What are you doing with God’s property?
1 Corinthians 6: 19-20 “What? Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, who you have of God and YOU ARE NOT YOUR OWN? For you are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s”.
How easy it is to quote this scripture and yet not allow it to be a true statement of our lives. We carry on with our old nature mind set, our learnt habits of independence, making decisions without consulting God, judging them as “good”, thus believing these decisions are “God”. Not necessarily! The good can be the enemy of the best.
If I do not consult God, I insult Him! “You are not your own……”
Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In ALL your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths”.
Our salvation cost the Father sacrificing His beloved Son on Calvary’s Cross. The price was paid with the precious, shed blood of Jesus Christ. When we entered into our personal salvation, we entered into God’s two sided covenant. From the Father’s side, everything we need to live this Christian life was made available to us through His Son. At salvation, we accepted Jesus as our Saviour and then began the journey of making Him Lord of our lives. How many times have we broken our side of the covenant by not allowing Him to rule our heart and thus, our lives? We make decisions without consulting Him. We make decisions that suit our comfort zones, our stubborn wills, not even aware sometimes of the Holy Spirit’s nudging because our will is so strong in certain decisions. Excuses by the thousands! We excuse ourselves…..why?…..because it doesn’t suit us!! Jesus never made decisions in line with His will, He always chose the will of His Father because God had a divine purpose for the people Jesus mixed with.
How many lost opportunities have we had, even not been aware of, because we have made decisions to suit ourselves in our unsurrendered will? Jesus never condoned sin but He was very comfortable moving and living among sinners, extending His Father’s kingdom among them and leaving a deposit of heaven that categorically changed people and situations. As Jesus’ ambassadors this is our call, too. Wherever Jesus was, He made a difference because He was a carrier of God’s presence.
Unconditional surrender is always the position that our Father is seeking to bring us to in everything. When will we allow our lives to match up to the truths we declare so freely that we read, and witness to, in God’s word? We make our choices every day. All choice has consequence, whether good or evil. God or self = God or the devil! God’s word exhorts us: “Choose this day whom you will serve”, Joshua 24: 15.
If I am not walking in the fullness of my birthright in Christ, God’s side of the covenant, who is at fault? Most certainly not God, so the fault is with me. What am I doing with God’s property that causes me to walk in measure, instead of fullness? The searching eye of the Holy Spirit will convict me of what God wants to change in my life. He convicts to teach me right choices and enables me to make them after I have repented of the wrong ones. I need to see the difference between conviction of the Holy Spirit and condemnation. Condemnation is not from God. My heart condemns me for wrong doing, but God’s word makes provision even for this. 1 John 3:20 declares “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things”. Never stay in the position of condemnation for this is where the devil comes in and rides piggy back on a condemning heart. learn the difference between self condemnation and Holy Spirit conviction. Refuse condemnation and humbly accept the conviction of the Holy Spirit to redirect your path.
Romans 8:1 declares, and we can declare “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk after the flesh, but after the Spirit”. Condemnation is never from God.
Repentance and unconditional surrender is a position of rest and peace. Why do we fight against it so? It reveals our stubborn wills and uncrucified flesh!
John the baptist declared of Jesus : “God does not give the Spirit by measure to Him”. John 3:34 Jesus was the full embodiment of all the fullness of God. We are on our journey from measure to fullness. We can learn from our mistakes, altar our daily choices, learning obedience in our surrender…..nevertheless not my will but Yours Lord!
Am I happy (or surrendered enough), to sign a blank document for my life and trust God to fill in the details without me seeing them? Selah. This is unconditional surrender.
You are not your own…..
Photo by Mikael Seegen on Unsplash
