Submission to God

I am glad to greet every reader of our column “Daily strength for spiritual strength”! Yesterday we spoke about how we can experience God´s power and mercy in our life. It fully depends on how deep we dedicate ourselves to Him. Once we realise we are not living for ourselves but for One who died for us, we discover the source of the unlimited power and mercy of God. However, submission to God doesn´t mean doing everything that comes to your mind. Contrariwise, it makes us responsible for getting to know what God bears in His heart regarding His will to our life. For this reason you have to submit yourself in whole to the Lord in order to have fellowship with Him as a source of inspiration, freshness and guidance. Everybody who experienced His power in his life and became a tool of His mercy constantly submitted himself to the Lord.To avoid acting on our own we need to maintain fellowship with God and develop our sensitivity to the Holy Spirit, so that God can easily guide us. Jesus once stated that He does only what He had been told and only tells what he had heard from Father. «Jesus therefore answered them, “Most assuredly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise.» (John 5:19).«I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgement is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me.» (John 5:30). «For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me.» (John 6:38).«Jesus therefore said to them, “When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I say these things. I say the things which I have seen with my Father; and you also do the things which you have seen with your father.”»(John 8:28,38).Ho could Jesus hear what His Father told Him? How could He see what the Father was doing? It happened just because of His constant fellowship with God. Jesu strained His Spirit to hear and see what others could not hear and see. Here what Paul tells us about it: «My speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith wouldn’t stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. We speak wisdom, however, among those who are full grown; yet a wisdom not of this world, nor of the rulers of this world, who are coming to nothing. But we speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the wisdom that has been hidden, which God foreordained before the worlds for our glory, which none of the rulers of this world has known. For had they known it, they wouldn’t have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,“Things which an eye didn’t see, and an ear didn’t hear, Which didn’t enter into the heart of man, These God has prepared for those who love him.” But to us, God revealed them through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so, no one knows the things of God, except God’s Spirit.» (1st Corinthians 2:4-11). In these verses Paul is saying that his testimony and messages came from God, because he received them from God. He didn´t learn them by heart, but they were shared by Holy Spirit. Paul knew how to receive testimony from the Holy Spirit, because he had experienced God in his special way. Fellowship with God is the source of inspiration, freshness and His guidance in our life. I want you to point a special attention at the expression “ … those who love God”. It´s used in the following verse by Paul:«We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.» (Romans 8:28). All these verses from Scripture tell us that those who love the Lord, have obvious advantages. For such people God has prepared many pleasant surprises and all things together work for good in their lives and God Himself appears to them. That´s exactly what Jesus tells us in the following verse: «One who has my commandments, and keeps them, that person is one who loves me. One who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him, and will reveal myself to him.” Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, “Lord, what has happened that you are about to reveal yourself to us, and not to the world?” Jesus answered him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my word. My Father will love him, and we will come to him, and make our home with him.»(John 14:21-23). If you desire to experience God´s power and His mercy in your life, make fellowship and love to God priorities for your life. Let´s continue tomorrow! May the Lord bless you abundantly! Rufus Adjiboye, pastor