Last night I taught the lesson entitled TURN for our Celebrate Recovery group. It is lesson 5 and the TURN is 2-fold. First, we are to turn our lives over to Jesus asking Him into our hearts. At this point, Jesus becomes our Savior. The second part of TURN is turning our will over to Jesus and letting His Holy Spirit have His Way with us. This is when He become Lord.

Even though I struggled immensely over the years about Jesus living in my heart, I could wrap my mind around this truth for all I had to do is ask Him to come into my heart. This second part has been the much more difficult one. I understand surrendering my will to Jesus each day. But staying in that surrendered place all day has always seemed next to impossible. Only of late have I begun to better understand that in our flesh we cannot stay surrendered for in our flesh we are too susceptible to Satan’s deceptive attacks. I’m starting to better understand that in God’s Spirit we are victors because God’s Holy Spirit lives within us and Satan has no power over Him. Christ won this battle for us at the Cross.

As my journey continues I am learning what letting go and completely surrendering each day is like. I’m not fully there yet, but I am fully committed to this race as Paul calls it in God’s Word. What is wonderful is that the outcome will someday be heaven eternally. For today, this very moment, there is PEACE within me. The battle is not mine to fight. The battle is won and each day’s battles will be won as I start each day worshiping my Precious Savior and Lord surrendering as I worship knowing the battle is not mine. Satan’s deception wants me to believe my flesh, but God’s Holy Spirit has the real message–“”Satan, you have no power over Earnie for he has surrendered his spirit to Me this day and now you must flee.” THis is not true just for me, but it is true for each one of us as we daily surrender to our Savior and Lord and rely on The Holy Spirit to be our Sword of The Spirit.