How to Surrender Your Life to Jesus Christ

We start our search for answers with an Old Testament character named Jacob. He left his home to flee the wrath of his brother and encountered a stranger with whom he wrestled with until daybreak. And Jacob was left alone; and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day Gen. 32:24 KJV. The Man was none other than the preincarnate Christ.  And when he saw that He prevailed not against him, He ( Jesus Christ ) touched the hollow of his thigh; and the hollow of Jacob’s thigh was out of joint, as he wrestled with him. Gen. 32:25 KJV  This ended the match, however Jacob was not willing to let Him go so he held on until he received His blessing. And he said, Let me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Gen. 32:26 KJV  Jacob realized that you never get any where with God as long as you resist or struggle. We can wrestle with His will and we will never win. The only way we can get somewhere is by holding on and yielding to His authority.

To surrender to God means to completely give up on our will and hand over to God our ideas, our emotions, our thoughts, and our services. This is all He is asking of us. The first step we usually take is a misstep. We try to live by the law. Most everyone has heard of the Ten Commandments, but did you know there are 613 laws in the Old Testament. Do you know anyone who has ever kept the entire law of God? The answer to that question is, “NO.” God wants you to humble take a step back and let Him do His job. Now we take our hands and fold them in front of us just like we are dead! We are dead to our self through the sacrificial blood Of Jesus Christ. He has already completed our salvation. There is nothing left for us to do but follow. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3 NIV

Millions believe in God, but it is never reflected in their daily lives.  The average Christian attends church on a casual basis. They go through the steps of believing and baptizing, then they move on to other things.   Ninety percent of all Christians never reap the full benefits of their faith. We see countless people wearing crucifixes around their neck. We have even seen people with tattoos of crucifixes. Thousands of people compare their behavior to others and say, “ Well, I don’t do what those people do. I try to be a good person. I pay my bills. I don’t steal. Since I am a good person then I am going to heaven” and on and on… None of these things has anything to do with following Christ. When we accept Christ as our Savior we are asking Him to take our place. He has already paid the price for our safe return to heaven through His crucifixion. So we empty ourselves daily of our own will in favor of His divine influence. This is our victory in Christ.

There are different levels of surrender. These affect the relationship we have with our Heavenly Father. The initial step leads to salvation. This is where the Holy Spirit takes up residence within of our heart. We rely on the finished work of Jesus Christ on our behalf and we let go of any attempts to be in control of our life. Each day of a Christian’s life should bring more intimacy with God and a greater understanding of the special service He has intended for us. The more areas of our life we surrender the more we are filled by the Holy Spirit and the more our self-worship nature is replaced by Christian character. No one has known us longer and knows us better than our Creator. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Galatians 2:20 NKJV

   The steps of living by faith are basically simple, however many Christians make it difficult. More copies of the Bible are sold every year than any other book, but it is often the least read.  It is a difficult book to understand and most people just don’t take the time to read it. The next time you are scrolling Facebook, looking at new pictures on Instagram, or checking out the latest on Snapchat, you are taking away time you could be with your Heavenly Father. Instead you could be reading an article on millennialchristian.com, or browsing a commentary on biblegateway.com. You can spend hours on biblehub.com researching a single Bible verse.

1.) Study your Bible daily –  Study to show yourself approved by God, a workman who need not be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. 2 Timothy 2:15 MEV  Find a quiet place where you can read your Bible. This is the only way the Holy Spirit has a work inside of you.  Please don’t ask me to explain it. I just know from experience that when we read our Bible we are filled daily by the Holy Spirit and we become closer to God. When we don’t read our Bible we start to fall away from God and we expose ourselves to the power of sin.  We are either filled with the Spirit of God or we are filled with the spirit of sin. The conduit for the Holy Spirit is faith. So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Roman 10:17 NKJV  The more we read our Bible the stronger our faith becomes. As we grow in faith we should daily surrender something to God. We do this through prayer.

2.) Pray without ceasing –  Rejoice always;  pray without ceasing;  in everything give thanks; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 NASB. The only way to see the type of positive change that many of us need in our lives is to build a stronger prayer life. Prayer is a solemn request for help or expression of thanks to God. It can be helped for ourselves or for others. There are different ways we can pray. We can go into a room, shut the door, and spend solemn time with our Heavenly Father.  We can be driving in our car, or going for a walk. We can do all the talking, or we can give our Heavenly Father a chance to talk to us. One of the main purposes of prayer is surrender. The argument we had with a friend the other day, surrender it to Him. Our financial situation, surrender it to Him. The illness of a loved one or ourselves, surrender it to Him. We should daily set something aside that has been troubling us. For me I have 22 God daughters and I am dealing with their growing up every day. Their ages are 2 to 26 and they are constantly doing things I know God would not approve of. So when we butt heads with each other, and after I have calmed down, I go to my Father in prayer “always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ. Ephesians 5:20 NASB
3.) Worship – It is every Christian’s reasonable desire to worship our God. It is instilled in every one of us. We are to worship in “spirit and in truth.” But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such to worship Him. John 4:23  NASB   In the spirit true worshipers engage their entire heart.  I can think of no better way than in song. Our mind is focused on the words, and our heart is focused on God. So be filled with the Spirit,  speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord. Ephesians 5:19 NASB We rely on the reality that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, that we know He sacrificed Himself on the cross so that our sins are forgiven, and we are placed back into the council of God. We have eternal life through His resurrection. We are not like most people. We are servants of Jesus Christ and sons and daughters of God.

4.) Serving our King – Serving is an important part of our spiritual journey. God has a beautiful dream  for our lives. A dream where we set our desires aside and serve others with all humility. Many people have the wrong idea about service and humility. They think being humble and serving others means we are not as good as others. That somehow we are placing ourselves below other people. That is the farthest from the truth. We  know that we are inadequate in the flesh. We are made in Christ a new creation, and we walk humbly in the power of the Holy Spirit. Strong Christians loves and put others first. We are not a wimp. We are a group of people who has set the course to overcome the pitfalls of this world and has surrendered our life to help others do the same. Jesus Christ is our example. He could have taken control of this earth at anytime during His stay here, but instead He came as a humble servant to pay the ultimate price to reclaim those of us who had been lost through a life of sin. Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled Himself and became obedient to death – even death on a cross! Philippians 2:5-8 NIV

Being humble has many advantages. We no longer have to win every argument. We don’t need to stand up for ourselves as readily because we know that our Heavenly Father knows the truth. A gentle answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger. Proverbs 15:1 NIV   We don’t have to respond to unfair treatment bitterly. We don’t need revenge or vengeance against others because we have the power of forgiveness.   Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.  Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. Ephesians 4:31-32 NASB 

  We don’t have to put on a false front. We can be ourselves and let the natural character that God created for us come forward. We can accept criticism without becoming defensive. We can face our failures without letting our emotions control the outcome. We do that with our written testimony to show the changes the Holy Spirit has preformed in our life. We actually use our life’s struggles as an example to others. We live with an adjusted attitude so we can be courteous and loving regardless of the way we are treated.  Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen Ephesians 4:29 NIV

5.) Discovering our special gift – Too many Christians today live by the basic concepts of Christianity. We never dwell on the deeper meanings of the Word of God. For this reason many Christians never discover their spiritual gifts. These gifts are revealed to us by the Holy Spirit through DBS&P – Daily Bible Study & Prayer. It is God’s intention that we consume the Bible just as we would a plate of food in front of us at dinner time. All the power that God bestows us here on earth comes from DBS&P. I am a church bus driver, well not really. I couldn’t find a church that would let me drive their bus, so I went out and bought my own. This sounds like a  lowly occupation, but if every Christian in American would go out and buy a 15 passenger van, fill it to capacity, and bring people to church, the impact on this country would be staggering. I take inner city kids to church. It has been the most fulfilling thing I have ever done in my life. It started with one child asking me if he could go to church.  The Holy Spirit did the rest. Over the past 18 years I have taken hundreds of kids to church, or rather not me, but Jesus Christ Who lives through me.

  The Cracked Pot – There was a water bearer who provided water for the King everyday. He had been doing so for many years. He had one good pot and one cracked pot. He walked a mile to and from the well and when he returned to his master’s house the good pot was full of water and the cracked pot had leaked half its water on the journey back from the well. The cracked pot became depressed because it felt like he wasn’t providing its full share of the water. As they were coming back from the well one day the bearer told the cracked pot not to be distressed because all along the side of the path where the cracked pot was carried there was beautiful flowers that brightened up the kingdom. What the cracked pot did not realize is the water that was lost because of its crack made the flowers grow. ( Author Unknown ) This is a cute story that should prove to us we all have a special gift, even if we are a cracked pot.

6.) Developing our Ministry – Developing a driven ministry is a lot like farming. You have to lay out the area you plan to work. All Christians are seed planters. People come to church because they hear the Word. The Holy Spirit convicts them of their sins, and they respond to the Word. I personally like to water and fertilize the seed to help it on its way. Many times we don’t see the fruit of our labor. We plant and someone else does the harvesting. To start an active ministry we simply respond to a need. We make ourselves available to people at school or at work. As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all people, especially unto them who are of the household of faith. Galatians 6:10 NIV  In a casual ministry there is nothing done of a purposeful or specific nature that leads to God’s redemptive purpose. However, the need is there just the same. School teachers, firemen, and police men are some of the many incidental ministries that focus on a need in our society. Millennialchristian.com is a focused ministry. This website is an attempt to continue the work that Jesus Christ has started through His gospel. Millennialchristian.com has changed the lives of many who have come in contact with it. You read the articles, you form an opinion, and you either agree or disagree. Now Christ is asking you to change the lives of others. We start with our family and then we focus on friends and coworkers. God wants you to give of yourself for others. He will not ask you to do something you do not want to do because there isn’t any reward in this. He wants you to discover the ministry He gave you doing things that you personally enjoy that will lead others to His saving grace. Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savor, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Mathew 5:13-14 KJV  Everything that is going on in your life is shaping your ministry. Whether it is good or bad. Our daily work is important to God. He is a worker and He created us to be co – workers with Him. He is looking for loving people to serve Him by meeting our own needs, meeting our family needs, and providing money to share with others. Most importantly, through our work we demonstrate that we love God. Each ministry’s focus should be reconciling others to God.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.  And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5:17-18 NIV

Every single thing that happens in your life is for a reason. Good, bad, or indifferent these things are hand tailored for your benefit and growth. We should look at our problems as opportunities to better understand the blessings God wants to provide for us. When we let our current circumstances stress us out we should immediately go to Our Father in prayer. We should surrender every problem we have to God to open doors of deeper dependence on Him, thus increasing the intimacy we have with our Heavenly Father. Each person we meet is brought into our life for a reason, and every person we let flow through our life without acknowledging the Gospel of Jesus Christ we will answer for. It is our obligation to God to share our testimony, our comfort, and our ears to all those we come in contact with. Too many people today are more than willing to stand up for Christ while they are at church, but when they get out into the world they are silent. I urge all who will hear my words. If we are Christians, we are ministers to those of us who do not understand the Word of God.  We are ministers of reconciliation. We bring the people who come into our life closer to God. That, my friend, is how we surrender our life to Jesus Christ!