Supernatural Transformation: Change Your Heart Into God’s Heart (30 page)

Prayer of Surrender to God

Surrendering to God is a personal decision that must be made feely and continuously in every area of our life—daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly. It is a choice that no one else can make for us—not our spouse, children, siblings, church leaders, or friends. Therefore, the best thing I can do now to encourage you to yield to God is to offer you a prayer that, of your own free will, you can pray in surrender to Him. Use the following prayer as a pattern for your daily surrender. Yield your whole life, including your spouse, children, friendships, career, finances, health, thoughts, dreams, and emotions. Do it right now, and continue to do it every day. Surrender is not always easy, especially at first, because as soon as you choose to die to “self” and the sinful nature, the “old man” will rebel and want to retake the throne of your heart. Thus, in order to surrender, you need to rely on God’s supernatural grace, which goes beyond your own strength! He will give you His grace as you trust in Him.

Father, in the name of Jesus, I open my heart to You. I want more of Your presence, anointing, and power. Right now, I surrender my will to You and crucify the “self.” I declare that I am dead to “self” and the sinful nature so that I can do Your will. I surrender to obey Your Word and to follow the direction of Your Spirit. I am being transformed into the image of Christ, who is the perfect Man. I pledge to be under spiritual authority and not to rebel against You or Your delegated authorities. In the name of Jesus, I submit everything I have and everything I am to You, asking You to be Lord and Master of all. I yield my life to You and choose to let You be in full control. Amen!

Prayer for Salvation and Transformation

If you have never before opened your heart to Jesus, allowing Him to enter and to be your Lord and Savior, and allowing God to fill you with His Spirit, I want to give you another opportunity to do so right now. You will not be able to fully surrender your heart to God or have access to His blessings and promises until His Spirit is dwelling in you. God will give you the supernatural grace to do, according to His will, what you cannot do in your own strength. Repeat the following prayer and yield your heart to the Lord today.

Heavenly Father, I recognize that I am a sinner and that my sin separates me from You. My heart is in need of transformation, which only You can accomplish. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for me and that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord. I repent of all my sins and break every evil covenant I have made with the world, with my sinful nature, and with the devil. According to the power of Jesus’ sacrifice for me, I break all generational curses operating in my life. Now, I make a new covenant of righteousness with Jesus. I ask Jesus to come into my heart and to change my life, filling me with the Holy Spirit. If I were to die right now, I know I would be in Your presence when I opened my eyes in eternity. In Jesus’ name, amen!

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n the last two chapters, we’ve discussed the obedient heart and the surrendered heart. Yet what happens when we persist in going against God’s will, refusing to surrender to His plan for our life or a specific area of it? Continuing to rebel against God has a high price—the price of spiritual brokenness. In some cases, for those who harden their heart and maintain their resistance to Him, the price is spiritual ruin.

Many people know they are rebelling against God as they live an immoral lifestyle, ignore God’s call on their life, refuse to submit to a specific command He has given, or disobey Him in some other way. They function according to their own terms and standards, resisting the purposes of their Creator.

Often, while people are in this state of resistance, they believe they can escape God’s chastisement and correction. Yet God disciplines and corrects those whom He loves. (See, for example, Proverbs 3:12.) It is much better for us to willingly submit to our heavenly Father than to have to experience brokenness—either by way of the destructive circumstances we’ve created for ourselves or by a direct intervention of our merciful God, who sometimes has to “break” His disobedient children for their own good. The Lord always has our best interests in mind in His dealings with us. As the writer of Hebrews said,
“We have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live!”
(Hebrews 12:9 niv).

Transformation Through Brokenness

There may also be times when we experience a period of brokenness not because we are in active rebellion against God but because we are battling a difficult situation in life, such as an illness, a deep sense of hopelessness, or the distressing behavior of a wayward child. Other times, we may go through brokenness because God desires to instruct us about an aspect of His nature and ways. The hardest periods of my life have been the times when God has “broken” me. While I am in the midst of the process, I don’t always understand why it needs to happen; however, I understand and appreciate it once it is over.
“No chastening seems to be joyful for the present, but painful; nevertheless, afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it”
(Hebrews 12:11).

After we have been broken, our priorities change, and what matters most to us is God. Each time I have undergone brokenness and submitted to my heavenly Father, I have received greater spiritual freedom and blessing. My heart has been transformed: My passion to please God and to do His will has increased. I have experienced deeper inner peace and a greater sense of fulfillment. I have become more sensitive and humble, and I have become more willing to recognize my dependency on God. I am more teachable and forgiving. I also produce more fruit in my personal and ministerial life. But, above all, I experience a greater hunger and thirst for God, leading me to higher levels of surrender and a closer relationship with Him.

“Unconditional Surrender”

We all have areas in our life over which we know we haven’t given God full control. Yet, instead of yielding those areas to our Creator and Lord, we often argue with Him about them! At times, we justify our sins, thinking that because we have been trying to overcome a certain weakness for a long time, without apparent results, there is nothing more that we can do about it. We become spiritually stagnant in that area and no longer give it to God or seek transformation. When this is the case, we reveal that a degree of complacency, independence, selfishness, unbelief, and/or rebellion is still operating in us.

The Lord doesn’t want us to remain in a condition that keeps our heart and mind from being united with His, preventing us from doing His will and experiencing all the blessings He desires for us.
And brokenness of heart is often the means God has to use to deal with our stubbornness, pride, and other obstacles that are in the way of our total obedience to, and trust in, Him. Brokenness is a painful condition in which we realize there is nothing within us that can help or save our situation—and sometimes even our life. Our only help is to submit to the love and lordship of Christ. In that place, our heart no longer tries to argue, reason, or excuse itself before God. We have arrived at the point where we are willing to yield to Him and to obey Him without reservation. We come before God under terms of “unconditional surrender.”

The Gift of Brokenness

Regardless of the reason for our brokenness or what form it takes in our life, we can know this: As painful as it is, brokenness is a gift, because it allows us an opportunity to return to God and/or to know Him in a deeper way. The illustration of the loving and generous father in the parable of the prodigal son is a picture of our heavenly Father’s attitude toward us when we go through brokenness. Just as in the parable, the Lord welcomes us back with open arms when we step back onto the path that leads home to Him. (See Luke 15:11–24, 32.)

The heart of our heavenly Father longs for His children to turn from their rebellion and to draw near to Him. His heart is reflected in Jesus’ lament over Jerusalem—over the hardened and indifferent hearts of the people:
“
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (Matthew 23:37). When our heart is hardened or indifferent, God will allow us to experience brokenness for the purpose of renewing us, so that the transformation of our heart into the image of Christ may continue.

Every human being who surrenders to God during the process of brokenness has a breaking point—a point at which he recognizes the inadequacy of his own strength and resources and finally yields his heart to the God of unlimited strength and resources. In today’s vernacular, reaching the “breaking point” is sometimes referred to as “touching rock bottom” or “eating dust.” Some people reach that point faster than others. Certain people yield only after enduring adversity or suffering the consequences of their rebellion for a long period of time.

A man named Frank experienced a brokenness that led him to rethink his decision to walk away from God. He writes, “I grew up in Cuba experiencing lack in basic areas of my physical life, such as food and health. From the age of two, I suffered from chronic asthma attacks. Many times, I would arrive at the hospital on the edge of death. I was also emotionally deprived. My relationship with my parents was hell. They fought with each other every day, and the yelling and violence were unbearable. When I was eleven years old, my parents divorced. My father left the country with the intention of bringing us out someday. His departure caused me great pain.

“One night, I went with my mother to a church, and together we accepted Jesus as our Savior. Immediately, we began to enjoy a personal relationship with Him and to serve Him. But, at age fifteen, I walked away from Jesus completely. I lost my relationship with God, and sin took over my life. By the time I was seventeen, my life was in chaos. I was rebellious and prideful and refused to listen to reason. I felt alone, rejected, helpless, and miserable, and I reached the point where I considered taking my own life. I tried to fill the void in my heart with sex and popularity, but nothing worked. However, my mother was praying for me.

“At the peak of my desperation, I began to seek God’s face, and I made a firm commitment to serve Him, regardless of the price. Little by little, God began to set me free, and I started to feel His presence once more. Later, my father was able to bring us out of Cuba, and we came to the United States. Here, God gave me a wonderful church with the best spiritual parents. He healed me of asthma and restored my relationship with my father. I also met the most beautiful woman I had ever seen, and God joined us in marriage with the purpose of serving Him together.

“Two years later, she became pregnant. Our joy was immeasurable! When she was three months along, we went for a routine appointment at the obstetrician’s office, where we expected to hear our baby’s heartbeat for the first time, but everything suddenly changed. The doctor told us that the baby was dead. After the initial shock, we returned to our car and began to pray. While we prayed, the Father’s embrace comforted and healed our hearts. Later, God gave us two precious children who fill our hearts.”

We must remember that God doesn’t cause sickness or death. However, He can use the brokenness that difficult situations produce to draw us closer to Him. And, if we have rebelled against God, He can enable our hardened heart to once again become sensitive to Him and to surrender to His purposes.

Brokenness means going to God under terms of
“unconditional surrender.”

The Broken Heart Versus the Wounded Heart

To understand brokenness, it is essential to know the difference between a heart that has been “broken” and a heart that is emotionally wounded. Many people tend to think they are the same thing, but these conditions are opposites in regard to the heart’s openness to God, willingness to be taught by Him, and ability to receive healing.

A person with a broken heart humbles himself, surrenders to God, and gives up his will in order to do God’s will. His focus is no longer on his own problems and needs but on God alone as his Source and Sustainer. In contrast, a person with a wounded heart is usually centered on himself rather than on God. The troubles he has experienced may have been self-inflicted, or they may have been imposed on him by others. Regardless of how his difficulties occurred, the character of his heart has been infected with self-pity and bitterness. His heart has open sores that continue to bleed and to cause pain.

It is said that the most dangerous animal is a wounded animal, because it is always on the defensive. It rejects being helped, and no one can approach it without being injured. When people have been wounded, they are often unable to trust others, and they try to protect themselves from everything and everyone whom they perceive might hurt them. Consequently, they have few, if any, close relationships.

In the realm of the church, I believe that the most “dangerous” people are wounded pastors and other leaders, because they often preach, teach, and minister out of their emotional pain rather than from knowledge and revelation of what Christ wants to say to His church. A wounded leader is unable to be a clear channel through which God’s anointing can flow. Additionally, I believe that those who are emotionally wounded can attract demons that desire to control and even dwell in their heart. If you are a pastor, a teacher, an evangelist, or another type of church leader, and you find yourself hurting other people spiritually, mentally, or emotionally, it is probably because you have been emotionally and/or spiritually wounded and have never resolved the pain in your heart. While we all have to deal with various emotional and spiritual issues, I don’t believe God wants a leader to be ministering to others if he is in a state of woundedness. He wants leaders to serve His people in a state of spiritual health, with
“the fruit of the Spirit”
—
“love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”
(Galatians 5:22–23 niv).