I am sharing highlights from Kathi Pelton's book: Coming Home (chapter 12) She has given permission for me to share
I am in the journey of completely surrendering to Jesus and this chapter has spoke to the depths of my soul.
Kathi is a great friend to me and I love her deeply along with her husband Jeff.
Enjoy the process of your surrender.
Our hunger may increase for more of Him, but the deep and real want in our soul is to be satisfied in the goodness of His love. He is the deepest desire of our hungry souls. There is no one like Him and no love that will satisfy like He does. He knows what we need more than we do and as we surrender to Him, letting Him have His way in us, we gain so much more than we let go of.
Often believers struggle to surrender, but this is merely because they have been used to feeding on the crumbs of self-effort, instead of visiting the table laden with a feast that Jesus has spread out for us. We look at surrender as a loss rather than what it really is: the greatest gain we will ever experience. So, we keep running back to old protections that only leave us hungry. This may be the greatest battle that believers face, yet if we would stop battling and just surrender, we would taste the fruits of victory.
We are working out our salvation through daily surrender and obedience to God's truth. Willingness to be changed is key to experiencing transformation that brings freedom and healing. God does not violate our wills, but will patiently wait for us to be willing before He moves. Even when the angel of the Lord visited Mary, announcing the miraculous conception of our Savior, she responded with a declaration of willingness,
"Be it unto me according to your word." Luke 1:38
Such a simple act of surrender - but with eternal, cosmic consequences! This is one of my favorite prayers to pray: Lord, be it unto me according to Your word and Your will.
It is from my will that I give God permission to do His will in me. It is also a great act of surrender, since I do not normally know what His will looks like. I am trusting Him with my future and my steps. I may be surrendering that I hold precious, but I am saying, "I trust you with all of me. You can have it all. I hold nothing back!"
This does not mean that when His will begins to move my life in directions that frighten me or catch me off guard that I don't face another wrestle to take back my will. Often, I must wrestle down my desires in order to walk in His. This is especially true in the times that He has asked me to leave loved ones - especially my children. My greatest personal desire is to have my children and grandchildren nearby, but I have had to surrender that desire more than once. After I surrender, I must trust Him that He knows what is best. I also must remember that we are called to pick up our cross and follow Him - and that can involve pain.
Then Jesus told His disciple, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever would save his life, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul? Matthew 16: 24-26.
There have been many sacrifices through the years that have involved denying myself to follow Him. Yet, I know at the end of my life I will realize that not one sacrifice was a hardship, but rather a joyful honor bestowed upon me. Gaining what is temporary is not worth sacrificing that which is eternal. This is true for you as well; there is nothing you have given up, or one time you have denied yourself to follow Him, that it has not produced an eternal reward.
When we follow Him, we are constantly in His care. We are given what we need when we need it, as well as storing up treasure in heaven!
God does not measure success the same way we measure success. Sometimes a "Yes" is measured in far greater ways than we can comprehend. There is an eternal fragrance rising from our lives as we follow Him. It is of far more value than anything we can measure. From eternity's perspective the obedient heart is never truly in lack.
In Matthew 26: 6-13. The woman who came and poured expensive perfume on Jesus.
In verse 10 it states "she has done a beautiful thing to me!"
These are the words I long to hear when I am face to face before Him. There is no greater reward than knowing that I have wasted my life as an offering poured out over His feet. When we pour out what is most valuable to us it fills the atmosphere with a beautiful fragrance, and it is never considered a waste.
You have done things in the secret place that can only be measured by the standards of heaven. At the end of or lives the only waste will be that which we held back.
Everything poured out will be counted as gain.
Deb: I cant explained how this has deeply touched me in my surrender to Jesus, in what He has for me in my journey. I too want to hear 'She has done a beautiful thing for me!'
I looking back at the things I have surrendered, I am smelling the beautiful fragrance of all of them.
Book: Coming Home by Kathi Pelton. https://www.inscribeministries.com/jeffrey-and-kathi-bio.html
Deb Miller Robinson - Eagle Warrior
2-11-25
Pleya gi - Go With Blessings
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