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Living a Self Surrendered and Harmonious Kingdom Lifestyle

“I then, the prisoner in the Lord, make this request from my heart, that you will see that your behaviour is a credit to the position which God’s purpose has given you, With all gentle and quiet behaviour, taking whatever comes, putting up with one another in love; Taking care to keep the harmony of the Spirit in the yoke of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, even as you have been marked out by God in the one hope of his purpose for you; One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is over all, and through all, and in all. But to every one of us has grace been given in the measure of the giving of Christ.”   Eph 4:1- 7(BBE)  

The purpose of this study is to discover how God has prepared the way for His children to live in harmony with Him.

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This may turn out to be the most exciting but also most challenging study you have ever undertaken!

THE DIVINE INVITATION

“Seek first His kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well” (Matt. 6:33). All these things will be added, all your needs will be met, if you make the kingdom of God your supreme loyalty. Not only will your needs be met, but when you belong to the kingdom of God you have the vastness of this kingdom.

1.       But suppose you do not seek first the kingdom of God, but make yourself god, seeking first the kingdom of self?   Then all these things will be taken away from you, for even if you get them they soon end by owning you instead of you own them.

Things get in the saddle like an untamed donkey and ride you to your ruin. (Like debt, pride etc)

  1. The Kingdom is an unconditional offer; we receive it or we suffer in every aspect of our lives. Science has learned this secret, hence its achievements.

Huxley, a scientist once wrote to another scientist: “Science seems to me to teach in the most unmistakable    terms the Christian conception of entire surrender to the will of God. Science says; “Sit down before the facts of nature as a little child, be prepared to give up every predetermined idea, be willing to follow to whatever end the laws of nature will lead you or you will achieve nothing.”

To the degree that science is humble and receptive (knows that it is poor enough to receive), to that degree the facts of the kingdom (ie nature) is theirs.

When we come to the greatest facts ever revealed to man –the Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Personhow do we get into this realm of ultimate facts?   When I surrender my inmost self to the Divine Self, my all for His all then the Kingdom belongs to me.

Let me repeat it again for it sounds too good to be true: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matt.5;3  

  1. If Jesus had said: “Then you belong to the kingdom of Heaven” –that would have been wonderful. Yet it is incredible that He said that the kingdom of Heaven belongs to youAll its ‘unshakable-ness’, all its ‘forgiveness’, all its at – ‘homeness’, all its freedom, all its joy belongs to you.  This can’t just be classified under good views–this is the Good News–not a philosophy, but an undisputable fact!

THE KINGDOM OF GOD; IS IT A DEMAND OR AN OFFER?   

The least in this Kingdom of receptivity is greater than the greatest in the kingdoms of this world, past and present.

I tell you the truth: Among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it. Matt.11.11, 12 (NIV)

  1. We need to know whether the Gospel of the kingdom we present is a demand or an offer?  Searching through the Scriptures we will come to the conclusion that it is first of all an offer. This offer turns out to be nothing less than the Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person.(Heb. 12 ; 28, 13;8.)

This gives us the clue as to why the least in the kingdom of God is greater than the greatest under the previous covenant. In the pre-kingdom period John the Baptist represented the gospel as a demand; don’t do this, do that, is a demand on the entire personality“What should we do then?” the crowd asked.  John answered, “The man with two tunics should share with him who has none, and the one who has food should do the same.”  Tax collectors also came to be baptized. “Teacher,” they asked, “what should we do?”   “Don’t collect any more than you are required to,” he told them. Then some soldiers asked him, “And what should we do?” He replied, “Don’t extort money and don’t accuse people falsely—be content with your pay.” Luke.3;10-14

  1. The kingdom of God is “The Gospel as a love offer”- it is not a demand on man, but it requires the surrender of his will. It is the coinciding of the will of God with our surrendered will. Now we are free to accept the Kingdom and thus make all its resources our own.
  1. We have to learn the secret of our spiritual life: Surrender your will ( or your way of doing things) to His will (to His way of doing things) and you will be on a kingdom-course with all the resources of  this Kingdom behind you.

(I was fathered as a child of God with one understanding securely implanted into my understanding. That is that the Kingdom, is God’s way of doing things and the thing that contends is primarily my own way of doing things. My own will and this is where the change has to progressively come through the renewing of my mind by the word of God toward understanding His way of doing things. I was taught my mind had to become the student and the Holy Spirit the Teacher and this remains my focus in order to grow in the way of the Lord – His Kingdom)

  1. A Hindu man in India once said: “John the Baptist tried to make people better; Jesus made them different.”

Try to make people better and you get reformation.

Jesus made them different; this is regeneration.

There is a world of difference between these two words – demand (reformation) and offer (regeneration).

  • The one (reformation) ends in tense stressed nerves whilst the other (regeneration) ends in assurance, allowing you to face anything with peace and joy.  It is not merely a difference in degree; it is a difference in kind / type. One (reformation) produced the tense, striving-hard-to-be-good type, sincere but uncertain and occupied with, “Have I done enough?” These people always live a question mark.
  • The other (regeneration) produced the receptive, relaxed, humble but certain lifestyle.  They are not concerned about what they have done, but about what Christ has done for them and in them, assured, not living with a question mark, but with all the question marks turned into exclamation marks, regenerated and rejoicing.

A letter is more than mere paper and ink it contains a message. In the same way a life of faith in the Kingdom is more than merely being saved and doing good works.

It implies being sensitive to the Holy Spirit and obediently and carefully doing the will of God, as it is revealed to you. It also implies constantly seeking to know the will of God by meditation, prayer and studying of the Word.

  CONVERSION TO THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AN UNLIMITED EXCHANGE.

HOW ARE WE TO ENTER INTO THE KINGDOM?

“In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no-one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” (Or born from above)   (John 3; 3). Or, “be converted” (Matt. 18:3).

The first passage says, “cannot see,” the other “shall not enter“–both very decisive and decisively spoken. “In truth, in very truth I tell you,” That was no chance remark–it was a life conviction.

What did Jesus mean by it?

1.       Note the structure in which it is placed.  The entrance into the kingdom is personal and by a new birth. The kingdom however is collective: everything comes under its permanent influence / effect.

2.       Repentance and conversion is important. It has enormous results because it has kingdom backing. Conversion to the Kingdom would mean conversion unlimited and all-inclusive.

  1. If the new birth were set in the framework of the Church it would probably mean the individual undergoing the new birth would be baptized and join the Church and be a faithful attendant and supporter of a local church / congregation. In certain cases some churches will add responsibilities like, prayer, Bible reading, renunciation of wrong habits and associations, and a strong witness to this new way of life. The tragic reality is that all of this is within the framework of that particular Denomination. Such an individual has not been born into the Kingdom because the framework of the conversion was not the framework of the Kingdom. Such a conversion is a church-conditioned conversion, a limited conversion, limited to the outlook and spirit of that specific church / denomination. In other words, even at it’s best it is a sub conversion.
  1. Suppose you are born into the Kingdom of God you see everything in a new perspective, the kingdom-perspective. The Church is no longer an end in itself: everything it does should be in direct relationship to the Kingdom. The Church only succeeds as it becomes a character part of this new order and has interests and attitudes as wide as the Kingdom. Contentious issues would wither into insignificance in the light of such an attitude. They wouldn’t be solved–they would be dissolved. Nothing would matter except the Kingdom.

INDIVIDUAL PRIVILEGES, AFTER ENTERING THE KINGDOM

For many there is a kingdom of race. A large proportion of the problems of the world revolve around the problem of race. The solution is very simple. It is contained in this verse: “In the Kingdom there is no room for Greek and Jew (i.e. racial distinction], circumcised and uncircumcised  [i.e. religious ritual distinctions], barbarian and Scythian  [i.e. cultural distinctions], slave or free man [social or economic distinctions]” (Col. 3:11).Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all. Col. 3; 11

This is the simplest and profoundest of solutions: there is no room in the Kingdom of God for dealing with matters which deeply divide the world and which Satan also uses to divide the Church.

Do you invite the people to your church whom God invited to His banquet?  Why?  Why not?  Matt. 22; 8, 9.

  1.    There are never-ending possibilities for everybody, everywhere. The environment of the Kingdom is the environment of belief and of faith in God and in man. Faith in God creates faith in man. So under this kingdom-impact the insignificant human beings become the some bodies: fishermen become the teachers of the people. Note the sneer of the Sanhedrin: “By what power, or by what name have such men as you done this” (Acts 4:7 NEB.) “Such men as you” – the contempt of the ages was in that sneer but the hope of the ages was in that drama. A new people had come into being before their very eyes: When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. But since they could see the man who had been healed standing there with them, there was nothing they could say. Acts 4; 13,14 .(NIV)
  1.  Two plain miracles stood before that whole system of class and race: the miracle of the healed man and the miracle of the men who were the agents of the healing. (Read Acts chapter 3).  A new type of  people had suddenly come into being to whom class and race were of no importance anymore: race and class were suddenly dissolved.  This was a heavenly revolution: a move upwards toward God and  His Kingdom, rather than downwards toward the earth and Satan’s kingdom.

3.   In the Unshakable Kingdom there is no room for superiority based on heredity or on economic  circumstances. The relevant question is no longer where a person has come from but where he is going?  Jesus said: “No man who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke. 9;  62.)

The Kingdom is forward looking, not backward looking.

4.   Once we have entered the kingdom we should only be interested in the present and the future and not in the past of our fellow believer:  “leave the dead to bury its own dead.” The past is buried in the  love and forgiveness of God, the present is guided by the love and grace of God, and the future is ever unfolding under the beckoning of the love and revelation of God.

THE WARFARE BETWEEN THE TWO KINGDOMS

Our un-surrendered self is at the basis of all our inability to get along with people.  Jesus presented the Kingdom as God’s total answer. Today we must still choose between the kingdom of self versus the Kingdom of God. When man opposes the kingdom of God and relies on his own ability or on the ability of other mere men, he becomes an enemy to God and to himself. “Cursed is the one who trusts in man…” Jer 17:5. NIV.

Take the crucial moment when Jesus asked the crucial question of His disciples: “Who do you say that I am?” Upon the lips of Peter trembled the great confession:

Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God” (Matt. 16:15, 16).

This was the Great Moment. They had followed Him on the basis that He was a good man, a prophet; now they saw that He was God manifested in the flesh. From that moment one would have thought that everything would have been influenced by this fact; “God incarnate had visited and redeemed His people”.

Strangely enough from that moment nothing goes right, everything goes wrong in the whole of the rest of that chapter (Matthew 16). Why? They knew that He was the Son of God, but they did not know yet that self-giving love was at the center of His being and also at the center of the Kingdom of God.

Because his disciples did not know the meaning of self-giving love they expected Him to ride into Jerusalem, to assert His power and set up His kingdom: they had visions of their own that they would ride in with Him. They envisaged being part of His select team: two of them even picked out the seats they wanted to occupy!

  1. Jesus, always outspoken and honest, paved the way to let them know that Self-giving Love is at the center of His being the Son of God. He was going to Jerusalem to lay down His life. They must take their crosses and follow. Then He said the most important thing that was ever said for people who wanted to be part of the Kingdom of God:

     “Whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it” (Matt. 16:25).

Nothing was ever said that was more important about human life and its significance. “But they understood not the saying for it was hidden from them.” Why! Because they didn’t want to understand it. His self-giving involved their self-giving, and it was the one thing they were not prepared to do at that stage. How would this be relevant in our lives today??? !!!

  1. Peter who had lead in the great confession that Jesus was the Son of God now led in the rejection of the central principle of Jesus being the Son of God: namely His self-giving love at the cross. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This shall never happen to you!” Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.” Matt.16; 22, 23.  Satan had inspired Peter to seek his own kingdom built upon his own perceptions. Peter’s self-love had turned him from the Way to a side-lane where he was not willing to sacrifice himself for the Kingdom of God.
  1. “A dispute arose among them as to which of them was the greatest” (Luke 9:46). Here was a clash of the intimate followers of Christ between themselves, because they had surrendered everything to follow Christ except themselves and anything which they may derive from the surrender. This un-surrendered self is also at the basis of all our inability to get along with people.
  1. Peter said: “Lord, we have left everything to follow You, what do we get?” This last question, “What do we get?” showed they had not given up themselves. Their un-surrendered selves blocked the Kingdom strategy. Everything turned sour, including the relationship between the disciples and their relationship with Christ.
  2. Then John spoke up and said. “Master,” said John, “we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us.”  Luke 9; 49 (NIV) Here was the second clash, namely the clash of a group of workers with another group who were actually doing the work of the same Kingdom! Jesus’ reply indicates that He was well aware that the other group which John had referred to, were working with them in the same Kingdom  “Do not stop him,” Jesus said, “for whoever is not against you is for you.”  Luke 9;50   Because John and the rest were still un-surrendered in themselves they wanted their group to be first.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           Here we have the first denominational clash.
  1. Yet another clash came, and even bigger one. The Samaritans refused to receive the disciples who came to prepare for Jesus’ coming to their village As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem. And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him; but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?” But Jesus turned and rebuked them,  and they went to another village. Luke 9;51-56 

      The Samaritans showed race prejudice and so did the disciples, who even bared their teeth!  They made it sound religious by suggesting that they call down fire from heaven, but down

       underneath it was their racial self against the racial self of the Samaritans. Jesus rebuked them.  “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of, ” (Some MSS)

The racial clash and the group clash were and still is rooted in un-surrendered individual selves. This grouping together with worldly alliances instead of being gathered under the Banner of God was the root, while their other actions and words were the fruit. NB: This fruit is in direct contrast to the Fruit of the Spirit.

TO CHANGE THE FIGURE –THE UN-SURRENDERED SELF WAS THE WRONG KEY IN THE LOCK OF THE DOOR. WHEN THE HOLY SPIRIT CAME AS THE CORRECT KEY, THE OLD KEY OF THE UNSURRENDERED SELF WAS REMOVED AND THE RIVER OF REDEMPTION COULD FLOW TO THE ENTIRE WORLD.

To conclude: The disciples had access to the greatest knowledge ever imparted to man, namely that Jesus was the Son of the living God. But that knowledge did not help them one bit: it solved none of their problems. All the old clashes were still there and were present in intensified form. An example, which illustrates this principle, is the events leading up to Chirst’s entry into Jerusalem: The central loyalty of the disciples was, at that stage, still to themselves and not toward the Kingdom. They wanted the Kingdom to come at Jerusalem for what they could get out of it, namely front row seats and key positions.

 WHAT ARE THE FRUITS OF A SELF-CENTERED LIFESTYLE? 

In this section you will discover the main reasons for drawing back at the challenge of surrendering your self unto God!

The answer is simple: We feel that in surrendering the self we have nothing left.  The self is the one thing we brought into the world, the one thing we will take out of the world, and the one thing we live with intimately day-by-day. Once we let go of self then we seem to feel that we have lost all! This is the basic fear. But it is a false fear. For the opposite happens.

If we save ourselves, become centered in our selves, we lose ourselves automatically.   I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12; 24,25

Every self-centered person is an unhappy person with no exception. Center yourself on yourself, and you won’t like yourself. Nobody else will like you either. Think of how people avoid other people who constantly talk about themselves and their lives and who are not really interested in anybody else.

  1. 2.    We were never intended to be the center of the universe.  If you try to be god and organize life around yourself as god, you run against the grain of the universe. The universe won’t support you being a god. So you are always frustrated. You are made to belong–to belong to the Kingdom of God. Seek this first and all else will be added to you. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matt.6;33

Seek yourself first and everything, including your self, will be lost to you.

  1. 3.    “Why is God so cruel, why does he demand so much of us?” “If I do this I would be at God’s mercy!” Do you think that God was looking for a chance to make you miserable and unhappy? Nothing, absolutely nothing, could be further from the truth. God’s will is our highest interest, always and everywhere. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. Rom.8;28 (NIV)  He couldn’t be God if He plans anything other than our highest interest. If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! Matt.7; 11.
  1. 4.    He would violate His own nature in doing so. For God never asks us to do anything that He himself is not doing. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matt.11;28-30
  1. 5.    The most miserable people in this world are the people who won’t do a thing for anybody but for himself or herself. They are automatically Centers of Misery. The God of the kingdom of heaven is a God who will and does, do everything he asks His subjects in the Kingdom to do. I can love a God like this!

  WHAT ARE THE FRUITS OF A SELF-SURRENDERDERED LIFESTYLE?

In this section you will discover that, once you surrender to the kingdom you are a surprise to yourself and to others.

You instantly fulfill the deepest law of the kingdom of God: “whoever would save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life for My sake (in other words, a higher cause, namely the Kingdom) will find it” (Matt. 16:25 RSV).

“Therefore, my brothers, I implore you by God’s mercy to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for His acceptance,  the  worship  offered  by  mind  and heart.  Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade, and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable and perfect” (Rom. 12:1-2 NEB).

  1. When you surrender to the Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person, Jesus Christ, you surrender to creative love and all you say and do, is finely tuned to make a lasting impact. You  think thoughts you couldn’t think before, you do things you couldn’t do before, and you are a person you could otherwise never have been:  you are now a surprise to yourself and others. And now you can love yourself because you love something  (the Kingdom) and someone (Christ) more than your self. When your self is in your own hands it is a problem, which only causes pain. Your self in the hands

          of Christ makes you an open window through which others can see the unseen world.  This is what we really meant by Kingdom Harmony!

  1. When you seek the Kingdom first then all self-loathing and self-rejection falls away. How can you hate what He loves?  How can you reject what He has accepted?  If you surrender to Christ you surrender to creative love!

3.       Consider this matter of self-surrender. God asks us to do that. “Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God – this is your

          spiritual act of worship.” Rom 12:1. Does God do what He is asking us to do? Does He offer his very self? Yes. Note the word “therefore”, as used in Rom 12:1 — it points back to what Paul was saying in

          the previous chapters, namely that God gave himself as a living sacrifice. “He did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all” (Rom.8: 2). “God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself” II Cor. 5:19.

  1. He gave his Son, but He also gave Himself in his Son. The outer cross lights up the inner cross in the heart of God. So if God asks us to surrender ourselves, He is not being cruel: He is inviting us to share with Him in the deepest joy that this universe knows — the joy of saving others at cost to one’s self. The happiest people in this world are the people who deliberately take upon themselves the sorrow and pain associated with helping others. Their hearts sing with a deep, untold joy.

On the cross He did not only give Himself for you but he died as you. Gal 2:20

HOW CAN I BECOME RELEVANT FOR GOD IN HIS KINGDOM STRATEGY?

If the self resists God, it is a stronghold. Everything else, whether humanly inspired service to others or Godly service has no real value. When the stronghold of the self is however surrendered to God, the power of the self is broken. You are now all His, fit for His acceptance and able to accept your redeemed self. When you love Him supremely, you can love yourself submissivelyJesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself.

   All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matt.22; 37-40

1.     If God would ask us to obey laws He himself did not obey, then we would not be much inspired to obey. God however, not only obeyed His own laws, but He walked the second mile and took on Himself the consequences of our disobedience, bearing them in his own body on the Cross. Such a God as this can have my heart without reservation and without qualification.  What about You?

  1. If self-giving was good for God, it is good for us. So when He asks us to offer our very selves as a sacrifice, He calls it a living sacrifice. Since you have now become a living sacrifice; you are alive to your fingertips, alive with life, with love, with God!All that came to be was alive with His life” (John 1:4).  Now you become dedicated and fit for His acceptance.
  1. Every self-surrendered person is a living sacrifice. Like the Sea of Galilee it loses its life, it shares what it gets and is alive and makes everything alive that touches it. The un-surrendered self is like the Dead Sea, it only assimilates but never gives , and thereby only spread a bad and dead odor.
  1. Whenever self is at the center, unhappiness reigned. The moment you surrender yourself, joy reigns. From this moment you are fit for His acceptance. What produced God’s acceptance?  Surely not  joining any specific Denomination, not vows, not different lifestyle, or renunciation of certain things.  Very important to understand this: You don’t have to be good before you are accepted by Him, you have to be His and His alone.
  1. From this moment your worship is from the heart. Your lips are not merely saying it–you are saying it from your heart. He has the center. This is real “worship offered by mind and soul.”

      The emotions will now be kindled and the mind quickened, for they will both be on the exploration of the richest and most exciting exploration that mankind in his long quest has ever explored.   That which holds the mind will soon hold the emotion and the will.

6        Jesus used the word “wise” in describing the man who built his house upon the rock of what He was saying; and “foolish” in describing the man who built his house on some other way–on sand Self -surrender is written into the very basis of a meaningful and fruitful life on earth.

7.    To love your neighbor as you love yourself is now fulfilled. To do anything else is foolish. To live in the kingdom-way is fulfilling the very reason of you being created.

8.    Now the kingdom of God has become the central pivot of your life. It has been said of the early Christians that they conquered the ancient world because;

·         They out-lived the pagans.

·         They out-loved the pagans.

·         They out-thought the pagans.

·         They out-died the pagans.

This can surely happen again for we have the soundest starting point for our thinking–the Unshakable Kingdom and the Unchanging Person, the absolute Order and the absolute Person. We call this demonstrated knowledge–verified to the degree it is tried, anywhere, and everywhere.

  1.  To conclude, this self-surrender is the greatest liberation that ever comes to a human being. “Seek first the kingdom of God and all things will be added to you, including your self. You will no  longer be an echo–you will be a voice.  No longer a copy of modern society but authentic, created in His image. Can I really proclaim the Gospel of the kingdom, if I am still a slave of the kingdom of darkness where I come from?

Another side effect of self-surrender:But let your minds be remade and your whole nature thus transformed” (Rom. 12: 2).

This reverses the usual procedure, which is change your mind and then you will change your nature. This procedure says surrender yourself, that will remake your mind and transform your whole nature.

Which is correct!

I believe this latter is profoundly and importantly right. The mind gathers reasons to justify the emotions and the will.

The center of your loyalty will determine your thinking. This verse is radiant: “Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. ” (Rom. 8:5). Your outlook is formed by your life decisions and your life loyalties. So to change your outlook, your thinking, you have to change your central loyalties. Self-surrender is, the profoundest change of loyalty that one can make.

Christ, not us, is the central Loyalty.  He determines your life from the moment your outlook and your thinking is changed. Now Christ has become the central point of your loyalty. You love differently, therefore you think differently, and therefore you are different. It is the explosive power of a new affection. Having grown in this understanding of a self surrendered life you will be able to discern the will of God and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect. You will discern that when you surrender to the will of God you are in harmony with yourself as well as with Jesus and His kingdom mission on earth.

THE MOMENT YOU DISCERN AND DECIDE THAT THE WILL OF GOD IS ACCEPTABLE–YOU WILL ACCEPT IT FOR YOUR BODY, MIND, AND SPIRIT.  NOW YOU WILL DISCOVER THAT IT IS SPOT ON FOR YOUR WHOLE BEING! FROM THIS MOMENT ONWARDS YOU WOULDN’T CHANGE A THING ABOUT THE KINGDOM NOR ABOUT THE PERSON.

This is what is called a change in your world view as it shifts from a self centered world view to a Christ centered world view and this is the biblical world view expected of all children of God

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