The Full Surrender

ow that I am saved, what do I do next? What is the next step in my new walk with the Lord?

If there is one theme that you will see repeated over and over again in many of our articles is the extreme importance that each and every Christian turn their entire lives over to God the Father for Him to fully handle.

You have now just made Jesus your Savior. However, there is now one more big thing you must do.You must now make Jesus the Lord over your life. Jesus must now become both your Lord and Savior, not just your Savior.

You must now make the second biggest decision that you will ever make in this life. The first biggest decision is whether or not you will accept Jesus as your personal Savior through His sacrificial death on the cross. Now that you have done that, you have become truly saved and born again.

However, you are now faced with the second biggest decision that you will ever make in this life. And that decision is – who is going to run the rest of your life from here on in – you or God?

As you will see in the Scripture verses I will list below, the Bible makes it very clear as to who should be guiding your steps in this life – and that Person is God the Father through the Holy Spirit!

This decision as to who will be running your life from here on in will determine the course your life will now take. If you decide to run your own life and call all of your own shots, then your life is going to take a completely different course as versus the one it would take if you would turn your entire life over to God the Father for Him to fully handle.

As you will see in some of the very powerful Scripture verses I will list below, the Bible specifically tells us that if we choose to follow our own way and path in this life – then that path will eventually lead to death. In other words, you will have forever wasted your one and only opportunity to find out exactly what you were created for, and what your true divine destiny was going to be in the Lord.

The Bible makes it very clear that good works will not get us into heaven. We can only be saved by grace through our faith in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death on the cross. However, once we are saved, God the Father expects us to do something with what time we still have left down here on this earth. He now wants all of us to come and “work” for Him.

The Bible tells us that God will be “rewarding” us for the good works that we will do for Him while living down here on this earth. Again, these good works cannot get us saved, but they can get us the bigger and better rewards once we enter into heaven. Some of the verses I will list below specifically tell us that God will be rewarding us “according to our labors” for Him in this life. In other words, good works for the Lord will be highly rewarded once we cross over and enter into heaven.

However, there is one slight catch to all of this. If we choose to run our own lives instead of turning the reigns of our life over to God the Father, then we will not be embarking on the real path that God would like us to travel on – and any works that we end up doing while traveling on our own path will in no way be as highly rewarded as the works that are done operating in God’s perfect will for our lives.

This life is but for a moment, a blink of an eye compared to the eternal time frame that is operating up in heaven. We will spend the rest of eternity with God and Jesus once we enter into heaven.

So ask yourself – do you want to work for yourself and the small rewards that you can get down here that will all perish the minute you die and cross over – or do you want to work for God the Father, do His perfect will for your life, accomplish what He wants you to accomplish in this life, and then receive His full and final just rewards that will last forever once you enter into heaven?

The rewards that God will bestow upon you for faithfully working for Him down here on this earth will be heavenly rewards that will last you for all of eternity. All of the things that you try and accomplish on your own, out of your own flesh, will in no way be rewarded anywhere near to what they would have been had you been operating under God’s perfect will for your life.

So what does your natural, common sense and intelligence tell you would be the wisest decision as to who should be running your life? You – with your limited powers, limited intelligence, and limited strength – or God the Father, who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-perfect? Since God is all-powerful and all-knowing, this means He knows much better than you do what you should be doing with your life, what mountains you should be seeking to climb, and what goals and aspirations you should be striving after in this life.

Since God’s knowledge is absolutely perfect on all matters – this means He will know you better than you could ever know yourself. He knows what your real strengths and weaknesses are better than you could ever know for yourself, since your knowledge is limited and imperfect – including what you think you know about yourself.

Only God knows what you were really created to be in this life. Only God knows what you would really be best at. Only God knows what your true divine calling should be in this life. Only God knows who you should marry and what jobs you should be taking in this life.

And since God is all-powerful and there is nothing that He cannot do or accomplish – then this means He can also anoint you with His divine power for whatever He will be calling you to do for Him in this life.

So not only do you get God’s perfect knowledge and wisdom guiding you in this life as to exactly what you should be striving for – but you will also have His divine power flowing through you so that you can be very good at the jobs and tasks that He will be calling you to do for Him.

But if you decide to choose your own way and call all of your own shots, then God will not be anointing you with His divine power or guiding you every step of your way – and you will then be forced to try and find your own way, all without any of God’s help, power, or guidance. As a result, when it is all finally said and done, you will have become a failure in God since you will have chosen to travel down your own path rather than the path God already had set out for you long before you were even born through your mother’s womb!

Bottom line – you have to look at the real “big picture.” The real big picture is not only what happens in this life, but also what happens in the next life. The next life in heaven is nothing but a continuation of this life that we are living down here on this earth. But there is one main difference. This life on earth is but for a very short period of time. The life we will be living up in heaven will be forever – with no more crossovers into any other realms.

We should thus be living this life for what will be recorded up in heaven – not for what will be recorded down here. Any trophies, medals, money, or material possessions that we might able to acquire down here will not be crossing over with us when we enter into heaven. There are only three things that will be crossing over with us when we enter into heaven:

• Ourselves
• Our saved family members and friends
• And all of the good works that we will do for God operating under His perfect will for our life

Nothing else will be crossing over! That is why you have to look at the complete big picture, not just a small part of it, which is our earthly existence.

As you will see in the following Scripture verses, you have to become both saved and surrendered if you really want to enter into the real walk with the Lord. Christians are obviously saved, but many of them are not operating under this full surrender with the Lord. As a result, they have married the wrong people and are thus living in miserable marriages or have gone through multiple divorces. They have chased after the wrong jobs in their life and thus have no real sense of fulfillment or accomplishment in their lives.

The only way that you can find what your true divine destiny is going to be in this life, who your true soul mate should be, and what you were really born to be in this life, is by entering into God the Father’s perfect will for your life. There is absolutely no other way! The center of God’s perfect will for your life is the safest and most fulfilling realm that you will ever enter into in this life!

Stepping out into God’s perfect will for your life where He is now guiding and leading your life in the direction that He will want it go in is like stepping from the dugout out onto the real baseball field where the real action of life is really at. Too many of God’s people are trying to play the game of life from the stands, and this is all because they are refusing to turn the reigns of their life over to Him for Him to fully handle.

Study the Scripture verses in this article very, very carefully. These verses are giving you major, and I mean major revelation from God the Father on the second most important decision that you will ever make in this life.

Who you will be choosing to run your life – you or God – will make or break what time you still have left down here on this earth. You only have one shot, one opportunity, and one window in which to leave your mark in this world. Let God the Father, through the Holy Spirit, guide you into the most incredible realm you can imagine this side of heaven – the realm of God’s perfect will for your life!

I will break the Scripture verses down under the appropriate captions below so you can fully grasp what God is trying to tell you in these very powerful verses. I will then end this article by showing you how to enter into this full surrender with the Lord, and how to maintain it for the rest of your earthly life if you decide you want to do this with the Lord.

1.  Choose This Day Who You Will Serve

These first set of verses will all hit the nail right on the head. The very first verse from Joshua is one of the most classic statements ever made on the full surrender that God is looking for from each one of us. Joshua is a perfect example of someone who lived his entire life right in the Lord. He fully followed God all the days of his life and was completely successful in accomplishing all of the missions that God had set him out on.

Joshua is a powerful role model for all Christians to follow by the way that he lived his life for God. His story is a perfect example for all Christians on how to properly follow God and the call that He can place on your life. As a final testament to this man’s story, God saw fit to name one of the books of the Bible after him – “The Book of Joshua.”

In this first verse, Joshua says to choose this day whom you will serve. He says as far as he and his household are concerned, they will be serving the Lord. Joshua knew that he had to make a choice on how to live his life – either by serving himself and his own wants and desires – or to fully serve God the Father. As a result of making the correct decision as to who should be running his life, he became one of the most successful men in the Bible with everything that he accomplished for God.

He was the first one to lead the Israelites from the desert into the Promised Land to begin to conquer and gain possession of the specific lands that God wanted them to have. Joshua ended his life making the statement that God had not failed to give him every ounce of land that his foot had stepped on. God was able to do this for him because he was willing to fully follow God every step of the way.

The second verse then goes one step further to explain that each person has to make this choice for themselves as to who they are going to serve and follow in this life. This second verse specifically says that you cannot serve two masters – that you cannot try and serve both God and mammon. The word “mammon” means wealth and riches.

Jesus Himself makes some very radical, intense statements on this issue. He says that those who are not with Him are against Him, and that He has not come to bring peace, but division! He specifically states that He has come with a sword to set a man against his own father and a daughter against her own mother.

In other words, Jesus is drawing a major battle line in the sand. What He means by setting a son against his father or a daughter against her own mother is that each person must choose to serve and follow Him, and Him alone. And if you choose to serve and follow anyone else in this life – then you are going directly against Him. God has to be #1 in your life. He will not accept a second or third position next to your family and friends.

Here are 10 very powerful verses all showing us that we are to only serve and follow the Lord in this life.

1. “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve … But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” (Joshua 24:15)
    
2. “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other.You cannot serve both God and mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)
    
3. “If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.” (John 12:26)
    
4. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29)
    
5. “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass … Rest in the Lord, and wait patiently for Him.” (Psalm 37:4-7)
    
6. “But as for me, I trust in You, O Lord; I say, “You are my God.” My times are in Your hand …” (Psalm 31:14)
    
7. “He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad.” (Matthew 12:30)
    
8. “I came to send fire on the earth … Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division.” (Luke 12:49)
    
9. “Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.’ And ‘a man’s foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:34)
    
10. “… whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:33)

Notice that Jesus says that unless you are willing to take up your cross and follow Him – that you will not be worthy of Him! What does Jesus mean when He says to take up your cross? What does the cross represent? What happened when Jesus went to the cross? He died a maximum death. The cross thus represents a maximum death for all of us.

When you enter into this full surrender with God the Father – you are putting everything in your life to a maximum death in reference to yourself, since God will now be the One to control the direction your life will now be taking. You are putting to death all of your wants, all of your desires, and what you think you should be doing with your life since you have now turned the reigns of your life over to God the Father for Him to fully handle.

What did Jesus really do when He went to the cross that day to die for all of our sins? He fully surrendered His entire being and His entire life over to God the Father in order to complete God’s perfect will for His life down here on this earth. It was God’s perfect will that He go to the cross to die for all of us – and Jesus was willing to fully surrender every part of His being and every part of His earthly life to God the Father to complete that divine call.

This is why Jesus says in one of the above verses that unless you are willing to “forsake all” – you cannot truly become one of His disciples. Forsaking all means that you are willing to fully surrender every aspect of your life over to God the Father and go with His perfect will and plan for your life rather than your own.

Notice the specific wording in some of the above verses, all showing that the only way to live this life is under a full and complete surrender with God the Father:

1. We will serve the Lord
2. Commit your way to the Lord
3. My times are in Your Hand
4. No one can serve two masters
5. If anyone serves Me – let him follow Me
6. We ought to obey God rather than men
7. He who is not with Me is against Me

All of the above verses are definitely showing us that the only way to truly “find” our life in this life is to fully commit to serving the Lord and going with His perfect will for what He wants to do with our life. There is no other way in this life to find true, inner happiness and fulfillment other than living and operating in the center of God’s perfect will for your life. And the only way this can be done is by completely surrendering every aspect of your being and every aspect of your life over to God the Father.

2. Doing The Will of God

These next set of verses will perfectly connect to all of the ones listed above. Once you fully surrender every aspect of your being and life over God the Father for Him to fully handle – then the next thing God will do is to let you know exactly what it is He wants you to do for Him in this life. Your job now, after entering into this full surrender with Him, is to seek to do His specific will for your life.

When you really cut into this part of your walk with the Lord – what God is basically looking for from each one of us is that we take our lives one day at a time – and in each one of these days that we accomplish, to the best of our abilities, what He wants us to accomplish for that specific day. In other words, do what God wants you to do on a daily basis. Do the best and be the best that you can at the jobs and tasks that God will be calling you to do for Him on a daily basis.

In these next set of verses, you will see specific words telling us that we must seek to do the will of God the Father and not our own will – and that we are to seek to finish the work that He has laid out before us.

1. “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matthew 7:21)
    
2. Jesus said to them; “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” (John 4:34)
    
3. “I can of Myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” (John 5:30)
    
4. “Now may the God of peace who brought up our Lord Jesus from the dead, the great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you complete in every good work to do His will, working in you what is well pleasing in His sight…” (Hebrews 13:20)
    
5. “… who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began.” (2 Timothy 1:8)
    
6. “… ‘I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after My own heart, who will do all My will.” (Acts 13:22)
    
7. ‘Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.’ (1 Samuel 2:35)

All of these verses are telling us, without any other possible interpretation, that we are to seek to do the will of God for our lives, and that we are to follow God, and God alone, as to what it is we should be striving after in this life.

The verse above from Acts 13:22 is God the Father talking about King David. King David was the greatest king that Israel has ever had. Notice that God saw that David would be a man that would follow after “all” of His will – not just some or part of His will. This was one of the main keys as to why David became the greatest king that Israel has ever had.

Notice the verse from 2 Timothy 1:8 states that we have a “holy calling” from the Lord, but that this holy calling is for God’s purpose for our lives, not for our own purpose, which will now lead us right into the next topic.

3. God Has A Perfect Plan and Destiny For Your Life

Once you are willing to completely surrender your entire life over to the God the Father for Him to fully handle, then what will happen next is that God will be setting you up to follow the specific path that He will want you to follow in Him – and in that path will be your call, your purpose, your duties, and the tasks that you will now be seeking to accomplish for Him. God now has a set plan and a set future for your life.

One of the verses listed below states that “where there is no vision,” the people will perish. What I believe this verse is trying to tell us is that unless you know what your purpose is in this life, what you created for, and what it is you should be striving after – then you will aimlessly wander throughout your entire life never accomplishing anything of any real worth, and never fulfilling the divine destiny to which God has called you.

Your life will “perish” right before your very eyes because you had never sought to do God’s perfect will for your life. You thus will have forever lost and wasted the one and only chance you had to do something of any consequence in this life with what little time you had to do it in.

Here are 5 very good verses showing us that we all have a holy calling from the Lord, and that our days have been “determined and fashioned” to do something specific for the Lord.

1. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” (Proverbs 29:18)
    
2. “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” (Jeremiah 29:11)
    
3. “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.” (Psalm 139:16)
    
4. “Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You; You have appointed his limits, so that he cannot pass.” (Job 14:5)
    
5. “And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)
    
6. “For many are called, but few are chosen.” (Matthew 22:14)

Notice the verse from Psalm 139:16 is literally telling us that God knows exactly what He wants to do with our lives before we have even been formed in our mother’s womb! It says that before we have even been born, God already has our days “fashioned” out for us. The next verse from Job 14:5 says that all of our days are “determined” by the Lord.

These two powerful words – “determined and fashioned” – are both telling us that God has our entire lives perfectly planned out for us if we are willing to enter into His perfect will for our life. But the last verse, where it is stating that many are called but few are chosen, is sadly telling us that most people will never enter into God’s perfect will for their lives.

I believe this verse is not talking about our salvation, but about our calls in God. I believe this verse is showing us that God is “calling” many to come and work for Him, but most are turning Him down for various reasons. Most people would rather control their own destinies rather than turn the reigns of their life over to God the Father for Him to fully handle. As a result, they will never find what their true divine destinies would have been in the Lord in this lifetime.

4. God Will Guide Your Steps in This Life

After coming into this full surrender with the Lord where He is now in full control of your life – two things will now start to occur. God will immediately place you on the path that He will want you to follow in Him. And on that path will be your call or calls, your jobs, and exactly what He will want you to do for Him for the rest of your earthly life.

The second thing that will occur is that God will then start to guide your steps so that you can get to where you need to go to so you can fully accomplish everything that He will want you to accomplish for Him. If God is going to call you to be a great musician, a great Bible teacher, a great evangelist, a great doctor, or a great policeman – then He is also going to have to guide your steps so that you can make it to the tops of these types of mountains.

These calls will not fruit out overnight. You will have to work and sweat to make it into these types of calls or whatever it is God is calling you to do for Him. This is where the real adventure of life is really at – in the climbing to the tops of these types of mountains. So not only do you get God’s best for your life as to what your divine destiny is going to be in Him – but you will also be getting God’s guidance on a daily basis so that you can reach these kinds of specific goals.

If God is going to call you to be a great evangelist, but does not guide your steps on a daily basis on how to get there, then you will never make it on your own. You can only get to the top of your personal mountain in your call with God only if God is anointing you and leading you to be able to climb that mountain. Otherwise you will never make it on your own. Jesus specifically says that without Him we can do absolutely nothing.

Many people have decided, without consulting God first, what mountains and goals they should be striving after in this life. They then might make it halfway up their mountain, but then all of a sudden it happens – everything breaks down and they fall completely back down to the bottom of the mountain, literally losing everything they had built up in climbing halfway up that mountain.

The Bible says that unless God builds the “house” of our lives – we will labor in vain trying to do it all on our own. There are many Christians who are now living defeated and broken lives as a result of broken dreams – all because they were trying to do it all on their own without any of God’s help, guidance, or power to get them there.

Again, study these next set of verses very, very carefully. These are major, foundational verses in which to ground on in your walk with the Lord. The first verse will specifically tell you that it is the job of the Holy Spirit Himself to guide your steps in this life. The Bible tells us that the steps of a good man are“ordered” by the Lord, and that it is not in man to try and direct his own steps in this life. And that if he does try to direct his own steps in this life, that its way will eventually lead to death!

These are major power verses. Burn these major power verses into your memory bank. Get it settled once and for all in your mind and in your spirit that God will lead you and direct your steps in this life. This job now belongs to Him, and Him alone. This job does not belong to you, your best friends, or your parents!

1. “For as many are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)
    
2. “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord …” (Psalm 37:23)
    
3. “O Lord, I know the way of a man is not in himself; it is not in man who walks to direct his own steps.” (Jeremiah 10:23)
    
4. “There is a way which seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.” (Proverbs 14:12)
    
5. “A man’s steps are of the Lord. How then can a man understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24)
    
6. “A man’s heart plans his way, but the Lord directs his steps.” (Proverbs 16:9)
    
7. “Direct my steps by Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me.” (Psalm 119:133)
    
8. “Therefore be followers of God as dear children.” (Ephesians 5:1)
    
9. “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27)
    
10. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5)
     
11. “The Lord is my Shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.” (Psalm 23:1)
     
12. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel: “I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you by the way you should go.” (Isaiah 48:17)
     
13. “Show me Your ways, O Lord; teach me Your paths. Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation …” (Psalm 25:4)
     
14. “I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.” (Psalm 32:8)
     
15. “Teach me Your way, O Lord, and lead me in a smooth path, because of my enemies.” (Psalm 27:11)
     
16. “The Lord will guide you continually …” (Isaiah 58:11)
     
17. “For this is God, our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even to death.” (Psalm 48:14)
     
18. “Moreover You led them by day with a cloudy pillar, and by night with a pillar of fire, to give them light on the road which they should travel.” (Nehemiah 9:12)
     
19. “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way …” (Isaiah 53:6)
     
20. “Therefore you shall be careful to do as the Lord Your God has commanded you; You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” (Deuteronomy 5:32)

Notice the last verse is telling us that once we embark on the path that God now has us set up on, that we are not to change course by attempting to turn to the right or to the left. The Bible says that the road God will now place us on is a “straight” and narrow road. There is no turning back once you enter in on the path of God’s perfect will for your life.

In the second last verse, it specifically tells us that if we seek to go after our own way in this life, that we are looked upon by God as sheep that have gone astray.

All of these verses are extremely powerful. Notice the specific words that I will now number and bold for you, once again to hammer home the point that it is God’s job to fully guide your steps in this life.

1. Led by the Spirit of God
2. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord
3. It is not in man who walks to direct his own steps
4. A way which seems right to a man … its end is the way of death
5. A man’s steps are of the Lord
6. The Lord directs his steps
7. Direct my steps by Your Word
8. Be followers of God as dear children
9. My sheep hear My voice … and they follow Me
10. He shall direct your paths
11. He leads me by still waters
12. He leads me in the paths of righteousness
13. Leads you by the way you should go
14. Lead me in your truth
15. I will guide you with My eye
16. Lead me in a smooth path
17. The Lord will guide you continually
18. He will be our guide even to death
19. Led them by day … to give them light on the road which they should travel

When you read all of these key phrases one after the other, there is no question that the only way for each and every Christian to live this earthly life is under a full and complete surrender with God the Father – with God leading your life every step of the way on a daily basis through the Holy Spirit. There is no other way in which to live this life. I do not think God the Father could have made it any more clearer than by the way that He has worded all of the above Scripture verses.

5. The Consequences of Not Fully Following God

One of the most dramatic examples of one group of people who followed God “fully” and another group who did not were the Israelites who were tested by God the Father in the desert after being rescued from the Egyptians in the story of Moses.

Near the beginning of the 40 year wilderness experience, they were all getting ready to go into the Promised Land to reap their big reward in God. However, before they went in, they sent in twelve spies to see what their enemies looked like and what they would encounter once they crossed over to possess the land from some of these evil people. When the spies came back, ten of them came back with a bad report. They said the enemies were too big and that their kingdoms were too well fortified.

Mind you, the Israelites had just seen one of the greatest displays of God’s power that the world has ever seen when He threw 10 whopper plagues at the Pharaoh to set them free. Yet, just as they were getting ready to cross over into their Promised Land, they started questioning and doubting that God could take these enemies out for them, even though God had just got done delivering them from an entire Egyptian nation several years earlier!

When God sees their lack of faith and belief in Him that He could conquer these lands for them, He threw up His hands and said that was going to be it. He pronounced a severe judgment on them, telling them that all of the men 20 years of age and older would not enter into the Promised Land due to their lack of faith and belief in Him to be able to accomplish this mission for them, and because they had not “wholly followed God.”

However, God then states that He will allow Joshua, Caleb and all the men under 20 years of age to go in there to conquer and possess the land – all because they had a “different spirit” in them and because they would be willing to “follow God fully.”

This story is a perfect poster story for one group of people who were willing to follow God fully, and another group of people who were not. As a result, the one group that was willing to follow God fully got to go into the Promised Land, while the other group did not! Those are the consequences of not having enough faith and belief in God the Father and not being willing to fully follow Him in this life.

I wonder how many Christians have missed out on entering into their Promised Land this side of heaven – all because they failed to fully follow God and take the path that He wanted them to take in this life!

Here are two very powerful Scripture verses describing the above scenario.

1. “Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, ‘except Caleb … and Joshua … for they have wholly followed the Lord.’“So the Lord’s anger was aroused against Israel, and He made them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was gone.” (Numbers 32:11)
    
2. Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word … because all these men who have seen My glory and the signs which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have put Me to the test now these ten times, and have not heeded My voice, they certainly shall not see the land of which I swore to their fathers, nor shall any of those who rejected Me see it. But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it.” (Numbers 14:20)

These two verses are giving all Christians major revelation on what God is looking for from each one of us. He is looking for those who will “follow Him fully.” Being willing to fully follow God means that you are willing to enter into this full surrender with Him where He will be the One who will fully guide your steps in this life – not you or anyone else.

Here are two more good verses showing the negative consequences of not being willing to fully follow God in this life.

1. “Woe to the rebellious children,” says the Lord, “Who take counsel, but not of Me, and who devise plans, but not of My Spirit, that they may add sin to sin; who walk to go down to Egypt, and have not asked My advice, to strengthen themselves in the strength of Pharaoh, and to trust in the shadow of Egypt! Therefore the strength of Pharaoh shall be your shame, and trust in the shadow of Egypt shall be your humiliation.” (Isaiah 30:1)
    
2. “If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured by the sword;” for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. (Isaiah 1:19)

All four of these verses are as clear as they can be. Choose God and His divine path for your life, and you will find true, inner happiness and fulfillment in this life. Choose your way or anyone else’s way – and you will reap absolutely nothing in this life as far as God is concerned when it is all finally said and done.

6. God Will Reward Those Who Will Fully Follow Him

For those who are willing to fully follow God in this life and operate in this full surrender with Him, there are some incredible blessings and rewards that God can bestow upon you – not only in this life, but also in the next life as well. Here are 6 very good verses all stating that Jesus will be rewarding us for the good works that we are willing to do for Him while down here on this earth.

Again, these good works will not get us into heaven, as the Bible is very clear that it is only by grace through faith in Jesus that we can receive eternal salvation. But God and Jesus will be rewarding us to some degree for the works that we are willing to do for Them down here.

The Bible does not tell us exactly what these rewards will be – but if we are dealing with a God of maximum intensity, then you can bet your bottom dollar that these rewards are going to be something very special and will definitely surpass any rewards that we can receive down here on this earth.

Notice in 5 out of the 6 verses that it says that God and Jesus will be specifically rewarding us for our “works and labor” that we are willing to do for Them.

1. “For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? For the Son of Man … will reward each according to his works.” (Matthew 16:26)
    
2. “… and each one will receive his own reward according to his own labor.” (1 Corinthians 3:8)
    
3. “And behold, I am coming quickly, and My reward is with Me, to give to every one according to his work.” (Revelation 22:12)
    
4. “… I am He who searches the minds and hearts. And I will give to each one according to your works.” (Revelation 2:23)
    
5. “For the Son of Man will come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and then He will reward each according to his works.” (Matthew 16:27)
    
6. “And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit everlasting life.” (Matthew 19:29)

Depending on what God may call you to do for Him in this life – some may be forced to leave family, friends, cities, states, or possibly even their own countries. If they receive this kind of extra heavy call from the Lord, notice the last verse says that God will be rewarding those who are willing to take on these types of extra-heavy calls with a hundredfold type reward and blessing.

Again, the Bible does not tell us what this hundredfold reward and blessing may be. But my guess is that it will be one, big, whopper, intense reward due to the extreme sacrifices these people will be making in order to accomplish the divine missions that God will send them out on.

Bottom line – any earthly wealth by way of money, possessions, and fame that is acquired by doing our own thing and calling all of our own shots in this life will all completely disappear the second we physically die and depart from this life. We will take absolutely nothing that we have earned, made, or acquired into the next life.

Jesus Himself could not have said it any better when He says in one of the above verses that what good will it do a man if he gains the whole world in the area of material wealth and possessions, but loses his own soul in the process of acquiring all of that wealth. It will have all been for naught when that person comes to the end of his life, and he is forced to face up to his own mortality and comes to the full realization that all of the earthly wealth that he was able to acquire and accumulate will all die and perish right along side his physical body when he finally dies and leaves this world. None of that earthly wealth will be passing over with him into the next life.

Many wealthy people do not come to this revelation until they are literally on their deathbeds. They then all of a sudden “see” that they had their priorities all wrong in this life, and they had chased after all the wrong things in this life.

The Bible makes it very clear that if we choose to do our own thing and follow our own way in this life – that our way will eventually lead to death. For those who are not Christians, it will mean the death of their souls by not making it into heaven. For those who are Christians, it will mean the loss of being able to receive some really big intense rewards from God once we enter into heaven to be with Him for all of eternity.

7. Everyone Will Face God For A Personal Judgment

These next 3 verses will show us that each and everyone of us will have to face the Lord for a personal judgment when we die and cross over. These verses will tell us that everything that we have done in this life, all the good with all of the bad, will come before the Lord for judgment and scrutiny. There will not be one thing that will be hidden from Him, no matter how secret we may think it is this side of heaven.

The last verse I will list from Ecclesiastes states that “every work” that we have done will be brought before God for judgment. There are only two types of work that God will be judging – those that are done in the perfect will of God for our lives, and those that are done operating out of own wills.

Which works do you think will be the more highly rewarded and the more approved of by our Lord once we cross over to meet Him face to face – the works that were done in His name, for His sake, and in His perfect will for our lives – or the works that were done solely for ourselves and for our own self-gratification?

These next 3 verses are a very sobering reminder of what is going to happen to each and everyone of us when we die and cross over. This is why you must get all of your priorities set straight and live your life for what will be recorded up in heaven, not for what will perish down here the minute you die and cross over.

1. “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every work into judgment, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil.” (Ecclesiastes 12:13)
    
2. “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”(Hebrews 4:13)
    
3. “For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.” (2 Corinthians 5:10)

Knowing what all of these Scripture verses are trying to tell you – who do you want to live your life for? Yourself and your own goals and aspirations, knowing full well that none of your fleshly accomplishments will be highly rewarded by God once you enter into heaven. Or do you want to live for God and His call for your life – knowing that everything that you do for Him operating under His perfect will for your life will be very highly rewarded once you enter into heaven?

Each Christian must make their own personal choice on this matter. You must choose this day whom you will serve – yourself or God. There is no middle area or neutral grounds on this issue. This is an all-or-nothing proclamation being made by the Lord to each and every born-again believer. After you get saved, this will now become the biggest and most important decision that you will ever make in this life.

8. How to Enter Into a Full Surrender With the Lord

Before you really enter into this full surrender with the Lord, you really need to think about this and really chew on the ramifications that making this full surrender will entail. This will be the most life-altering decision that you will ever make in this life. If you turn your life over to the Lord for Him to completely handle – your life will take a completely different course as versus the one your life would take if you would decide to control your own destiny and call all of your own shots.

Once you make this full surrender with the Lord, there is no turning back, no matter what hell, life, or the devil may try and throw your way. You can obviously always bail out on God anytime you want to, as He will never force you to stay loyal to Him and fully serve Him. You are free to go anytime you want.

However, once you have the knowledge of what this full surrender is really all about, and then you decide to embark on this adventure with God, and you then you bail out on Him 10-20 years down the road – God is going to judge you much more severely when you die and cross over to face Him for your own personal judgment as versus another Christian who really did not have much knowledge on this part of the walk with Him. To whom much is given, much more will be expected!

Jesus Himself has stated that you are better off never having known the truth than having known the truth, and then turning back to your old ways. Once you receive knowledge from God as to what He wants you to do with your life and how He wants you to handle it – then He will expect you to do something with that knowledge and implement it into your life. The Bible says that faith without any type of works will be dead.

Even though God will always let you bail out on Him anytime you want to in your walk with Him, you must make this decision for yourself as to who you will choose to serve and follow in this life – yourself or God.

If you decide to fully serve God and fully surrender your entire life over to Him, then you must set your face like flint, draw your battle line in the sand, and march forward determined that you will stay true, loyal, and faithful to God for the rest of your earthly life – no matter what the cost – and no matter what life, hell, or the devil tries to throw your way to try and knock you off course. This is a full surrender to the death!

That is why I say there is no turning back once you decide to make this decision to fully surrender your entire life to the Lord and follow His perfect will for your life. You will be held accountable for the knowledge that you now have about this part of your walk with God the Father.

If after really thinking and meditating on all of this, you decide that there is no other way to live your life, and that you truly want to enter into this full surrender with the Lord – it now becomes very easy to do. You do not have to get all worked up into any type of major prevailing or travailing. This is simply a conscience decision that you will make with your own intellect operating out of your own free will with the Lord.

Here are two short, simple prayers getting straight to the point with God on this decision. The first prayer will be the one that you will do to make the initial full surrender with Him. The second prayer will be the one that you should do at least once or twice a year for the rest of your life so you can let God know that you mean serious business with Him as to who should be running your life – and that you will continue to let Him have the reigns of your life to the day you literally die.

One last thing. When I say making a full surrender to God, I mean making a full and complete surrender. You can hold nothing back. Some Christians only surrender certain parts of their life to God, but not other parts. If you do not make a full and complete surrender of everything in your life to God the Father – then you will partially handcuff Him in being able to work full force in your life.

To make sure that you fully surrender everything over to the Lord, you must surrender 4 specific things over to Him. The apostle Paul says we have 3 parts to our beings – body, soul, and spirit. He then says we are to have all three parts of our being “completely sanctified“ in the Lord. The only way that can happen is if we are willing to completely surrender all three parts of our being to the Lord for Him to sanctify.

Here is the verse from Paul that is specifically telling us to do this:

“Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thessalonians 5:23)

In addition to these three parts of our being, God now wants one more thing from us – and that is our “entire life.” And when I say entire life, I mean everything in our life – past, present, and future.

Some Christians may surrender their job lives over to God, but not the choice as to who they should marry. They then marry the wrong person as a result of making this decision all on their own, and as a result, they end up throwing a monkey wrench into the course that their life had been taking in the Lord, and they sometimes are completely knocked off the course that God had initially set them up on.

This is why the Bible tells us that God has to be the One to build the house that you are attempting to build in this life. One wrong move on your part could cause the whole house to completely unravel and fall apart. A chain is only as strong as each of the individual links are. One weak or broken link can cause the whole chain to completely unravel!

Marrying the wrong person or taking the wrong job could cause you to lose valuable years on the mountain you are attempting to climb in God due to having to deal with the serious consequences of making that wrong choice. This is why God has to be in total control over every area of your life – not just some or part of it.

In these two prayers, you will see I have you surrendering your body, your soul, your spirit, and your “entire life” over to God the Father. When you tell God you are willing to surrender your entire life over to Him – He will take you very serious and assume that you literally mean everything and anything in your life – no holds barred!

Here are the two specific prayers. Obviously feel free to add any of your own personal words when making this commitment to Him. But the specific wording in these two prayers, if truly done from your heart, will break you into a realm with God that will completely change the course of your entire life.

1. Making the Initial Full Surrender

“Father,

In the name of Jesus, I am now willing to place my body, my soul, my spirit, and my entire life into Your hands. I now ask that You place me into Your perfect will for my life. From this moment on, I will choose to stay fully surrendered to You all the days of my life, and will allow You to lead and direct my life in the direction that You will want it to go in.

Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus.
Thank You Holy Spirit.”

2. To Stay in the Full Surrender

“Father,

In the name of Jesus, I continue to place my body, my soul, my spirit, and my entire life into Your hands. I am choosing to stay fully surrendered to You all the days of my life, and I ask that You continue to keep me in Your perfect will for my life.

Thank You Father.
Thank You Jesus.
Thank You Holy Spirit.”

If you are willing to make this full surrender to the Lord, He will then start to take full control of your life and steer it in the direction that He will now want it to go in. You have now just stepped from the dugout out onto the real playing field of life – where God can now use you to complete His divine purpose for your life.

CONCLUSION

I will now leave you with three very profound verses from Scripture nicely summarizing the above argument as to why each and every Christian needs to commit to making this full surrender with the Lord. The first one will be on the verse that unless God is the One to build the house of your life, then you will be laboring in vain with the house you are trying to build all on your own efforts and wisdom.

The second verse is from Jesus where He states that unless you build your house on Him, the Rock, then it will eventually fall completely apart as soon as any storm clouds start to come against it.

The third verse sums up this whole argument when God says that He is giving each person a real, big choice to make in this life. They can either choose to receive true life by choosing to follow God and all of His ways for their lives – or they can choose a life of death and cursing by following their own ways, the ways of someone else, or the ways of this world.

The key words in this last verse is that you “cling to Him,” that you “obey His voice,” and that you “love the Lord your God.” Clinging to God means that you are walking very close with Him in this full surrender. He leads, we follow – just like the sheep follow the shepherd. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our Shepherd and as such, it is our job to fully follow Him in this life.

These three verses perfectly capture the big picture as to what is really most important in this life and who we should really be living this life for. Here they are:

1. “Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it.” (Psalm 127:1)
    
2. “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock; and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. Now everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, and it fell. And great was its fall.” (Matthew 7:24)
    
3. “… I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live, that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days …” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

When you put all of the Bible verses together on this subject as I have done in the above captions – I feel the evidence is absolutely overwhelming that God the Father wants this full and complete surrender from each and every one of us so that He is fully free to guide our lives in the directions that He will want to take them in.

However, I also feel that the Lord has conveyed to me that this decision is one of the hardest for many of His people to make. There is something inside each one of us that wants to control our own destinies, call all of our own shots, decide who we are going to marry, and decide what goals and aspirations we should be striving for in this life.

This natural desire for independence inside of each one of us is actually good, as it helps to prevent us from falling into human and demonic slavery. Our country is a perfect example of that spirit in operation when we gained our full independence. However, that same spirit has no place in our personal relationship with God.

The Bible specifically says that all men and all women have sinned and fall way short of the glory of God and that without Jesus, we can do absolutely nothing of any consequence. We are imperfect in every way, shape, and form. We are powerless within our own beings to accomplish anything of any real worth with the Lord. Only God is all-powerful and all-knowing, and He is the only One who can anoint us with His divine power, and then guide us every step of the way to accomplish anything meaningful in this life before we die and cross over to be with Him for all eternity.

Many Christians feel that if they make this full surrender with the Lord, that they will lose all of their freedom and independence – even if it is God Almighty Himself they are serving. However, the Bible tells us that there is liberty and freedom where the Spirit of the Lord is at. In other words, you will have much more freedom, liberty, and independence by serving and following God than you would if you serve yourself or someone else.

The apostle Paul could not have said it any better when he says that he is a servant to all – but a slave to none! Here are two very good verses from the apostle Paul giving us this powerful piece of revelation:

1. “For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more.” (1 Corinthians 9:19)
    
2. “You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each one remain with God in that calling in which he was called.” (1 Corinthians 7:23)

The way Paul has this last verse worded – you are a slave if you are not serving God and operating in the specific call that He has set up for your life.

By being willing to fully surrender your entire life to the Lord – not only will you find what you were created to be and exactly what your true, divine destiny is going to be in this life – but you will also find a new sense of freedom and liberty that you never knew could exist in a world where many people are constantly trying to control one another to one degree or another.

God highly respects your free will and He will work very closely with you as He starts to guide your steps on an everyday basis. You can totally trust Him to perfectly handle you and your life.

The choice is now yours for those of you who have not made this full surrender with the Lord. You must now choose this day whom you will serve. You cannot try to live in both of these realms.

Per the two articles I did titled “The Unjust Steward” and “Vision – the Unjust Steward” – many of God’s people have been straddling the fence post with God on this issue for a long time and as a result, they have been living in a lot of torment and turmoil over a good course of their life, never finding that true peace that passes all understanding. This true peace can only be found in the center of God’s perfect will for your life – and the only way to enter into that bubble is by being willing to surrender your body, your soul, your spirit, and your entire life into the hands of God the Father. There is no other way!

As I said at the top of this article, this decision as to who you will follow and serve in this life will be the most important, life-altering decision that you will ever make in this life after you have become saved and born again. God has made it as clear as He possibly could in the way that He has worded all of the above Scripture verses.

No matter what age you are, it is never too late to come into this full surrender with God. Look at what happened in the story of Moses. He was 80 years old when God called him out to rescue the Jewish people. This one man helped to change the entire course of Jewish history because He was willing to enter into God’s perfect will and plan for his life and follow it all the way through until the mission was fully accomplished – and this was all done over the last 40 years of his life, from the age of 80 till the age of 120.

If you have been running your own life over all of these years with no real fruit, with no real sense of accomplishment or worth – try giving the Lord a chance. He may just blow you away with what He may have in store for you if you are willing to come into this full surrender with Him.

Coypright material used with permission of Mike Bradley - Bible Knowledge Ministries