| Managed Surrender | Spilling Scripture |
| The Neglected Secret of Christianity | Growing faith in working application |
| “John answered and said, A man can receive nothing, except it be given him from heaven.” (John 3:27 KJV)Why Managed Surrender? No other term more adequately describes the single deadliest disease ever. It rapidly infects the common Christian. It can be more aggressive than cancer, more widespread than hiv, and more crippling than Multiple Sclerosis. Regardless of age, experience, circumstances, or gifts there is one difficulty that seems to be common. A managed surrender rather than a simple and complete surrender to Jesus. Some would call it pride, and they would be correct in many respects. Yet when you think of how it manifests itself it is far more subtle, illusive, and even welcomed. Managed Surrender is the perversion whereby the great fundamentals of time tested scripture are taken and turned into mere tools whereby we begin to build whatever we are looking to construct. Stones that would otherwise serve as markers and milestones and speak out in praise have become commodity building supplies. As construction workers, we often forget that the blue print is in God’s hand and not ours. The essence of surrender is what makes time tested scriptures shine so brightly. It is like an old battle skill that was the first to be taught that now finds no place in the training manual. Surrender, the one fundamental element that ought to be the cornerstone of every decision, has become the neglected secret of Christianity. A real, practical, and living understanding of surrender is missing.
Surrender conditions the heart which is where love must begin. You will notice that the less real surrender is in your prayers, the less power they have. The less you yield to God’s will, the more confused you are as to why He is taking the path He is taking. The less you think of your neighbor, the more difficult it is to love them. Surrender is a system of infinitely small detail built in concert and capable of transporting the largest of engines. However, when we begin to take control of, or more subtly distance God from control of, what we think is right and begin to manage what we claim is our own; then the best detail and the grandest of visions become bent and our end destination changes. Perhaps Paul said it best in saying that without love I am and gain nothing (see 1 Corinthians 13). The process of getting to know Love himself, Jesus, involves humility and surrender rather than gaining control and manageability. It is the deceptive thought that it is the person who stands on the rock that is also the person who weathers the storm. Yet it is not because this person stands; it is because the rock remains solid. “He must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30 KJV) “Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.” (Psalms 127:1 KJV) Defeat comes so quickly as you take greater and greater control of your own circumstances. Even if you are “using” what seem to be golden nuggets that you have picked up along the way. We must constantly remember that Jesus is the way and not merely a compass pointing out the way. I invite you to freely browse through the articles posted on this web site. The articles are designed like 3D glasses to highlight the terms “managed” and “surrender” to help draw out new dimension in scriptures that you may have read ever since you could read. I consider myself a mere seedling in a forest of great, tall, and mature trees when it comes to writing, but I trust that the simple commentary may inspire you today. “Moreover the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah the second time, while he was yet shut up in the court of the prison, saying, Thus saith the LORD the maker thereof, the LORD that formed it, to establish it; the LORD is his name; Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” (Jeremiah 33:1-3 KJV) |
“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17 KJV)Near the end of 1 Corinthians 9, Paul speaks about running with an intent of actually obtaining the prize. He also writes to Timothy of finishing a race. He speaks in Philippians of pressing on or pressing toward a prize. Why finish the race? Is there something beyond the start? Why is it necessary to bear fruit (see John 15:2)? Why is judgment spoken of in Matthew 25 based on deeds (or lack of them) rather than belief? What does it matter what we are found doing when He returns (see Matthew 24:46)?
It is so easy to forget that works are not a substitute for faith, but that they are the ingredient necessary to grow faith. The plain truth of the matter is that works grow that mustard seed of faith that was planted and that would otherwise never grow to bear fruit, evidence, or testimony. It is one thing to study medicine; it is quite another to actually treat patients. It is one thing to believe the principles of aviation; it is quite another to actually fly the plane. It is in that operating room and in that pilot seat that the marriage between belief and practice wrestle out a reality. In my previous book Managed Surrender, I spent time distinguishing between the behaviors of management and surrender. In giving this contrast, it reveals a dimension that may not otherwise be seen. In this book, I continue this contrast with a special focus on Community and a Clearer Vision. (Not to worry, some new fun technical term correlations are also included.) Community is especially important to understand as it is the relationship that we have with others that reveals what God is working on inside us. It reveals the sincerity with which we practice what we learn in our quiet time with Jesus. It even can reveal our determination to pray through, heal through, work through, and believe through a more complete surrender in accomplishing the increasingly clear vision that God’s Spirit gives us. It is surrender in Jesus that best sharpens your set of battle skills. A clearer realization that He can heal like no one else, reconcile like no one else, love like no one else, have a peace when no one else is peaceful, show self control when we cannot even get a grip, and reflect God’s realness, presence, direction, and position to a world that continually moves itself to the darkest possible side of every situation. Let Him spill from you by flowing through Him. “Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.” (James 2:18 KJV) |
