Lesson 4: Surrender is Absolute, part 4
Have you never yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power while on the human side everything appears weak? Look at the Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane. We read that He, "through the Eternal Spirit," offered Himself a sacrifice unto God. The Almighty Spirit of God was enabling Him to do it. And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came over Him, and how He prayed! Externally you can see no sign of the mighty power of the Spirit, but the Spirit of God was there. And even so, while you are weak and fighting and trembling, in faith in the hidden work of God's Spirit do not fear but yield yourself.
When you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that God now accepts it. That is the great point, and that is what we so often miss — that believers should be thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender. I pray you, be occupied with God. We want to get help, every one of us, so that in our daily life God shall be clearer to us, God shall have the right place, and be “all in all." And if we are to have that through life, let us begin now and look away from ourselves, and look up to God. Let each believe, while I, a poor worm on earth and a trembling child of God, full of failure and sin and fear, bow here, and no one knows what passes through my heart, and while I in simplicity say, oh God, I accept Your terms; I have pleaded for blessing on myself and others, I have accepted Your terms of absolute surrender—while your heart says that in deep silence, remember there is a God present that takes note of it, and writes it down in His book, and there is a God present who at that very moment takes possession of you. You may not feel it, you may not realize it, but God takes possession if you will trust Him.
A fourth thought. God not only claims it, and works it, and accepts it when I bring it, but God maintains it.
That is the great difficulty with many. People say: "I have often been stirred at a meeting, or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself to God, but it has passed away. I know it may last for a week or for a month, but away it fades, and after a time it is all gone."
But listen! It is because you do not believe what I am now going to tell you and remind you of. When God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you, and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds Himself bound to care for it and to keep it. Will you believe that?
In this matter of surrender there are two, God and I—I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment?
Moment by moment I'm kept in His love;
Moment by moment I've life from above.
If God allows the sun to shine upon you moment by moment, without intermission, will not God let His life shine upon you every moment? And why have you not experienced it? Because you have not trusted God for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to God in that trust.
Lesson 4: Surrender is Absolute, part 4 Print
Modified on: Sat, 12 Dec, 2020 at 8:35 AM
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