Word2U: 2009-03-08

God's Total Surrender to Us

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not persih but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).

Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself. To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us. If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us—totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.

URGENT - A CALL FOR NATIONAL PRAYER

There is no doubt that we are in perilous times. There is more at stake than your mortgage or retirement or your job.

There are eternal consequences to this moment in history!

During these difficult times I have been comforted with a scripture out of Psalms:

“ I would have been without hope if I had not believed that I would see the lovingkindness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord. Be strong. Let your heart be strong. Yes, wait for the Lord ”. (Psalm 27:13-14, NLV)

This is not about politics but to pray! Not to decide who was right and who was wrong, but to ask for God's mercy. And that all christians should meet for a time of prayer and repentance. That our leaders would have the wisdom of Solomon and that we should join with one another in humility before God. He is the only one that can help in times like these.

These are critical times—the time to pray is now. Let this be a season of prayer until we see breakthrough for our nation. This is about more than banks, and stock markets, this is about darkness against light. The only answer is to seek God and His wisdom.

Here are some Prayer Points:
1. Pray for a spirit of humility and repentance among our political leaders.
2. Pray for an answer to this economic crisis.
3. Pray for our Sultans, members of parliament, the senate, the judiciary and the executive branch of the government that justice, equality, transparency, responsibility, accountability and God fearing will prevail
4. Pray that church leaders and pastors would heed the call for prayer at this moment.
5. Pray that Christians would understand the signs of the times and activate prayer at a new level.
6. Pray for wisdom for our all in authority including the economic policy makers, bankers and business stakeholders
7. Pray that God would hear our prayers and heal our land as we humble ourselves in repentance before Him.

Transforming Power in the Word of God

"For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.'

Heb 4:12

Does God's Word ever cause you discomfort? When you read the Bible, does what you read make you uneasy? You are experiencing the reality that the word of God is alive and can read your thoughts and judge your intentions.

When God's Word speaks to you it is always for a purpose. God knows your heart and knows what you need to do to bring your life into conformity to Christ. If you have a problem with sinful talk, the word that comes to you will address the tongue. If you are struggling to forgive, God's Word will confront you with His standard for forgiveness. If pride has a stronghold in your life, God's Word will speak to you about humility. Whatever sin needs addressing, you will find you are confronted by God's Word on the matter.

One way you can escape the discomfort of conviction is to avoid hearing God speak to you. You may neglect reading your Bible and stay away from places where it is taught. You may avoid those whom you know will uphold the truths of Scripture. The best response, however, is to pray as the psalmist did: “Search me, O God, and know my heart” (Ps 139:23). Regularly allow the word of God to wash over you and find any sin or impurity (Ep 5:26). Always make the connection between your life and what God is saying to you through His word. Make a habit of taking every word from God seriously, knowing that it is able to judge your heart and mind.

If you want career success - Stop Running from your purpose

The main principle to career success is one that many of us will have to learn the hard way. In fact, initially upon reading the title you may have wondered why you would want to run from your purpose. That is a good question. The truth is that we all have dreams and goals. I like to think that God places dreams in our hearts as a path to serve Him and others. However, some of us will never realize those dreams until we realize a very important truth: God’s ways of fulfilling those dreams may be very different from how we would fulfill our dreams if everything were left solely up to us.
Many times, as our dreams grow dimmer over the years, we, too, may begin to wonder how our current circumstances - our present job, our current boss, our career, our employer - are remotely connected with what we might have thought we were supposed to be doing in life. We look around us and say, “This can’t be right, my purpose isn’t this, I’m supposed to be doing ________.”
However we may fill in the blank, the result is the same. We come to a crossroad that is a test of faith when the dream we believe God placed in our hearts doesn’t line up with our current situation. For many of us, that is when we begin to run from our purpose and sabotage our career success.
The subtle truth is that we are often unaware that we are actually running from our purpose. We may even talk ourselves into believing that we are actually running toward it. This is how it works: We have an idea of what our dream job or dream career is supposed to be, and we then proceed to do everything that is humanly possible to achieve it. Of course, some glitch always gets in the way, and we work hard to either remove the glitch or to get around it.
But then, some other barrier pops up, and we do our best to beat it down or push it aside, all the while using up years of energy, emotion, knowledge and power to get this dream to work out our way. But when it doesn’t, we become frustrated, and we wonder what else we need to do to move our career along. We toil and toil and may have a few successes, but even those aren’t what we thought they would be. How does this fit in with career success? When we begin to see our present circumstances as divinely planned by God, we approach those circumstances differently.
You may be in a position today that isn’t the exact job that you want to spend your life doing. That’s OK. However, don¹t make everyone around you suffer by being bitter or having a negative attitude simply because you believe that you are supposed to be doing something else. Instead, accept the fact that there are aspects to your job that may prove in the years ahead to have been very valuable to you. Are you learning to be more detailed? Is it a chance to become better at building relationships? Or maybe you have a need to learn patience to wait on God¹s timing. No matter what the situation may be, it’s all for your good. Stop running from what can be used by God to prepare you for His purpose for your life.
Jesus did not enter into full-time ministry until He was 30 years old. However, from the very beginning, He knew what God’s purpose was for His life. While on a trip with his parents when He was only 12 years old, He was unknowingly left behind because he had been busy teaching and discussing deep spiritual matters with the leaders of His time. I’m sure that part of Him was anxious to get started with the purpose for His life. However, when His mother questioned Him about why He had remained behind to talk when it was time to return home, He dutifully returned with His family and began learning the skills of a carpenter. It would have been easy for Him to ask, “What on earth am I going to need to know how to do this for?” But instead, He became an expert carpenter and worked diligently serving His customers until it was time for His ministry to begin.
What about you? Are you viewing your current position as a part of God¹s plan for your life at this time? Or are you still debating whether it could possibly be something that escaped God’s attention? One of the best truths every written is found in Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
This tells us that when we are in a relationship with God, He calls us to something specific that is meeting a specific purpose. It also tells us that everything will work together for good. This doesn’t mean that each single event will look good to us. Each job that we have may not in and of itself seem good to us. But what we are assured of is the fact that at the end of the day, when it¹s all said and done, everything will work out for good. Not only will it work out for our good but also for the good of anyone else whom God chooses to involve who are also called according to His purpose.
What this also points out is that it’s not all about us. Instead, it’s all about God. How He wants to use our lives and our jobs or careers will be a blessing to us, but it will also be a blessing to others, as well. Think as if you were viewing a really great classic film and in the middle of it the main character began to go through some difficulties; you wouldn’t jump up, leave the movie, and say, “I have seen enough, this movie isn’t going the way I think it should.” No, it’s more likely that you would stay glued to your seat, wondering how on earth the character was going to get through that plot twist, and remain until you saw how it all worked out.
Well the truth of the matter is that we don’t have a choice when it comes to the purpose God has planned for us. We may try to run from it, and we may think we have even succeeded for a while, but all we will have really done is taken the scenic route to the place God wants us to be. And it will be the place we will want to be once we get a grip and realize that it’s all good

Realising Your Dreams

No matter where you are in your life... The life of a dream is no different than the life of a Christian. A dream is born, it grows, it matures, but ultimately it must die, be buried, and return to its creator before it can truly realize its full glory and potential. There is always a time in my life when my dream was in the stages of death, burial, and submission to God. I took great comfort in knowing that when I submit my dream to God, when I truly let it go and return it to my creator, it will bloom forth like a flower in the desert. If you have a dream, but it seems that your dream cannot be fully realized -- if you are frustrated or discouraged and feel that your dream is withering -- You will discover what Jesus said, “unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone -- but if it dies and is buried, it will bring forth much fruit.” Give your dream to God. Return your dream to its source. Let it die and be buried in the rich soil of God's fertile field. You will find that by giving your dream to God, it will exceed your wildest dreams. Whatever preconceptions you have about your dream, give them to God. Whatever hopes and ambitions you have for your dream, give them to God. Whatever selfish attachments and aspirations you have for your dream, give them to God. You will discover that your dream cannot flourish by your will or by your efforts. But in the hands of Almighty God, your dream will grow into a mighty and powerful force, greater than you could have ever thought or imagined.

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God's Total Surrender to Us

URGENT - A CALL FOR NATIONAL PRAYER

Transforming Power in the Word of God

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