"If you're going through hell, keep going." Winston Churchill

Spiritual Surrender; resting your oars.

Drifting is not always bad. You can rest while you drift. Your muscles can recharge. A friendly breeze can cool the sweat in your shirt.

Drifting results when you surrender direction. No matter how hard you row, the tide still seems against you. At the point of spiritual surrender you yield your course to the unseen current pulsing beneath the water's surface.

Drifting needn't imply that you are straying off course. Drifting can mean that you are surrendering to an unseen force.

Where are you struggling agaisnt the tide? Arms can fatigue and get cramps. Where is your soul cramping? Maybe God is trying to change your direction. Maybe He wants you to give up? Maybe you're fighting against a "teacher" sent from God with a life lesson? Sometimes, God asks you to change a situation. Sometimes, God commissions a situations to change you.

Today, rest your oars. Enjoy the breeze. Recharge. Drift a little. Pray and reflect.

"The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord. He directs it like a watercourse whevever He pleases." Proverbs 21:1

MONDAY MORNING MOTIVATOR ON TUESDAY

Spiritual surrender is the high art of soul-making.

Yet the very thought of spiritual surrender is grounds for war, a spiritual war. The exact second you use your will to choose a spiritual surrender; it is an act of war. Surrender is that powerful. It aligns your will with God’s will. This alignment unleashes mighty forces to go to work in the spiritual realm. Having surrendered, God now steps forth to fight your battles for you. Satan fears it much.

Don’t be surprised should spiritual surrender feel too much like a personal defeat. That negative feeling is the language of your prideful ego. In the spiritual realm, surrender is the shortest path to victory.

How much do you know about the art of spiritual surrender?

Spiritual surrender is to give control over to the Lord Jesus. There are two types of issues that need surrendering. One is called a burden. The other is called a baby.

A burden is a matter that isn’t welcomed in your life. A baby is something that you do want, but you realize that God is asking you to sacrifice it to Him. Have you never read the story of Abraham and Isaac?

A burden can be mental, like fear or bitterness. A burden can be physical, like an illness, unemployment or a rebellious son or daughter. A baby likewise can be mental and it can be physical. The chief difference between a burden and a baby is that with one, you are more than happy to give it away. But with the other, there is no natural desire within to let go.

This week, your spiritual exercise goal is to talk with Jesus either about one of your burdens or a personal “baby” that you’re struggling with. Your private prayer sanctuary with Jesus should be seen as a first step. With prayer you surrender your heart to God for inspection. “Lord, tell me what You think. How well am I perfecting the practice of the art of spiritual surrender?’

The first chapter of John’s first epistle reads “God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all.” The kind of darkness and light John speaks of in chapter one are descriptions of the heart. In this context, the heart John describes is God’s. To touch the heart of God is to find the source from which springs forth the purest essence of love and wisdom.

The believer seeks not the heart of God in order to be saved. In the Gospel of John the words are read, “You did not choose me. I choose you.” The Apostle Paul also reminded his church that “God sought us when we sought Him not.” The heart of God is easily found in the person of Jesus Christ. The Son of God is the heart of God clothed in flesh. And the Bible clearly shows that Jesus is the Good Shepherd. He is the heart of God that seeks and finds the sheep that are wandering and lost.

To be found by Christ is to be touched by the heart of God. It is a moment in time that will forever change you. It is unforgettable. It is indescribable. To touch the heart of God makes you a prisoner of a single life encompassing desire. The day you were touched is the day you began your journey to return, again and again to re-experience that touch.

Burdens and “baby’s” provide you with a compelling reason to make the journey.

The journey back depicts the life of Christian sanctification. The sanctification is progressive and continual.

The journey is required. You may refuse the call for many years but finally the emptiness inside that you feel will force you to rethink what you have done. If you are a Christian, then you are a prisoner of grace. In the Biblical, humankind is viewed as either prisoners of grace or prisoners of sin. Once touched by the heart of God, the memory of God’s love and grace will solicit you to accept the Biblical meanings to your heart’s deepest longings.

The prisoner of grace is sanctified in the journey but not saved. The prisoner of God’s heart is already saved.

John’s epistle goes on with these words, “if we claim to have fellowship with Him yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth, but if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin.”

John’s words describe the progress of your journey. He uses the term “walk.” It is a metaphor that describes your fellowship with God. From John’s word you discover that fellowship is found only in the light and while standing in the light, your soul is continually sanctified by the light.

Sanctification is a heart-word. It is a Biblical Word that depicts the union and reunion of your heart with God’s.

When you surrender your burden to God, you are standing in the light. When you sacrifice your baby to God, you experience the fellowship of God. The experience of surrender is a teacher of wisdom. It teaches you different ways to identify with the heart of God. Didn’t God sacrifice His one of a kind son? Wasn’t God’s sacrifice His way of sending His love out into a fallen world?

The art of soul-making is the ancient path to Christ-likeness. The art of soul-making shifts your attention away from “how you look” and sets your focus on your heart, your soul, your spirit, or whichever word you choose to use that describes the inner you that is only seen by you and God.

The more you give yourself away to God, the more your life will begin to make sense to you. The less there is of you, the less of you there is to get in God’s way.

How much of your life have you surrendered to God? How self-willed are you yet?

The art of spiritual surrender does not come naturally. Human pride is so inflated with an air of self-importance that the idea of surrender is viewed with disgust. Surrender is seen by pride as a type of defeat. Pride is too embarrassed by the idea because the concept of surrender is clear evidence that contradicts the vaunted boastings of the ego pride.

This week may hold a huge new breakthrough for you. Speaking with Jesus about your struggle to make a spiritual surrender may bring a huge spiritual insight.

Spiritual surrender is a high art of soul-making.

Surrender is powerful. It aligns your will with God’s will. This alignment unleashes mighty forces to go to work in the spiritual realm. Having surrendered, God now steps forth to fight your battles for you.

"Don't scratch where it doesn't itch!"

"My child, do not underestimate your Father's discipline, do not resent Him should He let you fail, because your Father shows His love through the ways He disciplines your heart. This is the way of a true Father. He delights in you. But He will not pamper." Proverbs 3:11,12

Do your fresh starts wilt?

Do you begin with a bang but fizzle before you finish?

You naturally long to be more productive. You, more than anyone else, intuitively know just how gifted you are. In your mind’s eye, you can envision yourself living a more abundant life. But how do you bridge the gap between the “present you” and the self you can see in your vision?

You must learn the Biblical art of war.

A first step in bridging the gap can be assessing the level of spiritual warfare in your life. Understanding spiritual warfare can turn frustration into finishing power. The art of war is a subject that may strike you as something new but I assure you my friend Satan has been using the art form all your life to keep your inner resources under his thumb.

Is Satan behind your frustration and fear? Why do you seem to voluntarily choose to settle for less so often on a daily basis?

You are uniquely gifted by God. You are redeemed, restored, ready and redirected. The victory of Christ is yours. He has already given you “the abundant life.” (John 10:9-10) Actually, you are so gifted with His abundance that it would take several lifetimes before you could fully develop all of your Christ-abundance. The fact is, you don’t lack gifts and talents but you do lack the wisdom to protect your good ideas from Satan’s saboteurs.

Crude flintlocks were used by early American frontiersmen to hunt game for food. Near the rifle stock, a tiny pan held a small measure of black gun powder. When the trigger was pulled, a flint rock hammered against the steel pan and ignited a spark. This set off a small explosion. The force propelled forward out the barrel a ball shot. Under conditions when a frontiersman’s powder wasn’t kept dry, the flint would hammer against the steel pan as usual but the wet powder could produce only a weak flash, not the explosion necessary. No shot was fired but a cloud of smoke was produced. Hence the origin behind the modern saying, a “flash in the pan.”

Spiritual growth creates a change in mental patterns. Are you more sin-conscious than Christ-conscious? Satan trembles at the idea that you might take ownership this week of your abundance by thinking differently about yourself. On Easter, Christ rolled away an enormous stone from the tomb where His body had laid. Today, Christ rolls away an enormous stone from your heart. He has risen to live a new life. Have you?

A first step in this new week is for you to prayerfully assess the level of spiritual warfare present in your “flash in the pan” episodes. This first step is taken prayerfully, using Scripture as your counselor and exploring the question with a trusted friend. These three simple steps will surprise you. Each step will raise your level of spiritual awareness.

Get Satan out of your ideas and get God in.

Being tempted to give up on your vision is a natural stage to spiritual development. You should expect it. Finishing what you start represents a level of victory. There are no such things as small victories. But there are small minds who don’t understand the role small victories play in your destiny.

The teachings of the amazing Christ are a beehive of wisdom. In Proverbs 16:3, He says, “commit to the Lord whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.”

The way to finishing what you begin, the way to take your good ideas from the thinking stage to the sharing stage is revealed by Christ in His Word. The Word tells you to “commit” your plans to the Lord. An effective way to avoid another flash in the pan episode is to get God involved in your project.

You don’t want to go to the gym, get God involved.

You don’t feel like doing your homework, get God involved.

You’re afraid of failure, get God involved.

The Hebrew word for “commit” means to “officially deliver to God for safekeeping.” You find here the power to stop repeating the past. When you consciously get God involved in your plans, you are not alone. Success isn’t dependent on you. Your courage and enthusiasm swell because your confidence shifts from being focused on yourself to being focused on your fellowship with God.

You can have fellowship with God when you create that new deck, when you practice a musical instrument, take a college class, adopt a diet plan, sew new curtains, bake a cake, write a book or take up dance lessons with your wife.

When you purpose to do something for God, even little mundane acts that don’t seem to have any spiritual connection to your soul, you are raising the level of your spiritual awareness. Keeping your awareness focused on God’s fellowship in your ideas means winning at the art of war. Success begins with focus and fellowship.

A grassy outfield of a baseball field near our home was converted each September into a football field. The team members pilfered their kitchens sneaking out paper sacks of white flour from home. We’d slice the corner of the sack and pour white chalk lines. With the stuff mom’s made biscuits out of we made a football grid on the green grass. On the grid we’d practice our list of dirt drawn plays after school till it was too dark to see the ball. My brother was on the team. He played high school sports. Some days he couldn’t make our neighborhood practices. The days my brother had to miss practice were the days a neighborhood thug made it his project to pick on me. He was older than me. He was bigger and he could hit me so hard the force knocked the air out of my lungs. I would have probably given up and quit had it not been for those practices where my big brother showed up. When my brother attended practice, the thug wilted. No one bullied me because my brother was involved.

I came to realize the spiritual wisdom of that football episode many years later. God was using my experience with that bully. The thug was Satan, my brother symbolized the presence of Christ. With my brother’s presence, I entrusted my physical well being to him. I didn’t have to look over my shoulder. I wasn’t afraid. I could enjoy playing the game. Without my brother’s protection, my football aspirations would have probably been a “flash in the pan.”

I didn’t always get to play the position that I wanted most. Our football team never had an undefeated season. We lost a lot of games. But I had a successful football career because through my experience I gained spiritual wisdom. That was my success. God chose it. He had it in mind to give to me all along. I can’t define exactly how God will bless me with success but I can make the conscious choice to get God involved in my projects by committing my way unto the Lord.

Getting God involved in your ideas is the way to receive finishing power. Committing your ideas unto the Lord is the first step in making war on “flash in the pan” episodes. This week, consciously get God involved in your ideas