POWER OF SURRENDER

                    All of you reading this article have a longing to know God in a deeper and more intimate way. You have a burning desire to experience divinity within yourself and be loosed from the bondages of the world!

                    The problem holding all of us back from the full experience of God is we have been programmed to identify only with this physical realm. Identification with the physical, or matter, is more real to us than our identification with the unseen realm of spirit.

                    There is a principle I believe is capable of helping us tap into the presence of God within. It is the principle of surrender, nonresistance to the things presenting themselves in the world around us. It has been called, the path of least resistance.

                    There is an esoteric scripture in which Jesus tells us; in the world we will have tribulation but to get happy, because he has overcome the world. What is the world? He was referring to the physical world of matter. By using the principle I will be speaking about in this article, matter lost its grip and influence over him. He was able to loose identification with the physical world and identify with a higher dimension of the unseen realm.

                    Scripture also tells us we are in the world, but not OF the world. We might live in the physical world of matter but our true identity is not physical! So the question remains, how did Jesus overcome the realm of matter? What principle did he use?

                    Did he wage a war against the wrong things happening in the physical plane? Today we have a war against poverty, war against abortion, war against disease, and even a war against war……. on and on it goes. Have any of these wars alleviated what they are warring against? No! They have energized and perpetuated them.

                    Let’s take a look at the principle of nonresistance Jesus used to free himself from the bondage of matter. Remember when the soldiers came to arrest him and Peter immediately took a sword and cut off one of their ears? Jesus didn’t say, “Hey Peter, way to go, use that sword and get me out of this mess.” No, he uttered a statement we should all realize as a divine principle. Listen to what he said. “Put away the sword, for all that take up the sword will perish by the sword.”   Principle: What you fight against you empower and it gains energy to destroy you.

                    Jesus used the powerful tool of surrender. How could he do it? He understood nonresistance brings awareness of a greater dimension, the presence of divinity. It brings awareness of an eternal realm greater than any situation you are in at the moment. It is able to take our attention away from form to our inner being of aliveness. This is the universal Key of how he overcame the world, or realm of form.

                    Have you ever been in a situation when all of a sudden you are filled with anger? Maybe you are in a store and someone jumps ahead of you in line. Anger wells up within you. Anger is trapped negative energy fighting to be released. So how can you overcome this situation and anger? By saying, yes, I surrender to how it is at this moment. There is a long line and others are pushing ahead of me. This is how it is. I surrender and will not react or resist it. A magical thing begins to happen when you do. You feel a peace, a presence of joy. It sets you free from the situation trying to pull you deeper into its control. Resistance only strengthens the physical realms’ hold on us.      If after you surrender anger tries to come back, just be the observer. Observe that anger is trying to take control and just allow it. The allowing shifts your awareness to sense something deeper than what is going on around you. It is the presence of divinity within you.

                    “My kingdom not of this world” Jesus said. The Kingdom of God is a ruling force not attached to this physical realm of matter. “Seek first the Kingdom.” Seek a dimension greater than the world of form.

                    A profound demonstration of this principle can be seen in the most difficult time in the life of Jesus. When being accused falsely by the chief priest and elders, he did not answer their accusation. Pilate asked Jesus if he heard everything that was being said, giving him an opportunity to defend himself.

                    Jesus never said a word nor defended himself, but surrendered to the situation.

                    Why did he handle it this way? He knew the power of surrender. This was how he was overcoming the world, or realm of matter. He was giving it no energy!

                    “If you want to come after me (or follow in my example) you must deny yourself” Jesus said. You must deny what the carnal or ego self wants you to buy into. Deny it and you will experience something greater! Once we understand how this principle operates, it opens the secret of life Jesus knew and applied. The secret is, every time we react to form, the carnal or ego self gets stronger. When we don’t react it looses its power over us.

                    Let me give you a definition of ego I heard Eckhart Tolle teach. “Ego is the false sense of self, based on false concepts, based on form.” It is a false identity based on what the physical world is trying to make us think is real.

                    Jesus overcame the world of matter. It had no power over him. Death had no power in his life even in the physical realm. He walked right out of death and overcame the concept by not reacting or empowering it. Every time we react to something, it strengthens our identity with form, matter, and the physical realm. The physical form is not our identity. Our physical form identifies with “our story”, who we think we are. It gets stronger with every reaction. When we don’t resist, a deeper dimension reveals itself to us. A dimension of the eternal divinity within ourselves is experienced.

                    Reaction and response differ. Reaction means we buy into the condition happening in the physical realm as the only truth. We then let this condition play its self out. The ego is strengthened by the reaction.

                    Response means we take an action that is totally right for the situation. We cannot respond unless we have surrendered to the situation first. Then the right action will come. Remember when Pilate said to Jesus. “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus had already surrendered to the situation and so he was able to respond, “You say.”

                    Another beautiful example is when Jesus was praying in Gethsemane. He wanted what was about to happen to him removed but he said, “Nevertheless, not my will but thine.” Not what Ego wants but I surrender to a greater dimension.

                    There is enormous power in surrender and saying yes to each moment of our life. We are here to lean to surrender. It is the power of Life itself. We become consciousness the moment we surrender to life, and the presence of God.

                    Here is the Principle of Life: Anything we don’t resist and allow, the deeper presence of divinity reveals itself to us. We begin to sense a greater power at work than what can be seen in the physical realm. There is a sudden stillness we become aware of. Jesus let go of identification with all form that arose and recognized within him was the space of divine perception. This brought in the presence of peace beyond understanding that we all seek. The way to this divine presence has always been and will always be surrender!

                    May You Experience the Power of Surrender,

                Mary Lou Houllis
                Pastor