i worry about literally everything
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Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Christ with Coffee on Ice. I am your host, Allie Yost, and I am so excited to be here.

with you guys with you guys hi everyone how's everybody's friday how are we doing today i am filled with the joy of the holy ghost today i am so grateful to be here i'm so grateful for y'all i hope that you've been having a great week i hope that today we are filled with the joy of the father no matter our circumstances no matter the questions we have no matter the things we do not understand

I am literally speaking from experience. There are still things in my life that I do not understand. And honestly, I don't think you're being truthful if you are sitting here saying, no, I definitely have everything figured out and I know exactly what the Lord is doing with my life and I have no questions. There's just no way. So thank you, God, that we are not alone. I want to read, actually, as I'm saying this, there's a scripture that comes to mind and Ashley actually sent it to me the other day as a reminder.

And I think it's really good and it is worth mentioning here on the pod right now. This is 1 Peter 5, 6 through 9. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxieties on him because he cares for you. Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because

Because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering. That part especially is very much to what we're saying right now. That you're not alone. That you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of suffering. We...

are all facing the same kind of battle. We're all facing the same kind of suffering. Now, does it look exactly the same? No, but we know that it's all falling under the same umbrella. A lot of times, we don't know what's going on. A lot of times, it is really hard for us to trust the Lord when nothing makes sense in front of our eyes. And so, that's real, y'all. But aside from all of it, we are supposed to stay joyous.

and we are supposed to laugh at the future with no fear, Proverbs 31. She laughs at the future because she trusts her dad more

And she knows that no weapons formed against her will prosper. And she believes in God. And so do we. Yes, we do. We believe in God. Thank you, Jesus. We have our iced coffee. Our coffee on ice with simonin on top. And we have our Christ. We have our Bible. Hopefully you all have the same.

Now, listen, y'all, now that we are on the topic of not understanding what's going on in our lives, okay, now that we're on that topic of being like, hey, Lord, what, what, what

What's going on? Hey God, I'm trying to figure out what's happening and I can't figure it out. Hey God, I thought I knew what you were saying, but now it doesn't really look like that's what you said. Hey God, you told me these things and you showed me these things, but that doesn't make sense because it doesn't align with what's happening in my life right now, right? What does it look like to lean on our own understanding and what does it look like to fully surrender to the Lord? Like actual surrender.

I feel like I have the authority to speak on this because the Lord has taught me and actually has walked me through this multiple times of what real surrender looks like, what fake surrender looks like.

and what no surrender looks like, which is just leaning on our own understanding and trying to predict what the Lord is doing. That is not surrender. So I want to talk about those three things because I believe it is very much relevant to probably every single person listening. And the Lord has even given me some visuals that I would like to share with you guys too.

Hopefully it makes sense and it is something that you feel can apply to your life right now. If there's something that you're waiting on that you've been trying to understand, I believe the Lord has a word for you today through this podcast. So

I just want to pray actually really quick and I just want to thank the Holy Spirit. Thank you, God. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for being here. Jesus, I surrender this episode to you, God. I surrender every word that comes out of my mouth, Lord. I ask that you are the sole thing.

That takes over this podcast. You are the sole thing that is speaking on this podcast, Lord. I ask you don't allow my flesh or my understanding to get in the way of this message, Lord. Let it be the honest truth, God. Let it be handled with gentleness as you handle things with

realness, but gentleness. Like you're real with your children and you don't sugarcoat anything. You don't flatter us, but you're gentle with it. And so Lord, thank you that you are not a God of condemnation, that you are a God of grace and you are a God of encouragement and you are a God that is constantly willing to give us wisdom so that we can walk better and

Lord, thank you that this episode is actually going to allow us to walk better as better children of God, that we are going to be better daughters and we are going to be better sons to you. We are going to be able to trust you more because of this podcast episode and because of what you reveal in it. And so, Lord, I just thank you. Thank you for allowing me to be a vessel, Lord. I ask for more humility, God. I ask to go lower, lower, God. I must go lower so that you can be greater.

And so, Jesus, I trust you. I trust you with my life, God. We trust you with our lives. Lord, we trust you with what you're doing with our lives, even when it doesn't make sense. And so, God, thank you that you are constantly teaching us how to trust you more and more every day, that you are actually continuing to teach us how to have more faith in you every day. In Jesus' name, amen. Hallelujah. Thank you, God.

So first and foremost, let's just talk about the definition, like the actual meaning of the word surrender. So the word surrender has multiple meanings, including giving up, agreeing to stop fighting or yielding to someone else. Giving up, to give up something completely or to agree to give it up, especially in favor of someone else.

For example, the squatters had to surrender the building after the police moved in. Agreeing to stop fighting. To agree to stop fighting, hiding, or resisting because you know you won't win. For example, after their defeat in battle, the soldiers surrendered. They laid down their weapons and surrendered.

Yielding to someone else. To give someone else the control or use of something or to yield to someone on demand or compulsion. For example, I finally surrendered to temptation and ate the last piece of chocolate.

Surrender can also be used as a noun to describe the act of surrendering, acceptance of despair, or the delivery of a principle into lawful custody. For example, the rebels' ammunition is almost finished and it is only a matter of time before they surrender. The word surrender has origins in the old French word, which means to give up.

Okay, so obviously there are a few definitions of surrender and what that looks like. And the one that hit the most, y'all, was the one that you heard me probably giggling to. I have to read that one again.

agreeing to stop fighting, to agree to stop fighting, hiding, or resisting because you know you won't win. When we are not surrendered to the Lord, we are fighting him. A lot of these examples are examples of resisting something, trying to stand your ground,

But realizing that you're losing and eventually you have to just surrender you put your weapons down You're like, okay, we're losing. We're running out of ammunition The person I'm fighting right now is winning and much stronger than me and it doesn't look like I'm going to win I need to surrender to give up something completely or to agree to give it up especially in favor of someone else to give up

I think the words to give up, we should tread lightly when we're talking about surrendering to the Lord. Because the thing that I don't want us Christians to fall into when we surrender is losing faith.

Like giving up in the sense of giving up as if you don't believe it would ever happen again. Because that's not the type of surrender we're talking about right now. And that's not the type of surrender that you should have as a Christian, because we still believe in the power of God. And we still believe in the promises he's made us. And we still believe, even if you've

gotten certain words, visions, right? This goes back to one of the episodes we talked about just recently where maybe you've received a prophetic word directly from the Lord or through someone else, right? You've been encouraged and you truly believe that the Lord has spoken to you about these things, but it hasn't happened yet. We're not giving up on

that, but we're giving up on maybe the expectations that we've made up in our own mind saying that it needs to happen in a certain matter or that it needs to happen in a certain timing that God didn't necessarily ever say.

giving up trying to understand what God is doing. One thing that I have learned in my life over and over again, and I'm sure I will continue to do, is I have actually learned that I cannot successfully predict what the Lord is doing. I have tried to predict everything

Like what his next steps are, what he's doing, what this outcome will look like. And every single time y'all I'm wrong. Every single time. I'm like actually not even close ever. I'm never close to predicting what the Lord is doing. And the reason to that is because I am just a daughter. I'm just a daughter. I'm just a human. I cannot actually predict what the Lord is going to do because he's Lord because he's God.

When it comes to the Lord working things out, when it comes to miracles, there are so many more moving parts than we could ever physically comprehend. There is no way we could ever predict God. We can't. We can't predict his footsteps. But what we can do is we can follow the footsteps that he has literally already made for us to step in.

We're going to follow him and we're going to trust him. And the thing is, is God knows that we can't predict what he's going to do. Like he knows that because he created us and he knows what we're capable of fully comprehending and understanding, which is just not God. We can't actually fully comprehend God. We know him. We love him. We have a relationship with him. We know his voice, right?

But we actually can't fully comprehend the Lord. That is something we will try to do for the rest of our lives, but we will constantly be having revelations. We will constantly be having like, whoa moments about Jesus and his goodness. We think we understand the gospel until it hits us in the face again. And we're like, oh my gosh, wait, I don't think I actually ever fully understood the gospel. Like that will never end as long as we are seeking his face and we are surrendering and humbling ourselves to

Yielding ourselves to him. That will never end. Which means we won't ever fully figure out God.

But I have never been able to figure him out. I've never been able to successfully predict what the Lord is doing. So what does that mean? That means I need to just surrender. And I've had to over and over again. If we can't successfully figure out what the Lord is going to do, we can never actually predict his next steps. That means we have to surrender to him. So surrendering, it's not giving up on the things he's promised us and on his goodness.

But we are giving up our own understanding.

We're giving that up though. We're going to give up all of our man-made predictions, expectations. We're going to give up leaning on our own understanding. And we're definitely going to give up trying to predict what the Lord is going to do. That's what we're giving up. So we can still use the words giving up, but I just want to make sure y'all aren't getting it twisted. And it's like in a discouragement way, because discouragement is not fruit of the spirit. Discouragement is not from our heavenly father. And so if you are giving up thinking that

that is surrender, it's actually just discouragement. That's trying to hide under a cloak that's written surrender on the back of it. Like, I don't know if you guys have experienced this before, but there've been a lot of times where I have actually been deceived thinking that I was doing something that was serving the Lord, but actually it was something that was masked

in something really icky and gross that was demonic. So discouragement is demonic. And so if that's what you're feeling right now, that ain't surrender. Brothers and sisters, that's not surrender. If you're throwing your hands in the air and you're like, God, I surrender. I give up. You know what? If this never even happens and like that's the tone of your voice. The other thing I want to talk about is heart posture when it comes to surrender. Okay. That's actually perfect. Okay. I'm going to give you two examples of

When I mentioned earlier, I said there's a fake surrender and there's a real surrender. So fake surrender is if somebody were to look at you and say, well, have you surrendered it, Ali? And my response is I have surrendered this. I have surrendered this and over again, I'm surrendered. I'm surrendered. Okay.

literally sat on my floor, weeping to the Lord saying, God, it's yours. I give up. It's yours. I'm surrendered. Okay. That's reaction number one. Reaction number two. If somebody were to ask you, Hey, well, have you surrendered it to the Lord? And your response is, you know what? I have, I've surrendered it.

I trust the Lord and I trust the things that he's told me. Whether it happens or not, I know he has a good plan for me and I know that he's not going to lowball me. So yeah, I actually think I've surrendered it. I have joy. I have joy. Even though everything looks really messy right now, I'm actually like joyous and I'm expectant for what he's going to do. Like I'm surrendered. This is great.

Do you hear the difference, y'all? Do you hear the difference in that surrender? The first surrender was the heart posture was out of a place of, I feel like we're still clinging on to it a little bit. Like if your reaction is like, oh, I've surrendered. Oh my gosh, God, I've surrendered. Where is it?

Have we surrendered at all? Because, girly, that doesn't really sound like surrender to me. That doesn't really sound like surrender to me. That sounds like we're still frustrated and we're still kind of clawing at it and we're still hanging on. That doesn't sound like full surrender. I don't hear any peace in your voice. And so the other thing with surrender, and this is why the Lord wants us to, this is one of the many reasons why God needs us to surrender, is because he loves us and he wants peace for us.

Believe it or not, he is a loving father and he wants you to have peace in this knowing that he's got it. He says, be still, honey, and know that I am God. Like, I got this. I was getting very passionate. I feel like I'm talking a million miles an hour, so I'm going to slow down. Okay. Our God is loving and he is kind.

So that means that he also wants peace for us. He does. And so in surrender, there has to be peace. That's actually how you know that you've successfully surrendered. If you have peace and you're not reacting out of like frustration, devastation, anger,

Like if your reaction is actually straight up peace and you're like, actually, I have surrendered it.

Because I'm chilling right now. That's how you know you've surrendered it. That's how you know you haven't fake surrendered it. Where you're just saying that you've surrendered it and you're giving up on it, but you're giving up on it and you're giving it up in a discouragement way. So that goes back to what I was saying where it's a spirit of discouragement that's trying to hide under a cloak that says surrender on it. Rip that cloak off and expose it for what it is. It's trying to possess

to pervert surrender for you because that's not real surrender. That's not real peace. I'm going to share the vision that the Lord gave me about surrender. And this might not speak to everybody depending on what it is that you're hopeful in. I don't know everybody's stories listening right now on what it is that's like in your mind that you know you need to surrender or are still waiting on and you've already surrendered it.

But I just want to share this analogy in this story because I do believe it'll speak to some.

So the Lord had revealed to me not too long ago that I was under the assumption that I was blind right now. Okay. Meaning I don't know what the Lord is going to do. I don't know how he's going to do it. I don't know what he's doing. I don't know where I am. All I know is I'm following Jesus and I can only see the footsteps in front of me because this goes back to what I was, I

I think almost saying when I got really passionate is that the Lord knows we can't figure out like all his footsteps. That's why he only shows us the footsteps in front of us. He says, okay, I need you to take this one, this one, this one. He's not going to overwhelm us with the whole thing.

Because our brains probably wouldn't be able to handle it. So we're right here, okay? I'm right here with the Lord and I'm taking each step. But I've gotten this vision that I'm like in a dark place because I can't see. I don't know what he's going to do. I don't even know where I am. I don't know what's going on, right? I can't predict anything because I can't see anything in front of me. But I can see Jesus' feet and I can see a light that's just in front of me. And I'm just following his footsteps, right?

But he revealed to me that I have been under the assumption that my blindness means that I'm going through something dangerous. Like I'm in a dark cave that's like wet and cold and creepy and I can hear bats flying around above me and I can hear water dripping like I'm in like a creepy cave.

Do you guys get the visual? And I'm following Jesus's footsteps. And I know I'm safe because he's standing in front of me, but I've had this assumption that I've made up myself. God has actually never told me that I'm going through something dangerous, even though I'm blind. Sometimes our blindness makes us think that we're in danger. It doesn't mean that we're actually in danger or even in a dangerous environment. That's what he's showing me. He's like, you've been

thinking that you're actually blind because you're in a scary cave and I'm walking you through it. And I'm not saying that that's never going to be the scenario because I will walk you through things that seem dangerous, but you are safe because you're right behind me and I'm paving the path. Nothing's going to touch you. That is very much our Lord. But he's like, you've been thinking about

that's the scenario, honey. And it's not like you're actually not in a cave right now. That's not why you're blind. You're blind because I blindfolded you. I was like, what God, what are you talking about? He's like, no, no, no. I put the blindfold on your eyes. You're blind right now because I don't want you to see.

I was like, okay, God, why would you blindfold me? Why would you do that? And he said, think of it like a surprise birthday party. Think of it like I want to surprise you. So you're blind right now and you don't understand because I don't want you to understand right now. I don't want you to understand. I put that blindfold on you. I don't want you to see anything yet because I want it to be a surprise. I was like,

Okay, God, so you're telling me that this blindness all along was not because I'm going through a scary cave but because you put a blindfold on my eyes and you want this to be a sweet surprise? He was like, yeah, you've been talking the whole time. You've been trying to figure out where we are. You've been assuming the worst, by the way. You've been assuming that we're walking through a scary cave. Who's to say we're not walking on the beach right now, baby? Like there's sun beating on your face. You're in...

Who's to say you're not in paradise? It's just because you can't see. But because you can't see, you're assuming the worst. You're trying to figure it out. You're trying to ask me where you are right now. Like imagine, you guys, imagine you're trying to surprise your best friend. Somebody who means a lot to you, okay? You're trying to surprise that person and you put a blindfold on them and you're putting them in the car. And the whole time, the whole time, they can't relax. Like they can't receive. They can't,

Surrender, right? So they're sitting there and they're like going on and on and they're freaking out. They're like, well, what are you doing? Okay, well, I just felt a bump. Does that mean that we're in the middle of this place? Okay, well, I don't understand because it feels kind of hot. So does that mean that we're like in the middle of a desert or where are we going? Like, are there going to be a lot of people there? And they're just going on and on and on trying to predict what you're doing. They're low key assuming the worst. They're not even enjoying it.

And so a lot of times y'all, when we're not surrendering and we're assuming the worst, we're not allowing the Lord to surprise us.

Actually, the Lord will surprise us no matter what, but we're not allowing ourselves to just relax and sit back and actually be expected. If the Lord is sitting there and he's saying, I've blindfolded you because I have a really great surprise for you and I can't wait for you to see it, but you can't know anything yet. Like, I don't want you to even know where we are right now. Can you accept that? Can you accept that and say, okay, and just trust that he actually does have something sweet for you.

Even though you're blind right now, you're literally blind. You don't know where you are. You've been walking with him for hours and you're like, God, oh my gosh, how much longer are we walking? Like, it feels like you're taking me somewhere really far away and I'm getting a little anxious. I'm getting a little stressed out right now. If God has made promises to us that he will bring beauty to ashes, that he will

has something good for us on the other side. That is the Lord's promise to every single one of us. Why are we not just believing him? Why are we not just following him? And yeah, we're blindfolded, but we're expectant and we're filled with joy.

Anyone who's ready to receive a surprise, anyone who is trusting in that person who's leading them into surprise is like giddy. They're like laughing. They're like, oh my gosh, what? I'm so excited. I actually have no idea what's going on. I don't know who's going to be there. Hopefully my favorite food is there, but they know that something good is happening. And so they're giddy, they're excited, and they're filled with joy. They're laughing. They're like, oh my God, this is the best.

I love this. Oh my gosh. They feel loved. They feel loved. And so that's what I felt the Lord revealed to me is he said, I know it like doesn't make sense that you're blind right now, but I'm telling you it's because I have something so good for you and you need to just be joyous. Like I actually, if you want this to be fun,

I mean, I'm going to give you the surprise anyway, so it's truly up to you at this point. Are you just going to surrender and be joyous and expectant of my goodness? Or are you going to stress yourself out the whole time? Be anxious, burn a trillion calories, be exhausted by the time you're unblindfolded and the surprise is there and you can't even fully enjoy it. Ooh, how about that?

How about imagine yourself being so exhausted from trying to guess where you are, understand where your feet are stepping. Like you are questioning every single step you're taking. Imagine how exhausted you're going to be when you're finally like the blindfold is off and you see everything and you're like, huh?

but you like can't even enjoy it now because you're exhausted. Or maybe you can enjoy it, but not to the extent of what you could if you had just relaxed and been expectant and like excited. And sometimes that can feel like a lot

of the Lord to ask us, you know, like, because sometimes the blindness and the blindfold doesn't feel good. It doesn't look good and it can feel like torture, but that's not the Lord's goal in all of this. He's not blindfolding you to torture you. He's blindfolding you so that it's sweeter because you didn't see anything coming. You know, you blindfold somebody with surprising them because you don't want them to know anything leading up to it.

you wanna just take that blindfold off and they're like,

Oh my gosh, wait, I had no idea. That's the Lord's heart, y'all. That's God's heart. And so surrender is not like this big high and mighty, I'm more powerful than you type mentality from the Lord. It's like, I actually love you so much that I want you to just be still and know that I am God and I'm taking care of you and that this is going to be really, really good. I know it doesn't look that way because you physically can't see, but it's going to be sweet.

I'm going to read a little something that I just found online that says, Jesus wants to lead your life. Whether you envision a throne or a car, Jesus wants to lead your life. He wants to be the center of your life around which everything revolves. This is not just a one-time experience. It's a daily practice.

How can you do this? Commit to live your life for him one day at a time. You can't change your past. It's done. You can't change your future. That is in God's hands. You can only live in this moment. So live one day at a time and each day choose to let Jesus lead your life.

This may start in the mornings with prayer or studying your Bible before the day starts. You get down on your knees and you pray, Jesus, today I want you to be the center of my life around which everything revolves. I want to please you and live for you. I yield myself to you today. Please fill me with your spirit to live for you today.

That's a great way to start the day. But be warned. Sometimes during the day, you might take the throne or grab the wheel again. Anger will surge. Temptation will win. Selfishness will rise up and you will sin against God. When you do, confess it quickly to God.

1 John 1.9 says, Confess your sin and then yield yourself once again to him. Lord, I want you to fill me and use me today. I'm yielding the control of my life to you.

That's so good. And I am actually so grateful that what I found online mentioned confessing of our sins and repenting because one of the things that I was going to say is that, you know, if you want like a step-by-step of like, okay, Allie, we understand surrender. We know what it looks like. We know the difference between a fake surrender, a real surrender, and we know the heart of God now, right? Of like why he asks us to surrender to these things. And I think that's so good.

And so that's all good and dandy. But now how do I actually do that? Because I've not been able to successfully do that. Like I know what surrender is supposed to look like and this has been really helpful, but how do I actually do that moving forward now? And I think some of the most important things that comes with surrender is humility. Like truly being so humble that you're like, I don't know anything.

It's giving no pride, y'all. Like you got to throw pride out the freaking window. You've got to throw self-righteousness out the window. You will not be able to surrender to God. It's also like submitting to the Lord. Like if you can't submit to him, you definitely can't surrender to him, which means there's got to be pride. There's got to be self-righteousness. There's something in you still that's like,

but I need to know, but I'm right and I need to be right and I need to understand. You don't need to understand. You don't. Why? Why do you need to understand what's going on? You don't. You need to be still and trust God because he's God.

You don't need to understand anything because that's not what's keeping you safe. God's keeping you safe. Your own understanding is not keeping you safe. You think that that's a form of protection. You think that you're allowing yourself to stay safe by understanding, but that's not your safety net. If your foundation is built on understanding, if your foundation is built on control, self, like your control,

If your foundation is built on self-righteousness, that is going to crumble and fall. That is not a safety net, honey. That is not a safety net. God is your safety net. So you don't actually need to understand anything.

If you ask yourself, why do I need to know this right now? To make yourself feel better? Do you need to understand it so that you can sleep at night? Do you need to understand it so this pit in your stomach goes away? That's not the answer though. That's not the answer though. That's giving an idol. That's giving that you're relying on something else more than you're relying on God. So if you're relying on your own understanding more than you're relying on Jesus, then

That's not good. And you will never be able to surrender that way. That might be why. So it starts with humility. It starts with what was the word that was used as one of the definitions of surrender? Yielding. Yield.

at Jesus's feet, you better get on your face and say, God, I know nothing. I know nothing. That's what you need to do. You need to literally get on your knees and say, Jesus, I don't know anything. You do. God, I trust you. I don't want to know anything.

want to know anything. I just need to cling on to you. I'm not going to cling on to my own understanding. I'm not going to cling on to what other people are saying in the church. I'm not going to cling on to the prophetic words that I got. God, I'm not giving up on them. I have faith in you, but Lord, I am giving up on clinging to them. The only thing that will keep me alive is Jesus. That's what you need to believe. You need to believe that the only thing that is going to keep you alive and keep you afloat during this time is literally Jesus.

Not anything else not understanding anything. You need to surrender and say God I actually will only live through you I will only live through Literally holding on to you you're allowed to hang on to things But actually there's only one thing that you're supposed to be hanging on to and it's Jesus So take the s off of things thing You are only supposed to hang on to one thing and that's the Lord and so I say that with love and

with love. And I say that from experience, but if you are still sitting here frustrated saying, all right, I know what surrender is supposed to look like, but I'm not doing it. You ain't humble enough. You are not at the feet of Jesus enough. You need to go lower. Maybe you thought you were being humble enough, but the Lord's checked my heart at times. And I've said, whoa, actually I need to be more, more, more ask also ask.

If you feel like you're not doing a good job at being humble on your own, well, here's another thing I need to tell you guys is that you can't do anything without the power of the Holy Spirit. You actually cannot humble yourself more at the feet of Jesus without the power of Jesus. And so I don't say that to discourage any of y'all that you're not strong enough or you're not humble enough. Y'all, we are not humble without the Spirit of God. We are not righteous without the Spirit of God.

Self-righteousness and ego is what humans do without the spirit of God. That's who we are at the core without Jesus. And so if you're not able to do it on your own, that actually makes a lot of sense. There's nothing wrong with you. It's actually just that you're human. We can't do it without Jesus. And so then we ask him for it. We say, God, I need you to help me humble myself at your feet. God, I need you to help me get lower. When I ask the Lord,

I ask the Lord. I don't say, God, I humble myself. I say, God, I need your help of how to humble myself. God, help me humble myself more today. God, help me trust you more today.

Let's go back to that prayer that I just found online. Jesus, today I want you to be the center of my life around which everything revolves. I want to please you and live for you. I yield myself to you today. Please fill me with your spirit to live for you today. What does that sentence say?

That sentence doesn't say, I fill myself with my own spirit to live for you today. No, we are asking the Lord, please fill me with your spirit to live for you today. The only way that we can successfully yield to the feet of Jesus is through his spirit.

Please fill me with your spirit to live for you today. We can only live for Jesus fully through his spirit. It still doesn't come down to our own power. If we need to surrender to the Lord, it's actually through the power of him still. It still all goes back to him. Everything, even the strength to surrender is from God.

So what we can do is we can vow to the Lord and say, Lord, I yield myself to you today. That's very much real. But when it comes to having the power to actually do it, to have the strength to actually do it, we have to ask God for that. Please fill me with your spirit to live for you today. I need you, God. I need you for surrender.

I can't try to find surrender in myself. I can't try to find humility from myself. I need you to humble me. I need you to bring me lower today. God, I yield myself. I want to be low today. Show me how. Fill me with your spirit so that I can live for you today.

And so a really important step with humbling ourselves to the Lord is repentance. If you feel like you've been trying to lean on your own understanding, if you've been questioning the Lord, if you've been trying to predict his footsteps, if you have been trying to figure it out on your own, if

If you've been trying to control things out of your own power, if you've been trying to make things happen out of your own doing, if you've been trying to understand things so that you can sleep at night, you need to repent for that. You need to repent for that. And you need to say, God, I'm sorry that I believed that there was anything else that could help me sleep at night except for you. God, I'm so sorry that I believed that understanding what's going on right now would actually help me sleep at night.

It may not feel like something that you need to repent for in the moment when you're like sitting and you're trying to math the math and you're trying to figure the Lord out and you're trying to understand things and you're trying to connect the dots. That might not seem like something you need to repent for. It might not feel like a super big sin, but it is something that can snowball and can turn into something much bigger.

bigger that now Jesus is actually not at your foundation anymore. You trying to understand everything is the foundation. So repent and ask God for forgiveness and then ask him to truly and fully lead you into surrender. And if you get into the secret place, if you're sitting in your closet, which I do encourage all of us, if there's a closet for you to pray in and sit with and close the door and be with Jesus,

Please do that. It's beautiful and intimate and it's amazing. But if you go into that room and you shut the door and you say, all right, Lord, show me how I can surrender right now. He will lead you. He will lead you into how to surrender. Sometimes that even happens for me with journaling where I'm like writing down all my questions. I'm like, I don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it. And then all of a sudden I have a revelation in the middle of me journaling and I'm like, oh,

That's what you're showing me. Oh, no, wait, I'm actually not supposed to be worrying about this. Do you know what I mean? He is such a kind dad. He will lead you. He will always lead you. The reason that we don't feel like we're being led by the Lord is because we are no longer allowing him. Like we're not letting him lead us into these things, but he's always willing to lead us.

He's always willing to lead us. It's a matter of slowing down, being still and listening to his voice and saying, okay, God, I need you. I need you to lead me in this because I haven't been doing a good job at it on my own. I have not been doing a good job at surrendering on my own. My surrender has looked a lot like

The fake surrender where I'm frustrated, angry. I'm like, okay, so where is it? I surrendered. So where's my thing? Like that's the surrender I've been trying to do on my own. And that's not real surrender. So I need you to lead me into what real surrender looks like. And that starts with repentance, y'all. It starts with humility. If you're humble at the feet of the Lord, you're going to be able to surrender and it's going to be quick.

I think another thing that really helps me is verbalizing the things that you know you need to surrender out loud to the Lord. So God, I surrender what college I get into. God, I surrender whether I get this job or not. Lord, I surrender this interview. And Lord, I ask that you guide my footsteps

and you lead me in this interview, but Lord, I actually surrender whatever the outcome is because I know that whatever the outcome is, is to your plan. And I trust you. I trust that you're a good dad. I trust that you're a good father. And I know that you would never mislead me into something that was only going to hurt me, burn me and leave me in poverty. That's not our God. You have to believe in the heart of Jesus. And if you don't, you need to go back to this

because this is the heart of God. This is the heart of our Lord. And so if you're having a hard time believing in his goodness and you're believing in his heart, well, there's plenty of examples of his goodness and his grace and his miracle working hand in this book. So get back to the word of God. If you are having a hard time understanding the heart of God.

But verbalize the things that you need to surrender to the Lord. Say it out loud. It might hurt. It might sting. It might put a little pit in your stomach. But you got to say it. And you got to ask for peace. And say, Lord, I pray at the end of this surrender that I feel peace.

And I pray for a pure heart in knowing your goodness and your plans for me. And I would be literally and utterly shocked if at the end of that, you don't feel light as a feather. You don't feel light as a feather because the cool thing about surrender is that you could look in the physical, like you're looking at your life

And nothing's changed yet. You have all this joy all of a sudden circumstances haven't changed Nothing's changed everything that you've been praying about maybe there hasn't been any breakthrough yet, but you have peace girl That's the rain there. Hey that surrender and it's so cute and beautiful. It's adorable scrumptious yummy

It's good. Surrender is good. It is a freaking gift from God. Repentance, surrender, yielding at the feet of Jesus. Oh, yum. That's my favorite. It's the best.

It's a gift. It's not a punishment. It's not like a power struggle. It's just a gift. It's just a gift. Surrender. Is Jesus sleeping in the boat during the storm? Can we bring up that scripture? That's surrender. That's Jesus going, y'all, what are you worried about?

Y'all, let's just go to Matthew 8, 23 really quick. Let's talk about this moment where Jesus is sleeping in the boat. Then Jesus got into the boat and started across the lake with his disciples. Suddenly, a fierce storm struck the lake with waves breaking into the boat. But Jesus was sleeping.

The disciples went and woke him up, shouting, Lord, save us, we're going to drown. Jesus responded, why are you afraid? You have so little faith. Then he got up and rebuked the wind and the waves. And suddenly there was a great calm. The disciples were amazed. Who is this man? They asked. Even the winds and waves obey him.

So Jesus in that moment looked at his disciples and said, y'all don't have that much faith. Do you believe in me? Do you believe that I'm actually the son of God? Like you've seen me work miracles. You've seen my powers.

Of what little faith y'all have to think that you were in any danger. But that's actually how we need to act in surrender. That's surrender. Jesus was surrendered to his heavenly father and he believed in the power of God and he believed everything was okay. Even though they were in the midst of a storm, he wasn't worried about it. Jesus was asleep.

In the middle of a storm, the waves were even like coming into the boat and Jesus was still sleeping. That's what surrender looks like. That's how we need to act when we're surrendered. We need to be so at peace, sleeping like a little baby. In the middle of the storm, that's surrender because we know we're not going to drown. That's faith. What did Jesus say in that moment? You guys have little faith.

Surrender is also very much tied with faith. And so if you don't feel like you have enough faith, well, read the Bible. If you don't feel like you have enough, read the Bible. Whatever it is, fill in the blank. Do you feel like you have enough? Read the Bible. Seek Jesus. Seek God.

If you don't have enough faith, ask for it and learn about the heart of our God. And you know what's really fun about surrender? This is actually just from experience. So this is like Allie talking right now. But what I've just observed in my own life is that when I

finally surrender, like I'm not like fake surrendering anymore. I finally am fully surrendered. I'm filled with the peace of God, joy. Y'all, I'm like, I don't even care what happens. I just know that the Lord's got me. I'm chilling. Okay. I've finally surrendered. Oh my gosh. Oh, I'm not exhausted anymore. I'm actually just floating with the Lord and I'm not worried about it. Once I finally done that kind of surrender, like the real surrender, all of a sudden the miracle comes and I'm like,

And what's fun is I wasn't expecting it because I was surrendered. I wasn't expecting it. Not that I wasn't expecting it, but I wasn't expecting it on my own terms, on my own man-made predictions, assumptions, okay? We're still expecting the Lord to come through, but like I wasn't expecting it. I was like, oh, whoa, wait a minute. What? I didn't have my own man-made expectations, okay?

I also didn't plan it. Like when it came, nothing about it was planned. It was actually a surprise. I was like, oh, miracles are normally surprises. Like when a miracle comes, we don't actually see it coming. We have hope for it. We have faith for it. But when it comes, we're like, it's a surprise. You're like, oh.

Oh, so this is why the Lord had me blindfolded. And what's cool when you finally surrender is you finally are allowing the miracle to happen because the Lord is not going to deliver the miracle if you are still scratching and clawing and trying to control it. So ultimately the Lord has a plan and his timing is good and it's perfect. But a lot of times I believe that we can delay our miracles and we can delay the things that the Lord has planned for us because we are refusing to let go.

That we're refusing to surrender. And so God is not going to deliver that if we are not fully surrendered because he's not going to encourage a lack of surrender. Does that make sense? Like if we are not fully surrendered, the Lord...

by delivering that miracle would be conditioning us to believe that that's how we have to act and that's how we're supposed to act to receive the miracle, which is not true. So if we are clawing, scratching, controlling, trying out of our own understanding and power, God is not going to bless that.

because that would only encourage us in that behavior, which isn't good. It's not giving peace. It's not giving trusting the Lord for our own good, y'all, though. Like, it's for our own good that he's not encouraging that behavior because it's harmful to ourselves.

And so once we surrender it, then he's like, all right, they're ready for it. But isn't it funny that the longer we refuse to surrender, the more we're actually probably delaying the miracle. If we had surrendered a lot sooner, maybe the Lord would have delivered it sooner. Just a thought. So if you really want it to happen,

Maybe you do the opposite of what you thought. You thought that it would happen sooner by controlling, trying to understand it. But the real thing that brings it sooner is surrender and letting it go and like not obsessing over it or even thinking about it that much. Isn't that funny? So if you surrender sooner, there's a good chance the miracle could come sooner. That's what I've at least seen in my life. And I'm not surrendering it to receive the miracle. I'm not like, okay, well, if I surrender right now, I'll get the miracle by like Tuesday.

That's still control, y'all. Be careful. That's still control. No, you're going to surrender it in trusting the Lord. But just know, just to know, the miracle could come sooner that way. If you've been waiting and waiting and waiting for something, but you haven't surrendered it, well, really, or brother, you might be the thing standing in the way. You might be the very thing standing in your own way.

And then the last thing that I want to mention that's really cool about surrender, like the fruit of surrendering, is that when it does come, because you didn't control anything, because you didn't do anything out of your own power, because you weren't even really expecting it, because you weren't worrying about it, and then it drops in your lap and it's a miracle and you're like, oh my gosh, how did this even happen? It's giving more glory to God. It's giving glory to God because at that point you're like, actually,

There's like no reason this should have happened unless it was God. And what's beautiful in God being glorified is that we believe in him more. We believe in him more. We believe in his powers more. When he delivers something to our lives that we had nothing to do with, the only thing we did was hoped, prayed, and trusted him and surrendered. That's all we did, right?

If that's all we did and this miracle comes about in your life, does that not boost your faith in the Lord? Does that not make you go, oh, so he's like the real deal. Oh, so he really is God, right? So when we go back to Matthew, when we go back to this story about Jesus in the boat, Matthew 8, 23, what were the disciples' reaction when Jesus stopped the storm? They said, oh, even the winds and waves obey him.

Who is this guy? Like that's our reaction when the Lord does a miracle. We're like, oh wait, so he really is the almighty God. Like I knew I believed that before, but with every miracle that he delivers in our life, not only is it like only God, but it boosts our faith in him. It strengthens our relationship with him. When God gets all the glory, and I mean all of it, like every

Every freaking drop of it, every ounce of it, every bit of it where you're like, there is no other reason this should have happened other than the miracle working hand of God. That is the only reason that this happened is boosted. We're like, whoa, he can really do anything. He can really do anything. No, it's really fun when God gets the glory. When God gets all the glory, like all of it,

We fully like pulled back and we said, you know what, God, I'm done fighting you. I'm done fighting you because I'm going to lose. Okay. I'm always going to lose against God. We are always going to lose fighting the Lord every time we don't win that battle. But when we fully remove ourselves, we have removed any other possibility of this happening. And then it happens. That is so beautiful. That's God. And that's his heart.

It also shows his faithfulness to us, doesn't it? It shows how faithful he is to us. But he said, I didn't want you to do anything because I wanted to do it for you. And I didn't give up. I came through for you, didn't I? Because I love you. It shows his faithfulness and his goodness. This was really good, guys. This was a beautiful conversation. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for showing up. This was healthy, Holy Spirit.

It's giving healthy. We are spiritually healthy. This was really good. Humility is good, guys. Surrendering to the Lord is so healthy. It's so good. I'm proud of y'all. Thank you guys for being willing to take all of that. And I really hope that it...

spoke to you guys. I really pray that this reached a lot of us and I pray for peace. I pray that we are now finally able to receive peace.

Because that's also what the Lord wants for us. He wants peace for your heart. I love you guys. Hey, can we do something kind of cool today? Can we show somebody how cool Jesus is? Can we show somebody how cool Jesus is today? Let's practice his goodness. Let's practice his faithfulness. Let's surrender today. Let's be like Jesus on the boat and just take a nap and surrender. I

I love you guys. I'm so proud of y'all. Thank you for joining for another episode. I hope you guys have a great weekend and a beautiful rest of your week. And I will see you next Friday.

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