Tuesday: I Must Have Freedom to Surrender
WEEK 7
TUESDAY
I MUST HAVE FREEDOM TO SURRENDER
Acts 19:1-6
The fact must be emphasized further that we must pass through the stage of independence to get to that of interdependence.
Some have wondered why the Holy Spirit is a believer’s gift, given subsequent to conversion. “Jesus said this concerning the Spirit. Those who believed in him would soon receive the Spirit” (John 7:39). Why a gift for believers? Why not when we come in repentance and faith seeking forgiveness? Well, no doubt there is a measure of the Spirit given in conversion: “no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except [in] the Holy Spirit” (1 Cor 12:3). But the coming of the Holy Spirit into believers is not merely in the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is in you—permanently—and shall abide with you forever!
Before Pentecost the Holy Spirit was with them, but after Pentecost the Spirit was in them: “The Spirit of truth . . . dwells with you, and will be in you” (John 14:17 RSV). Before Pentecost they possessed the Spirit, but after Pentecost the Spirit possessed them. They were using God—calling God in to help them out—but after Pentecost, God was using them.
How did this change happen? They became sufficiently independent to offer themselves sovereignly in surrender to God. When we come to conversion, we are in the stage of dependence; we are children, not sufficiently mature to make sovereign decisions. We can only take forgiveness; we are in the receiving stage. But when we come to the stage of adolescence, of independence, then we are met by an offer: If we will give our all, God will give his all. If we will give ourselves, God will give himself. This is a mature offer to persons sufficiently mature to accept it. Hence it has to be a post-conversion experience.
Full self-surrender can be made only when the self is sufficiently independent to surrender to Another. It is the free act of free persons. Penitent sinners are too bound to give themselves freely to Another. They can only ask for freedom and status.
The most sovereign act of an independent person is to give the one thing we own—ourselves. Then God gives the most precious thing God owns—himself. Then we are filled with the Holy Spirit.
O God, you have given me freedom; now I choose your bondage forever. I give you back the life I owe. And now I take within what I’ve always wanted—you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My freedom I use to do its freest act, to surrender to you, my Lord.