SUBMISSION: THE REQUIREMENT AFTER SALVATION

When you pray in alignment with the will of God, best believe you will get an answer. One of the prayers I've been praying recently is "Lord, help me walk in obedience. I pray that i will be submitted to you. That my every answer to what you require of me would be "Yes Lord"." Two stories in the Bible come to my mind when I think of this response, one is Samuel and the other is Isaiah but there's something about Isaiah's response to the Lord that touches my heart.

Isaiah 6 : 1-8 says "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw [in a vision] the Lord sitting on a throne, high and exalted, with the train of His royal robe filling the [most holy part of the] temple. Above Him seraphim (heavenly beings) stood; each one had six wings: with two wings he covered his face, with two wings he covered his feet, and with two wings he flew.  And one called out to another, saying,“Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is filled with His glory.”And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, and the temple was filling with smoke. Then I said,“Woe is me! For I am ruined, because I am a man of [ceremonially] unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs. He touched my mouth with it and said, “Listen carefully, this has touched your lips; your wickedness [your sin, your injustice, your wrongdoing] is taken away and your sin atoned for and forgiven.”Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!”

 Isaiah had a revelation of the Lord in all His glory  and his very first response was woe is me. In seeing the Lord for who He really is ; Holy, majestic, powerful, he saw himself for who he really was unclean and unworthy.He was humble, honest, vulnerable, repentant and the response of the Lord was forgiveness, cleansing, restoration, redemption. Isaiah was not just speaking words, in His response, he was worshiping the Lord and had offered himself up to the Lord as a sacrifice.

Psalms 51:17 says " My [only] sacrifice [acceptable] to God is a broken spirit;
A broken and contrite heart [broken with sorrow for sin, thoroughly penitent], such, O God, You will not despise."

The word contrite according to google is "a feeling or expressing remorse at the recognition that one has done wrong" We see that the only acceptable sacrifice is when we come to the Lord with an understanding of who He is, what He has done for us and what we have done. Isaiah understood that there was a brokenness in him and in recognition of it , he came to the Lord in humility which brought forgiveness and a response from the Lord and finally submission to God. 

My pastor spoke on the difference of surrender and submission a couple of Sundays ago. He mentioned that after doing some research, he realized that surrender isn't spoken of  in the Bible but submission is. He later dove deep into the differences between the both of them which are;

There were two offers that landed in my lap regarding both my businesses and they seemed really good. With one, i would get experience and gain more wisdom on how to plan larger scale events while the other one I would get more sales for my cosmetic line and would have my products in a store. The Lord spoke to me on one of these offers and told me "No" It was hard when I heard that no and in all honesty, I started debating with God but His answer was still the same. My pastor broke down how surrender is incomplete but submission on the other hand requires response, responsibility, stewardship but mainly obedience. It's not easy at all and it goes against our fleshly desires and requires us to deny ourselves but we just need to trust that His plans for us are not disaster but prosperity. There was something God saw that He had to prevent from happening which is why He told me not to go forward with signing the contract. I am learning that while my responses are shaped by what I have experienced and desire, God's responses go further than just me, they are tied to generations and are outside of time itself. The way God views things is different from the way I do and He sees how one choice can either break or shape a generation. He is in the future, present and past all at once and because of this, isn't it a much better choice to submit to His will than it is ours?Its easier to be obedient when we are being called to make a choice or to a space we like but if it is something we don't want ... well, its painful. Prayer and having a strongly rooted circle helps keep us grounded. 

PRAYER:

Lord, thank you for giving me the free gift of salvation. Thank you that even before I was born, you saw me, loved me and sent your son to die for me. Help me truly walk in obedience to you and submit my every fleshly desire before your throne. That i may honor and worship you all the days of my life never forgetting what you did for me. Help me such that my response to you would be "Yes, Lord" and that I would live a life consecrated and Holy as you are Holy. Help me live submitted to you in all areas of my life. I pray that you would expose and lay bare any areas I have been adamant to release into your hands. Walk me through what i need to walk through such that I can be molded into who you need me to be. Rid me of stubbornness and increase my love and desire for obedience. Thank you Jesus and I love you.

In Jesus name amen.