Give yourselves to God (2)

When listening to the words of some Christian songs and hymns we sing, one would think we pretty much understand what it means to give it all to God. 'I surrender all', we sing enthusiastically. But is it truly so easy, so simple to give it all? To surrender all and offer ourselves to God? Giving ourselves to God ... a great subject for a blog series.

The scripture I am using as a basis for this series can be found in Romans 6:12-14, Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Offer ourselves, giving ourselves to God, means surrendering our whole being to Him. According to the Bible that is spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Let us take a closer look at the human spirit. The Bible talks about the Spirit (with a capital S) and the spirit (with a regular s). The Spirit with a capital S is the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God. The spirit with a small s is the human spirit (unless the Bible specifically talks about bad or unclean spirits). A wonderful example of communication between God's Spirit and our spirit can be found in Romans 8:16 (GNT), God's Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God's children.

God's Spirit testifies with our spirit that we are God's children. Do you experience this in your daily life? Basically, this is a simple description of our rebirth, the second birth. God's Spirit melting together with our spirit, becoming a new creation. Anyone who is joined to Christ is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17). Jesus says, without using difficult words, in John 3:7 I tell you that you must all be born again. One time of human parents, one time of the Spirit (see also 1 Peter 1:23 and 1 Corinthians 6:17, But he who joins himself to the Lord becomes spiritually one with him).

This is the most important moment of surrender in the life of a human being on earth: laying our life down, letting go, giving it back to God and receiving the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 1:13 is written that the Holy Spirit comes and lives with us when we believe that Jesus Christ came to save this world, And you also became God's people when you heard the true message, the Good News that brought you salvation. You believed in Christ, and God put his stamp of ownership on you by giving you the Holy Spirit he had promised.

We often want to keep our life, our way of thinking and acting. We want to do our own thing. But whoever wants to keep his/her life, will loose it. Our human spirit (life, breath) is dead for communication with God (result of sin) until His Spirit comes and lives in us (result of repentance) and begins to enlighten us (result of grace). Relationship restored as God intended it. We can not experience this by becoming members of a church, by singing the right songs, getting a master's degree in theology or by growing up in a Christian family. It becomes possible when the Holy Spirit makes His home in us, which the Bible calls 'being born again'. Romans 8:9 says, But you do not live as your human nature tells you to; instead, you live as the Spirit tells you to—if, in fact, God's Spirit lives in you. Whoever does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Do you truly want to belong to Christ and no longer be a name-Christian? Lay down your life, give it all up, admit that you are a sinner and in need of God... and ask Him for the Holy Spirit.... How much more, then, will the Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! (Luke 11:13)