The Secret to Surrendering - Part 1

A while back I was thinking of this line that us Christians use all the time. It's sort of become apart of our Christianeese language. We say it so often we seldom stop to think, "What does it REALLY mean?"

So I asked the Lord, "What does it mean when we tell people 'You just need to surrender it to God!'?"

As I sat there the Holy Spirit reminded me of something in II Corintians 10:1-5. It says,

(1) Now I Paul myself beseech you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ, who in presence am base among you, but being absent am bold toward you: (2) But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. (3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ."

It's in this passage that I found the secret to surrendering, and what it means to surrender something to God. But before we get to that, I want to quickly lay a foundation.

We are in a war. Each & everyone one of us are. We find ourselves fighting daily no matter if we realize it or not. That war that we fight in is not physical. It's spiritual.

Notice that in verse 3 that Paul says that "...we do not war after the flesh." We are at war, folks, but this war that we fight in we do not fight using physical tactics. We must use spiritual tactics because the battle that we're in is spiritual, as you will see here in a moment.

In verse 4 Paul writes that our weapons are not carnal. And our weapons can't be carnal! A physical weapon will not work on a spiritual enemy! Our weapons are spiritual, because our enemies are spiritual!

Ephesians 6:12 says, "...we wrestle not against flesh & blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

Our enemies are not people. Are REAL enemies are spiritual & they are evil, ugly, & demonic!

"Are you telling me that I have to fight against evil, demonic spirits?" Yes - I am. And if you didn't already know this then I'd like to inform you that you've been fighting these things your whole, entire life. You just never gave it any thought before.

The first thing that I'm asking is for you to get any images out of your head that Hollywood's placed in there. This is not like that.

The Bible talks about these things called "familiar spirits." (Click here to see the scriptures.) The job of the familiar spirit is to just simply follow you around, take note of your life. It becomes familiar with those things that terrify you. I becomes familiar with those things that tempt you. It hears the words that come out of your mouth. It sees how you react to certain situations & circumstances. It recognizes patterns in your life. It knows you so well that if it wanted to it could imitate you. (This is one of the reasons why people think they see ghost.)

So, these familiars spirits collect all this information concerning you, and it shares your information with other evil spirits. Such as the spirit of fear. The spirit of fear then comes to you & simply influences your thinking.

"You're not good enough."
"Nobody loves you."
"You're too fat! Nobody wants you!"
"He's going to leave you."
"You don't make him happy."
"You're too ugly."
"How can he respect you? You don't even respect yourself!"
"He's just going to do you like all the others."
"You're always going to be alone!"

I can go on & on & on & on. I'm sure some of you can, too!

But this is what the spirit of fear does. It prophecies to us! It tries to paint a picture of our future by telling us lies & half truths. Fear is a prophet. It's a false prophet. It doesn't even care if it's prophecies come to pass. All it wants is for you to apply your faith in it's words.

And it's easy for us to do that because our emotions are quick to agree with fear. For example: It's easy for us to imagine ourselves always being alone because we feel so lonely! So we attach our faith to that statement & accept it as truth.

However, it's not truth. It's still a lie. We just believe it.

---------> To read Part Two of the "Secret to Surrendering" click here! <--------

The Secret to Surrendering - Part 2

-------> To read Part 1 of the "Secret to Surrendering" click here. <-------

So, what do we do about this? How do we fight this?

We use what God has given us: His word.

If you keep reading in Ephesians 6 Paul goes on to talk about the armour of God. Ever piece of the armour serves a purpose defensively, except for one piece: The Sword of the Spirit, which Paul tells us point blank is the Word of God. It's an offensive weapon.

So, how do we use this Sword? Easy. Learn the Word of God & believe it. Apply your faith to it.

When fear tells you that you're always going to be alone, know what God's Word says about that. And instead of attaching your faith to fear's words, attach it to the Word of God & watch as fear's influences begins to get cut off!

Fear tells you that you're always going to be alone. God's Word says in Genesis that it is not good for man to be alone. God's Word tells us that He is ever present. Jesus said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you." "My God shall supply all of your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus." The list can go on & on!! :-)

Back to II Corinthians 10:4. He says, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds..."

Strong holds are like a fortress. It's all those lies that you've believed about yourself. You see yourself as being unwanted & ugly. Someone tells you that you look pretty. That compliment cannot get through that wall. In otherwords you cannot accept it as truth.

Paul tells us that the weapons of our warfare are mighty to the pulling down of strong holds. The word that Paul uses there in the Greek for the words "pulling down" is the word "kathairesis," which speaks of demolition. In other words when you pull down strong holds by simply appling your faith to God's Word instead of fear it's like blowing the thing up!

Fear doesn't want you to give access to God's Word. That's why it builds up strong holds.

The word "strong hold" in the Greek is "ochyrōma" and it means, "a castle, stronghold, fortress" But it also speaks to "of the arguments and reasonings by which a disputant endeavours to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent."

See, the disputant is fear. Fear disputes with you what is truth so that you can believe it's lies.

You are fear's opponent. It's not Jesus. It's not God. It's you! God has given you His Word to use as a weapon against fear, worry, depression, anxiety, lust, greed, etc. Those are the disputants. We oppose them with the Word of God. We're the ones who have to do the fighting to tear down those strong holds that these spirits have built & fortified.

Moving on to II Corinthians 10:5. Paul tells us that the Word of God is mighty unto "casting down imaginations..."

Isn't it funny that when these evil spirits start prophecying to us that we let our imaginations run wild, acting out scenes in our mind of what's going to happen or how something's going to happen. It often plays out like a movie.

The Greek word for "imaginations" here is the word, "logismos", which speaks of reasoning or thought process. It's how we put our thoughts together, like a chain. This is how these evil spirits get us to apply our faith to their words. They simply make the suggestion & then we let our minds run wild until we see things from the point of view that it wants us to see it from.

He also tells us that the Word of God is might unto casting down "every high thing." The word Paul uses here for "high thing" is the Greek word, "hypsōma," which speaks of "elevated structure i.e. barrier, rampart, bulwark." You can look at it as sort of high-minded thoughts, meaning that we can become arrogant or haughty in our thinking when it comes to these issues. In other words: "I'm ugly. I'm unloveable. I'm too picky. This is the way that I'm always going to be. I can't change. Nobody can tell me different."

See the arrogance in that? We're the expert on our own condition & we don't want to believe that anyone or anything can help our condition change for the better.

The Bible says that these "imaginations" & these "high things" exalts themselves against the knowledge of God. Where do we find the knowledge of God? We find the knowledge of God in His Word (aka The Bible.)

In other words these "imaginations" & these "high things" try to make themselves look bigger, badder, & more powerful that God's Word. It plays out like this: "I know God's word says that I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. And I know that God hasn't given me a spirit of fear, but of power, love, & a sound mind. I believe it, but....this is me we're talking about. This sort of thing happens to me everytime. This time won't be any different, so why even bother?!"

You've got the knowledge of God, but you've just let these things that you've imagined or these high minded thoughts exalt themselves against the Word of God! There's only one thing to do from here. Paul says right there at the end of II Corinthians 10:5 - we have to bring into captivity every thought.

Here's where the surrendering comes in.

Surrendering is allowing something to be taken captive by something else with greater power & authority. You have to surrender in order to be captured. Likewise you have to surrender your thoughts in order to bring them into captivity.

What do you surrender them to? You surrender them to the Lord. He's the One who has greater power & greater authority.

Fear tells you one thing. God's word tells you another. Who's the greater authority on the subject? Fear or God? God is. Trust God.

Fear tells you to go left. God tells you to go right. Which way do you go? Sure, it's not easy. Fear paints a picture of what's around the corner if you go right. He doesn't want you to go that way. Your emotions agree with fear. Your emotions "feel" like you should go left.

You take those thoughts captive by making yourself go right anyways. You surrender by no longer fighting, but by giving in to God & His Word. After all, He's given you His word. You can trust Him.

But not only has He given you His word, He's also given you something else. It's another weapon of our warfare, and it's found in Luke 10:19. It's there that Jesus says, "Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

Now here's the crazy thing: Jesus uses the word "power" twice in this verse, but he's actually using two different words there that mean two different things.

He says, "Behold, I give unto you power..." That word, "power" in the Greek is the word "exousia," which in short means "authority."

The next time Jesus uses the word power he's talking about the enemy's power or in the Greek "dynamis," which means "power, influence, strength, ability."

So in other words Jesus has given us exousia (authority) over the enemy's dynamis (power)! The enemy's power is not greater than the authority in which Jesus has given to us! So, I can take those thoughts captive. They do have to surrender to the authority in which Jesus has given to me. At that point I can attack these strong holds, imaginations, & every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God with the Word of God, pulling them down, destroying them so that the enemy can't use them again to gain a foot hold in my life.

WOW! What good news!

So, fear - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Depression - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Jealousy - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Addiction - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Dispair - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Hopelessness - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Lust - you have to go in the name of Jesus!

Rage - you have to go in the name of Jesus!
Hatred - you have to go in the name of Jesus!

What troubles you? Call it out by name! Use your authority given to you by Christ! MAKE WAR!!!!



Matthew 11:12 - "...the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."