Today I want to share this from "My Utmost For His Highest" by Oswald Chambers. It is a priceless teaching that, if we will diligently meditate on and get into our innermost being, will completely and utterly change our lives!
Salvation does not mean merely deliverance from sin or the experience of personal holiness. The salvation which comes from God means being completely delivered from myself, and being placed into perfect union with Him. When I think of my salvation experience, I think of being delivered from sin and gaining personal holiness. But salvation is so much more! It means that the Spirit of God has brought me into intimate contact with the true Person of God Himself. And as I am caught up into total surrender to God, I become thrilled with something infinitely greater than myself.
To say that we are called to preach holiness or sanctification is to miss the main point. We are called to proclaim Jesus Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:2). The fact that He saves from sin and makes us holy is actually part of the effect of His wonderful and total surrender to us.
If we are truly surrendered, we will never be aware of our own efforts to remain surrendered. Our entire life will be consumed with the One to whom we surrender. Beware of talking about surrender if you know nothing about it. In fact, you will never know anything about it until you understand that John 3:16 means that God completely and absolutely gave Himself to us. In our surrender, we must give ourselves to God in the same way He gave Himself for us— totally, unconditionally, and without reservation. The consequences and circumstances resulting from our surrender will never even enter our mind, because our life will be totally consumed with Him.
I always like to add verse 17 when I use John 3:16:
17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. KJV
"Saved" here is the Greek word "sozo". It means: save, deliver, protect, heal, preserve, do well, make whole, rescue, restore. Paul said that he had made it his determined purpose to know Him (Philippians 3:10)! Peter reminded Jesus that they had left everything and everyone in their lives behind in order to follow Him (Mark 10:28). In order to really walk in the fullness of the new and better Covenant that we have with Almighty God through the Blood of Jesus, we must commit to, or surrender, all that is ours into His MOST capable hands! AMEN! Here to inspire you in this is Hillsong with "I Surrender":
Shalom in Him!
