Sold Out To God

Galations 3:3 “Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort?”

Sold out is the only way to live. It is how we live when something is new and fresh. When you first fall in love, you set aside everything to be with the object of your affection. It’s hurts to be away from them. It is like that when we first find God. But as with human relationships we tend to grow comfortable, to think we knew who the other is and what they think. We assume much because of the relationship we have built and that very process of assuming starts a breakdown in the relationship.

What we must remember is that God has his own plans for his kingdom, the world and our specific circumstances. He organizes the campaign and gives us information on a need to know basis. Just as the architect is really the only one that fully grasps the big picture of a buildings construction, so God is the One with the big picture of enternity in view. Just as the mason, carpenter and plumber know and accept their roles in the construction project and submit to the will of the architect, we play a defined role in eternity that is pieced together by God for the completion of His master plan. Our job is not to understand the master plan but to get with the Architect to find out our job for today.

But alas! we too often make our plan, and we think that we know what ought to be done.We ask God first to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God go before us.

Though we know better, our fear of submission makes us act like we know better for our lives than God does. But God is willing and able to reveal His Will to us. It the big picture of life it is far easier to wait until we have specific directions from the Lord than to spin off on our own plan and purposes only to find we have wasted years on something that might have been okay, but took entirely too much human effort. God wants to reveal His plans to us for in that revealing His plans in us and through us are more fully accomplished. And He can easily reveal His plans to the prayerful heart that is humble, tender and empty of its own agenda.

Oh that God would give us the intensity of desire for Him alone. It is in this desire that we refuse to accept anything else, anything less than God’s absolute revealed will for our lives. Oh that God would give us intensity in prayer to not let go of Him until we have His answer and His direction. Lord have mercy!

But where does this intensity spring from? It is in being sold out to God that the longing grows. When we seek the Holy Spirit’s working in our life it will come. When we surrender to God, when we conquer self and cast out sin then there is room for the Holy Spirit and the power of the Spirit in our lives.

Father, let the Holy Ghost have full dominion over me, in my home, in my temper, in every word of my tongue, in every thought of my heart, in every feeling toward my fellow men; let the Holy Spirit have entire possession.

Prayer is the key to unlocking the power of God. Prayer is the key to our submission to God. We cannot control our submission or surrender. We can only plead with God in His great mercy to allow it to happen in our lives. Making it happen on our own is proof that it has not happened. We need to believe less in speaking to men or thinking of our own solutions and more of speaking with God.

God forgive me that I have not honored the Holy Spirit as I should have done, that I have grieved Him, that I have allowed self and the flesh and my own will to work where the Holy Ghost should have been honored! May God forgive me that I have allowed self and the flesh and the will actually to have the place that God wanted the Holy Ghost to have.

Oh, the sin is greater than we know! No wonder there is so much feebleness and failure in the Church of Christ!

This synopsis and quotes are taken from Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray.

No Worries…Really, No Worries

I’m a stresser. My mom is a worrier. If I’m not where she thinks I should be she’s thinking about calling hospitals. Not me. I’m a stresser. It sounds better.

Worriers are old ladies. Stressers are busy, important, type A movers and shakers. Me a worrier? Never.

Worriers are afraid. I have no fear. I stress. God tells us to trust and not worry. I don’t worry, I stress. I’m too spiritual to worry.

So they are obviously the same thing — stress and worry. Both are about control, or the lack thereof. When I think about it, it’s really kind of silly to be concerned about control. Heck, I can’t even control myself, what makes me think I can actually control others or circumstances or anything else for that matter?

So I’ve been thinking about stress and trusting God. I mean He’s the only One who can control people and situations anyway. Why do I put myself in the place of God and try to figure it out? Seems to me my stress is just to reveal to me an area I have not yet yielded to my Lord. It shows a part of my life I think I can handle on my own. It is some piece I don’t think God will work out for my best.

So when I stress I try to view it as an opportunity to turn over another part of my life. Stress leads me to surrender which places the burden of the situation right where it belongs…on the shoulders of my Lover, in the arms of the One who cares more for me than I do for myself, the One seeking to perfect me. I yield control. And in the yielding I can say “No worries.”