The Focus Of Relinquishment

We all must face a crisis in our faith whereby we will have our "moment of truth" regarding our faith in God's will versus our own way--we are all like sheep gone astray, each one to his own way (cf. Isaiah 53:6).  If you've never grappled with the will of God, you probably haven't surrendered; once you have made the once-and-for-all relinquishment of control and ownership of your life, it only becomes a renewed effort on a continual, progressive, ongoing basis, even with day-by-day re-commitment.

We may one day be backed by God's will that clashes with the way we see things.  Once we have made this initial surrender that Romans 12:1 mentions as "our reasonable service," it becomes a pleasure to walk in the Spirit as we desire God's will (cf. Psalm 40:8:  "I delight to do thy will..."), and actually inquire as to what it is, whereby before we never even wondered about it.  In the Garden of Gethsemane, we learn that even Jesus had a will of His own, but He interposed it with the Father's will throughout His life, coming to a climax here; even at age 12 He said, "I must be about My Father's business [doing  His will]."

We are rebellious at heart and God has to work on us to mold us in His image, someday we end up backed into a wall and will make that decision to "follow Jesus."  This is the summation of our ethics: to follow on to know the Lord (cf. Hos. 6:3), doing His will to His glory.  Even Jesus had His time of testing and trial in the Garden of Gethsemane and surrendered to the Father's will, which He knew was something He didn't want in His humanity and was actually relating to our struggle with relinquishment.  Christ never asked us to do anything He didn't do Himself; in fact, our so-called crosses pale in comparison to His and He relates completely, even sending the Comforter to guide and lead us.  Jesus surrendered voluntarily and our surrender is the same, God wants us to want His will, not to feel that we have to submit to something we don't want.  In the end, all that counts is not how much of the Spirit you have, but how much of you the Spirit has; i.e., re your surrender!

Jesus doesn't ask us to die for Him, by and large, but to live for Him, to dedicate our lives to Him as living sacrifices, which is only a reasonable service of worship (cf. Rom. 12:1-2).  We are in the serious business of seeking God's will and obeying it; a genuine sign of a believer is that he wonders about God's will and submits to it gladly.  We are not Christians at all if we have never prayed our prayer of relinquishment, like Christ did Himself, and have given over the ownership of our lives to live them for His glory and not for ourselves.  It should be noted that often our surrender occurs after a good time or even a time of anxiety or stress (there's good stress).  And we are most vulnerable to testing after a victory or a "spiritual high," just like Jesus was tempted after His baptism by Satan.

Trusting Jesus is no less daring and brave than getting married and we must not run from God or avoid the corner we are backed into, but face the dilemma with the courage of God in our hearts.  Remember that He gives the Spirit without measure and some believers don't have more of the Spirit, they are just more surrendered and walk closer with the Lord.

Jesus had a divine as well as a human side; we have a flesh as well as a spirit and we must surrender our spirit to God's to overcome our flesh.  We may be facing some pet sin or a sin that easily besets us, but we can be reassured of victory only after our surrender. This initial surrender is often accompanied by a fear of the unknown, since the seeker may wonder if God is going to make them do something they don't want to do, like go to Africa, but if we realize the love of God and how He establishes us in the faith with all the provision to do His will, we can have faith in Christ despite our fears.  We must overcome our fears and get the courage to obey by having a heart fully surrendered, holding nothing back and having no reservations--then we will be able to walk with God and live in the Spirit day by day.  That is, we face our fears head on without running from them or dodging the bullet.

It may be as easy as just starting by making confessions of all fears and reservations, and having a person-to-person or one-on-one talk with God to resolve the areas of doubt and what your fears are.  God only reveals His will to the willing believer; it's only personal fears that keep a person from surrender and God will give you the courage to obey His will if you are surrendered--those who are rebellious will never know! We must trust God to only give us crosses we can bear and that He will give us the power to do His will, as well as the provision needed per Heb. 13:21 (NASB):  "[Equip] you in every good thing to do His will...."

According to Rom. 12:2 we have to surrender to know God's will, that is the divine order of events and link.  A true believer ultimately delights to do God's will, though he may falter or fail at times, deep inside he wills or yearns to please God and live for His glory (Psalm 40:8, KJV, with emphasis added, says plainly, "I delight to do thy will...").  Paul's prayer for the Colossians was to "be filled with the knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding"  (Col. 1:9, NASB).  We must bear in mind that God is able to overcome our wills (cf. Rom. 9:19), and make us willing to do His will, by taking our heart of stone and giving us a heart of flesh (cf. Ezek. 36:26) and, according to Psalm 51:12, will give us or sustain us with a "willing spirit."  We are to imitate or emulate Christ's example and motto of His life:  Thy will be done!

You can always discern those who haven't ever made the prayer of relinquishment:  They don't know God's will or wonder about it; are apathetic about it; have reservations or something they're holding back on God with; or they aren't seeking God or walking with Him in a growing faith and relationship as they "learn to love Him more dearly, follow Him more nearly, and know Him more clearly" (Richard of Chichester).  Usually, upon salvation, one is cognizant of God's will in the short term, but no one knows His will in the long- erm because it isn't rolled out for us in a life plan, but the "course of our life is in [His] hands" (Psalm 31:15, HCSB).  God makes us willing to do His will progressively per Phil. 2:13 (NASB):  "[F]or it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure." In the final analysis, it's not how much of the Spirit that you have, but how much of you the Spirit has!   Soli Deo Gloria! 

I Delight To Do Thy Will

"'Now when  David had served God's purpose in his own generation, ..." (Acts 13:36, NIV).

David prayed this in Psalm 40:8 and this made him "a man after God's own heart"---being passionate for God's will despite his failures, mistakes, shortcomings, blunders, and sins.  (Luke 7:47 says, "He that is forgiven much, loveth much.")  You can do all God's will, as David did, and yet fall short because of sin--they are mutually exclusive.  In other words, if it is Will A to do God's will and you do A plus B, you have still done A or God's will, though you added a work of the flesh or a sin to it.   You can do God's will or what is right but not with a pure heart or wholeheartedly, as Amaziah did (cf. 2 Chron. 25:2). It nowhere in Scripture says David never did anything that wasn't God's will--just that he did all God's will for him.  And when he had "served the purpose of God" (cf. Acts 13:36), David expired, breathed his last, and went to be with his fathers.

David had a real heart to build a temple for the Lord, yet God wouldn't let him due to blood on his hands, but the heart was there!   We find out that the heart of the matter is that it's a matter of the heart!  David found out that the "pleasure of sin" (cf. Heb. 11:25) was but "for a season," but there are lasting joy and fulfillment in serving God.  David was a man of prayer and a man of God, despite his male ego or drive, and the fact that he recovered--nothing kept him down--was proof of what his priorities were, and that he was able to put his instincts and hormones into perspective and see God's service in the greater light.

Even Jesus had to pray that God's will would be done, as he prayed His prayer of relinquishment in the Garden of Gethsemane:  "... [Nevertheless], not my will, but thine be done!" (Luke 22:42, KJV).   This was the motto of Jesus' life:  "Thy will be done!"  We can do no worse than to follow suit and to dedicate ourselves to God's will, otherwise God may say to our chagrin, "Okay, have it your way!"  A word to the wise:  saying "Thy will be done" at the end of a prayer is no cop-out, but a humble admission of submission that God's glory is your intention, not to satisfy your own lusts or will.

God's best for us is His will (cf. Jer. 29:11), and we must learn to put our faith in His plan for our lives--He has no Plan B, as it were.  And so we must get with the program.  There is no greater joy than being involved in the Lord's work, and we find our life fulfillment in doing His will.  King David knew the joy of the Lord in following His will and was accustomed to seeking God's presence everywhere he went and to wait on the Lord for His blessings.  David was indeed a man after God's own heart, which meant he was in love with the Lord, you could say, and the surprising thing is that he loved God despite all his sins and distractions from having seven wives and several concubines!  
Soli Deo Gloria!

What Is A Significant Prayer?

The most perfect and ideal prayer we can make is to commend ourselves unto God's care, let His will be done in a prayer of relinquishment, and have the faith to mean it when we say, "Amen!"  We must dismiss the notion that we can change God, but let successful prayer change us.

Jesus rebuked the vain repetitions of the Pharisees and the meaningless long-winded prayers they were wont to do, then He formulated the Lord's Prayer because the disciples asked Him "Lord, teach us to pray," of all things to want to learn.   This prayer was never meant to be a recital or vain repetition, but the answer to the question, "How shall we pray?" (not "What shall we pray?).  It is never wrong to go through the petitions and pray them as long as one comprehends it and meditates on it while doing it.  Therefore, everything we need to know about prayer is in this paradigm or framework Jesus gave us if we understand and apply it rightly.  The vital link is, "How big is our God?" because this affects our prayer life and our faith in the answers--that is why it is said, "Be it done unto you according to your faith."

God's name or reputation is holy and worthy of praise; for He exalts above all things His name and His Word (Psalm 138:2).   Prayer, by definition, is communion or communication with the Almighty and that means it is two-way--not just us doing all the talking.  We have to learn to listen like Samuel who prayed, "Speak LORD, for your servant hears." The more we listen, the more we hear; we must practice this fervently because hearing God, as well as a prayer to Him are like muscles one must exercise to be fit--we don't want to become unfit or turn a deaf ear to God by negligence or because we are remiss or derelict doing our part.  

The book of Job says that God speaks to man, but he doesn't hear.  God always speaks to me when I read the Scriptures because I have trained myself in this discipline.   Sometimes God has much to say and we do all the talking.  One way God speaks to us is by verses we have committed to memory, something a believer told us in edification, or some circumstance.  Being cognizant of His control or providence shows our faith and how we will interpret the answers.

Psalm 100:4 says to "Enter His gates with thanksgiving, enter His courts with praise."  For the LORD "inhabits the praises of His people" according to Psalm 22:3.  The essence of prayer is communication and to change us, not change the unchangeable one!  The purpose of prayer is prayer--we should love to touch base with God and stay in fellowship with Him by keeping short accounts of our sins and confessing them ("If I had cherished iniquity in my heart, the LORD would not have listened," says Psalm 66:18)  and we should "pray without ceasing," which means that we keep the conversation going (our attitude and fellowship) as Brother Lawrence, the humble cook in a monastery, did in the 16th century when he wrote The Practice of the Presence of God, which is a classic on the continuity of daily fellowship  in our labors.

When we do corporate or public prayer one goal is to be a witness to others and teach them how to pray and be an example; and, if possible, to convert any unbeliever by our witness.  All prayer should be in the power of the Spirit, as it says in Jude 21:  "Pray in the Spirit."  We should strive to put our hearts into our prayers, but sincerity is not everything if we ask amiss or are wrong.  Just because we can put a lot of emotion into it is no guarantee that God will answer affirmatively.  Prayer is, in summation, acknowledging God for who He is and what He has done; thanking Him for what He has done, and praising Him for who He is.  The better we know God, the better our prayers.

 When we pray we should think of putting on Christ and assuming our role and position as a son of God and having the authorization to use Christ's name and permission to call the Most High our Father--the angels don't have this authority and power to influence God--remember prayer is the ordained means that God uses to accomplish His will and we are acting as vessels of honor, being used for His glory.   This implies intimacy and the more we pray, the closer we get to God--if we don't pray much, it is because we probably don't believe God is listening or answering our prayers.

Finally, our prayers are in the power enabling the ministry of the Holy Spirit, who puts our feeble words and baby talk or lisping into groans too deep for words to the Father. "For we know not how to pray as we ought, but the Holy Spirit makes intercession for us."   We go to the top in our prayer, the Most High, who is the God and Father of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has an open-door policy, which means we are always welcome and God is never inconvenienced.

We should think of the attributes of God when we pray:  His greatness or awesomeness (nothing is too great, nor too small for God--they are all small); His sovereignty (we can be assured that He is in control and we are on the winning side); God is omnipotent or almighty (nothing too big for God--"Is anything too hard for Me?" says the LORD in Jeremiah 32:17);  God is eternal and everlasting (He has all the time in the world to answer our prayer and time is no object, because He is not bound, defined, limited, nor in the time/space continuum that we are slaves to--this means God knows the future from the past and can forgive our sins past, present, and future as an example.   God is worthy of praise, worship is essentially "worth-ship" because only God is worthy to be worshiped--we can't praise God too much, in fact, there is power in praise!

Prayer is where the action is and is the acid test or the so-called litmus test of our spiritual relationship. Many people have weak prayer life because they take themselves too seriously; we should pray as we can and not as we can't.  It is a trick in prayer to learn to pray the Word and claim its promises.   It is not to be seen as a duty but as a glorious calling and honor. Learn to be sensitive to the inner voice of the Holy Spirit and the promptings He will give.  God does speak; it's just that man doesn't listen.  "Indeed God speaks once, Or twice, yet no one notices it"  (Job 33:14).   In sum, the greatest prayer is one of relinquishment, uttering in the manner of Jesus, "Thy will be done!  Soli Deo Gloria!

Seeking the Will of God

All genuine believers want to be in the will of God--this is Job One!   Sometimes the only time they think of it is when they have to make an important decision like marriage or a job; this is unfortunate. God can put a hedge around us if we are in the will of God and the devil cannot touch us; we can live in victory over our enemy. The safest place to be is in the will of God. Does God still speak to us about His intentions today? God is not bound by any certain MO or 1-2-3 formula like circumstances (which Gideon used with a fleece; (c.f. Judges 6); but most commonly speaks through His Word, as He was wont to do in biblical times. Greg Laurie calls the Bible God's "User's Manual." We can get an existential experience ("Aha!") or epiphany in the Word if we take every situation to the Bible with an expectation of God's illumination.

 If we do find God's will we will have peace of understanding as it says in Col. 3:15 (there is always peace of mind in God's will). [To define terms, God's will is the good and pleasing and perfect will of God, as Romans 12:1-2 describe. I am not referring to God's secret or decreed will that is none of our business, such things as necromancy, tarot cards, or crystal balls (Deut. 29:29).] Before you seek God's will, decide if you really want to know it; you may be fooling yourself into thinking you're willing to do it.

The Christian journey is by faith ("For we walk by faith and not by sight"), so we just need to "just walk" as Laurie says. Knowing God's will is a state of mind and not a rolled-out "itinerary" There is no easy MO, but it is revealed one step at a time, one decision at a time.   As we are obedient to the things God does reveal to us He gives us more guidance. God does have a master plan for our life and "the just shall live by faith" (Jeremiah 29:11: "I know the plans that I have for you...")   God has promised to make His ways plain in Isa. 35:8, and Isa. 30:21: "Whenever you turn to the right or to the left, you shall hear a voice behind you saying: 'This is the way, walk ye in it.'" Psalm 25:4 says God will reveal His way to us ("The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him").

But one caveat: Laurie says the condition of an enlightened mind is a surrendered heart. Some people want to know God's will so they can decide if they want to follow it or not. We must surrender to God's will first, then He will reveal it to us.   Eph. 5:17 says: "Do not be foolish but understand what the will of the Lord is." Acts 22:14 says that it has been granted unto us to know His will. When we get in sync with the Bible we can echo Hebrews 10:7 which says, "Behold, it is written of Me in the volume of the Book: to do Thy will." God's will is not just common sense, but sometimes we are to go against the grain and march to the beat of a different drummer. 

Proverbs 3:5-6 says not to lean unto our own understanding--"there is a way that seems right to a man."  I'm not saying we should be mystical or "spooky," but the more we grow in grace, the clearer God's will becomes to us. If we make a mistake God can "turn curses into blessings."   You will have peace of mind as you walk by faith, so "start walking." This  begins with our relinquishment or surrender to God's sovereignty over our lives. 

"The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and He delights in his way" cf. Psa. 37:23).  The Lord is our shepherd and "for His name's sake" "He leads us in the paths of righteousness" (Psalm. 23). We are to pray "Thy will be done" in our prayers. King David was anointed because he was willing to do all of God's will.  The Word of God is the "litmus test;" [cf. Isa. 8:20] so if it doesn't line up squarely with the Word, it is wrong for you.  To sum up, I don't know the future, but I know who holds the future.   Soli Deo Gloria!