A friend asked me what I thought it meant to be surrendered! After I thought and prayed for a moment I said that I love the word yielded, to be completely surrendered to the LORD is to be yielded to HIM. I thought of Andrew Murray’s work, Absolute Surrender, hard to beat on what it means and looks like to be surrendered to the LORD. It is the greatest commandment lived out in the power of the Holy Spirit…to love the LORD your God with ALL your heart, soul, mind and strength. To be surrendered means that there is no part of your life that is off limits to our Savior, LORD and King!
As we were talking my sense was that I was looking at it more from the human side…almost a negative side. The thought might go something like this… “since I now see and understand what Jesus did for me through His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, knowing that He is praying for me, knowing that He took my place on the cross and clothed me in His righteousness the least I can do is surrender my all to Him, here is my life LORD.”
While I was talking along those lines God reminded me of the many life transforming encounters His people had with Him throughout His precious Word. When you meditate on surrender from this perspective it takes on a whole new meaning.
In Ezekiel 1:28, we see Ezekiel’s response to God, “…Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord. And when I saw it, I fell on my face, and I heard the voice of one speaking.” What was Job’s response and conclusion at the end of Job? In Job 42:5–6, Job says, “I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” The Apostle John, the one whom the LORD loved, the one who reclined on Jesus at the Lord’s Supper, the one who was present at the transfiguration, when John saw Jesus in a vision in Revelation his response was appropriate and immediate. In Revelation 1:17, John writes, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand on me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last.” Remember Paul on the road to Damascus? I think you could say Paul had a life transforming encounter with the King of kings. Question, do you think any of these thought, “well in the light of all He did for me the least that I can do is surrender to HIM.” I’m thinking…hmmm…NOT!
The last encounter that I mentioned as we talked about the surrendered life was Isaiah in Isaiah 6 and then David Platt preached on this very passage in our concluding Awesome August service…it truly was awesome!
In Isaiah 6:1–7 we read, “In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. 3 And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” 4 And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. 5 And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.”
In John chapter 12 as John is explaining the unbelief of the people he quotes Isaiah 53 and Isaiah 6, John writes, “so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: “Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” 39 Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, 40 “He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.” Then John says these breath taking words in John 12:41, “Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.”
What was Isaiah’s response to a vision of Jesus on the throne ? We see in Isaiah 6:8, Isaiah says, “And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”” The point if very simple….if you have “seen” HIM, truly “seen” HIM you KNOW that HE is the TREASURE, HE is the Pearl of Great Price! There is NO thought of “well since Jesus has done so much for me the least I can do is…” That is absurd! When you “see” HIM you are captivated, you are in awe, the breath is sucked out of you and in great joy, joy inexpressible and full of glory, you begin to run to HIM crying in a loud voice here am I send me!
To “see” HIM is to know HIM and to Know HIM is to love HIM and those that love HIM keep HIS commandments!
Staying on Target, pursuing HIM together!
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