Jesus said, He that is willing to lose his life for my sake will discover his true life. That is, whoever comes to and continually surrenders to Jesus’ ways and is willing to share his cross, and experience it as his own will find life. If we choose self-sacrifice and lose our lives for His glory, we will continually discover true life. But if we choose to keep our lives for ourselves, we will inevitably lose what we are trying to hold on to and keep (Matt16:25tPt). Whoever chooses to live apart from Jesus will lose their authentic, God ordained life. But those who surrender their lives for Christ sake will embrace and find their true identity, while at the same time move forward in experiencing the abundant life that all of God’s children long to know.  But to discover the depths of spiritual freedom that Christ bought for us on the cross, and to move forward in the peace that passes understanding, while abiding within the confines of Christ’s spiritual kingdom realm, we must be willing to continually surrender to the path that God has chosen for us to walk down.  So many of God’s children get pulled off the ‘straight and narrow path’ and mistakenly spend their lives seeking money and power. But Jesus said, “For even if you were to gain all the wealth and power of this world with everything it could offer you- at the cost of your own life- what good would that be? And what could be more valuable to you than your own soul? “(Matt16:26tpt). Jesus said the Son of Man will return one day, and He will openly reward each individual for every area of heart surrender and the actions that followed, because of our love for Him.   In order to grow in God’s grace, and uncover the power, reality, and the stability of His deep love; we must first learn to surrender in small things before we can surrender in the bigger things.

Even though we long to move forward spiritually, there will be times that we wrestle with our stubborn self-will, because we want what we want and when we want it- we easily can get pulled into pride and deception, which influences us to believe that our timing and plans are better than God’s timing and plans.  This is truly a battle between spirit vs flesh and Light vs darkness. Maybe you are struggling in a situation that you want to get out of, and your will is shouting, ‘I am ready for this to be over and done’! However, first you must choose to stop using all your energy to run away or manipulate the situation, and choose to run to Jesus, in order to determine His will in the matter. Because of your love relationship with Jesus, if you discern that He wants you to stay in the situation, you will want to to obey and surrender to His will, even though it may be a struggle. Secondly, in the surrender, God will begin pouring His undeserved, amazing grace, upon grace into your heart, mind, and soul! It is God’s sufficient and powerful grace that will give you the power and ability to stay and learn in an uncomfortable situation, because His strength is perfected in our weakness.  The Holy Spirit will gradually help you work out your discombobulated feelings through prayer, and help your heart, while showing you the way to be’ in Him’. Then you will be able to put your heart and soul into every activity you do, as though you were doing it for the Lord himself and not merely for others.  Keep running back to Jesus to press any negative emotions which surface into His nailed scarred hands-   pour out your heart and soul on Him in prayer- and He will gift you with heart healing, restore your passion for living, and bring you into a larger spiritual place!

God is our Power, and He gifts us with the grace needed to defeat the negativity that Satan sends in attempt to defeat our pressing on in Christ.  By surrendering and allowing the Holy Spirit to work through and push out self-absorption and self-will- we will walk with God and discover Christ as Victor in our lives!  How rich and full our life in Christ can become- greater peace, purpose, and increased joy that will give you the strength needed to step forward into the destiny and good plans God has for you now and throughout eternity!

“Follow God and imitate all he does in everything you do, for then you will represent your Father as his beloved sons and daughters. And continue to walk surrendered to the extravagant love of Christ, for he surrendered his life as a sacrifice for us. His great love for us was pleasing to God, like an aroma of adoration-a sweet healing fragrance in heaven and earth” (Ephesians 5:1-2 tPt). ffffffffffffff