Dwayne Wedderburn | Changing Jamaica requires surrendered believers

Jamaica is a Christian country. Every child is exposed to God's ways from a very early age, yet we grapple with crime, immorality, indecency, witchcraft, idolatry, and all the direct evidence of lawlessness and godlessness. We ponder as a nation, and somewhat conclude that most of our problems are deep-rooted spiritual problems. Again, the Church is called upon to intervene. Effective intervention will come when more pastors, church leaders, church members, and all the people of God in this nation become surrendered to His will and His will alone. A putting aside of our agenda and embracing His will is the critical requirement for us at this time. When this is done, then we will see a revolution of righteousness sweeping every sector of this nation. Let our entire being echo and enunciate Jesus. Let us say, "Not my will but Thine, Lord, I surrender!"

"And He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt". (Matt 26 v 39)

Jesus Christ, our redeemer, was faced with the ultimate test. He was at the point where doing God's will was physically and emotionally agonising. He was at that point where doing what He came to Earth to do became lonely. Prayerfully, He enunciated His decision to go all the way with God's purpose for Him on Earth, despite pain and displeasure. God's will for our lives often commences with much joy and a sense of personal fulfilment. We are comforted with the fact that we have accepted Jesus as our eternal Lord and saviour, attending church, participating in ministry, and living a good Christian life. However, it is certain that as believers continue to walk with God, as we get closer to Him, He places a knowing on our spirits that He is demanding much more from us than we are giving, and in some cases, much more than we are willing to give. A life-changing phase of our relationship with God unfolds. We begin to realise that the radical change that we made when we first surrendered to Him has a sequel. We are called upon by His spirit to surrender again to His divine will, to do specifically what He has created us to do. Beyond this point, we see loneliness, agony, pain. We see a path that we are wavering to take, an unfamiliar path where we are sure we can't depend on ourselves anymore, but our dependency will be on Him alone.

"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9 v 23)

Self-denial is the toughest Christian requirement. However, when we are called to impact other people's lives, to preach the gospel, to heal the sick, to cast out demons, to do greater works than Jesus did, self-denial is inevitable. Self-denial begins first with a great surrender of our time in prayer, waiting on Him, and allowing Him to constantly commune with our spirits until our spiritual man is edified, to the point where our spirits, not our souls, become the dominant part of our existence. Them that are led by the Spirit are the sons of God. It is at this point of spiritual empowerment that the Holy Spirit will highlight to us areas of our lives where we need to make changes, so that we will be perfectly and permanently conformed to His will. Surrendering to God's will takes more than a made-up mind, it takes a spirit yielded to the Holy Spirit. This combination will result in our actions pleasing Him alone and us consistently doing specifically what He has called us to do with great power and great results.

Like salvation and sanctification, self-denial is an act and a process. When self-denial becomes our lifestyle, then we know we have surrendered to His divine will for our lives. When we evaluate our lives and we realise that our daily walk really does not consist of the plans we made for our lives, but only consists of the plans that God has made for us, then we are totally surrendered and totally ready to execute the power of the Lord Jesus in our lives and ministries and will secure righteous transformation for this nation.

- Dwayne Wedderburn is an apostle at World Harvest Mission Church. Please send feedback to https://fb.me/worldharvestmissionchurch.