When we think of surrender we usually think of defeat. But in God's mind the more we are willing to give up the more productive we will be.
 
When nations war against each other, the sure evidence that someone has had a victory is that someone else surrenders unconditionally. Unless there is an unconditional surrender, one of those nations is still a threat. An unconditional surrender means that they give up, that they yield possession of everything with no restrictions and no conditions. It is an unconditional surrender. As long as a nation has restrictions, as long as they have conditions of the surrender; there is still the possibility of a threat that they may rebel and fight against the one to whom they have surrendered to. When you and I first trusted Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and Lord that wasn't the end of what He was accomplishing. No, His goal was for you and I to completely and unconditionally surrender everything that we are and have to Him willingly and without conditions.
 
Usually when we think about unconditional surrender to God is we think, Oh my goodness what am I going to have to give up now! We think somehow He will expect us to go into the jungles of some foreign country and be deprived of living a pleasurable life like everyone else. My friends, this is exactly how the devil works. He takes something that God is about to wonderfully do in our lives and turns it into some negative attitude and cheats us out of some incredible opportunity and blessing from God.
 
An unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ is not some negative attitude and it is not the giving up of some wonderful things in life. It is to have a door of opportunity that enables you to receive something from God that you really always wanted deep down inside your soul. I pray today that you will be willing to lay down all of your guards and listen to what the Spirit of the Lord has to say to you personally. Let it be a willingness to explore anything that the Lord may be dealing within your heart about and surrender it unconditionally to Him. When this happens and it will as you read this article within some area of your life, be sure and watch out! Because the devil will come along side and tell you it's not that big of deal. He will tell you "Don't pay any attention to that. That's not significant, don't worry about those things right there they aren't that important enough to concern yourself with. That's the devil's way of cheating you out of what God wants to liberate your life from and bring about something so extraordinary that you will be blown away by His personal goodness to you.
 
Out of all of the Scriptures in the Bible that clearly defines our studies today on unconditional surrender; or at least the best wording of an absolute and complete description of this thought we are presenting, is found in 1 Kings, chapter 20 beginning in verse one. It is about two nations at war with each other and how one king was demanding the surrender of the other that he may take hold of all his possessions and all that he had. While the other surrenders all that he is and and all that he has to his adversary.

 

Listen to those words with me again, "According as you say my lord, O king, I am yours and all that I have." Have you ever said to the Lord Jesus Christ, "According to thy will, Lord, All that I am and all that I have is Yours!" Unconditional surrender to God simply means that you are willing to surrender control of everything in your life to Him. To lay down control of yourself and everything that relates to you, and turn it all over to Jesus Christ. Have you ever done that?

 

Many people today will tell you that they did that many years ago when they gave their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ. The day that they became saved by accepting the Lord into their heart. Yet somehow these very people will go through life living for God with a partial surrender to the Lord Jesus Christ. That is they have surrendered many things to Him or often times confessed to give Jesus everything they have; yet they hold some things, certain items, some attitudes or ideas and refuse to surrender them all to the One who saved their souls from destruction.

 

Churches today are filled with people that are saved but who are not surrendered. They are wondering why God is not using them more, they are wondering why God is not blessing them more? They are wondering why the joy of the Christian life is not making them feel complete? They ask, "Why isn't the power of the Holy Spirit not upon me like He is on them over there?" The primary reason is that they are not unconditionally surrendered to Jesus Christ. They are conditionally surrendered. They say, I am willing to surrender all of this over here. But God asks, "What about these things here?" Many times we tell ourselves that these little things don't matter all that much to God. Why should I be that strict with my life? Yet, my friends, it is these little things that keep coming up when you try to pray. And God says, "What about this relationship? What about these financial things that you are cheating in? What about this person on your job that you dislike and you don't mind showing it? What about this attitude? We cannot bargain or barter with God when it comes to surrender. God requires unconditional surrender. No conditions, no restrictions. Just 100% unconditional surrender will He except.

 

Many people's prayers have a bit more bartering in them then they really want to admit. It goes something like this, "Now God, I am willing to do anything you want Lord, if you will just do this or that, this is what I will be willing to do!" Lord, if you will just heal me this is what I will go and do. The truth is because of who God is; He has the authority and the sovereignty and the right to require from us an unconditional surrender in everything. Conditional surrender says, I am willing to do this here, but I can't or I won't do that. Unconditional surrender says everything that I am and all that I have is Yours, Lord! No excuses, no later on and I will. No! It's total and complete unconditional surrender that holds nothing back from what is rightfully His.

 

Listen to me. The very last thing that any man wants to do is give up control. We don't want to give up control in our family. We don't want to give up control when it comes to our finances. We don't want to give up control when it comes to spiritual things that God is asking us to do. We just don't want to give up control in our lives. But the unconditional surrender to Jesus Christ means, I am Yours Lord and all that I have belongs to You. Unconditional surrender means I am willing and by a deliberate choice I give up my control to be in control. It gives Jesus 100% control of my life where I am available for His purposes and not my own.

 

What would ever be the benefits of giving God full and all control of my life? First off, He has us in mind and is looking out for our best interest. Secondly, He wants to use us in incredible ways that would just jazz our personal world forever. There are so many that go to church today and wonder why God never uses them when He does use that guy or gal over there. They tell themselves, "How can God ever use me?" How can I get to a place where God can flow through me like that? We need to just stop asking "Why?" More pointed and personal, "you just need to quit asking "How" and just give Him the privilege of doing it.

 

You can't ask Him to use you and then you turn around and tell Him how you want it to be either. No, you must surrender to His purposes and according to His design. When you want things done on your terms then you are not truly unconditionally surrendered to God. You still have some of the control and therefore, God cannot use you as He would like. My friend, God's purposes for your life is so much grander and awesome in comparison to what you think is best for your life. This is why we need to unconditionally surrender our lives so we can have His best. He is not taking things away from us as many people think He will do. No, He will load you daily with His benefits and you will not be disappointed.

 

Look with me at something in our text that is worth pointing out. King Benhadad, demanded Ahab's silver and gold, his best wives and his children to boot. He asked for the best of what Ahab had. Now watch this! Did he not hit Ahab in the area that Ahab valued the most? I want your silver and your gold (that's all of your financial security), I want your family (that's the most intimate relationships in your life). Our study tells us that at one point Ahab was willing to give up everything. Then look with me if you will in verses eight and nine. This follows what appeared to be a full unconditional surrender by Ahab until he sat down with a few of his elders and decided something else. This is the kind of surrender that many of us today have made within this life. We concede vocally at first, then turn right around and pick up the control button so as to be in charge. No real surrender is really displayed at all. Let's read this passage together.

 
1 Kings 20:8-9 (NIV)
8 The elders and the people all answered, "Don't listen to him or agree to his demands."
9 So he replied to Ben-Hadad's messengers, "Tell my lord the king, 'Your servant will do all you demanded the first time, but this demand I cannot meet.'" They left and took the answer back to Ben-Hadad.

 

I wonder how many of us have said that to the Lord Jesus Christ. I am willing to leave my job. But to preach the Gospel, no way! To go to the mission field I just can't do it. Lord, I cannot afford to tithe. What you are saying is that you can't afford to obey Him. We try to paint it in such a way that we think we can convince God that our perspective makes better sense. But it doesn't. God is not fooled by our cons and slippery ideas. No, He is on to us and knows everything about what we are really up to.

 

Friends, I cannot ever accomplish the full and perfect will of God in my life by being disobedient. Listen to me, He will never fully and completely fulfill His purposes in your life when you are in direct disobedience to His will within any given area. He will never fulfill that intended holy purpose He has for you by overstepping, over-looking, pretending your not being rebellious when you are in direct and deliberate disobedience to Him.  God will not just go ahead and bring about His perfect will regardless of your rebellion. God cannot and will not reward disobedience of a follower or believer in Christ Jesus with by adding the purpose He has for you anyway. We must be in complete agreement with Him or we are simply in rebellion. Two cannot walk together unless they are in agreement. We must be in agreement with His purposes and plans for our lives. Yet, there are people who think they are genuinely surrendered to God just because they have surrendered some areas of their life to Him.

 

It's easy to say that we are totally surrendered to God as long as He is not dealing with something that we are holding on to in our life. But let's look at something further here in our study. The Word of God teaches that God intends that every believer or follower of Christ should be 100% totally unconditionally surrendered to Jesus. The Bible teaches that we were purchased by the blood of Jesus Christ and therefore are not our own. We are His! To be a follower of Christ, the fishermen had to finally lay down their nets. They had to step out of the boat and walk away from the business that they had been apart of all their lives. There are reasons why we don't want to surrender unconditionally. Consider these three limited possibilities and prayerfully hold them in the light of His truth. The first one is:

 

Fear - If I offered my unconditional surrender what would you want me to do? Many are afraid that he will send you to the desert in some remote desolate place. Therefore, we never fully and totally, unconditionally surrender to His will. The devil always makes that complete unconditional surrender a hard thing to desire or want in your life because he uses fear to get you to let go of that idea. In addition, unfortunately, we miss the best that God has for us in this life. Secondly, we don't surrender because of;

 

Trust - We just feel that we can't trust God with everything. We know people cannot be fully trusted no matter how great some are in virtue. Therefore, we assume or believe God will let us down to. To place one's trust in a person even if it's God becomes difficult to do when our references stem from humans and their flaws and then attribute the same to God. Finally, our third reason for failure to unconditionally surrender to God is;

 

Kill Joy - We think God wants to remove all excitement and fun from life. To unconditionally serve God is to give up all of life as we think we know it and take on a boring dull way of living life. We feel as though if we commit to this level then we will be deprived of every fun thing there is to do and experience. Therefore, God is tagged with a "Kill Joy" Spirit that requires us to be miserable all our days in service to Him. Who wants that!

 

In closing, friends, we need to realize that God did not give us a spirit of fear. But, love, power and a sound mind. Fear nothing, except the name of the Lord your God! Please note that God is trustworthy. In other words, He cannot lie as men do so often. Whatever He has declared as being ours according to His promises that are revealed in His Word with a resounding, Yes! and Amen! Hold on to them no matter what. And finally brethren, Christ came to give life and life more abundantly than anything you could imagine. God is full of wonderful surprises that are sure to leave you speechless at His goodness to those who are willing to unconditionally surrender all to Him.

God bless you, In Jesus name!