WE MUST LEARN TO LAY ON THE ALTAR IN SURRENDER TO THE LORD.
One of the most important and essential ingredients in Prayer, and in our walk with God is learning to CONTINUALLY SURRENDER OUR LIVES TO THE LORD. Paul reminded the church at Rome in Rom.12:1-2 NKJV I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you CONTINUALLY present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
PASSION Beloved friends, what should be our proper response to God’s marvelous mercies? I encourage you to surrender yourselves to God to be his sacred, living sacrifices. And live in holiness, experiencing all that delights his heart. For this becomes your genuine expression of worship.
Stop imitating the ideals and opinions of the culture around you, but be inwardly transformed by the Holy Spirit through a total reformation of how you think. This will empower you to discern God’s will as you live a beautiful life, satisfying and perfect in his eyes.
N.L.T. And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.
MESSAGE So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.
Paul highlights the need of our BODY to be continually surrendered to the Lord, We know our Body contains our senses and drives, and our soul our MIND WILL AND EMOTIONS, unless ALL THESE AREAS are under the Lord’s control we will never be able to live a life of victory and holiness.
Paul highlights in verse 2 how our mind must be constantly be RENEWED, for the enemy is always wanting to win the “Battle of the mind” this is where we must spend quality time in the Word of God, and let that quickened Word continually be TRANSFORMING US.
I am also reminded today of Paul’s word to the Corinthian church in 1 Cor. 6:19-20 NKJV Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s .For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
PASSION Have you forgotten that your body is now the sacred temple of the Spirit of Holiness, who lives in you? You don’t belong to yourself any longer, for the gift of God, the Holy Spirit, lives inside your sanctuary. You were God’s expensive purchase, paid for with tears of blood, so by all means, then, use your body to bring glory to God!
N.L.T. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.
MESSAGE Or didn’t you realize that your body is a sacred place, the place of the Holy Spirit? Don’t you see that you can’t live however you please, squandering what God paid such a high price for? The physical part of you is not some piece of property belonging to the spiritual part of you. God owns the whole works. So let people see God in and through your body.
Paul again speaks of the importance of surrendering our BODIES to the Lord (continually) but also refers to our BODY as the TEMPLE OF THE HOLY SPIRIT, The Holy must rule and reign in every part of our lives, that why he reminds us in Eph.5:18 NKJV Be continually filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, submitting to one another in the fear of God.
Every time I spend time with the Lord in prayer, after I have confessed and repented of any sins in my life, I then spend some time RE-AFFIRMING THE LORDSHIP OF JESUS OVER MY LIFE, and inviting the Lord to continually RULE AND REIGN IN EVERY PART OF MY LIFE, I happily say, my mind, my will, my emotions, my drives, my senses, and then I go on and say, I PRESENT MY SPIRITUAL BODY TO YOU, and ask the Holy Spirit TO KEEP FILLING THE HOUSE and rule and reign continually in me.
I guess once again, I have not said anything new here today, but I trust my repeating of this essential truth/s with challenge your heart, to seek to continually surrender yourself totally to the Lord, Body, Soul & Spirit, and that Paul’s prayer for the Thessalonian church 1 Thess. 5:23-24 NKJV will be fulfilled in your life and mine. “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole SPIRIT. SOUL AND BODY be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it”.
N.L.T. Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again. God will make this happen, for he who calls you is faithful.
PASSION Now, may the God of peace and harmony set you apart, making you completely holy. And may your entire being—spirit, soul, and body—be kept completely flawless in the appearing of our Lord Jesus, the Anointed One. The one who calls you by name is trustworthy and will thoroughly complete his work in you.
MESSAGE May God himself, the God who makes everything holy and whole, make you holy and whole, put you together—spirit, soul, and body—and keep you fit for the coming of our Master, Jesus Christ. The One who called you is completely dependable. If he said it, he’ll do it!
