Hearing from God: Surrender All

The biggest reason people do not hear from God is that they have not given their life to God.  I truly believe there are a lot of people who have been raised in the church that have not truly given their life to God.  Their parents are Christians, so at a very early age they obediently give their life to God, but do not truly understand the sacrifice God made for them.  There are a lot of people that grew up in a church environment that made out God to be more of a condemning, legalistic being that is untouchable and too great to care about our day to day, rather than a loving Father who knows every hair on your head.  This is wrong.  Some have not grown up in a church environment at all or only went on holidays, rather than making God the center of their life.  

God says: “Since I called out and you refused, extended my hand and no one paid attention, since you neglected all my counsel and did not accept my correction,

Then they will call me, but I won’t answer; they will search for me, but won’t find me.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭1:24-25, 28‬ ‭HCSB‬‬

Regardless, if you have not surrendered your life to God, you will only hear one thing from God.  He will be calling you to surrender your life to him.  That is it.  If you have ever been on a plane, the airline attendant tells you to put on your oxygen mask first then help others.  This is God’s message to you.  He can’t help you in your job, marriage, family, give you spiritual gifts, show you His will for your life, or hear your prayers until you first give your entire life to Him.  That means nothing is more important to you than Him.  Not your friends, husband, wife, children, job, time, phone, money, car, house, worries, celebrations...nothing.   I want to share a story with you.  This is Coleman.  He went to Beech High School. He was an avid runner who grew up in church with amazing parents and siblings.  He thought he gave his life to God at the age of 7.  He went to church camp and as you can see in the video, really felt God was telling him - “I don’t know you.”  “You need to give your life to me.“ He did exactly that, and it was so meaningful to him that he wrote the day on his wrist.  6/24/16.  When he returned to school, he continued to do this and became a witness to many in his school and church.  

A little over a year later, November 17th, 2017, Coleman and some friends were in tragic care accident which took his life.  His parents, siblings, friends and the community was devastated.  Amazingly, the entire school and community wrote 6/24/16 on their arm in memory of Coleman, which gave his story an enormous platform.  Many came to know Jesus because of Coleman’s witness in his life and in his death.  What an amazing impact at 16 years old!  Coleman witnessed to more people in 16 years than most people do in their lifetime.  He truly surrendered all. Coleman’s life on Earth was short, but in the big picture, compared to alllll eternity, even if we live 100 years it is a blink of an eye.   The truth is, none of us are promised tomorrow.  Can you imagine getting to God and Him saying, I don’t know you. I just can’t say this enough, don’t waste your life.  Don’t work so hard for an earthly pat on the back to spend eternity in hell. God can use you and has such an amazing plan for our life.  Coleman is in heaven for all eternity with Jesus, and many others will be in heaven because of him.  If he knew this was his path, would he do it again?  I think he would.  Our time may be short like Coleman’s or long like Billy Grahams, but make it impactful in God’s eyes.  Surrender it all and the peace you will feel will be supernatural.  

Next week will look at other reasons Christians do not feel they hear from God.

Love you guys. Have a great week!