What is absolute surrender?

sermonindex Jun 13, 2014

The short post below is my reply to a sister in Christ who asked on my site ” What does absolute surrender look like?” I thought it worthy of a post since it is such a great question……bro Frank

I believe absolute surrender comes at genuine salvation. It is a hearts attitude that says to God " I give you my life, my whole life, holding nothing back." I then believe that sanctification is a process whereby God takes what has been freely given to Him. We are not now our own, we have been bought by a price, the blood of Jesus. The more we give to God, the more we live out that surrender actually. The more we empty ourselves of the things of this world and the flesh, the more the world will see Jesus. We must decrease and He must increase. Yet, the work is all the Lord's and He gets all the glory. He does this work for his will and good pleasure. He heals, He restores He replaces the things that the locusts have devoured, He refines. He, through the Holy Spirit sanctifies, we surrender. So, ultimately surrender is a response to God. How we respond determines how we live and how we glorify God, which is our chief end in this life.....bro Frank

sermonindex Jun 13, 2014

I believe absolute surrender comes at genuine salvation. It is a hearts attitude that says to God " I give you my life, my whole life, holding nothing back."

--

Amen. I believe perhaps the hard thing is to stay there especially when we are being conformed into the image of the Son.

T

TMK Jun 13, 2014

"From this day forward, I am enlisted in His service. I offer Him my fortune, my sword, and my life. And this I pledge to you on my honor as a Roman."

Marcellus Gallo, The Robe

sermonindex Jun 13, 2014

Greg writes......

"Amen. I believe perhaps the hard thing is to stay there especially when we are being conformed into the image of the Son."

Re-read the post Greg and see if you think it speaks to your point above. One of the points of my short post is that you would not want to stay at the starting point. If the starting point is a genuine regeneration, you will go on and be sanctified, moving from babe in Christ drinking the milk, to a mature saint eating the meat................Frank

sermonindex Jun 13, 2014

Brother,

Sorry to bring any confusion. I simply had in my mind of being on the Altar Romans 12:2 and staying there hurts as God's holy fire burns away our dross and fills us with His life. That is why I said to stay in the place of "absolute surrender" is hard at times.

I know Smith Wigglesworth said that if we are not progressing in our walk with the Lord on any given day we are backsliding, I agree with this. Sorry to bring any confusion, I think we are saying the same thing in slightly different ways brother.

sermonindex Jun 13, 2014

Great post, thanks brother Frank.

What are the scriptures that point to the need or the command for "absolute surrender"...Romans 12:2 as Greg pointed out is one for sure...are their other specific scriptures/commands that we could list...I would find that very helpful if someone had the time?

M

mattf12486 Jun 13, 2014

2 Corinthians 5:15
and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again.

L

Lysa Jun 13, 2014

Absolute surrender does come at genuine salvation and I also believe that we must "keep" choosing to surrender throughout our life also but you stated it better!

I like what you said but if I could humbly add what Andrew Murray wrote on it, I'd like that. I do not mean to take anything away from what you have written.

God bless you, brother!!
Lisa

http://www.ccel.org/ccel/murray/surrender.html

Page 1, first 2 paragraphs:
ABSOLUTE SURRENDER
"And Ben-hadad the king of Syria gathered all his host together: and there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses, and chariots: and he went up and besieged Samaria, and warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab king of Israel into the city, and said unto him, Thus saith Ben-hadad, Thy silver and thy gold is mine; thy wives also and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine. And the king of Israel answered and said, My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine and all that I have" (1 Ki. 20:1-4).
What Ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender; and what Ahab gave was what was asked of him--absolute surrender. I want to use these words: "My lord, O king, according to thy saying, I am thine, and all that I have," as the words of absolute surrender with which every child of God ought to yield himself to his Father. We have heard it before, but we need to hear it very definitely--the condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender of all into His hands. Praise God! If our hearts are willing for that, there is no end to what God will do for us, and to the blessing God will bestow.

H

havok20x Jun 13, 2014

Luke 9:23-24

"Then He said to them all, 'If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.'"

Oh! And I want to add this one!

Philippians 3:7-12

"But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christand be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me."

Oh man! v. 12 is so awesome!

M

murrcolr Jun 13, 2014

Quote: I believe absolute surrender comes at genuine salvation.

Using the word salvation confuses the matter. Of salvation you could say this: I am saved, I am being saved and I will be saved.

So when does absolute surrender happen? When your saved, when your being saved or when you'll be saved?

Personally I think we are deluding ourselves if we say we absolutely surrendered at conversion. I see it this way: at conversion we gave all that we knew we could at that time, the Holy Spirit then started work on us and he will ultimately lead us to to a place where we can surrender absolutely.

For me absolute surrender this side of heaven is the death of the self life.

sermonindex Jun 13, 2014

Murrcolr writes........

'Personally I think we are deluding ourselves if we say we absolutely surrendered at conversion"

That is because , brother, we disagree as to what the term absolute surrender means. I wrote.........

"I believe absolute surrender comes at genuine salvation. It is a hearts attitude that says to God " I give you my life, my whole life, holding nothing back."

My assertion is that this surrender not only comes at salvation, but is vital to it. One cannot be saved unless one gives ones life to Jesus. As I said, it is a heart's attitude and God knows what is genuine and what is not. He then spends a life-time taking that what is right-fully His.

And so we disagree, you say that absolute surrender comes at some point way down the road of our walk, so we are, according to your opinion, all working our way to some kind of total surrender. I say that it comes at the beginning and that is why we are saved in the first place, because we give the Lord our lives, just as we were, still in our sin, crying out to Him and surrendering to Him. He takes it and then He molds it and He finishes it for He is the author and the finisher of our faith and is faithful to complete that which He started. All the glory is His, all the work is His, our's is simply to bend, to yield, to surrender. And to the extent that we do those things, to the same extent are we useful in the Kingdoms work bringing glory to God. And so absolute surrender is to give Him our whole lives. Once given, we are then purchased, bought with a price. It is then a daily walk, a picking up of the cross, a yielding a surrendering. But the ultimate and absolute surrender came when we died, handed over our lives to him and so begins after that the war of the spirit and the flesh...........bro Frank

M

murrcolr Jun 14, 2014

Quote: "I believe absolute surrender comes at genuine salvation. It is a hearts attitude that says to God " I give you my life, my whole life, holding nothing back."

Let the Christian be tested to the proof of the question "have they absolutely surrendered at conversion”, and the true position will be exposed.

Let them be forced into making a choice between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition, God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time.

However the Christian may protest, the proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life.

Quote: But the ultimate and absolute surrender came when we died, handed over our lives to him and so begins after that the war of the spirit and the flesh.

I will reply with a quote from Towzer.

Towzer quote:

Real faith must always be more than passive acceptance. It dare mean nothing less than surrender of our doomed Adam-life to a merciful end upon the cross. That is, we won God's just sentence against our evil flesh and admit His right to end its unlovely career. We reckon ourselves to have been crucified with Christ and to have risen again to newness of life. Where such faith is, God will always work in line with our reckoning. Then begins the divine conquest of our lives. This God accomplishes by an effective seizing upon, a sharp but love-impelled invasion of our natures. When He has overpowered our resistance He binds us with the cords of love and draws us to Himself. There, "faint with His loveliness" we lie conquered and thank God again and again for the blessed conquest. There, with moral sanity restored, we lift up our eyes and bless the Most High God. Then we go forth in faith to apprehend that for which we were first apprehended of God.

sermonindex Jun 14, 2014

appolus wrote:

And so we disagree, you say that absolute surrender comes at some point way down the road of our walk, so we are, according to your opinion, all working our way to some kind of total surrender. I say that it comes at the beginning and that is why we are saved in the first place, because we give the Lord our lives, just as we were, still in our sin, crying out to Him and surrendering to Him.

I agree that absolute surrender comes at the beginning. We surrender everything we have and commit ourselves to follow the Lord with hearts full of gratitude and love.

But I am sure that there will be agreement, that it is at this point when we really start to learn about ourselves and the very deep damage that is within us. The Lord leads us on pathways which expose ourselves, not so that He knows us, as He already does, but so that we ourselves learn and understand what is within us and how we react to the many testings and trials that ensure.

As the Lord shines His light within, we see dark places that we never knew existed and fail at times when we thought that we would be strong. The journey has been likened to climbing a mountain. We are not delivered to the top when we first know the truth, but we are at the bottom. The journey involves slipping down and regaining our footsteps, reaching places where we stand still for a while or even find a pathway that leads us in the wrong direction and we are lost for a while. Then the light shines and we are back on track.

It is up to us how far up the mountain we reach, and some sadly give up before reaching the top. But if we are determined, for some, there comes a point when the Lord reveals a truth which totally transforms them and takes them to the top, and it is unwise for those who have not reached this point yet in their journey, to discount the witness of many who have.

It is foolish indeed to think that there is no danger around the corner and ignore the warnings of those who are walking in the opposite direction to us, just because we have never faced such a danger.

If we wish to know if we have the truth, it is very easy as Colin says: What is the inner witness? Have we fallen from our first love? Do others see a holy life in us? Does our wife or husband say that we are holy men and women?

The human soul is deep indeed and only the revelation of God can show us whether we are surrendering all. Of course we believe that we are until there comes a point where we are clearly shown that we have been blind and we should never close our minds to the possibility of this, and the knowledge that we have been wrong. It is not humility to believe otherwise.

sermonindex Jun 14, 2014

I love the Tozer quote but the opening sentence does not relate to the subject at hand. I was not talking about passive acceptance, I was talking about a real absolute surrender that God recognizes. A passive acceptance is another topic.

I agree with Krautfrau 99% :) We could have a long conversation about the top of the mountain and those who claim to stand there but I do not want this thread to be about sinless perfection as this subject has been covered ad nauseam. The subject for me is simply the act of absolute surrender and when it occurs and how we proceed from there, so I am glad we agree sister..........bro Frank

M

MrBillPro Jun 14, 2014

What is absolute surrender? I don't know, I haven't been there yet.

O

Oracio Jun 14, 2014

I believe absolute surrender comes at genuine salvation. It is a hearts attitude that says to God " I give you my life, my whole life, holding nothing back." I then believe that sanctification is a process whereby God takes what has been freely given to Him. We are not now our own, we have been bought by a price, the blood of Jesus. The more we give to God, the more we live out that surrender actually. The more we empty ourselves of the things of this world and the flesh, the more the world will see Jesus. We must decrease and He must increase. Yet, the work is all the Lord's and He gets all the glory. He does this work for his will and good pleasure. He heals, He restores He replaces the things that the locusts have devoured, He refines. He, through the Holy Spirit sanctifies, we surrender. So, ultimately surrender is a response to God. How we respond determines how we live and how we glorify God, which is our chief end in this life.....bro Frank

Amen! I would be in agreement with those who see it as Lordship salvation as distinguished from the cheap grace message preached and heard by multitudes today.

Z

ZekeO Jun 14, 2014

To answer the question simply, it is total conviction, as to the level that you are at, that the Lord Jesus Christ is everything.

What I mean is this, I do not seek to surrender, I seek Jesus. For in Him are the true spiritual realities of truth found not in my attempts to do so.

sermonindex Jun 14, 2014

Thank you Frank.

Brenda

P

PaulWest Jun 14, 2014

What I mean is this, I do not seek to surrender, I seek Jesus. For in Him are the true spiritual realities of truth found not in my attempts to do so.

Yes, that's right. As soon as you begin seeking for things like "absolute surrender" or "holiness" or "complete perfection" or whatever it may be, you have overlooked the entire orchard while looking for a single petunia, for in Christ Jesus is encapsulated all we seek. When a Christian seeks humility, for example, he is seeking for a mere component of the fullness which is to be found in Christ.

My experience has been as soon as I begin looking for "component enhancement", these areas are the very ones in which I soon fail. If I seek humility, I become proud. If I seek surrender, I find myself soon again entangled with a besetting sin. These failures usually come after a period of "victory" in these very areas. From other mature saints I have spoken with, my experience in this is not unique.

Saints, we must seek Jesus Christ alone, and when we are His and He is ours, all of His will be ours, just as all of God's is His. This means we will have His complete surrender to His Father's will, His humility, His love, His patience, His fidelity, His compassion, His kindness, His temperance, His faith, His very mind. The secret to all Christian fullness is summated in Jesus Christ: the Sum of all components.

He gives us all we need at the level we are at because He gives of Himself. The size of the vessel does not alter the integrity of the Water. Water is water regardless if it fills a drinking glass, a bucket, or a river. Maturity simply marks an increase in the vessel's size. To the level of grace our present maturity in God calls for, this exact level will be proffered unto us -- and this is our perfection, for perfection is not attained but effortlessly obtained in a Person who inhabits the imperfect vessel through grace.

sermonindex Jun 14, 2014

I find that the imperative that 'we must seek Jesus alone' to be rather vague and neither does it tell us how to do it. We all want to know Him more and have a more authentic sense of His presence. That goes without saying. But we need guidance in our seeking. Our goals are not the tools of the search. I don't think anyone says or believes that. We all know that to have more humility, and to have more holy lives is to be closer to Christ. Those who are seeking qualities of enhanced human characteristics are not on the spiritual pathway and I don't think it applies to anyone here. The brothers and sisters on this site are seeking Christ.

Submission to His revealed will for us is not to be overlooked, or indicating that we are not on the right path. It is absolutely vital. If we are not submitted to all that He has already spoken to us about, then we have gone astray and seeking an unholy Jesus.