Jeff Adams

My thanks to David for his transparent and honest comments and question to my last post. You can scroll back or see it here along with his comment. His remarks, though, are so poignant and relevant that I don’t want you to miss them. They represent what many of us think, but don’t find the courage to say:

I have always loved this story of Samuel’s beginning but have continually struggled with the practicality of “surrendering all”. The act of telling God that I give him all seems to have become a ritual that is performed repeatedly in place of the real action of living a life surrendered to Him. My question is how do we know when we have truly surrendered all and are living a life that He is directing? It seems impossible…

Many questions are so good that we spend our lives answering them at different levels. This is one such question. Allow me to set out a principle to serve as a starting place and then throw out a few random thoughts about what a life of surrender might look like. Then, I’d love for some of you to jump in with your own thoughts about what a surrendered life looks like and how we know we are living a life that God is directing.

Here’s the principle. Living a life surrendered to God begins with a decision and is followed by a process. Here is where I think we often mess up. We are great to make the decision. We genuinely want a surrendered life. But, we fail to follow through with the daily walk with God that is necessary. Being a disciple of Jesus is a lifelong process. We can reach maturity, yet we never outgrow our need to grow.

It seems impossible … Yes! In fact it is impossible. This is whole point. A surrendered life means more than just “I give up.” Actually, I prefer the term “transformed life,” because it puts the emphasis where it needs to be — not what we have done to surrender, but upon God’s supernatural power to transform us. Living a life that God is directing is a life where we are constantly morphing from the natural to the supernatural sphere and vice versa. We are to be learning to live the supernatural life in the realm of the natural to the degree it becomes all but impossible to discern the difference between the two.

Jesus had just said it was easier for a camel to go through the eye of needle than for a rich man to get to heaven. But, as his disciples were reeling about the implications of such a statement, Jesus quickly added the following truth.

And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Mark 10:27

What might such a transformed life look like? If we don’t know what it might look life, we won’t know whether we are really living such a life or not. Every one of us is a unique creature of God. What should a transformed life look like? Ultimately, we will look exactly like God intended for us to look, and we will be as different as snowflakes. However, there are certainly commonalities indicated in the Bible. Here are three of them that occur to me in no particular order, and this list is far from complete.

An authentic daily walk with God. We are in scripture daily, constantly interacting prayerfully with God as we struggle to apply scriptural truth to real time situations in our lives. We are consulting with God as we anticipate our day, talking with him to make course adjustments as we move through our day and making decisions based on biblical truth, not feeling. We are not just running to God when we have a crisis or problem, but allowing him to set the course and the agenda. We never make decisions without consulting him. Our time with God is not some legalistic duty about which we fear dire consequences if we fail to comply. Rather spending time with God in prayer and his word is as natural and necessary as breathing.

Fruit of the Spirit. Paul speaks of this to the Galatians. The word is fruit, singular, not plural. It’s either there or not. There is always room for growth, but the characteristics Paul lists are there in the form of constantly growing seedlings, sprouting from the common branch of being filled with and controlled by the Spirit of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23

Constant growth and readjustment to failure, learned truth and circumstances. It is so important that we have realistic expectations. Some grow discouraged because they are expecting “perfection” in the sense of flawless. In the Bible perfection only means maturity or being equipped. There is always room for growth, and growth often comes in response to failure. We must not fear failure as disciples of Christ, but embrace it as the opportunity to grow. Here is Paul’s take on this.

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Phippians 3:13-14

I can already think of things that need to be on this list, but it’s late and I need to get some sleep. Do these three characteristics make sense? Help us out. What are some other characteristics of a transformed life that we should look for?