Today I want to remind all of you about what Jesus can actually do for us. Remember that when Jesus went to the cross for us, it was a “divine exchange.” He died our death, and took our old nature upon the cross so that we could become Him. He rose in resurrection so that we too could rise in resurrection to newness of life. We exchanged our old nature for His. We died to our old nature and rose again in newness of life when He arose. We are no longer the “old person” that we used to be, but Jesus made it possible to exchange our lives for His.

What great news that is and also kind of scary at the same time. In John 15:4-5  it says “Abide in Me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine and you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit;  for without Me you can do nothing.”

In Galatians 32:20, it says ,“I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

We quote this verse a lot but do we really, really comprehend the great exchange God has in mind for us? And do we really understand what it takes to be “Jesus’ hands, His feet, His body, His voice, and His heart?  It is not really complicated, but not really easy either. It takes all that we have, and all that we are including our gifts, talents, personalities, and all of our worldly goods surrendered to Him. We lay all of it on the altar and let Him direct it all. We no longer have any say about our lives. It all belongs to Jesus. You may be thinking “sister, that is really radical”, and I would agree. But, that is what the great exchange is all about.

From time to time, the Lord will ask me to surrender anew and afresh to Him. I had an encounter with the Lord just last week where He asked me again for my violin playing to be laid at His feet so He could control it completely. Sometimes, Jesus reminds us of things that we have surrendered to Him in the past and we have not become aware that we are doing it by rote or that it has become too automatic. He will always take us deeper and deeper into a total surrender in our lives. Yes, it is all about surrender. What I find is that it does not usually happen all at once but is a lifetime process. We keep going forward towards the prize of the “high calling” in Christ Jesus. What is the high calling and what are the benefits?

What I have found is that you cannot affect this kind of surrender until you have had an extreme touch from the Lord; one that will literally cause you to want to give all you are to Him. It is that extreme love that we cannot resist that consumes us and causes our “want to” to start operating. That is the first step and then we move into His faith, His power, His self-control, His mind…His everything. We become His and He becomes ours. We are like the Shulamite woman ever looking for her Lord. She confesses that “I am my beloved’s and He is mine.” We become possessed by His goodness and love, and by His grace, we are able to surrender to Him.

Think of the people that you know who have totally surrendered their lives to the Lord Jesus Christ. What have they accomplished? We could think of mother Theresa, Heidi Baker, or the great intercessor Reese Howells, or Evan Roberts.You can think of those who were totally surrendered to the Lord. This gives us a picture of the benefits to the world that those great saints of God have achieved. We will do all of the things Jesus did and more, because He has gone to be with His Father. He commands us to go into all of the world. Raise the dead, heal the sick, feed the hungry, open blind eyes, open deaf ears and cause the lame to walk.

I might even add that we change towns, states, countries and the world. We change atmospheres by our very presence. We accomplish far more in our lives than we ever dreamed possible because we have the creator of the universe living in us as a driving force in all that we say and do everywhere we go.

So, my brothers and sisters, remember that you are bought with a price and that you are the prize. Maybe you need a new and fresh surrender today. Let God touch your heart with His extreme love that cannot be resisted and see yourself going to the next level of glory. We will not be looking into a mirror so darkly anymore but now His face becomes clearer and clearer as we go for the “prize of the high calling in Christ Jesus.”

Written by:  Joyce Euren

Published on 9/19/17