This is part one to a new series on spiritual warfare. The link to the video is below and in it I discuss enemies of surrender, how to fully surrender to God, and practical application of verses on surrender.
Why is it so hard to submit?
The biggest reason is our flesh. We are full of self-will, we want life our way, we want to be independent and have things the way we want them, and our flesh fights against the smallest amount of surrender. We are so wrapped up in what we want we often do not even consider submission to be an area we struggle with.
Galatians 5:16-26 But I say, walk habitually in the [Holy] Spirit [seek Him and be responsive to His guidance], and then you will certainly not carry out the desire of the sinful nature (Which is the flesh) [which responds impulsively without regard for God and His precepts]. For the sinful nature has its desire which is opposed to the Spirit, and the [desire of the] Spirit opposes the sinful nature; for these [two, the sinful nature and the Spirit] are in direct opposition to each other [continually in conflict], so that you [as believers] do not [always] do whatever [good things] you want to do.
Enemies of Submission
Rebellion and Control: They are the opposite of submission. There are many reasons why we rebel against God and some of the time we may not even recognize our actions as rebellion.
Hurt: Many times, if we have gone through painful situations, we end up with control issues. We do not trust anyone else besides ourselves to keep us safe so we create an environment where we can control everything. We may not even be aware we are doing this.
We may also feel like God let us down (or situations let us down), so we rebel against Him and His ways. We say we love Him with our mind, but that love never reaches to our heart to create a heart change because we put a wall up and do not let Him fully in.
Self: We can also walk in rebellion and control when we think we have all of the answers and our way is better.
Sin: We can also walk in rebellion and control when we are dealing with sin issues that we are not ready to give up. We can make excuses for our attitudes and sin but in reality, it is a submission issue that we just need to surrender to the Lord, lay it down and walk away from. We can spend all our energy in trying to justify our actions, but change will only come when we get honest with ourselves and God. We must come to a point where we are willing to surrender and admit our sin condition.
Pride: Pride is a sneaky thing. Pride says I know what is better for me. Pride can often lead to self-righteousness. It can also blind us to our heart condition and lack of submission. It can lie to us and tell us we are just fine the way we are. Everyone else has the issue and not us. It is what causes us to see the issues in the lives of others, but never our own issues. It is always looking the other way and never inward. It will never cause you to hold the mirror in front of your own face and it will never point out the speck in your own eye. It dresses us all up pretty and fancy on the outside, but the inside is a different story. It avoids self-reflection and will respond in anger when challenged. How dare someone suggest we have a pride issue, sin issue, or attitude issue.
Fear/Doubt: 2 Timothy 1:7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].
Over Thinking/Analyzing Everything: This includes feeling like you have to know the answer to why God wants you to do certain things. We want Him to tell us why He wants us to do it this way or that way. We search for an explanation and cannot get out of our head when no explanation is given. We must accept that God’s ways are higher than ours and He does not owe us an explanation. Many times, it can be a test of our faith that is working to grow and stretch us in the things of God to make us more like Him. He is looking for us to say yes even when we have no idea what we are saying yes to.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways
And My thoughts higher than your thoughts.
Self-Pity: There is nothing like a pity party to get us nice and stuck. I was stuck there for years. We can wear our victimhood like a robe and allow it to keep us in a place of defeat. “I deserve to not be submissive because I have been through so much, surely God understands, I don’t think He would mind if I just keep this and not surrender because it would kind of make up for what I have been through, I am sure God will see it my way. I am sure I am not supposed to forgive after they did that to me” Wrong, wrong, wrong, there are no exceptions in the Word of God. If the Bible says don’t do it, it means for every situation and if it says to do it, it means for every situation. You can search the Word over and over and you will not find exceptions to sin and/or not submit to Him.
Shame/Guilt: If we allow shame and guilt to fill our hearts, they will often cause use to run from the Father. It is the same shame and guilt that caused Adam and Eve to hide from God in the garden. When we mess up two things can happen. One we can feel conviction. That is God calling us back to Him to get cleaned up and our sin forgiven. Conviction will always run us to the Father. Two, we can feel condemnation which creates shame and will run us away from the Father. It will tell us we have gone to far or that He is ashamed of us. It will always try to cause a wall between God and us. That is where we can fall into a lack of submission, not because we do not love God, but because we cannot see His love for us.
Negativity/Critical Attitudes: In my opinion negative/critical attitudes are the enemy of everything Godly. They are the opposite of Him and His character. They cause us to only focus on what is going wrong, and never look to what is going right.
Worrying What Others Think of Us: It is hard to live a surrendered life to Christ if we measure out lives by the standards of others or if we worry about what others think. Stepping out on faith can look like a huge leap to others but when we live in surrender that is often what we are called to do. We can only care about what God says and thinks.
Lack of Trust: Trust comes before submission. Will we not submit to someone we do not trust.
Grumbling and Complaining:
Numbers 11:1-15 Now the people became like those who complain and whine about their hardships, and the Lord heard it; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and devoured those in the outlying parts of the camp.
Now Moses heard the people weeping [in self-pity] throughout their families, every man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the Lord blazed hotly, and Moses regarded their behavior as evil. So Moses said to the Lord, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have placed the burden of all these people on me?
They complained because the provision was not in the way they wanted. They missed the old things and what they used to have. God was literally feeding them out of His hand, but they wanted something else. How could they be like that? Them, them, them…. Wait a minute. How often are we the same exact way? God has something in His hand trying to give us, but we grumble and complain because it is not what we want, or it doesn’t look like we thought it would. If we were walking totally submitted to Him we would have our hands out ready to accept whatever He puts in them because we would fully rely on and trust that He has our best interest in mind. He does not and cannot fail us.
Examples of What True Submission Looks Like:
Jesus: He prayed to God, “not My will but Yours.” He fully submitted to the will of God both through prayer and His actions.
John 14:10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words I say to you I do not say on My own initiative or authority, but the Father, abiding continually in Me, does His works [His attesting miracles and acts of power].
Luke 22:41-42 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup [of divine wrath] from Me; yet not My will, but [always] Yours be done.”
Washed the feet of the other disciples: John 13: 1-7. He was fully and totally submitted to the will and plan of God. How would we respond if God told us to wash the feet of others? To take on the role of the lowest servant?
Abraham Told to Sacrifice Isaac: Genesis 22: 1-8. Isaac was God’s fulfilled promise to Abraham. He wanted a child for so long and after years God gave him Isaac and then He told Abraham to sacrifice him. I don’t know exactly what went through his mind, but I do know he walked in total surrender. How would we respond if God told us to lay down the very thing we had prayed and hoped for, for years? Would we say yes Lord or would we hold onto it and never let it go?
Abraham: God told him to go, but He did not tell him the plan or where he was going. Abraham went anyway.
Hebrews 11:8 By faith Abraham, when he was called [by God], obeyed by going to a place which he was to receive as an inheritance; and he went, not knowing where he was going.
Hannah: She was heartbroken and weeping because she was childless so she promised to dedicate a child to God if He would give her one. God gave her a son, Samuel and she followed through with her promise and took him to the church to live as a servant of God even after wanting a child for so many years.
1st Samuel Chapter 1 and 2.
Disciples: They followed Jesus and left everything they knew before they really understood who He was, and after they understood who He was they continued to follow Him at the risk of their lives. Even in the face of death they followed Him and not their own desires.
Reference the New Testament.
Esther: She risked her life trying to save her people, and it worked. She risked everything in submission to the plan of God in her life.
Esther 4:16 “Go, gather all the Jews that are present in Susa, and observe a fast for me; do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my maids also will fast in the same way. Then I will go in to [see] the king [without being summoned], which is against the law; and if I perish, I perish.”
How to Walk in Surrender
Pick up our cross daily and die to self:
Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to follow Me [as My disciple], he must deny himself [set aside selfish interests], and take up his cross [expressing a willingness to endure whatever may come] and follow Me [believing in Me, conforming to My example in living and, if need be, suffering or perhaps dying because of faith in Me].
Example: Read the Word and follow the example of Jesus. Love like He loved, share truth like He shared it, and serve others like He served them. Lay aside our wants and desires to fulfill His. This is the opposite of being self-centered. Life is not all about us.
Romans 12:1-2 Therefore I urge you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies [dedicating all of yourselves, set apart] as a living sacrifice, holy and well-pleasing to God, which is your rational (logical, intelligent) act of worship. And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].
Example: Verbally lay down our will, our plans, our wants, our desires. We must give Him everything. Present our bodies as a living sacrifice, meaning we lay ourselves down to Him and focus on kingdom purposes. His plans are perfect and we must know His will for our lives and walk in His will and plans.
Make the conscience choice to submit:
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven,
but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven.
Fast: If we want to bring our flesh into submission we must fast. The flesh does not want to submit but fasting forces it into submission.
Example: Daniel Fast, fast for a specific number of hours, fast social media, or fast a specific number of days. Ask God for direction.
Spend Time at the Feet of Jesus (Mary and Martha): We must take time to really get in His presence and sit at His feet. This is where we really develop a personal one on one relationship with Him. We must spend time talking to Him and then listening to what He wants to say to us. We must not just come to Him when we are in need and with a long list of requests. We must spend time with Him the same way we would our best friend. We must also spend time asking Him to make us look more like Him. Luke 10:38-42.
Example: Pray and journal, talk to Him and then listen to what He wants to say.
Kingdom Focus: Ask Him what your kingdom purpose is, focus on the eternal and not the temporal.
Faith/Trust: No matter what the situation looks like we must fully submit to God’s plan. We pray for Him to change us, grow us, and make us more like Him, but often as soon as He puts us on the Potter’s wheel it gets uncomfortable and we just jump right back off.
Anointing: It is a process that is often painful. It is in the crushing where the oil flows.
I want to leave you with this thought, and I really want you to analyze yourself as I do myself very often.
Are you willing to take the thing that you want most: your hopes, dreams, plans, desires and lay them down at the feet of Jesus and say, “not my will Lord but Yours? If I never do any of these things Your will not mine.” When we fully surrender it doesn’t matter what it looks like we say “yes Lord and I thank You. I may not understand, but You know more than me and I trust You with my entire life.”
Romans 12:2 And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].
His plan is perfect, and His will is perfect. If you want to walk in His perfect plan you must first be willing to submit to Him, fully, 100%. When we lay ourselves down we gain so much more. He is made strong in our weakness. We cannot do life our way, we mess it up every single time, but His way is perfect. If we could just get to a place where we really trust Him and His plan our lives would never be the same.
God wants 100%, not 50%, not 90% and not even 99%. He requires our all. Jesus held nothing back from us and we should not hold anything back from Him.
What is that one thing you are holding on to, holding behind your back hoping He doesn’t notice? Now is the time to lay it down.
Blessings,
Nichole Henson, Fullness of Joy Ministry
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