PART #11 THE STAFF AND SWORD MINISTRY November 10, 2004

MANIFESTING CHRIST

SEEKING GOD WITH AN OPEN

HEART & A SURRENDERED WILL

by Nancy-TONI Younghrandt

Just as Joseph & Mary went throughout Bethlehem all those centuries ago, looking for aplace to bear the Christ child — if the Holy Spirit came hocking on the door of your heart,would room be found in your "inn" for bearing Christ today? I ask this because many yearsago the Lord Jesus showed Chuck-JOHNEL that His Return was not set at a predeterminedpoint in time but rather was contingent upon there being a body of Believers who had a heartfor His Return — a heart that truly wanted Jesus to come again and a heart that was preparedto receive Him when the time came. Then in 1985 the Lord God showed Chuck-JOHNEL thatthere was at last such a Body and that foundations were being laid for His Return some time

down the road — Praise the Lord!!

However, it would appear that the Body isn't quite there yet and there is still much

preparation that needs to be done. So, as part of that preparation, I have the leading andinsight to write about the importance of seeking God and Jesus Christ with an open heart anda surrendered will that you too may walk more fully in the center of God's Will for you andto be more fully prepared for that hour of the Lord's visitation which no one will know of in

advance.

DEFINITIONS

Since certain terns or expressions mean different things to different people, I will qualifywhat I mean when I use the terns `heart' and `will', and even the expression `seeking God'.I'll start with the last one first. By `seeking God', I mean whether you are seeking to cometo know God and Jesus Christ intimately or if you are seeking to know God's Will for you ina specific matter_ The same principle applies whether you are just abiding in His Presence or

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DEFINITIONS continuedyou are seeking to receive an answer to prayer about a specific matter like relocating. Eitherway you are seeking to know and be found in the center of the Perfect Will of God for you.

To get to this point is actually quite simple but yet not everyone seems willing to do it. AsMadame Guyon put it, to have a deep, inward relationship with Jesus and God the Father ...

". IS ONLY THE TURNING AND YIELDING OF YOUR HEART TO THELORD.

IT IS THE EXPRESSION OF LOVE WITHIN YOUR HEART FOR HIM."

From this point, once we have turned inwardly to God and yielded our heart to Him out oflove for Him, that we are in the best position to seek and find Him. It is here that one can seekto be yielded to God's Will, to be conformed to His likeness and commune with God. JesusChrist and the Spirit of God. It is at this place that you can raise your questions to God andknow that He hears you and will answer you.

THE HEARTTo define this further, it helps to realize that one's heart is not speaking of our emotions or

feelings but rather it is the very center of your being, that deep core or very essence ofwho you are.

With this understanding, mixed with what Mdm. Guyon said about a deep, inwardrelationship with Jesus being the turning and yielding of your heart to the Him, I would thencome in prayer to Jesus, praying to yield all of my heart - the very center of my being - toHim. I am giving Him my all — all of who I am, how I feel, think, and act (with warts and all)to Jesus and God the Father. I am laying myself open before Him that I may come to knowHim and His Will for me. And like the second half of Guyon's statement, this is done as anexpression of love within me for Him. lam not doing this just because I want something fromGod but because I love Him and want Him in my heart and in the very center of my being.

THE WILLAt your core is also your will. Your will consists of what you want, desire or will for

deep within at the center of your being as well.

In the past, before you were saved and before you surrendered or yielded it to God's Will,it has been under the control of sin and self, and has worked in you to those ends. Now wehave the choice of yielding our will to the old sin and self — OR — we can yield it to God and

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DEFINITIONS continuedlet Him take control of us to do His Will and good pleasure.

However, to come to know God's Will we must first be willing to quiet our soul down tobe still before the Lord so that we may hear that "still, small voice (of God speaking) within."It also helps to recognize what our own will is, our own desires and wants, and then yieldthose to the point where we can hear or receive direction from God from a place ofbeing openin our heart to the point where we are yielded and surrendered to God and His Will for us.

Chuck-JOHNEL calls this a place of "holy indifference".

HOLY INDIFFERENCEIn Chuck-JGHNEL's report entitled, "Counsel on Making Major Decisions", he uses this

term to describe this same attitude to have in prayer when corning to God with your prayerrequest as I have been describing thus far. We are not speaking of human indifference but aholy indifference — one where the individual has come to end of 'self' and set it aside to trustin God to the point where you have an indifference to what God will say. You have come torelax and know within yourself that whatever God will say or do will be the best thing for you

and that all is in His Hands. You have gotten your `self and its nature out of the way to

simply wait upon God for His Will to be done.

Why do we stress this point? Well, it is all too easy to seek God's Will when in truth wejust want God to agree with us and endorse what it is we want. However, this is not how togo about seeking God's Will with an open heart and yielded will. After all, we are to beseeking God's Will to be done in our lives and not our own —right? Right!

POSITION IN PRAYER

For God's Will to be manifested in your life it really comes down to having a good positionor attitude in your heart when coming to God in prayer. If you have an open and trusting heart

toward God with a will that is yielded to God then you are there, before God (whether yourealize it or not) and He will keep you and His Will will be done.

However, if you come before God with a heart full of the cares of this world, fears or yourown strong desires and wants that you are willfully hanging on to then it will be very hard foryou to know God's Will. As long as those have dominance in your heart and you choose towillfully hang onto them, then those will reign in your heart rather than God.

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POSITION IN PRAYER continuedTo help illustrate what I am speaking of, I'll tr

y a few

1 I l ti sketches. To the left here is the best place to be in prayer.There you are in the middle, standing in a place of holyindifference having yielded yourself to God and His Will

God's Will — and His Light and presence can shine on you unobstructed.^^ for you - You have an open heart and surrendered will open to

X11, ; 1 hearing and receiving what God would have to say to you.! ti

Unfortunately, too often we do not actually approach Godfrom that place of prayer but rather we come to Himenveloped in our own cloud of self with its desires, wants

Holy indifference, and will. This in turn serves to block you from receivingsurrendered, yielded, God's Light, presence and direction. Anything you think you

willing to hear whateverwould receive ve from God will be coming through the filter of that

the sayblack cloud and so the results will be very suspect asconfusion and doubt can easily set in. (See sketch below)

\l ll1

God's Will-, for you

//i)The only way you will be able to truly hear God

will be if you get rid of the band and come out from Your will,under or within the cloud. This means letting go of desires, wantswhatever it is you are hanging onto and being open

and yielded to hearing what God would say on thematter. It doesn't mean you give up on your prayerrequest or desire but rather you commit it into God'sHands and decide to calm yourself to listen to God's Will on the matter.

On the other hand, it may cross your mind to play a sort of game or use a sort of logic andthink to yourself, since I know that this is what I want, I'll just assume that God will say no.you take opposite position of what you want and say that is what God wants for you.However, that may not always be the case and so it would be a mistake to take that positionas well. You would just be moving from one dark cloud to another. (See sketch on next page)

Another way to see this would be to picturethat black cloud as if it were a brass band playingat full strength. Maybe in a lull you managed toyell out to God, "Should I be doing this?" But thenthe brass band begins up and totally drowns out anyanswer God would give you.

Your will,desires, wants

What you don'twant - what youfear Gad will say

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POSITION IN PRAYER continued

God's Will ---a, for you

Holy indifference,surrendered, yielded,

willing to hear whateverthe Lord would say

One motivating factor that could cause you to enter the second cloud is if you are fearfulthat God will not give you what you want. You could also be afraid of missing out on whatHe has for you. Fear of any kind will always cloud your ability to hear and receive from God- it is the enemy of faith. When you are afraid, you are not trusting in God as you should.

When you are afraid of missing out or that God won't give you what you desire, then you arelimiting what He can do for you. Anything that keeps you from trusting in God needs to beremoved from your heart and will. Instead, you can rest in the blessed assurance that is there

in Psalm 37:4-5

"Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give the desires of thine heart.

COMMIT THY WAY UNTO THE LORD;TRUST ALSO IN HIM;

AND HE SHALL BRING IT TO PASS."

Here it is saying that the Lord God will give us the desires of our heart. This is not sayingthat whatever you want, God will give you with like a blank check, but rather if you delightyourself in the Lord, then He will put in your heart what you should desire. However, it

doesn't stop there. It then says to CC}NIMIT YOUR WAY UNTO THE LORD - or in other

words, commit the way this desire is to be fulfilled to the Lord, and TRUST dN HIM to do it,

and HE SHALL BRING IT TO PASS sometimes for you, and other times with you and through

you. You must trust and have faith that He is greater than any resistance or static that your

own self could offer up. After all, it says in I John 4:4, "... greater is He (God) that is in you,

than he (the devil or self) that is in the world. „

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POSITION IN PRAYER continuedThe best position to be in is one where you have looked at what you do want and whatever

fears or strong feelings you have about your particular prayer request and need, and then letgo and surrender to God and His Will for you -- whatever that may be ... trusting that God the

Father truly does know best.

A SAFETY NET

If by chance you find that you just can't get out from under the cloud and are just tooblinded by your own desires and thoughts, there is a safety net out there called the Body ofChrist. If you find that you have prayed the best you can but are still unsure of the Lord'sleading then you can ask a fellow brother or sister in Christ to pray and help you receive ananswer from the Lord. There are times when it helps to find a mature and discerning brotheror sister in Christ (or several) who can pray from that place of holy indifference on your behalfand seek discernment concerning your prayer request. That is why we are here — to help oneanother as Christ enables us. We are all one Body in Christ and asking help from others whenthere is a need is what being a family in God is all about.

The trick, however, when seeking discernment and Godly counsel from other in the Body

of Christ is that you must be willing to hear both an agreement or a word that is contrary to

what you want to hear. You can't ask a question and then balk at that answer if isn't one youwant to hear. The same goes with asking a question of the Lord directly — you must be willingto receive and act upon the answer once you know that it is truly from God and not disregard

it if you don't like what is said.

DEEP ON TRUSTING

It also helps to realize that once you start walking in Christ and trusting in Him, then youhave to keep on trusting Him. Like a child learning to walk for the first time, you receivedirections and then take a step or two and off you go. You don't just start out and then say,"Okay, God — I got it now. I can take it from here." And then think you are ready for

everything in life that will come your way.

Instead, once you start this kind of walk, your dependence on Jesus is only going to growas you begin to realize how much more you need Him and how wonderful it is to be in thecenter of His Will. We always have needed Him, but in the past we have been able to delude

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KEEP ON TRUSTING continuedourselves into thinking that we were doing fine on our own. It is only as you begin tosurrender to God that you realize how much His Grace has covered and kept you in ways and

at times in which you were unaware.

KEEP YOUR HEART SET ON JESUSLike Peter when he was walking on the water toward Jesus, we must keep our heart and

will set on Jesus and we can weather any stone or threat safely in God's care. As we keep ourheart and will focused on Him, we will keep walking on the water by faith but if we lettroubles get the better of us, then in the water we will go. For this reason, we see in Scripture

Jesus telling us not once but twice,

"LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED:YE BELIEVE IN GOD, BELIEVE ALSO IN ME."

(John 14:1)

"PEACE I LEAVE WITH YOU, MY PEACE I GIVE UNTO YOU: NOTAS THE WORLD GI VETH, GIVE I UNTO YOU. LET NOT YOUR

HEART BE TROUBLED, NEITHER LET IT BE AFRAID."(John 14:27)

This in turn, also relates to the `will' as well. If your will has been set on God and yieldedto Him then that `will' ends up being like a rudder that keep your ship on course with Jesusat the helm. I liken feelings, troubles and trials as being like the winds, storms, currents andtroubles that can afflict a ship at sea but with the rudder set and the Captain is in control, then

the ship will come through and stay on course.

In Hannah Whithall Smith's book, The Christian's Secret to a Happy Life, (published by

Barbour Publishing, Inc., PO Box 719, Uhrichsville, Ohio 44683), she likens the will to being like a

wise mother in a nursery with the feelings being like a set of clamoring, crying children. She

goes on to explain,"The mother makes up her mind to a certain course of action which she believes to beright and best. The children clamor against it and declare it shall not be. But the mother,knowing that she is mistress and not they, pursues her course lovingly and calmly inspite of all their clamors; and the result is that the children are sooner or later won overto the mother's course of action and fall in with her decisions, and all is harmonious

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KEEP YOUR HEART SET ON JESUS continuedHannah Whithall Smith quote — continued

and happy. But if that mother should for a moment let in the thought that the childrenwere the masters instead of herself, confusion would reign unchecked. And in how

many souls at this very moment is there nothing but confusion, simply because the

feelings are allowed to govern instead of the will?"

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO

LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE

Another way of looking at this is that we are talking about denying our self-life by layingit down before Jesus and taking up our cross and following Him. In the book of John, chapter10, Jesus speaks several times of giving up His life for the sheep. He even explains in verse

18 that,"No man taketh it from me (His life, but I lay it down of myself. I have

power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again."

This makes His sacrifice all the more meaningful as He could have taken back His life and notgiven it for God's purposes and for our salvation but He didn't. It was a cooperativerelationship of God's Will and Jesus' Will working in harmony with one yielded and

surrendered to the other.

For us, as followers of Christ, it then also falls to us as to whether we will lay down our life

for God's Will to be done or if we will take it back. And here I am speaking not just of ourphysical lives but our self-life as well. Will we hang onto our own self with its desire, wantsand self-serving ways or will we lay it down not just in relation to ourselves but also for thesake of others. After all, Jesus gave His life for the sheep (us) and so, on some level, isn't itthe least we could do to give our lives for Jesus and for those He died for as well?

For me, there have been a couple of times in my walk in Christ when Jesus would ask sucha thing of me. Those times have come when He has called me to do things or deal with certain

people that I found inwardly difficult to handle in a right Spirit in my heart. It would be at

those times of great personal discomfort that Jesus would ask me, "Are you willing to die for

that person?"

Now, with that question, I knew that Jesus wasn't asking me to die physically for them like

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YOU HAVE THE POWER TO LAY DOWN YOUR LIFE continuedtaking a bullet or something. I also knew He wasn't speaking of dying as Jesus did to savetheir soul since He did that and the price has been paid. Instead, Jesus was asking me if I waswilling to die to my self for that person so that the work God wanted done could go forwardas He intended. Was I willing to let go of all the uneasy feelings and emotions stirred up andlet God's Will be done with that person? Once I made the decision that yes, I would lay downthat self-life, a peace would settle within me and all would go smoothly for me after that and

God's Will was accomplished.

I believe that this dying to self is what the Apostle Paul wrote of in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10.

Here he writes —

"We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but notin despair; Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; Alwaysbearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus

might be manifest in our body. "

In other words, we are hit with troubles on every side through people or events in this world(or even spiritually) — but we are not distressed inwardly. We are perplexed and bewilderedat times over the trials and troubles that come our way, but we are inwardly not in despair. Wecan be persecuted but still not feel forsaken by God and we can be cast down but still not

inwardly be destroyed — at least we don't have to be — if we choose to ALWAYS BEAR

ABOUT WITHIN US, within our being, THE DYING TO SELF OF THE LORD JESUS

that the LIFE OF JESUS MIGHT BE MANIFEST WITHIN US.

You see then that before Jesus gave His life physically for us, He had already given up Hisown self-life first. He never would have made the physical sacrifice in the right Spirit withouthaving made the sacrifice first within His Heart, His Will and every part of His Being.

PRAYING FROM YOUR HEART

If you now find yourself wanting to seek God with an open heart and a surrendered willbut are not sure how to pray, then start by simply praying from what is in your heart towardGod. You can start by expressing how much you love God and appreciate Him. Don't worryabout being eloquent or having a perfect' prayer because God isn't looking at specific wordsbut rather the intent of your heart behind the words.

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PRAYING FROM YOUR HEART continuedIf you find that words seem to fail you then remember that old saying, "a picture is worth

a thousand words." It is just as valid to present a visual image as a prayer as it is to prayspecific words. For example, you could picture yourself in a cloud or storm, as I illustratedearlier, with the cloud or storm representing the trial or feelings you are experiencing at the

time, and then pray for Jesus' help to come out of the cloud and see yourself coming into Hispresence and His Light. You could even picture yourself as Peter when he stepped out of theboat and began walking towards Jesus with your eyes fixed on Him.

Another visual image you could pray is seeing yourself with your heart in your hands,giving your heart to Jesus. It could look like a heart-shaped box like the kind chocolates comein, it could look like a literal heart or even a white glowing ball of light --- either way, pray tosee yourself giving your heart to Jesus ... and then see Jesus taking it as well? Trust your heartto Jesus and He will not let you down.

I would also suggest that for those of you who pray the prayer sheets, that rather than justpraying the words the next time, try to visualize what you are praying. See yourself holdinghands with others in the Net of Prayer and praying in unity and agreement by the Spirit ofGod. See yourself taking on the armor of God. See yourself giving your heart to Jesus andinviting Jesus to manifest in you.

I suggest this because I have found in my times with Jesus that often what He communicates

to me, since it was by His Spirit, transcends words but rather it would be absorbed into myspirit-man first often as a picture or a knowing by the Spirit of God. Later as I prayed moreabout it, then what Jesus had communicated to me would filter down into my soul wherewords would slowly form to express what Jesus had said or shown me. So, in a reversefashion, likewise when we pray to Jesus, we can transcend words and move by the Spirit toexpress ourselves to Jesus in a like manner. Presenting images or pictures in our mind is oneway to do that. Praying in tongues is another. Whatever you are most comfortable with -

that's the best place to start.

Lastly, in case anyone finds themselves afraid to even approach God, I would urge you tonot let that stop you. Remember, nothing can separate you from the Love of God — unless

you choose to separate yourself. Instead, keep in mind that GOD IS LOVE and it says in I

Corinthians 13:4-8 that — LOVE SUFFERS LONG ..... so that means God bears with us a

long time. LOVE IS KIND .... so God is kind. LOVE IS NOT PUFFED UP _... so God is notpuffed up. LOVE DOES NOT BEHAVE UNSEEMLY .... so God not behave unseemly withus either. LOVE IS NOT EASILY PROVOKED .... so God is not easily provoked either. Andmost importantly of all .... LOVE NEVER FAILS ... so that means that GOD NEVER FAILS.God will never fail you if you but turn to Him, trust Him and give your all to Him. He will not

let you down! -a ^i•a ` Lx `'ICI`""^-^ ^