Christ as life, hide in Jesus Chrust

The wall

Carolyn S. Smith

  

I built a wall around my heart,

A safe place I could hide.

A secret place for just myself,

With all my pain inside.

Others came to visit me,

And though we laughed and cried,

I hid my pain behind the wall,

They couldn't come inside.

One day Jesus came to me

And though I longed for peace,

I was imprisoned by my pain

And couldn't find release.

I could not bring myself to let Him

Come inside the Wall.

And though He helped tremendously,

I couldn't give my all.

As time flew by, my longings

Increased to highest peaks.

I yearned for His fellowship,

I hungered for true peace.

Quietly, He waited there,

Just outside my Wall.

Not asking once or rushing me,

Just loving despite all.

At length one day I knew that I

Could no longer hide.

I asked Him to destroy the wall

So He could come inside.

My heart beat quite alarmingly,

My mind was filled with fear.

My Wall was gone - where would I hide

My anger and my tears?

Amazingly, a peace began

To fill my soul anew.

A quiet joy, an unknown strength

More than I ever knew.

I looked around and saw the Wall

Lay shattered at my feet,

But suddenly I didn't care,

I had a peace so sweet.

I knew at once the pain that had been

Bottled deep within

Had only been a symptom

Of bitterness and sin.

As I released the sin and pain,

Jesus wiped away my tears.

I understood He was my friend,

And He would calm my fears.

And just as sure, I knew that now

He always would abide.

I knew that when I faced new fears,

In Him, now I could hide.

So now instead of crouching

In pain behind my wall,

My hiding place is Jesus,

The greatest place of all.

After surrender to Christ, what is next?

HIMSELF

Once it was the blessing, Now it is the Lord;

Once it was the feeling, Now it is His Word.

Once His gift I wanted, Now the Giver own;

Once I sought for healing, Now Himself alone.

Once 'twas painful trying, Now 'tis perfect trust;

Once a half salvation, Now the uttermost!

Once 'twas ceaseless holding, Now He holds me fast;

Once 'twas constant drifting, Now my anchor's cast.

Once 'twas busy planning, Now 'tis trustful prayer;

Once 'twas anxious caring, Now He has the care;

Once 'twas what I wanted, Now what Jesus says;

Once 'twas constant asking, Now 'tis ceaseless praise.

Once it was my working, His it hence shall be;

Once I tried to use Him, Now He uses me;

Once the power I wanted, Now the Mighty One;

Once for self I labored, Now for Him alone.

Once I hoped in Jesus, Now I know He's mine;

Once my lamps were dying, Now they brightly shine;

Once for death I waited, Now Him coming hail;

And my hopes are anchored Safe within the vail.

Albert B. Simpson

 After Surrender - Then What?

"I have finished the work which You have given Me to do"     John 17:4

  True surrender is not simply surrender of our external life but surrender of our will - and once that is done, surrender is complete. The greatest crisis we ever face is the surrender of our will. Yet God never forces a person's will into surrender, and He never begs. He patiently waits until that person willingly yields to Him. And once that battle has been fought, it never needs to be fought again.

  Surrender for Deliverance. "Come to Me…and I will give you rest" (Matthew 11:28). It is only after we have begun to experience what salvation really means that we surrender our will to Jesus for rest. Whatever is causing us a sense of uncertainty is actually a call to our will - "Come to Me." And it is a voluntary coming.

  Surrender for Devotion. "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself..." (Matthew 16:24). The surrender here is of myself to Jesus, with His rest at the heart of my being. He says, "If you want to be My disciple, you must give up your right to yourself to Me." And once this is done, the remainder of your life will exhibit nothing but the evidence of this surrender, and you never need to be concerned again with what the future may hold for you. Whatever your circumstances may be, Jesus is totally sufficient (see 2 Corinthians 12:9 and Philippians 4:19).

  Surrender for Death. "…another will gird you…" (John 21:18; also see verse 19). Have you learned what it means to be girded for death? Beware of some surrender that you make to God in an ecstatic moment in your life, because you are apt to take it back again. True surrender is a matter of being "united together (with Jesus) in the likeness of His death" (Romans 6:5) until nothing ever appeals to you that did not appeal to Him.

  And after you surrender - then what? Your entire life should be characterized by an eagerness to maintain unbroken fellowship and oneness with God.

"My Utmost for His Highest" September 13

Additional resources

“Servanthood The Way to Greatness” 3 audio MI 156   1996 Dr. Charles Stanley

“Living Above Your Circumstances” Psalm 121 audio 10/6/96 Gearl Spicer

http://www.ficm.org

“Unconditional Surrender” audio MCO31 Dr. Charles Stanley

"Absolute Surrender" Andrew Murray

"My Utmost for His Highest" Oswald Chambers

Blackmon, Selma, editor. The Exchanged Life Ministry News.

What is"surrendering" your life to God mean?

THE CONFUSED BUTTERFLY

By Judy L. Poe

I thought I was an ugly worm,

For I was taught this was the case;

And I always felt defeated,

But just assumed this was my place.

I used to watch the butterfly,

As she soared among the trees;

Her brilliant colors flashing bright,

As she floated about with ease.

But a worm, alas, was I it seemed,

That crawled upon the ground;

And there appeared no hope for me,

Till new life in Heaven I found.

But in the meantime, here on earth,

I was told to do the best I could;

And not to do the things I shouldn't,

And try to do the things I should.

So for many years I worked real hard,

To be the best worm I could be;

I worked and planned and served and studied,

To "help" God work His plan for me.

But my load became too heavy,

And failure darkened every door;

I said, "God, I just can't do it",

He said, "That's what I've waited for."

An then, through the Holy Spirit,

And His precious truths confirmed;

He said, "My child, you are a butterfly,

Stop acting like a worm.

When you trusted Christ as Savior,

You were changed and made brand new;

And those years you've acted like a worm,

Christ has longed to live through you."

So my "place" I found at last was grace,

And I thanked God for what I'd learned;

For when I surrendered all to Him,

I knew, at last, the worm had turned.

SURRENDERING RIGHTS

    A lot of misunderstanding surrounds the concept of Total Commitment. If one desires the best that God offers then Total Commitment is required. The more one gives and surrenders in Total Commitment the more one will understand and know of God.

    Understanding Christ's Life in you (The Exchanged Life) is understanding and experiencing what Christ can do in you and through you. It is what He can do in you and through you that He desires, not what you can do, accomplish or achieve.

    Another name for Total Commitment is Total Surrender or a personal Gethsemane expressed this way, "I want what You want more than anything else in life. Work on my case, and I will accept whatever You do." Many times we can give Him permission to do anything He wants to do in us, to us, with us and through us, but then complain because He doesn't do what we want Him to do and then we become angry.

    Total Commitment involves the surrender and release of that which I believe to be rightfully mine. But I really do not have that right. These are not rights. These are things I have been made to believe are mine, and that God owes me this. God does not owe me anything. He gave me His own Son. There is a large difference between what God chooses to give and what He owes.

We tend to cling to or hang on to each of the following as rights in an effort to meet our own felt needs:

MIND, EMOTION, WILL: I want to function from my soul. My mind and emotions are programmed with a world system philosophy and this get in the way of my relationship with God. The enemy wants me to function from my feelings and thoughts with no guidelines or limitations.

HEALTHY BODY:  People will like me better if I have an attractive body. I could have done a better job on me than God did. But God does not demonstrate His power in creating attractive bodies. He is more interested in re-creating Himself within us. Jesus "had no form or comeliness in His looks." There was nothing outstanding in His looks.

FUTURE PLANS:  My Heavenly Father does not owe me anything. He is working to form desires within my heart. Scripture says my first desire should be to know Him in His fullness.

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATION:  My attitude should be a willingness to live where He directs. I desire the best, and the best is to be where He wants me to be at any time (state, city, street, block, house on the block).

MARRIAGE: The tendency is to demand of God a spouse. If I believe God owes me a mate and I do not have one, I can become bitter and angry toward God. I will want to know when He is going to finish the job of completing me with a mate. My identity is not wrapped up in whether I am married or not. My identity in God is who I am individually. But I tend to see my identity in another form because this is the way society sees it.

RECREATION: I have no right to choose an activity that would not be honoring to God. My tendency is to function as if this is MY LIFE! But Scripture says that I have been bought with a price. I am not my own.

SUCCESS:  I feel that I belong on top, because I am His child and God desires that I prosper. But the Lord Jesus stressed the spiritual, not the physical. I want to take all those things and put them in a physical realm saying that this is what God wants for me. But I cannot measure in a physical way that which God desires for my life. By all earthly standards Christ's ministry was a flop! But it accomplished all that God intended. The prospering that God wants for me is that I mature and grow spiritually not that I measure up to some earthly standard that says that I acquired all this because I am His.

CLING TO THE PAST: I like to remember what he, she or they did to me. It gives me reason to complain. But this becomes a cop-out for my present attitude. I want to be angry and I want others to know all about what happened to me.

HABITS: I buy into a belief system which says that I am only human and that no one is perfect and that a man has to have one vice. But the Scripture says that I am indwelt by the Spirit of the Living God, therefore I am not just human. The Spirit of God lives in Me. That makes me more than just human.

POSSESSIONS: Everything I perceive to be a possession will ultimately begin to possess me. It is easy to say, "Heavenly Father, I give you my car," but what if He tells me to give it away tomorrow? I am a steward. God has given me possessions as a trust. I am to take care of God's trust they are not really mine. But I will cling to anything I think I own, and if someone violates MY STUFF, I will react in anger. "How dare they do this to my house, to me, to my car, etc.!!!?"

TIME: I do need to get away from things occasionally, however my attitude should never be one of demanding MY time. The Lord Jesus took ten specific breaks from His ministry in three years.

REPUTATION: I want people to think well of me. But what did people think and say about the Lord Jesus? What kind of reputation did He have?

DEFY AUTHORITY: This covers every area of life - parent/child, law, boss, head, God.

ACCEPTANCE: inside of me I tend to say, “Don't I have a right to get my acceptance needs met in others?” I have spent much of my life trying to milk acceptance from others. "Oh! PLEASE accept me!" But I am not to look to the world or to others for my acceptance. There is a big difference between WANTING other's acceptance and NEEDING it. I am accepted by God totally and completely in the Lord Jesus. If I spend my time trying to get my acceptance needs met in others, I will not look to God as my need-meeter.

WILL OF GOD: At times I tend to believe that God has shown me His will, and I come to believe I know exactly what God wants, but it all falls apart. I have presumed to know precisely what God wants. Often the enemy will give a stone and will try to convince me that it is bread and I conclude, "Look what God has given me!" But God did not give it. It came from the enemy. It is not the real thing. When I find out it is a stone and not bread, I become angry with God, but God did not do it.

HAPPY HOME: I NEED a neat, clean orderly home to be happy. Therefore, kids make your beds, clean your rooms, put your toys away.

PROBLEMS, DIFFICULTIES: I tend to think bad things happen to others. I believe good things mean God is blessing me, and bad things mean He is angry with me. As long as I am in this world I am potentially subject to every tragedy and difficulty that could happen. The difference is how I respond. Sometimes that is the only witness I will have to the world.

TAKING OFFENSE: I cannot offend a humble person. If I am humble I cannot be offended. A humble person can never be told anything about himself that he does not already know. When offenses come I need to keep short accounts by forgiving.

REAPING WHAT I SOW: I will reap what I sow. I want to do what I want to do, but I do not want to reap what I have sown. I may even confess my actions as sin. Many times God has kept me from reaping what I have sown, but He does not have to do so.

BE RIGHT: I must have the last word to verify my position. I need to admit that I do and can make wrong decisions, instead of functioning as if everything I do is right.

BE LOVED: Do I want love? Yes! Do I have a right to be loved? No! However, God does love me.

VISIBLE SECURITY: Land, possessions, money, stocks, bonds. It may be necessary for God to withhold any visible security so I will have to trust Him totally. It is too easy to trust what He has given instead of Him.

USED OF GOD: I want to be used of God, but I do not see Him using me. Why He does not use me is not the real issue, which is why should He use me? Who am I that He should use me? God does not have to use anybody. If I did not praise Him, the rocks would! I may not be ready for His use.

SEE RESULTS: God may lead me to do something and I want to see the results of my labors. The Word says that some plant the seed, some water, but the harvest is the Lord's. But I want to be in on the harvest.

DEMAND FROM GOD: The only right I have is the right to the Lord Jesus and all that He is. This has been given to me. It is not a right I earned. It is not a right I deserve. It is a right that was given to me through the act of salvation, through receiving the Lord Jesus as my Lord. And in that salvation I got Him and all that He is. Therefore, I function in the strength of Christ - - all that He is in me.

Evidence of brokenness, God's unconditional love

The Evidence of Brokenness

   Brokenness is evident when the believer no longer reacts with his previous flesh patterns when the following rights are challenged:

All of my rights have been surrendered.

I am willing to be out of control.

I am not believing in or living by feelings or old patterns, but by Christ within.

I am obedient out of a love motive because I want to, not because I have to.

I am not performing for God but I am actively letting Christ perform in and through me.

I am willing to fail.

I am willing to be weak.

I have a sense of total inadequacy in self-strength (2 Corinthians 3:5).

I have a sense of adequacy in Christ through His strength (Philippians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 3:6).

I recognize God's power in my weakness (2 Corinthians 12:10).

I am depending upon Christ to meet my basic inner needs: acceptance, meaning and purpose, identity, power over sin, strength and victory.

I am trusting God whatever and resting in Him even with external turmoil.

I am seeking Christ Himself more than His benefits.

I am forgiving of all (Ephesians 4:32).

I am willing to be rejected.

I am transparent and willing to share failures.

I am vulnerable and willing to share failures.

There is a readiness to let others receive the credit.

There is genuine humility.

I am placing value upon those who have little or no value to myself.

There is a readiness to affirm (build up) others.

I am teachable.

I am willing to be misunderstood.

I am willing to be broken again.

I asked God to take away my pride and God said, "No." He said it was not for Him to take away but for me to give up.

I asked God to make my physical body whole, my handicapped child whole, and God said, "No." He said the body is only temporary.

I asked God to grant me patience and God said, "No." He said patience is a by-product of tribulation. It isn't granted, it's earned.

I asked God to give me happiness and God said, "No." He said He gives His blessings. Happiness is up to me.

I asked God to spare me from pain and God said, "No." He said sufferings draw you apart from worldly cares and bring you closer to Him.

I asked God to make my spirit grow and God said, "No." He said I must grow on my own, but He will prune me to make me fruitful.

I asked God if He loved me, and God said, "Yes." He gave His only Son who died for me, and I will be in heaven someday because I believe.

I asked God to help me love others as much as He loves me and God said, "Now, you finally have the right idea."

The LORD will fulfill his purpose for me.

Psalm 138:8

TREASURES

One by one he took them from me,

All the things I valued most,

Until I was empty-handed.

Every glittering toy was lost.

Then I walked earth's highway grieving,

In my rags and poverty,

Till I heard my Lord inviting--

Lift your empty hands to me.

So, I held my hands toward heaven,

And He filled them with a store

Of His own transcendent riches,

Till they could contain no more.

Then, at last, I comprehended

With my feeble mind and dull

That God could not pour his riches

Into Hands Already Full.

(Author Unknown)

Blackmon, Selma, editor. The Exchanged Life News. Volume 3 Issue 8. February 23, 2003.

The principle, purpose, process and problem of brokenness

BROKENNESS

Principle

  God must break my outward man (soul and five senses of the body), so that the inward man (His Spirit) may be manifest through me; so that I may receive from Him and display His very life in me (II Corinthians 4:10).

  Truly, truly I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

  He who loves his life loses it: and he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal

(John 12:24,25) Luke 17:35; Luke 9:23,24; Mark 8:35; Matthew 10:39

…There came a woman with an alabaster vial of very costly perfume of pure nard; and she broke the vial and poured it over His head (Mark 14:3).

  But we have this treasure in earthen vessels (II Corinthians 4:7).

Purpose

  For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son (Romans 8:29). My Father has dedicated Himself to the task of conforming me to the image of Christ. He who began His good work in me will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus (Philippians 1:6).

  I want to know Christ and the power of His resurrection...and the fellowship of His suffering, being conformed to His death (Philippians 3:10).

  Now, those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires (Galatians 5:24). However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit (Romans 8:9); Let us also walk by the Spirit (Galatians 5:25).

  His purpose is to allow the Holy Spirit to control my mind, will, and emotion. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifest in our mortal flesh (II Corinthians 4:11).

Process

  But his wife, from behind him, looked back; and she became a pillar of salt (Genesis 19:26). What has become life to me? I continue to use my old ways of satisfying my need for love and acceptance, but God desires that I look to Him as my Source, and for Him to supply all my needs. God lovingly begins to draw me unto Himself and away from my false gods, object of trust, or idols, from which I seek to get my needs supplied.

  The instruments God can use in my life are: husband or wife, father or son, mother or daughter, friend, boss, health, finances, etc. Often He allows something in my life that my flesh cannot handle or control in order to break me. He will allow my old ways not to work (we are all reluctant to give up on our old ways that have worked for us). He wants me to turn from leaning on the trustworthiness of my talent, my attractive appearance, my spiritual gift, my intelligence, my position, my popularity, my good job, my financial security, my good marriage, my obedient kids…these can give me a sense of security and significance.

  God has to allow some of the all things of Romans 8:28 to come in to my life. He never causes it, but He allows it, and His purpose is love. He is totally committed to my well-being. The all things are designed to bring me (the believer) to the end of my self-sufficiency.

  I enter into a relationship of oneness with Him; I am a participant in the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants me in a loving, dependent relationship. He hates independence. He spends the rest of my life getting my walk and my talk congruent with His: And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength (Mark 12:3).

  This people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far away from Me (Matthew 15:8). I must be willing for God to show me the truth about myself. I can be prideful, rebellious, and stubborn, and refuse to repent, or I can humbly bow my head and say, Yes, Lord.

  Simon, son of John, do you love Me? Yes, Lord: You know that I love You (John 21: 15-17).

  Lord, with You, I am ready to go both to prison and to death (Luke 22:33).

  …And he wept bitterly…(Luke 22:56-62).

  He always had the very nature of God but He did not think that by force He should try to become equal with God. Of His own free will He gave it all up and took the very nature of a servant. He was willing to have no rights of His own. He went humbly to the cross. There He was broken for me (Philippians 2:5-8).

Problem

  Jonah 4

Resources

Lifetime Guarantee, Bill Gillham,  pages 167-186

The Calvary Road, Roy  Hession, pages 21-26

Born Crucified, L.E. Maxwell, page 87

The Release of the Spirit, Watchman Nee

The Handbook to Happiness, Charles Solomon, pages 34, 35, 81

The Ins and Out of Rejection, Charles Solomon, pages 154-171

Brokenness, audio tapes, Dr. Charles Stanley

Blackmon, Selma, editor. The Exchanged Life News.