As we daily walk with the Lord, seeking to please Him in all things, His will for our lives will gradually
unfold before us.
"For it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" Phil 2:13.
A man once said that he had totally submitted his life to the Lord. Then he likened this to giving the
Lord two bundles.
In the first bundle, he placed all that he knew. This included all that he presently possessed or related
to in any way. He considered these and said, "In so far as I know, Lord, I unconditionally surrender
myself and all these things to you."
In the second bundle, he placed the unknown. This included all that the Lord might require of him, but
of which he knew nothing. Again, he considered these possibilities and then unconditionally gave these
to the Lord.
Thus, he had surrendered to the Lord the totality of His being, both present and future. Usually, we
feel satisfied concerning the first level of commitment - that which is known. But we may be caught
unprepared when the Lord asks for something from the second level - the unknown. We then struggle
as to how to respond, as we feel that we have already committed all to the Lord.
We must come to understand that our submission to the Lord is a progressive, ongoing experience. We
make one grand surrender, and then many lesser but deeper surrenders as we spiritually develop and
grow.
Once we have unconditionally surrendered the totality of our being to the Lord, He will accept it and
then wonderfully bless us. While we are still under the inspiration of this lovely blessing, we may say to
the Lord, "I will go where You want me to go, I will say what You want me to say, I will be what You
want me to be."
However, in a few days, when the Lord asks of us the simplest thing, we are unable to respond to Him,
according to all that we had promised. There must yet be a deeper work of preparation within us
before we will be able to make the surrender the Lord desires.
Some years ago, a young man who had some experience in the ways of the Lord came to the Bible
School where I taught. He had ministered in some very successful meetings and had prayed for those
who were sick and they were healed. All this made him feel important. He came to school with the idea
that he knew much about spiritual things. I heard him pray an extravagant prayer, in which he so
desired to please the Lord that even martyrdom would be welcomed.
Each student was required to do a work duty. Whenever it came his turn to wash dishes, he declared
that God had not called him to wash dishes, but to preach the Gospel. I thought, "You will not be fit to
preach the Gospel until you can wash the dishes."
He went through an awful struggle. Once, as he loudly prayed about being a martyr, I wanted to tell
him about the dish pan. In his spirit, something was twisted, but on the surface there was not a nicer
person.
After being a pastor for a few years, he visited the school. He hugged me and said he had not known
what ministry was really like, but now that he had pastoral responsibilities, he understood. The Lord
had done a marvelous work within him.
Each of us should be careful of pledging, "I will be what you want me to be, I will go where You want me
to go" just because it is easy to sing. The Lord might send us where we do want to go, or require of us
something that we may not desire to do. He knows exactly what to ask of us, in order to expose our
need.
If we recognize that the Lord has something far better for us, for which our present level of spiritual
commitment and experience is inadequate, and we make the necessary surrender, He will bring the
necessary corrections in order to lift our experience to the level of our new commitment.
This is the foundational step in our becoming the overcomers the Lord is preparing for His purposes.
"To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and am set
down with My Father in His Throne" Rev 3:21.
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John Follette (1883 - 1966)
Follette was a gifted Bible teacher and author, who had both perspective and spiritual depth in his interpretation of the Word. He was an illuminated spirit in the field of spiritual reality, and had an unusual ability to impart “spirit and life” into those who sat under his ministry.He received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1913 while a student at a Bible School in Rochester, New York, and later became a teacher there until the school closed. He also taught for many years at Southern California Bible College. During the later years of his life, he was called into a wider field, ministering in conferences and retreats which took him around the world. He passed into his eternal reward in 1966 at the age of 82.