SoLo Lives! Ministry

Surrendering to the Holy Spirit Brings Victory
Ptr. Joby Soriano / Sunday, May 25, 2008

Are we as busy as Martha or as quiet as Mary as she lay at the feet of Jesus listening to His teachings? If we never learn to rest and be still before God, to bow before Him in reverence through prayer and Bible study, how can we come to know Him intimately? How can He take first place in our lives?

Jesus said in Mark 8:34-36: “If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s shall save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?” As long as we hold on to this life and all the other things our flesh holds dear, the victory Christ has won will never be ours.  Surrendering all to the Holy Spirit brings victory. For this to be true in our lives, we need to know the answers to these questions:

WHAT IS SURRENDER? Surrender is defined as to yield to the power, control or possession of another upon compulsion or demand; to give (oneself) up into the power of another, especially as a prisoner. Surrender, as the world understands it, is to concede defeat. It gives up a fight to give in to a stronger force, admitting helplessness and weakness, by waving a white flag, willing to be held captive by the other. But surrendering to God is to acknowledge helplessness and weakness, so that the Holy Spirit can take over in order to be filled with His power and be victorious over the real enemies – Satan, the world and self.

It begins as a voluntary act of the will to turn over our lives to Jesus. It is giving up our rights so He can defend our rights.  Surrendering to Jesus is not a one-time act at the instance of salvation, but a moment-by-moment choice as we face our daily battles. We need to realize that when we surrender to God, we give up to gain. Have we relinquished the throne of our lives to Christ?

HOW DO WE SURRENDER? There can be no surrender without humility, for it is really a dying to self. Surrendering is coming to the end of one’s self and turning to God in complete dependence and trust, with full admission of spiritual poverty. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3). We can either deny sin, or we can deal with it. Healing comes only when we admit it. When we empty ourselves, we give God room to work in us. Surrender acts on the conviction that God is good, is in absolute control, will provide for our needs, and will always give us what is best (Psalm 25:8; Matthew 6:26).

Nothing happens apart from the will of God. Job, in surrender and with full trust in the Lord, welcomed adversity. “Shall we accept good from God, and not adversity?” (Job 2:10). Abraham, when asked to surrender his son, obeyed without delay. Trials are designed by God to develop our love for Him, weaning us away from the world so we may truly feast on the sufficiency of Christ. Paul, who was acquainted with sufferings, declared: “I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord” (Philippians 3:8). In times of crisis, do we raise clenched fists and question God, or do we bow our heads and lift up our hands in submission? Crisis as bad as cancer loses its sting when we give God our unqualified trust and love. By letting God’s will be done in our lives, we are placing ourselves in an attitude of wholehearted surrender and obedience.

All our struggles to yield our rights when we are wronged or trampled upon are nothing when we look at the scene in the Garden of Gethsemane. Knowing, loving and trusting God and not ourselves allows us to surrender in total obedience.

WHY SHOULD WE SURRENDER? When the truth about Christ’s love for us cuts to the core of our hearts, abandoning ourselves to God is the only natural thing to do. Surrender, then, becomes worship. Surrendering to God is a great privilege and gift to glorify God and express our gratitude. All of us are given one life to live on this earth. That life will come to an end one day, sooner than you think. We’ve all been given a choice as to how we live our lives. You can choose not to burn the flame of God in your life. And if you do, you will waste your life. You will experience trials, difficulties, struggles and hardships, and you will be in darkness without God’s light. But if today, you choose to shine the light of God in your life, you will still have trials, difficulties and hardships, but you will have God’s light to show you the way.

Have we reached that point where we have made up our minds to let God have all of us? Have we dedicated our lives to Jesus and made that commitment to follow Him with no turning back? We deprive ourselves of God’s bounty when we hold back even just a bit. Have we surrendered all?