One Step Away from Surrender

“that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” Philippians 2:10(NIV)

by Alexandra Copeland

God tells us through the Apostle Paul in 1Corinthians 6:19-20 (NLT), “19 Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.” There can be no mistake in understanding these verses, God wants all of us. He desires the whole of our beings, because the whole of our beings is needed to fulfill His plan and purpose for our existences. On the surface, we might not consider all that this entails, but it includes all of our plans—all of our desires—our dreams, aspirations, and goals. We must surrender all to Him, and this is no small task. 

You might wonder why God is requiring so much of every person. To shed some light on this, we must first recognize that submitting to authority is in our DNA as human beings. We grow up with an understanding that rules are in place to govern just about every aspect of our day to day lives. There are universal laws like those of physics and gravity, and then there are other laws pertaining to citizenship of states and countries. We must obey things like traffic laws, and other rules and regulations that are in place for our protection and the protection of others. 

We should know that at the root of every just law is God and His unyielding love for us all. Therefore we should deduce that laws are meant to be a very good thing. On a whole, they are looked upon as positive for the most part. They are only seen as negative when there is a desire to break them. 

So, we understand that the rule of authority is very organic and natural to our human existence. No matter who a person is, how much money they have, or what they do for a living; every person is subject to authority of some kind. As citizens of the earth, we understand the authority and rule of the law, and most of us respect it. However, for those of us who have a heart to please God through Jesus Christ, there is a higher law, and we are obligated to obey it. 

Ephesians 2:6(NIV) tells us, “And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,” Our born-again status assures us that we are inter-dimensional beings. Our physical bodies reside on earth, but our minds and hearts should always be anchored in that heavenly place; for it is the place of our origin. Heavenly Father has given us citizenship in the Kingdom of Heaven. His Son, Jesus Christ, made it possible for us to have the keys. So, it can be no secret to us that with the great privilege of Kingdom dwelling comes a higher level of responsibility, and accountability. 

There’s also an infinitely higher level of authority that is involved, because as Kingdom dwellers, we are under the authority and rule of our King, Jesus Christ. Acts 4:12 tells us that there is no other name under which we might be saved. Philippians 2:10(NIV) tells us, “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,” These verses give us an inkling at how absolutely powerful and majestic the name of Jesus Christ is. Our Heavenly Father has granted us access to an incredible inheritance, and He has accomplished this by giving us the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ, as our Savior, Redeemer, and King. 

It is through the name of Jesus Christ that we can demonstrate the power of the indwelling Holy Spirit. We have a wealth of spiritual treasure abiding within us, and as we go about loving, living, sharing, and giving in the name of Jesus Christ, we leave a powerful imprint of his goodness in the earth. We accomplish all of this through the authority of the name of Jesus Christ. His rulership and authority allows us to impact this earth with the culture of heaven. This is what we’re working with as kids of the Most High, but not everyone will use the keys that Jesus Christ has provided. Not everyone will achieve the highest level of access available.

 

God has given us free-will choice. He will not make us rise to the calling of Jesus Christ if we choose not to. This means that it is entirely up to us as to whose authority we will submit to or place ourselves under. This is a gift of which none of us can truly wrap our brain entirely around. God is Sovereign. He is the One True God, the Alpha and Omega. He is the Creator of everything. He could have created us to be automatically programmed to think, speak, and do His Will all day, every day, but it did not please Him to do this. 

God is teaching us by His example that love never puts a person in bondage. Love gives liberty, and this is what we have through Jesus Christ. We have the freedom to choose. Psalm 135:6 (NIV) says, “The Lord does whatever pleases him, in the heavens and on the earth, in the seas and all their depths.” God wants us to surrender our lives to Him because it pleases Him to take care of us. He has every right to demand everything from us, and yet still He stands at the door of our hearts, waiting for an invitation to come into our lives and bless us. 

1Corinthians 6:19-20 tells us that we do not belong to ourselves. We were bought with the highest price imaginable; the life of Jesus Christ. We don’t have it within our capability to demonstrate gratitude at a level that would equal the heft of what we have received. Honoring God with our whole lives is the only reasonable thing that we can do, but some of us are still holding out. We’re holding on to a few things that make us comfortable and content with having one foot in the door and the other outside of it. 

Many of us are looking at our lives today, and we’re not satisfied with where we are. In our hearts we feel that something is missing, and that we’re not where we should be. In truth, we’re one step away from surrender, and we desperately need to yield. Without the indwelling Holy Spirit’s help, it’s pointless to try and make ourselves everything that we should be or everything that God’s wants us to be. He’s not asking us to do it ourselves. He’s asking us to simply make the decision to let Him into our hearts completely—to yield to Him with our whole beings—to let Him take over our lives as we submit to the authority of Christ! When we do this, He will do the rest.■

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Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.