Surrender, Can You?

“If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

“I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. Whoever does not love me does not keep my words. And the word that you hear is not mine but the Father’s who sent me.

“These things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

In my last post about the Spirit, I talked about distinguishing the movements of the Spirit from those of demonic origins. In this post, we will build on that message.

Free Will or Not

There has always been an argument over free will. John Calvin wrote that our free will is a will in bondage to sin. We sin out of necessity (not coercion) and therefore make sinful choices. Our need to sin makes us utterly dependent on God’s irresistible grace and mercy to liberate us.

Christ Sends Him

What does this have to do with the above passage? Jesus asked God the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us to help us. He is the Spirit of truth. Once you accept Christ as your Savior, the Spirit of Christ, often called the Spirit of Christ, lives in you.

So, here is my point. We live in arrogance. We still think we are in control of our destinies when God knew our end before our beginning. So, are we puppets? No, we are not puppets. God has given us the ability to make limited choices which some call free will. We use this “free will” God gives us to sin. What, then, are we to do?

I recently commented on a classmate’s post in a theology class. We discussed personal traits and how it affects our decision-making. Since the day Christ saved me and I began studying theology, I have learned this. We, as humans, cannot make good decisions on our own. In arrogance, we believe we “know” what God wants us to do. Really, you know what God wants you to do? Are you clairvoyant? Omniscient perhaps? The truth is we don’t know jack.

We must surrender ourselves to the Holy Spirit.

Not Easy to Do

Yielding to the Spirit is not easy; relying on prayer and the movement of the Holy Spirit to guide us in our life can be overwhelming. Every one of us, as Christians, has to surrender to God. Have you ever taken a job or agreed to something that made you feel like it was not the right choice? I’ll just take this job and see how it works out. It’s then a nightmare. It is the Spirit that guides you. Surrendering to the Holy Spirit means when something is not feeling right, recognizing that you are being told it is not right, and listening to the movement of the Spirit because that is what that feeling is. If we pray on that feeling, meditating on the choice and praying for guidance, we will get it. I am not saying that means we wait for guidance for every little decision we make. I am saying that we will face decisions with consequences in our life. When we are unsure of which road to take, we must rely on God.

Is That God Calling?

When I felt the calling of God into His service, I arrogantly thought I knew what God wanted me to do. Some years later, I know I don’t know anything about what God wants me to do. So, I surrendered to the Spirit. My path has since wandered. The Spirit has moved me in a direction I never thought I would go, yet I went there in faith and trust. The more I follow, the stronger the pull of the Spirit. I still am not sure where God will put me. Honestly, I cannot wait to find out where I will wind up and where the Spirit leads me to get there.

"Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed"

If God has called you, I will tell you two things. One, you are blessed to be called. Two, you are more blessed to have heard that calling. God calls many, and I believe they don’t listen to Him, ignore Him, or are afraid to surrender to the will of God. Don’t be frightened. Our God loves us and would never ask anything of us that He, in His omniscience, knows we have already completed. Remember, God knew the end before the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Surrender to the Spirit; His meandering way will lead you down a path you have never seen nor believed you could ever take.

Peace and Grace