On surrender to the Spirit of Christ, from “The Surrendered Life.”

“Not that surrender is a meritorious act that wins the fullness of the Spirit, but simply the act needed to give the Spirit a chance to fill us. God does not flood our being with great tides of spiritual life, all independent of our own free will. He does not lay hold of men and women and carry them to the mountain tops of Christian life and blessing regardless of all choice and volition of their own. On the contrary, the Spirit’s method seems first conviction of God’s fullness and the soul’s need; then a step of obedience or faith which will give a waiting, willing God the desired chance to fulfill the need; and then life and blessing to him who obeys God in taking that step. The revelation and conviction of truth; the obedience of faith consequent upon that revelation; and the blessing consequent upon that obedience is thus, perhaps, the invariable order of the Spirit’s working in the soul…Surrender is not bribing or buying the grace of God; it is simply giving the opportunity to work.”

“Christ declares that our of our inmost being shall flow rivers of water. This He spake of the Spirit in them who had faith in Him. But surrender to God is one of the highest forms of faith. For, following reception of the Spirit by faith, it is one of the highest forms of faith to so implicitly trust God as to give the whole life into His keeping to do and submit to His will. Wherefore we may always expect to find the fuller life of the Spirit linked with that complete yielding to God. For God never fails to respond with divine love to every act of faith in His children, and the faith which received the Spirit at conversion cannot fail to know the blessed fullness of that same Spirit when it yields itself wholly to Him Who has been received.”

Image via author, unnamed lake in the Wallowa Mountains, Oregon