Total Surrender

No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretense. 
— Oswald chambers 

Our first prayer of the day, everyday, should be a prayer of surrender. It is necessary that you retire within yourselves several times a day to make this surrender, until one day, a complete and perfect surrender actually takes place after which you discover that you're NOT living your own life anymore nor thinking your own thoughts but it's always God is living your life, God is thinking through you and God is working through you. 

For me, life is a mystery to be lived and enjoyed, not a series of problems to be solved. I believe that Jesus came not only to give us eternal life, but to give us an enjoyable and satisfying life too. I have learned to enjoy being with God and others, not only doing for God and others. I have learned to experience His love, anointing, and presence through prayer. His presence is heaven to me. I see all as gift, especially the gift of God's presence in my life (first point), and my grateful heart spontaneously says "Thank you, God".

After experiencing the depth of God's love, I live more consistently and deeply from an attitude of surrender to Him. When I have surrendered my pain, God brought healing. When I have surrendered my grief, God brought comfort. When I have surrendered my expectations, God filled my needs. When I have surrendered my wants and dreams, He has given me more than I ever hoped for or imagined. When I give Him my heart, my worship and my trust by stepping out in faith, He has given me Himself. 

Whoever wants to find something in God must lose as much in Him. Whoever wants to encounter God must be willing to pay the price. We must lift up in prayer our weakness and fully surrender to God and then we will receive complete healing and new resurrected life — all our needs, desires and longings will be fulfilled. The fulfillment of hope, thus change, comes from allowing ourselves to learn from the past, but not live in the past. As you let go of your past, learn from it and trust God, everything will be transformed into a blessing. Surrender yourself to the Lord and allow Him to awaken you to His power and presence.   

When you and I "die" and come to the point of total surrender to God and truly want His will more than we want ours, then an amazing thing happens. His life comes and fills us with joy, peace and love — out of the depths of our entire being will flow with contentment and satisfaction. When we abide in Him and He in us, rivers of living water are activated. They flow out of our belly, out of our spirit, overflowing into our own personal relationship with Him and into the lives of those around us. When your old self dies, your new self comes to life!

 

 

Walking With God

My heart is totally filled with things that words alone can't say. God fills my heart with his love. There is hope for you, because there is something wonderful with which to fill your hearts. As you grow in the knowledge of our heavenly Father’s love, his love will fill your hearts until there will be no room left for shame and false guilt.

Living for God is a process that takes years to develop. For people to walk with God in the garden in the cool of the day, they must get to know Him intimately. So many know of Him, but not many really know Him intimately. So many know His deeds but not many know His ways. God created everyone to have a loving relationship with Him and He loves everyone that He created. Many are called, but few are chosen. One who has chosen God will become one with Him. That is the way every person who wants God unites with Him. You are chosen because you choose God over darkness. 

The more time you spend in God's presence, the more like Him you become. Your wills are transformed to mirror His will. Your character is transformed to mirror His character. The more time you in His presence, the more love for people you have, the more joy you have in your lives, the more of every one of the fruits you will have in your lives, manifest in and through you.
  
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Moses, David. All these men lived before the outpouring of the Spirit, if they could walk with God as they did how much more should we in the New Covenant. 

Dear Lord, I ask You to release the anointing of the Holy Spirit to restore your people to the path of holiness. Lord, please Let Your Perfect Love to run through their entire being, casting out all fear. Lord, bring them to dwell in the Secret Place of the Most High — to walk in Your garden and enjoy intimate fellowship with You.

Because I’ve seen Him...
 
I’ve seen the one who grasps my hands and stables my feet. For Him I can continue another day. By Him I can love another broken heart without my own shattering. Through Him I can find the strength to do all things.
 
Yes, there are abundant joys when your heart is filled with the knowledge of God’s glory. When you are free to delight in the one who delights in you.
But crosses have splinters and the road has potholes. We have courage now and glory later.
 
For right now, today, we have the grace we need to inspire our faith, to sustain us in a broken world, to comfort each other in our pain, to pray when day feels like midnight and to hope despite the circumstances.
 
I’m learning, as my faith matures, that His grace is gift enough for shaking hands and unstable feet.
 
I have come to believe that the reason it is hard to define grace is because grace is a Person. I believe that Jesus is God's grace...
 
Grace is everything God wants to give to us or do for us and He does it in and through the Person of Jesus. Love is the foundation of grace and grace is the activity of love. God’s love becomes grace as He reaches out to our need and fulfills in us everything we need to live in joyful relationship with Him.
 
By grace, we can do all things...  
By grace, we can walk in the supernatural...

 

 

It Is Time To Let Go.

When we are in the midst of our crises and pain, it is very difficult for us to imagine that our lives will ever be normal again. The good news, however, is that most of us do recover. By the grace of God, we begin to come to terms with our loss and focus on what positive things still exist in our lives. Do you remember any time in the past when you wondered how you would ever get through a specific painful life event? But here you are now a survivor, and by grace you will do it again and go higher. 

At some time in life, all of us will experience a particular type of loss whether it is in our careers, our ministries, our relationships, our health or in the death of a loved one. I really don't know anyone who hasn't had to deal with bitter disappointment and sadness at one time or another. Loss is really a natural part of the life cycle and it is our reaction to it that determines if and when we move on to a brighter future. If we accept the fact that nothing in this world ever lasts forever, we will better appreciate the now moment at hand and we will also know when it is time to let go.
 

Sometimes life can be so hard. It can beat you down, it can spit in your face, it can do just about anything, and yet you can't do a thing to prevent it. But one day you will smile again. You will wake up in the morning, and not have to fight the urge to cry anymore. Yes, it can take a while, weeks, months, maybe even years. If you truly surrender everything to God and learn to trust Him in the process, eventually you will get there, and enjoy the beautiful ending. 

Eventually, you will realize that you needed to experience everything that you went through in order to grow spiritually. In time, you will end up surrendering yourself and your ego to whatever God has in store for you. It is only in this place of absolute surrender that the new possibility can emerge.
 
When the madness is over, when you finally "lets go" in an act of surrender, acceptance and trust in what God is accomplishing with you – without resignation and with gratitude for the experience – the dark night will end. At that point, ego will no longer dictate the path of your life, and a Light will shine through bringing with it a new spiritual adventure and purpose in life. Your path will then be guided by a series of divinely influenced synchronous events, and your real mission for this lifetime will unfold and fall into place.

  

 

Everything is Made Beautiful in Its time

There is a time for everything and a season for every activity under heaven. God has made everything beautiful for its own time. Our job is not to figure out when will it happen, but to make up our mind that we won’t give up until we cross the finish line. The more we trust God and keep our eyes focused on Him, the more life we will have. Trusting God brings life and believing brings rest. So stop trying to figure everything out, and let God be God.

We often want what we want, when we think we want it. We are trying to run the schedule. When we are focused like that, it can lead to disappointment and frustration because it is not about what we want our schedule to look like. It’s God’s time...It’s God’s schedule. He makes all things beautiful in His time...EVERYTHING, beautiful in its time... 

Life is a gift of four seasons. In the spring, everything is fresh and new. We begin to grow, and our hearts are filled with the promise of things to come. As we reach summer, our expectations change. We have faith in ourselves and those dear to us and accomplish many things. 

In the fall of life, we mature. We realize that the love we share with others helps us to be strong. By winter, we must prepare for many changes. Some happy. And some of great sorrow. Still, we can and must have hope in our hearts that the memories and love will never fade.

Everything is made beautiful in its time. Each season of life we go through is beautiful. No matter what season you are in, His presence can make every season of life's filled with strength and beauty. And remember Love overcome everything. Love can get you through the pain, sorrow, hurt, despair and disappointment.

 

Tragedy Doesn’t Disprove God's love

How do we convince people God is a loving God when he allows such horrible things to happen to them? I don't know. But I believe tragedy doesn’t disprove his love. His love is greater than our tragedies. I have had many painful experiences in my life that left me in despair but I have experienced the abundance of God's love.

I believe God can use our hurts of the past and pain of the present to bring us closer to Him. But God never intended for us to suffer or feel defeated. God does not enjoy seeing anyone suffer pain, disappointments and tragedy. He is our Father who loves us so much. 

There was no word for TRAGEDY in the Hebrew language. It was only added to the Greek language. This is because the Hebrews believed that if things aren't beautiful, then the story isn't over. In other words, if God hasn't made it beautiful, then He is not finished with it. God isn't finished with you yet. He will not rest yet until He has finished and delivered the miracle to you.

I spent much time in my wilderness zone. My experience of the wilderness zone was very scary and painful. In the wilderness, I was refined into the person God predestined me to be, before the foundation of the world. In the wilderness, He built my faith and character. And in the wilderness, God did not send me a spiritual mentor or father but He sent me people who need help. 

Once you have come through those wilderness experiences, you will discover that Satan will then attempt to persecute you. People will call you a religious fanatic or crazy. Family members and friends that you love will talk about you and put pressure on you to make you back away from and back down from that which you believe God is giving you and calling you to. 

I have thought about Job many times throughout my lifetime. I too have wondered why God allow Job to suffer. I believe the suffering of Job explains much about why character is more important in God's eyes than the discomfort and pain we experience in this life. Growing up is a painful process.

Satan tempted Job to bring out the worst in him, but God used it to bring out the best in him. God has purpose for your pain, a reason for your struggle and a reward for your faithfulness.When you're going through a hard time, always keeping in your mind that at the end of the road, Job finally "saw" God as he never had seen Him before, and it changed his life forever. And like Job, you will receive double for what you have lost.