Submitting Unto God

By Paul Norcross

April, 2000

One of the things the Lord has been teaching me is more about submitting to Him. Throughout the day, I am led to pause, and submit my whole spirit, soul, and body to the Lord. All thoughts, situations, circumstances -- -- but more importantly your whole spirit soul and body --- submit to Him. When I do, His presence fills me with more of Him than I have ever known before. The neat thing is, one can even fill a room with His presence, imparting it to others. The more others in the room there are, the stronger His anointing comes in. I don't know much more than this to tell you. But if you try it out, you'll see what I mean. One intercessor here in our church just reported that after a week of practicing this submission thing, she noticed whatever she was involved in at the moment immediately smoothed out from its turbulence. There seemed to be a release of grace at that moment that was remarkably greater than before the submitting occurred.

Now, why does this work? Last Sunday while teaching at church, the Lord showed me something from James.

James 4:1-9
From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?
Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not.
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.
Do ye think that the scripture saith in vain, The spirit that dwelleth in us lusteth to envy?
But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

We love the song, "I Surrender All", and there is a degree of submission to singing it. And at times we ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, and see if there be any wicked way in us. This too is a submitting to the Lord. But especially when we purposefully, consciously in faith submit ourselves to the Lord, more of his grace will flow to you. Notice in the above verses, submitting to Him precedes resisting the devil. But note also -- submitting to Him also is linked with receiving more grace.

In Luke 2:51 and 52, Jesus subjected himself (same word as submitted) to his parents, and went on back to Nazareth . The next verse speaks of his growth in wisdom, finding great grace in the eyes of those around him. Finally, in the context of marriage in Ephesians 5:21 , the Word talks about submitting ourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord -- a pre-requisite to every successful relationship, particularly a marriage. If we are to be heirs together in the grace of life with our spouses, certainly we must be submitted firstly to God, and then to one another within the boundaries of the fear of the Lord.

So I'd like to suggest you try consciously submitting yourself to the Father frequently throughout your day. I think you'll find it will be a powerful tool in your walk as both a believer, and particularly as an intercessor. Hallelujah!