This past Sunday Bishop Woods continued with Part 2 of I Got This. He used this opportunity to explain the Signs of Surrender. The initial question that was asked was "Have you ever really surrendered to God?" Sometimes we lean to our own understanding or fall back on our own ability to get something done rather than fully trusting that God has got this. Bishop explained that you know you are trusting God when the situation is too big for you to handle on your own yet you believe that God has got it. When we practice this trust all the time then that habit of trust becomes faith, which is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
Like Moses many of us may ask Why me? It is okay to question God initially--like Moses did, but be sure that as you spiritually mature that you accept that God's working it out for you that He has a plan for you for a hope and a future and that all things work together for your good.
The Signs of Surrender look like this:
1. God gives you a unique assignment. You know that you are yielding to the power of God when He trusts you with an assignment that's just for you. Moses was tasked to be a prophet, an ambassador and a priest to the Children of Israel. These are unique assignments for someone charged with watching someone else's sheep. Remember this God is not concerned with your present employment. He is only concerned with your present assignment. Many of us feel like Moses. We believe that we are ill equipped to do what God has called us to do. When Moses was working with his father-in-law's sheep he was actually performing a task that was beneath him, his training and his upbringing, but God takes us through various experiences to qualify us for our assignment.
Moses was a prince that wound up tending to sheep. Moses may have felt at some point that tending to sheep was not what he was called to do, but God wants us to lose some stuff in order to gain some stuff. Moses had to realize that tending to sheep, being a prince, learning many languages and being raised in the palace, having to humble himself to his father-in-law, etc would eventually lead to the assignment of tending to God's people.
2. God gives you an uncompromising and blessed assurance. God's assurance is absolute. God gives security that He is behind the call, God provides succession so that you know that it is His intention for what was started to continue, and the people that you lead serve in the place where you served.
3. God provides an unconventional answer. In our example, Moses questions God because he realizes that he is in a hot situation about to address some hostile people and those people were going to want to know under whose authority Moses was speaking. So Moses had an uncertain assay or inquiry of the Lord. God's unconventional answer was to tell the people, I Got This! God said to tell the people that I Am (Jehovah) That I Am (The one who is or the one who will be) sent you. He instructs Moses to let the people know that whatever it is that they need God's got it under control because He is Jehova-Jireh--our provider (Genesis 22:14); He is Jeohvah-Nissi--our battle fighter (Exodus 17:15); He is Jehovah-Shalom--our giver of peace (Judges 6:24); He is Jehovah Rophe--our healer (Exodus 15:26); He is Jehovah Tsidkenu--our righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6); He is Jehovah Shammah--our ever present one (Ezekiel 48:35); He is Jehovah Rohi--our good shepherd (Psalm 23:1); He is Jeohvah Mekadesh--our Lord who sanctifies us (Leviticus 20:7, 8); Jehovah Sabbaoth--our Lord of Hosts (Isaiah 6:5).
In other words EVERYTHING that you need is in God so for Moses to say that I Am That I Am sent him was Moses saying that God is in control. It is a sign of reverence. It is surrender. In order for God to work in our lives the way that we need Him to work all the time in every situation we must surrender ALL to Him. Because there is no other name given under Heaven that can do what the name of Jesus can do. So today resolve that it's all in His name. Call on Him. Surrender to Him. Get out the way. Watch Him work.
In that we have to surrender we can't forget to realize that we have to surrender all and with that surrender comes a next crucial step, and that is obedience, which is what really brings on the total assurance that God will do what He said. God has predestined us to receive all He has already done ie. Whom He predestined them He also called, whom He called He also justified, whom He justified, He also glorified, we surrender so He can do what He wants us to do in us then we obey what He does in us so that it can manifest and glorify Him that we can be used to the fullness of His ability.
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