – Redeems us
• Vs. 5 – Satisfies us
• Vs 6 – Performs righteous deeds and judgments for those oppressed.
• Vs. 8 – He is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger and abiding in loving-kindness.
Then David says, but wait, we don’t deserve any of this because you know we are just dust (vs. 14) but praise Him anyway because in spite of us, He does not deal with us according to our deeds and in fact as far as the east is from the west he pretty much forgives un even when we sin again and again and again. Not that we are free to sin – please don’t think I’m saying that. I’m just saying…David did a bunch of stuff and he wrote this Psalm, I think we can glean some wisdom from that. Even in spite of David, God still said that David was “a man after God’s own heart”.
I can’t prove this scripturally but I honestly believe that the woman at the well did not walk away and just be free. Jesus told her “Go and sin no more”. When do you think she got free? I believe it was not when she walked away from that well, even though she was obviously changed having been in the presence of Jesus, but I believe that the first time she found freedom was when the devil reared its ugly head up and she chose to say “no”. That is when we get free – when we say NO MORE!!
So maybe that’s the key. Say NO and then remember by the way that Psalm 103 says that in spite of us we are still His, but it is our choices that keep us having to run back to Him for more of who He is!
As for me, I will Bless the Lord today – and I will forget not His benefits, because in the midst of all this dealing with my own stuff – He is not only able to free me –he wants me to recognize I can’t free myself, I never could.
Blessings and Peace, cv
Do any of my bloggers sin? I’m just asking because I know I do and it just seems to me that today the whole issue of sin is just casually grazed over as well. I have this thing in my life, and every single day I have to fight it off. Every day I beg God to change me, fix me, yet I always seem to fall back and I often wonder – am I the only one because the devil sure makes me feel like I am. So this morning as I was doing my “crying out” I happened upon Psalm 103, and I am wrecked. Now that I read it again, I will probably add it to my next blog which is my parallel between Hebrews and Galatians.
I have read Psalm 103 a bazillion times. I sing (not very well) Bless the Lord, Oh My Soul and all that is within me, Bless His Holy Name So my question to the Lord this morning was “Why do I keep struggling???”. The answer came quickly – because “you don’t fear or believe me”. You don’t realize that the blood of My son can truly do all these things, and as long as you “struggle” and continue to row against the wind you will struggle, but be encouraged….I can and will free you, even if all you do is die to it every single day you will see freedom. David is blessing God for who He is and not because David is anything because let’s face it, we can’t do anything without screwing it up. But God…
David is telling us, let’s Praise God and oh by the way, while your praising Him, let’s not forget some things along the way! What should we not forget?
• Vs. 3 – He pardons our sins and heals our bodies
• Vs. 4 – Redeems us
• Vs. 5 – Satisfies us
• Vs 6 – Performs righteous deeds and judgments for those oppressed.
• Vs. 8 – He is compassionate and gracious; slow to anger and abiding in loving-kindness.
Then David says, but wait, we don’t deserve any of this because you know we are just dust (vs. 14) but praise Him anyway because in spite of us, He does not deal with us according to our deeds and in fact as far as the east is from the west he pretty much forgives un even when we sin again and again and again. Not that we are free to sin – please don’t think I’m saying that. I’m just saying…David did a bunch of stuff and he wrote this Psalm, I think we can glean some wisdom from that. Even in spite of David, God still said that David was “a man after God’s own heart”.
I can’t prove this scripturally but I honestly believe that the woman at the well did not walk away and just be free. Jesus told her “Go and sin no more”. When do you think she got free? I believe it was not when she walked away from that well, even though she was obviously changed having been in the presence of Jesus, but I believe that the first time she found freedom was when the devil reared its ugly head up and she chose to say “no”. That is when we get free – when we say NO MORE!!
So maybe that’s the key. Say NO and then remember by the way that Psalm 103 says that in spite of us we are still His, but it is our choices that keep us having to run back to Him for more of who He is!
As for me, I will Bless the Lord today – and I will forget not His benefits, because in the midst of all this dealing with my own stuff – He is not only able to free me –he wants me to recognize I can’t free myself, I never could.
Blessings and Peace, cv
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