The Greatest Awakening Gathering at the end of September was an amazing time of worship and fellowship with other believers from all across our nation and the world! As I reflect on the impact that it has made in my life, I realize that it will take weeks and months to really savor and recognize what God was doing in our midst and the ongoing invitation to partner with Him in awakening to the abundant life in the Kingdom. The Spirit has been speaking through Jeanne Guyon’s writings in the book Intimacy with Christ. Jeanne was a follower of Christ who lived a life of surrender and sacrifice in the late 1600’s. I want to share some thoughts that she penned about total surrender:”
“Intellectually, you can be aware of God, but you are only able to be lost in God by total and loving surrender of your will. When you have lost your own will in God, this is indeed, the highest joy. This total surrender of your will into the will of God becomes a permanent state. Of course it is not forced in any way, for you freely give it up.
As love rules you, you become submitted to God, and you are brought into natural unity with Him and with yourself. The greater the love, the more you submit yourself to the One that you love. God’s love does not bind one part of your nature while freeing another. He seeks to draw you entirely into union with Himself. Your mind may think of loving God passionately, but if the will does not agree, there will be great inner conflict. There is a great difference between loving God with your mind and loving Him from your spirit with a totally surrendered will.
When you love God in an intellectual way, you may feel a sense of joy; but it is like water propelled by a sprinkler: It goes up with great force, but it soon falls back to earth. When we love God from our spirit, we see that it is like a river flowing to the sea. It is a river designed by the great Architect of the universe.
Love, which carries the will along with it, changes you entirely. This is the true rapture: to be wholly lost in God. This is what is called transformation: You decrease and He increases within you. I want to make it perfectly clear, however, that you always remain distinct from God; and you never lose your identity in becoming one with Him.”
As I read this writing from Jeanne this morning, I recognize those moments in my own life that the struggle between my intellect and what I understand and have a sense of control over and the spirit within me that desires complete union with Holy Spirit have been the place of inner conflict. The more I pursue this union, the more I recognize how little I understand of the immensity and complexity of God but at the same time, the more I desire the fullness of His presence. To be that river flowing into the vastness of His sea is my heart’s desire. I recognize more daily that nothing this world has to offer comes close to the joy of full surrender in His love.
Steps in Pursuit
- What are the beliefs or traditions that keep you feeling “safe” in what you understand or know, rather than being willing to surrender fully to the move of God in your life?
- Could fear of being rejected by those around you by keeping you on the shoreline of the Spirit?
- Prayerfully ask God to help you trust in His love and ability to keep you so that you can walk into the sea of His all-consuming love.
We each have to make a decision to lay down the framework of self-life and intellectual control to pursue full surrender to God’s heart for us.
Continue the Pursuit,
Denise
