Many a discourse on the topic of God’s will takes you through the topic of surrender. They say that surrender is the key to knowing God’s will. Surrender leads us to God’s will. Surrender yourselves before seeking God’s will.
I have a question. Surrender implies that there is a fight and that there is a victor. Is the surrender of myself really the key to discovering God’s will?
Well, I followed Christ. I repented and asked Jesus to be Lord of my life. I pray to the Lord God each day. I ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to me things I need help discerning. I look to God to provide all of my needs. I search God’s Word for answers to life’s problems. Is all of this surrender? Or is it better called something else?
I suggest we substitute another term for surrender. For example, why not say you have to “follow” to know God’s will? Following implies looking to a leader for direction. To be a follower is to learn what the leader wants from you. Following requires submission, obedience, and recognition of my need for leading.
Or why not say you have to “mortify the flesh” in order to know God’s will. This is implicit in Romans 12:1 “Therefore I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” I present my flesh, my life to God. I have no reign even over my own body. This is sacrifice, or mortifying the flesh. It is putting to death the things that tempt me, that lead me away from God and the spiritual life He desires for me. As stated in Colossians 3:5, “Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature.”
Further instruction along these lines comes from Hebrews 9:16-17, “In the case of a will it is necessary to prove the death of the one who made it, because a will is in force only when somebody has died; it never takes effect while the one who made it is living.” A will, in the legal sense, does not take effect until someone physically dies. Is it not the same in discovering God’s will? I must die to myself in order to present myself to God as a living sacrifice. It is like a physical death because I give up any right to my own body. God’s will is only in force when somebody has died.
Is this surrender? Maybe so. In a war, the victor defeats the enemy. The enemy surrenders. Some of the enemy had to die to get to the point of surrender. In our case, our flesh is our own enemy so we must surrender the flesh, turn it over to God for His purposes and His will. It is not that I am, in a sense, surrendering to God but surrendering my own flesh to the Spirit within me. There is the point we must get to. I like to quote George Mueller on how to ascertain the will of God, “I seek at the beginning to get my heart into such a state that it has no will of its own in regard to a given matter.”
Today, think about the battle between the flesh and the Spirit as the point of surrender. You gave your life to the Lord years ago, but you still must go to the battle daily to get your heart right for discovering God’s will for your life. It is His life that produces death to my flesh and my will.
