Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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Speaker 1: visit LibriVox dot org. Recording by Joi Chan Absolute Surrender
Speaker 1: and other Addresses by Andrew Murray. Absolute Surrender. And ben Hadad,
Speaker 1: the King of Syria, gathered all his hosts together, and
Speaker 1: there were thirty and two kings with him, and horses
Speaker 1: and chariots. And he went up and besieged Samaria and
Speaker 1: warred against it. And he sent messengers to Ahab, king
Speaker 1: of Israel, into the city, and said unto him, thus
Speaker 1: Saith ben Hadad, thy silver and thy gold is mine.
Speaker 1: Thy wives also, and thy children, even the goodliest, are mine.
Speaker 1: And the King of Israel answered and said, my lord,
Speaker 1: O King, according to thy, saying, I am thine and
Speaker 1: all that I have, first Kings twenty one to four.
Speaker 1: What ben Hadad asked was absolute surrender, and what Ahath
Speaker 1: gave was what was asked of him, absolute surrender. I
Speaker 1: want to use these words, my lord, O King, according
Speaker 1: to thy, saying I am thine and all that I have,
Speaker 1: as the words of absolute surrender, with which every child
Speaker 1: of God ought to yield himself to his Father. We
Speaker 1: have heard it before, but we need to hear it
Speaker 1: very definitely. The condition of God's blessing is absolute surrender
Speaker 1: of all into His hands. Praise God. If our hearts
Speaker 1: are willing for that, there is no end to what
Speaker 1: God will do for us and to the blessing God
Speaker 1: will bestow absolute surrender. Let me tell you where I
Speaker 1: got those words. I used them myself often, and you
Speaker 1: have heard them numberless times. But in Scotland. Once I
Speaker 1: was in a company where we were talking about the
Speaker 1: condition of Christ's Church and what the great need of
Speaker 1: the church and of believers is. And there was in
Speaker 1: our company a godly worker who has much to do
Speaker 1: in training workers. And I asked him what he would
Speaker 1: say was the great need of the church and the
Speaker 1: message that ought to be preached. He answered, very quietly,
Speaker 1: and simply and determinedly, absolute surrender to God is the
Speaker 1: one thing. It struck me as never before. And that
Speaker 1: man began to tell how in the workers with whom
Speaker 1: he had to deal, he finds that if they are
Speaker 1: sound on that point, even though they be backward, they
Speaker 1: are willing to be taught and helped, and they always improve,
Speaker 1: whereas others who are not sound there very often go
Speaker 1: back and leave the work. The condition for obtaining God's
Speaker 1: full blessing is absolute surrender to Him. And now I desire,
Speaker 1: by God's grace to give you this message that your
Speaker 1: God in Heaven answers the prayers which you have offered
Speaker 1: for blessing on yourselves and for blessing on those around
Speaker 1: you by this one demand, are you willing to surrender
Speaker 1: yourselves absolutely into His hands? What is our answer to be?
Speaker 1: God knows. There are hundreds of hearts who have said it,
Speaker 1: and there are hundreds more who long to say it,
Speaker 1: but hardly dare to do so. And there are hearts
Speaker 1: who have said it, but who have yet miserably failed,
Speaker 1: and who feel themselves condemned because they did not find
Speaker 1: the secret of the power to live that life. May
Speaker 1: God have a word for all? Let me say first
Speaker 1: of all that God claims it from us. God expects
Speaker 1: your surrender. Yes, it has its foundation in the very
Speaker 1: nature of God. God cannot do otherwise. Who is God?
Speaker 1: He is the fountain of life, the only source of
Speaker 1: existence and power and goodness. And throughout the universe there
Speaker 1: is nothing good but what God works. God has created
Speaker 1: the sun and the moon and the stars, and the
Speaker 1: flowers and the trees and the grass. And are they
Speaker 1: not all absolutely surrendered to God? Do they not allow
Speaker 1: God to work in them just what he pleases? When
Speaker 1: God clothes the lily with its beauty, is it not
Speaker 1: yielded up, surrendered, given over to God as he works
Speaker 1: in its beauty? And God's redeemed children? Oh, can you
Speaker 1: think that God can work his work if there is
Speaker 1: only half or a part of them surrendered? God cannot
Speaker 1: do it. God is life and love and blessing and
Speaker 1: power and infinite beauty. And God delights to communicate himself
Speaker 1: to every child who is prepared to receive him. But Ah,
Speaker 1: this one lack of absolute surrender is just the thing
Speaker 1: that hinders God. And now he comes, and as God,
Speaker 1: he claims it. You know in daily life what absolute
Speaker 1: surrender is. You know that everything has to be given
Speaker 1: up to its space, definite object and service. I have
Speaker 1: a pen in my pocket, and that pen is absolutely
Speaker 1: surrendered to the one work of writing. And that pen
Speaker 1: must be absolutely surrendered to my hand if I am
Speaker 1: to write properly with it. If another holds it partly,
Speaker 1: I cannot write properly This coat is absolutely given up
Speaker 1: to me to cover my body. This building is entirely
Speaker 1: given up to religious services. And now do you expect
Speaker 1: that in your immortal being, in the divine nature that
Speaker 1: you have received by regeneration, God can work his work
Speaker 1: every day and every hour. Unless you are entirely given
Speaker 1: up to him. God cannot. The Temple of Solomon was
Speaker 1: absolutely surrendered to God when it was dedicated to him,
Speaker 1: and every one of us is a temple of God
Speaker 1: in which God will dwell and work mightily on one condition,
Speaker 1: absolute surrender to him. God claims it. God is worthy
Speaker 1: of it, and without it God cannot work his blessed
Speaker 1: work in us. God not only claims it, but God
Speaker 1: will work it himself. God accomplishes your surrender. I am
Speaker 1: sure there is many a heart that says, ah, but
Speaker 1: that absolute surrender implies so much. Someone says, Oh, I
Speaker 1: have passed through so much trial and suffering, and there
Speaker 1: is so much of the self life still remaining, and
Speaker 1: I dare not face the entire giving of it up
Speaker 1: because I know it will cause so much trouble and agony.
Speaker 1: Alas alas that God's children have such thoughts of him,
Speaker 1: such cruel thoughts, Oh, I come to you with a
Speaker 1: message tearful and anxious one. God does not ask you
Speaker 1: to give the perfect surrender in your strength or by
Speaker 1: the power of your will. God is willing to work
Speaker 1: it in you. Do we not read? It is God
Speaker 1: that worketh in us, both to will and to do
Speaker 1: of His good pleasure. And that is what we should
Speaker 1: seek for to go on our faces before God until
Speaker 1: our hearts learn to believe that the everlasting God himself
Speaker 1: will come in, to turn out what is wrong, to
Speaker 1: conquer what is evil, and to work what is well pleasing.
Speaker 1: In his blessed sight, God himself will work it in you.
Speaker 1: Look at the men in the Old Testament, like Abraham.
Speaker 1: Do you think it was by accident that God found
Speaker 1: that man the father of the faithful and the friend
Speaker 1: of God, And that it was Abraham himself apart from
Speaker 1: God who had such faith and such obedience and such devotion.
Speaker 1: You know it is not so. God raised him up
Speaker 1: and prepared him as an instrument for his glory. Did
Speaker 1: not God say to Pharaoh for this cause, have I
Speaker 1: raised THEE up? For to show in THEE my power?
Speaker 1: And if God said that of him, will not God
Speaker 1: say it far more of every child of his. Oh,
Speaker 1: I want to encourage you, and I want you to
Speaker 1: cast away every fear. Come with that feeble desire. And
Speaker 1: if there is the fear which says, oh, my desire
Speaker 1: is not strong enough, I am not willing for everything
Speaker 1: that may come. I do not feel bold enough to
Speaker 1: say I can conquer everything. I pray you learn to
Speaker 1: know and trust your God. Now, say, my God, I
Speaker 1: am willing that thou shouldst make me willing. If there
Speaker 1: is anything holding you back, or any sacrifice you are
Speaker 1: afraid of making, come to God now and prove how
Speaker 1: gracious your God is, and be not afraid that He
Speaker 1: will command from you what he will not bestow. God
Speaker 1: comes and offers to work this absolute surrender in you.
Speaker 1: All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in
Speaker 1: your heart, I tell you they are the drawings of
Speaker 1: the divine magnate Jesus Christ. He lived a life of
Speaker 1: absolute surrender. He has possession of you. He is living
Speaker 1: in your heart by his Holy Spirit. You have hindered
Speaker 1: and hindered him terribly, but he desires to help you
Speaker 1: to get hold of him entirely. And he comes and
Speaker 1: draws you now by his message and words, will you
Speaker 1: not come and trust God to work in you that
Speaker 1: absolute surrender to himself. Yes, blessed be God. He can
Speaker 1: do it, and he will do it. God not only
Speaker 1: claims it and works it, but God accepts it when
Speaker 1: we bring it to him. God accepts your surrender. God
Speaker 1: works it in the secret of our heart. God urges us,
Speaker 1: by the hidden power of His Holy Spirit to come
Speaker 1: and speak it out. And we have to bring and
Speaker 1: yield to him that absolute surrender. But remember, when you
Speaker 1: come and bring God that absolute surrender, it may, as
Speaker 1: far as your feelings of your consciousness go, be a
Speaker 1: thing of great imperfection, and you may doubt and hesitate
Speaker 1: and say is it absolute? But oh, remember, there was
Speaker 1: once a man to whom Christ had said, if thou
Speaker 1: canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth
Speaker 1: And his heart was and he cried out, Lord, I believe,
Speaker 1: help thou mine unbelief. That was a faith that triumphed
Speaker 1: over the devil, and the evil spirit was cast out.
Speaker 1: And if you come and say, Lord, I yield myself
Speaker 1: an absolute surrender to my God, even though it be
Speaker 1: with a trembling heart and with the consciousness. I do
Speaker 1: not feel the power, I do not feel the determination,
Speaker 1: I do not feel the assurance it will succeed. Be
Speaker 1: not afraid, but come just as you are, and even
Speaker 1: in the midst of your trembling, the power of the
Speaker 1: Holy Ghost will work. Have you never yet learned the
Speaker 1: lesson that the Holy Ghost works with mighty power While
Speaker 1: on the human side everything appears feeble. Look at the
Speaker 1: Lord Jesus Christ. In Gathsemone we read that he, through
Speaker 1: the eternal Spirit, offered himself a sacrifice unto God. The
Speaker 1: almighty Spirit of God was enabling him to do it.
Speaker 1: And yet what agony and fear and exceeding sorrow came
Speaker 1: over him, and how he prayed externally. You can see
Speaker 1: no sign of the mighty power of the spirit. But
Speaker 1: the spirit of God was there. And even so, while
Speaker 1: you are feeble and fighting and trembling in faith in
Speaker 1: the hidden work of God's Spirit, do not fear, but
Speaker 1: yield yourself. And when you do yield yourself in absolute surrender,
Speaker 1: let it be in the faith that God does now
Speaker 1: accept of it. That is the great point, and that
Speaker 1: is what we so often miss, that believers should be
Speaker 1: thus occupied with God in this matter of surrender, I
Speaker 1: pray you be occupied with God. We want to get
Speaker 1: help every one of us, so that in our daily
Speaker 1: life God shall be clearer to us. God shall have
Speaker 1: the right place and be all in all. And if
Speaker 1: we are to have that through life, let us begin
Speaker 1: now and look away from ourselves and look up to God.
Speaker 1: Let each believe, while I a poor worm on earth
Speaker 1: and a trembling child of God, full of failure and
Speaker 1: sin and fear, bow here, and no one knows what
Speaker 1: passes through my heart. And while I in simplicity say,
Speaker 1: O God, I accept thy terms. I have pleaded for
Speaker 1: blessing on myself and others. I have accepted Thy terms
Speaker 1: of absolute surrender. While your heart says that in deep silence,
Speaker 1: Remember there is a God present that takes note of
Speaker 1: it and writes it down in his book. And there
Speaker 1: is a God present who at that very moment takes
Speaker 1: possession of you. You may not feel it, you may
Speaker 1: not realize, but God takes possession if you will trust him.
Speaker 1: God not only claims it and works it and accepts
Speaker 1: it when I bring it, but God maintains it. God
Speaker 1: maintains your surrender. That is the great difficulty with many
Speaker 1: people say, I have often been stirred at a meeting
Speaker 1: or at a convention, and I have consecrated myself to God,
Speaker 1: but it has passed away. I know it may last
Speaker 1: for a week or for a month, but away it fades,
Speaker 1: and after a time it is all gone. But listen,
Speaker 1: it is because you do not believe what I am
Speaker 1: now going to tell you and remind you of. When
Speaker 1: God has begun the work of absolute surrender in you,
Speaker 1: and when God has accepted your surrender, then God holds
Speaker 1: himself bound to care for it and to keep it.
Speaker 1: Will you believe that in this matter of surrender there
Speaker 1: are two God and I I a worm God, the
Speaker 1: everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah worm. Will you be afraid to
Speaker 1: trust yourself to this mighty God? Now? God is willing.
Speaker 1: Do you not believe that He can keep you continually,
Speaker 1: day by day and moment by moment, moment by moment,
Speaker 1: I'm kept in His love moment by moment, I've life
Speaker 1: from above. If God allows the sun to shine upon
Speaker 1: you moment by moment without intermission. Will not God let
Speaker 1: his life shine upon you every moment? And why have
Speaker 1: you not experienced it because you have not trusted God
Speaker 1: for it, and you do not surrender yourself absolutely to
Speaker 1: God in that trust. A life of absolute surrender has
Speaker 1: its difficulties. I do not deny that. Yes, it has
Speaker 1: something far more than difficulties. It is a life that
Speaker 1: with men is absolutely impossible, but by the grace of God,
Speaker 1: by the power of God, by the power of the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit dwelling in us. It is a life to
Speaker 1: which we are destined, and a life that is possible
Speaker 1: for us. Praise God. Let us believe that God will
Speaker 1: maintain it. Some of you have read the words of
Speaker 1: that aged saint who, on his ninetieth birthday told of
Speaker 1: all God's goodness to him, I mean George Mueller. What
Speaker 1: did he say? He believed to be the secret of
Speaker 1: his happiness and of all the blessing which God had
Speaker 1: given him. He said he believed there were two reasons.
Speaker 1: The one was that he had been enabled by grace
Speaker 1: to maintain a good conscience before God day by day.
Speaker 1: The other was that he was a lover of God's word. Ah. Yes,
Speaker 1: a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by
Speaker 1: day and fellowship with God every day in his word
Speaker 1: and prayer that is a life of absolute surrender. Such
Speaker 1: a life has two sides. On the one side, absolute
Speaker 1: surrender to work what God wants you to do. On
Speaker 1: the other side, to let God work what He wants
Speaker 1: to do. First, to do what God wants you to do,
Speaker 1: give up yourselves absolutely to the will of God. You
Speaker 1: know something of that will not enough, far from all.
Speaker 1: But say absolutely to the Lord God, by thy grace,
Speaker 1: I desire to do Thy will in everything, every moment
Speaker 1: of every day. Say Lord God, not a word upon
Speaker 1: my tongue, but for thy glory, not a movement of
Speaker 1: my temper, but for Thy glory. Not an affection of
Speaker 1: love or hate in my heart, but for Thy glory,
Speaker 1: and according to Thy blessed will. Some one says, do
Speaker 1: you think that possible? I ask, what has God promised you?
Speaker 1: And what can God do to fill a vessel absolutely
Speaker 1: surrendered to him? O, God wants to bless you in
Speaker 1: a way beyond what you expect from the beginning. Ere
Speaker 1: hath not heard, neither hath the eye seen what God
Speaker 1: hath prepared for them that wait for him. God has
Speaker 1: prepared unheard of things blessings much more wonderful than you
Speaker 1: can imagine more mighty than you can conceive. They are
Speaker 1: divine blessings. Oh, say now, I give myself absolutely to
Speaker 1: God to his will, to do only what God wants.
Speaker 1: It is God who will enable you to carry out
Speaker 1: the surrender. And on the other side, come and say,
Speaker 1: I give myself absolutely to God to let him work
Speaker 1: in me to will and to do of his good
Speaker 1: pleasure as he has promised to do. Yes, the Living
Speaker 1: God wants to work in his children in a way
Speaker 1: that we cannot understand, but that God's word has revealed,
Speaker 1: and he wants to work in us every moment of
Speaker 1: the day. God is willing to maintain our life. Only.
Speaker 1: Let our absolute surrender be one of simple, childlike and
Speaker 1: unbounded trust. God blesses you when you surrender this absolute
Speaker 1: surrender to God. Will wonderfully bless what Ahab said to
Speaker 1: his enemy King Benhadad, my lord, O King, according to
Speaker 1: thy word, I am thine and all that I have.
Speaker 1: Shall we not say to our God and Loving Father.
Speaker 1: If we do say it, God's blessing will come upon us.
Speaker 1: God wants us to be separate from the world. We
Speaker 1: are called to come out from the world that hates God.
Speaker 1: Come out for God and say, Lord, anything for THEE.
Speaker 1: If you say that with prayer and speak that into
Speaker 1: God's ear, he will accept it and he will teach
Speaker 1: you what it means. I say again, God will bless you.
Speaker 1: You have been praying for blessing. But do remember there
Speaker 1: must be absolute surrender at every tea table you see it.
Speaker 1: Why is tea poured into that cup because it is
Speaker 1: empty and given up for the tea? But put ink
Speaker 1: or vinegar or wine into it? And will they pour
Speaker 1: the tea into the vessel? And can God fill you?
Speaker 1: Can God bless you if you are not absolutely surrendered
Speaker 1: to him. He cannot let us believe God has wonderful
Speaker 1: blessings for us if we will but stand up for
Speaker 1: God and say be it with a trembling will, yet
Speaker 1: with a believing heart, O God, I accept thy demands.
Speaker 1: I am Thine and all that I have absolute surrender
Speaker 1: is what my soul yields to THEE. By Divine grace.
Speaker 1: You may not have such strong and clear feelings of
Speaker 1: deliverances as you would desire to have, but humble yourselves
Speaker 1: in His sight and acknowledge that you have grieved the
Speaker 1: Holy Spirit by your self, will self confidence and self effort,
Speaker 1: bow humbly before him in the confession of that, and
Speaker 1: ask him to break the heart and to bring you
Speaker 1: into the dust before him. Then, as you bow before him,
Speaker 1: just accept God's teaching that in your flesh there dwelleth
Speaker 1: no good thing, and that nothing will help you except
Speaker 1: another life, which must come in. You must deny self
Speaker 1: once for all. Denying self must every moment be the
Speaker 1: power of your life. And then Christ will come in
Speaker 1: and take possession of you. When was Peter delivered? When
Speaker 1: was the change accomplished? The change began with Peter weeping,
Speaker 1: and the Holy Ghost came down and filled his heart. God,
Speaker 1: the Father loves to give us the power of the Spirit.
Speaker 1: We have the Spirit of God dwelling within us. We
Speaker 1: come to God confessing that and praising God for it,
Speaker 1: and yet confessing how we have grieved the spirit. And
Speaker 1: then we bow our needs to the Father to ask
Speaker 1: that he would strengthen us with all might by the
Speaker 1: Spirit in the inner man, and that he would fill
Speaker 1: us with his mighty power. And as the Spirit reveals
Speaker 1: Christ to us, Christ comes to live in our hearts forever,
Speaker 1: and the self life is cast out. Let us bow
Speaker 1: before God in humility, and in that humility confess before
Speaker 1: him the state of the whole Church. No words can
Speaker 1: tell the sad state of the Church of Christ on earth.
Speaker 1: I wish I had words to speak what I sometimes
Speaker 1: feel about it. Just think of the Christians around you.
Speaker 1: I do not speak of nominal Christians or of professing Christians,
Speaker 1: but I speak of hundreds and thousands of honest, earnest
Speaker 1: Christians who are not living a life in the power
Speaker 1: of God or to His glory. So little power, so
Speaker 1: little devotion or consecration to God, so little perception of
Speaker 1: the truth that a Christian is a man utterly surrendered
Speaker 1: to God's will. Oh, we want to confess the sins
Speaker 1: of God's people around us and to humble ourselves. We
Speaker 1: are members of that sickly body, and the sickliness of
Speaker 1: the body will hinder us and break us down unless
Speaker 1: we come to God and in confession, separate ourselves from
Speaker 1: partnership with worldliness, with coldness toward each other, unless we
Speaker 1: give up ourselves to be entirely and holy for God.
Speaker 1: How much Christian work is being done in the spirit
Speaker 1: of the flesh and in the power of self, How
Speaker 1: much work day by day in which human energy, our will,
Speaker 1: and our thoughts about the work is continually manifested, and
Speaker 1: in which there is but little of waiting upon God
Speaker 1: and upon the power of the Holy Ghost. Let us
Speaker 1: make confession. But as we confess the state of the
Speaker 1: Church and the feebleness and sinfulness of work for God
Speaker 1: among us, let us come back to ourselves. Who is
Speaker 1: there who truly longs to be delivered from the power
Speaker 1: of the self life, who truly acknowledges that it is
Speaker 1: the power of Self and the flesh, and who is
Speaker 1: willing to cast all at the feet of Christ there
Speaker 1: is deliverance. I heard of one who had been an
Speaker 1: earnest Christian and who spoke about the cruel thought of
Speaker 1: separation and death. But you do not think that, do you?
Speaker 1: What are we to think of separation and death? This
Speaker 1: death was the path to glory for Christ, for the
Speaker 1: joy set before him, he endured the cross. The cross
Speaker 1: was the birthplace of his everlasting glory. Do you love Christ?
Speaker 1: Do you long to be in Christ and not like him?
Speaker 1: Let death be to you the most mirabl thing on earth,
Speaker 1: Death to self and fellowship with Christ. Separation. Do you
Speaker 1: think it a hard thing to be called to be
Speaker 1: entirely free from the world, and by that separation, to
Speaker 1: be united to God and his love. By separation, to
Speaker 1: become prepared for living and walking with God every day.
Speaker 1: Surely one ought to say anything to bring me to separation,
Speaker 1: to death for a life of full fellowship with God
Speaker 1: and Christ. Come and cast this self, life and flesh
Speaker 1: life at the feet of Jesus. Then trust him. Do
Speaker 1: not worry yourselves with trying to understand all about it,
Speaker 1: But come in the living faith that Christ will come
Speaker 1: into you with the power of his death and the
Speaker 1: power of his life. And then the Holy Spirit will
Speaker 1: bring the whole Christ, Christ crucified and risen and living
Speaker 1: in glory into your heart. End of absolute surrender.