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July 7 - July 10, 2019
“I have passed through much trial and suffering, and there is still much of the self-life remaining in me; I dare not surrender fully to God, because I know it will cause me much more trouble and agony.” How sad it is that God’s children have such thoughts, such cruel thoughts, of Him.
God does not ask you to perfectly surrender in your own strength or by the power of your will; God is willing to work it in you.
learn to know and trust your God entirely. Say, “My God, I am willing that You would make me willing.” If there is anything holding you back or any sacrifice you are afraid of making, come to God at once and prove how gracious He is. Do not be afraid that He will ask from you what He will not first give to you.
If you come and say, “Lord, I yield myself in absolute surrender to You,” even though it is with a trembling heart and with the thought that you do not feel the power, determination, or assurance, it will succeed.
Haven’t you ever yet learned the lesson that the Holy Spirit works with mighty power, while on the human side everything appears weak?
When you do yield yourself in absolute surrender, let it be in the faith that God really does accept it.
we need to begin right now and look away from ourselves and look up to God.
“O God, I accept Your terms; I have pleaded for blessing for myself and others. I have accepted Your terms of absolute surrender.” While your heart prays that prayer in deep silence and sincerity, remember that God is present, takes note of it, and writes it down in His book, God is present at that very moment to take possession of you. You may not feel it. You may not realize it; but God takes possession if you will trust Him.
God Maintains Surrender for Us God not only claims it and works it and accepts it when I bring absolute surrender to Him, but God maintains it.
Some of you have read the words of that aged saint, George Müller, who on his ninetieth birthday, told of all God’s goodness to him.[1] What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness and of all the blessing with which God had given him? He said he believed there were two reasons. The one was that by God’s grace he had maintained a good conscience before God day by day; the other was that he loved God’s Word.
a good conscience in wholehearted obedience to God day by day, fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer. That is a life of absolute surrender.
“By Your grace I desire to do Your will in everything, every moment of every day. Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Your glory, not a movement of my body or emotions but for Your glory, not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Your glory, and according to Your blessed will.”
Why is coffee poured into that cup? Because it is empty, and it is set apart for the coffee.
Denying self must be the power of your life every moment;
As the Spirit reveals Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever, and the self-life is cast out.
We need to confess the sins of God’s people all around us. We need to humble ourselves. We are members of that sickly body, and the sickness of the body will hinder us and break us down, unless we come to God, and in confession, separate ourselves from partnership with worldliness, confess our coldness toward each other, and give ourselves up to be entirely and wholly His.
How much is being done in the spirit of the flesh and in the power of self! How much work, day by day, in which human energy – our will and our thoughts about the work – is continually manifested and in which there is little waiting upon God and upon the power of the Holy Spirit! Let us confess,
Do you love Christ? Do you desire to be in Christ and not just like Him? Let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth: death to self for the sake of fellowship with Christ.
Surely one ought to say, “Anything to bring me to separation, to death, for a life of full fellowship with God and Christ. I come and cast this self-life and fleshlife at the feet of Jesus.”
But we believe that through faith on our part He does accept it, although the experience and the power of that absolute surrender do not come at once, and that it is our responsibility to hold firm our attitude before God until the experience and power come.
We need to let God reveal Christ in us and through us
“O Lord, give us Your grace, that we may not cover ourselves with any covering but the covering of Your Spirit. Lord God, awaken in the heart of those reading this the realization that we are all children of Your family, bowing before Your feet. Awaken in every heart a deep faith that our God, by the Holy Spirit, is going to reveal Jesus Christ to us even now. Our Father, we wait on You. Our soul waits, and our hope is in Your Word.”
He must not only be something hidden in my heart, but His presence must emanate in every action and in every moment of my existence.
before God took Him up to heaven, God let Him live here upon earth,
Jesus lived a life of absolute surrender to God. He lived and He died for God’s will, God’s honor, and God’s kingdom.
His work and His rest, His joy and His pleasure, were found in God.
I am not asking if you have reached this goal, but I am asking if this is what you actually desire more than anything else.
Whenever you think of drawing near to God, of serving God, and of offering yourself unto God, you might rightly wonder how you in your sinfulness with your transgressions and backslidings since you were converted and received Christ, you with the sinfulness of your nature, can actually have fellowship with God every day. The answer then comes: In Christ Jesus ye who at another time were far off are made near by the blood of the Christ (Ephesians 2:13).
your worthiness is not in yourself or in the intensity or uprightness of your consecration; your worthiness is in Jesus Christ.
we would learn that He is able to manifest Himself to us so that our hearts could be filled with the consciousness that Jesus is with us.
We can wake up and know He is with us, and we will immediately desire to commune with Him. Can it be that Christ can make His presence as near and as clear and as dear to me as the fellowship of the dearest ones upon earth? Christ can do it, He longs to do it, and He is worthy that we should let Him do it.
Jesus Christ is the One from whom the Holy Spirit must flow into us in ever new and larger measure.
He will live in us the same life that He lived upon earth.
and everything that causes self-condemnation and cast it all at His feet, believing that the blood cleanses
One of the main reasons God does not bless is the lack of love.
God has no selfishness. God keeps nothing to Himself. God’s nature is to be always giving.
the best way to understand the Trinity is as a revelation of divine love. The Father is the loving One, the fountain of love; the Son is the beloved One, the reservoir of love in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit is the living love that united both and then overflowed into this world.
Why was it that man sinned? Selfishness triumphed; he sought self instead of God. Adam at once accused the woman of having led him astray. Love to God had gone, and love to man was lost.
God’s Son came to show what love is,
Christ said to His disciples, in effect, “I give you a badge, and that badge is love; that is to be your symbol. It is the only thing in heaven or on earth by which people can know Me.”
Let us ask God with one heart that we may wear the badge of Jesus – love. God is able to give it.
Divine Love Conquers Self The fruit of the Spirit is love. Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.
Self is our greatest curse, but praise God, Christ came to redeem us from self.
deliverance from the self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all day.
The love of God is poured out in our hearts (Romans 5:5).
The love of God always means the love of God in its entirety, in its fullness as an indwelling power, a love of God to me that leaps back to Him in love and overflows to my fellow men in love. It is God’s love to me, and my love to God, and my love to my fellow men.
