After attending Seedbed’s New Room Leaders Gathering in February, I realized that using the language of “personal surrender” had worn thin with me in talking to adult discipleship students….. The language of “consecration” of self (as we heard so often at Ridgecrest) and of integration of all of who one is “in Christ”, (as our little Titus 2 Sunday@5 group of women has been studying in “In Christ” by E. Stanley Jones) is so much more energizing and focuses on an enlarging and unifying view of the goal and process of the Holy Spirit’s work instead of a diminishing, suppressing view. We do, indeed, surrender to Christ at the cross ……in humility, love, and gratitude for His atoning work. But over the decades since that point, in the additional calls to surrender one more thing after another, there is a lingering sense of doubt and condemnation by the Enemy intended to make one feel like I didn’t get it (surrender) right the first time.
The affirmative process of consecrating more and more of one’s SELF as we mature into new roles and knowledge, as we have greater depths of SELF revealed and transformed, and as those spaces in our souls become conformed to the character of Christ, there’s an excitement and a sense of anticipation and adventuring with the Holy Spirit toward what we are becoming rather than focusing on what in us still needs to be subdued and overcome.
Today when I realized THAT was one of my “take-aways” from the gathering, , I discussed it with a 54 yo discipleship student who just began this deeper journey beyond nominal Christianity about 2 years ago. She quickly agreed that the uplifting view of “consecration” and growing “In Christ” is energizing and joy-filled in contrast to the repeated calls for additional needed surrenders.
This seems to be mental “spiritual shift:”
When one shifts focus from “surrender” of one stronghold point of brokenness, shame, rebellion, ignorance, etc. after another in a life of “recovery”…..to focus on consecration of all of one’s self to the Lord.
This is what it looks like to live out loving God with ALL of your heart, ALL of your soul, ALL of your mind, ALL of your strength….
It brings David to my mind, “a man after God’s own heart”….. He was consecrated (set apart and prepared), even before he knew what God’s plan was, and then anointed for God’s purpose. It was decades before the fullness of God’s purpose was realized, however. Consecration and anointing didn’t make David instantly perfected in behavior, but it did make him soft and responsive in heart and will, with readiness to accept trials and testing, open to God’s voice and wisdom, repentant in Holy Spirit reprimand and conviction for error or disobedience, sensitive to the Holy Spirit as God worked to sanctify David, even when admonishing David was necessary. David accepted God’s consequences again and again with humility and continued confidence in God’s sovereignty, power, love, goodness, and presence.
As Susan Kent has guided us through daily Lenten devotionals from her book, Altar’d, she pointed out that physical shifts in place, position, or posture have frequently preceded spiritual shifts.
Consider David….from family’s youngest son shepherding in the wilderness to the king’s court and service and rising to successor of the king….
Joseph…. from favored son in Judea to slave in Egypt to Pharoah’s administrative overseer….
Moses…. from adopted son of Pharaoh to self-exile in wilderness of Midian shepherding, then back to God’s servant and prophet for the exodus ….
Naomi…. and her family fleeing famine in Bethlehem to Moab, losing all her family there except faithful Moabite daughter-in-law Ruth, returning in brokenness to Bethlehem to ultimately find redemption and joy again….
Mary and Joseph….forced from the safety and obscurity of Nazareth to Bethlehem where God’s prophetic promises would begin to be fulfilled and the course of Jesus’ life established…
Abraham…. saying “yes” to leaving Ur to go to a land God would show him….
Noah…saying “yes” to building an ark and enduring a lengthy voyage to a fresh start for his (and God’s) family…..
Peter, Andrew, Matthew and others…..leaving businesses, family, and known way of life to follow an itinerant rabbi….
Elijah, Naaman, Joshua, Gideon, Apostles, Lydia, Tamar, Rachel, Rahab, Jacob and his sons….and many others had to experience physical reorientation, often requiring great effort in obedience, courage, and humility, in advance of realizing spiritual shifts. It is evident throughout Scripture. It is evident in my own life and in the lives of many others I’ve observed.
Truly, the more we see God’s ways and will, the more we realize, we’re all in this together!