Dear Friends, Brothers and Sisters all around the world: Happy New Year!
I trust that you are all doing well. I wanted to share with you a little of the things I've been studying lately and that the Lord has been putting on my heart, because I believe it will bless you also as it has blessed me. Most of this is study notes from sermons by Stovall Weems, Paul Washer and a few others on what it really means to be a totally committed disciple of Jesus. For further reading, I would highly suggest the book Absolute Surrender by Andrew Murray.
I Cor 15:34 Awake to soberness righteously, and sin not.
James 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.
Let the grace of God have its full effect in you by surrendering again to Him everything this coming new year. Be to the Lord what he requires his sacrifices to be; let your whole heart, your body, soul, and spirit, be sanctified to the Lord, that he may fill you with all his fullness.
Rom 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
Let God have all of you, and His grace will have full effect in you. This can only happen with absolute and unconditional surrender to Him.
The Lord desires that you may be perfect — fully developed in all the attributes of a Christian character. entire — that which has all its parts complete, with nothing lacking; 1Th 5:23, “your whole (literally, ‘entire’) spirit, soul, and body”; as “perfect” implies without any missing part. Surrender totally to Him, and He will set you free!
James 1:6-8 But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let not that man think that he shall receive any thing of the Lord. A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.
This is applicable to a man who has no settled principles; who is controlled by passion; who is influenced by popular feeling; who is now inclined to one opinion or course of conduct, and then to another. This was a term among the Jews, to express the man who attempted to worship God, and yet retained the love of the world.
Dear brothers and sisters, we should not have two hearts, one for God, and one for something else. A man of this character is continually distracted; he will neither let earth nor heaven go, and yet he can have but one. A person divided in their minds and affections, not willing to give up the world, can make no progress in their faith.
It seems many Christians read chapter 7 of Romans and stay there, but Paul did not. Paul went on to Romans chapter 8.
Chapter 7 is a chapter on a self-centered person. The 8th chapter is a chapter about the Christ-centered person. In the 7th chapter you read that first person over and over and over until you get weary of reading "me", "my" and "I".
"I want to do this but I can't...," and "I find I'm in bondage...," and so forth and so on. Notice how many times you find that "me", "my" and "I", and no mention of the Holy Spirit.
In the 8th chapter there is all the mention in the world about the Holy Spirit. Nineteen times the Holy Spirit is mentioned. This is the key to victory. It is Christ in us who is our hope of glory.
Look at the total difference in the life of Paul in Romans 7 and 8 and compare also the different in Peter before and after Pentecost, and you will understand that to have complete victory, we need to be totally surrendered to the Spirit of God.
Luke 14:33 So therefore whosoever he be of you that does not renounce all that he has, he cannot be my disciple.
He who does not forsake all that he has cannot be a disciple of Jesus, nor is he worthy to be called one. Without absolute surrender of self, it is not possible.
James 1:21 Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
lay apart — “once for all” (so the Greek): as a filthy garment. Let us lay aside all that is evil, and submit ourselves wholly to God.
Heb 12:1-1 Therefore let us also, seeing we are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus the author and perfecter of our faith.
lay aside = cast off and put away
every weight = all, every, any burden/hindrance
finisher = consummater/completer
We must sit down and consider what Jesus has defined as the cost of discipleship and ask ourselves: Am I really willing to lose myself? When they saw a man going to be crucified, they knew he wasn't coming back.
James 4:4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Matt 12:30 If you are not on my side, you are really against me. If you don't help me gather in the harvest, you are scattering it.
James 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
It is only when we submit ourselves wholly to God that we will be able to walk in the Spirit to such a degree that we will be able to resist the devil so that he will flee from us.
James 4:8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.
James 4:10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
If we again would repent and surrender ourselves completely to God, He will work salvation and freedom in our lives. It is true, we have nothing in ourselves sufficient to make such a complete commitment, but Christ has said, My grace is sufficient for thee, and that grace shall not be wanting to any of us, if we seek for it and make use of it.
This is my prayer for myself and all my brothers and sisters in Christ around the world in this new year: That we will totally surrender to God once again and renew our dependence upon Him, abiding in Him so that we might continue bearing fruit unto righteousness, loving one another, and showing forth that love to the world that they might also believe the truth and be saved.
Have a Happy New Year Everyone!