August 18, 2008 

Surrender is My Inheritance

In-depth healing means that God has got to go down into the depths; He has got to go down into the unconscious part of us as well as into our conscious areas.  You may have memories or issues surface that you thought had been taken care of only to find that these things are still there.  This is good.  Do not get discouraged if this happens because it is very normal for where we are. 

Surrender is an inside job.  It has to do with what is going on inside of me.  We are talking about the healing of my heart.  It is a healing that needs to go on inside of me.  This surrender within me is extremely important because it allows the Holy Spirit to come and work in our unconscious areas.  Actually, the healing power of surrender is really our inheritance in Jesus because Jesus Himself was total “fiat” - total surrender.  It was His desire that we become one with the Father.  He experienced this oneness because He was in the constant posture of surrender.  Surrender is our inheritance.  He wants us to have this same grace that He had.  He paid a high price so that we could have it. 

We have to know what we want.  We have to know if we really desire this surrender, because if I do not desire it, if I do not desire this union, this infilling of God, then I must stop there and ask for the desire.  It is just that simple.  I have to ask for that grace.  Everything is grace.  We have to allow ourselves to allow God to work this healing within us otherwise, I may try to handle the anger myself.  I will try to find someway to forgive, grin and bear it myself.  Or I may try to grit my teeth and take it.  We will become discouraged if we try this because we cannot do it.  This is God’s work, isn’t it?  Thanks be to God it is His work!  He is the Sanctifier, He is the Holy One.  First of all, I must acknowledge that I cannot do this myself.  I cannot heal myself.  I cannot heal my own heart.  I can surrender to the One who has that kind of love, who will understand me, who can help me, who will have mercy on me.  But I cannot do it by myself.  Jesus said this. “Without Me, you can do nothing!” 

As we begin to share in our groups, the Spirit calls us to go deeper.  If it is hard for you to open up and to share, remember that your sharing might help someone else.  Try to make that sacrifice.  We really do know reap what we sow. 

Often times this group dynamic itself might trigger something in my own life.  Do not be afraid and do not be timid because we are in this together.  God might not show me something in my private prayer, but He will show it to me throughout the week and He might show it to me by what somebody else is experiencing.  That is why group sharing is extremely important and just remember that the most important thing is that we surrender ourselves now to one another in the group itself.  There is going to be tremendous healing if we can go through this together. 

We live in a society which idolizes self sufficiency and independence and, to some people, the idea of surrendering to God meets great resistance.  The word surrender might invoke images of a foe that had been vanquished and humiliated in defeat.  Sometimes we think that surrender means that we are defeated.  That can be a block.  The idea of spiritual surrender calls up in the minds of most of us an image of God as someone who is out to get us, who demands a surrender.  If that is the image I have of God it will create a block to total surrender.  In reality, surrender to God is an act of yielding that self destructive pattern that I have – unforgiveness, hanging on or anger, whatever it is.  It is important that I begin to recognize this as a pattern; this is how I consistently react to my life, to such and such a situation.  When we surrender these patterns to God, the death grip of the poison in my own life of hate, or fear or unforgiveness, will loosen.  These things can control any of us.  It will loosen the grip of the resentment, jealousy, or whatever else is happening within me, and I will start to open up to the One who can help me. 

The Kingdom of God is within.  As I open more and more to Jesus, He will lead me into the Kingdom within.  This is why we call it inner healing.  That is why surrender is an inside job.  We are seeking to come into the kingdom within. 

In John 14 there is a beautiful Scripture in which Jesus says, “I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am, you too may be.”  I used to think that meant He was going to Heaven.  But I really have come to see that it has to do with the here and now.  “I go to prepare a place for you, so that where I am you also may be.”  He is within me.  The kingdom is within.  “So that where I am, you too may be.”  He wants to bring us into this beautiful inner kingdom within.  We see the close relationship of the Kingdom within, the surrender, becoming a child.   We always go back to the child. The child is protected by God.

Tonight, I had an image of lots of little children, little tiny toddlers with bare feet - little cute fat feet, and very sensitive little feet, just tiny little ones.  They were in the presence of the Father.  The Father could see if there was any danger around – anything that could cut their little feet or hurt them.  If He saw anything, He would just pick them up and carry them.  He was totally taking care of them, like any of you would do for your own children, particularly when they are little like that. 

The Lord let me recall that little children like to go barefoot but that they are very vulnerable in their bare footedness.  And then He gave me the recall of what He said to Moses. “Moses, take off your shoes!  You are on Holy Ground.”  What He was saying to Moses was, “Become little.  Come into My presence, come into My purity, come into My Fatherliness and Moses, take off your shoes so I can carry you, so I can take care of you.”  This is what He is saying to us now.  “Do not be afraid to surrender to My love, so that I, Jesus, can take you into that inner kingdom within which is only for children, for the little ones.” 

There is a close relationship between surrender and being a child.  In the Kingdom then, we become very creative.  Children are, create things all the time.   They have to explain to us what they are creating!  The call to surrender is motivated by love and this love produces a constant state of joy.  So when you really think of the benefits of surrender and of coming into the kingdom within (the place which Jesus has gone ahead to prepare for you through the power of His sanctifying Spirit, it is strange that we cling to being grown up, that we keep hanging on to our self, our self will, our self interest.

 There is a beautiful quote from Saint Augustine said which applies to us. Before his conversion, he said that the sin he knew was more to be desired than the joy that he did not know.  Isn’t that interesting?  The sin he knew was more to be desired than the joy he did not know.  That really says a lot about us.  We may cling to something simply because we are afraid of the unknown.  It is this fear of the unknown that causes us to resist surrender to God.  When we surrender to God, we are letting go, we are letting Him pick us up.  We are taking off our shoes.  We are becoming little.  It means that we must begin to trust this God who wants us to come into the kingdom within now.  That is why surrender is our inheritance. 

Excerpt from Mother Nadine’s, “The Healing Power of Surrender,” Omaha, 2004