No Eagle Flies by Fighting the Wind

I can't seem to find a rhythm to write these days with my need to care for Jettie, but there is a pause today that allows me to write something that touches the very core of my understanding of life with the Lord Jesus: the place of surrendered abandonment to Him and His purposes.

I have been thinking much about surrender of late--the most recent time came the other morning when I realized how little I even thought about living surrendered just a few years ago. Because of that a lot of garbage came into my life and a lot of pain was inflicted on others, methinks. But because Father has told me never to live in regret, I don't dwell on things like that but instead allow them to propel me into the present moment. And when that happened the other morning I found my heart very much wanting to yield and yield an yield to my loving Abba. And that led me to think about others who have written about surrender and the absolute necessity of it (how else can one be led by the Spirit if s/he isn't listening and surrendering to the nudges of the Spirit?).

I thought of Andrew Murray's story of how he came to write about his incredible book, Absolute Surrender. "Absolute surrender. Let me tell you where I got those words. I used them myself often...but once in Scotland, I was in a company where we were talking about the condition of Christ's Church, and what the great need of the Church and of believers is. There was in our company a godly Christian worker who has much to do in training others workers for Christ, and I asked him what he would say was the great need of the Church--the message that ought to be taught. He answered very quietly and simply and determinedly: 'Absolute surrender to God is the one thing.' Andrew Murray then goes on to tell how this dear saint described that if followers of Jesus are sound on that point, everything else follows, but if not, they would often abandon their work in the Kingdom.

Then I thought about a young Russian whom Smith Wigglesworth describes in one of his messages. "As the wonderful manifestations of the power of God were seen, the people pressed upon him to know the secret of his power, but he felt it was so secret between him and God that he should not tell it. But they pressed him so much that he said to them: 'First God called me, and His presence was so precious that I said to God at every call I would obey Him, and I yielded and yielded, until I realized that I was simply clothed with another power altogether, and I realized that God took me, tongue, thoughts, and everything and I was not myself but it was Christ working through me." (The Wigglesworth Standard by Peter Madden, pp. 60-61).

Then the lights come on and I weep and say, "Ah, Father, we are such an unsurrendered people! No wonder your people today are so lost, so broken, so similar to the culture around them! Even those who think they are 'serving God' often do so from their own initiative and strength. And many don’t even think for a moment about yielding everything, all the time. (Not in slavery, but in childlike conversation with you as Abba). Ah, Father…no wonder we are so powerless! How can you entrust us with your power and glory?"

And now my heart cries out, "But let it not be so any longer, O Most High! Woo us with your love into abandonment to your will! Blind us with your brightness, stun us with your goodness, purge us with your holiness, but don't leave us in our stubborn state!"

I close with a short quote from my journal just a few days ago. It begins what I sensed Father saying to me (in blue text followed by my words in dark red).

"Yes, little one, when men yield and yield to the adversary, he takes them over—possesses them—by force. How much more then will I possess those who yield and yield to my gentleness and power? Yielding is the key to fullness, and I am taking you there. Don’t dwell on that which is past except as I lead you, little one. What I am doing, what I always do, is new and fresh. Yield to me, child, but don’t despair as you learn this, I will make your yes a true yes! Fly on My Wind! Eagle’s fly by yielding, by positioning themselves to catch every subtle nuance of the Wind!”

Father, I am realizing as I sit and ponder this yielded life that the old prophet had in The Quest for the King, has much to say to me. He is described as “possessed by Another’s holiness” and as one who was sustained by Power beyond himself. That is evidently how Smith Wigglesworth lived, isn’t it? And it’s where you are taking me. Oh, Lord God! Keep leading me there, I pray! As the Hillsong music says, “I give my life to the Potter’s hand.” Ah, Father, no eagle flies by fighting the wind!

Not sure what you think of all this, but this is what is on my heart these days...

Leaning into absolute surrender.

Tom, one of Abba's children