“Do you realize that the simplicity of your life is about the heart choices you make and their outcome? Your most important choice is whether or not you choose to come to Me and live in the restored relationship I have provided through Jesus. Your decision has obvious eternal joys or consequences.

"What most fail to understand is that that choice is about Lordship; not whether Jesus is Lord or not, He is. It is about your submission to His Lordship over you. The degree to which you submit to His Lordship over you reveals more than you realize. I observe how submissive your heart is and how willing you are to immerse yourself in His ways; then I make choices. Some of My choices will surprise you if you haven’t submitted your heart fully to Him.”

Exodus 33:13 NIV

“’If I have found favor in your eyes, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you…”

Joshua 24:15 NIV

“But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord.”

2 Chr. 16:9 NIV

“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him...”

Proverbs 3:5-6 NIV

5) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Romans 12:1 NIV

Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God…

Ephesians 3:16-17 AMP

16) May He grant you out of the rich treasure of His glory to be strengthened and reinforced with mighty power in the inner man by the [Holy] Spirit [Himself indwelling your innermost being and personality].

17) May Christ through your faith [actually] dwell (settle down, abide, make His permanent home) in your hearts! May you be rooted deeply in love and founded securely on love,…

Lordship has a very clear definition in spiritual terms. It zeroes in on heart position and shows us who we really serve, not who we say we serve. God has committed Himself to have us fully surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Herein lies one of the most wonderful truths of our association with God because of Jesus. God’s part of our covenant is to make sure that we do not remain unlike Jesus. He is continually reminding us that we have sold our old life to Him. (Actually, He bought it from us. The price was the blood of Jesus.)

If we attempt to hold on to our lives, striving to maintain any semblance of control over them, we will lose their real value. If we voluntarily lose our lives, willingly taking the posture of Jesus by giving everything away to God, we gain more than we could ever believe possible. When we choose to make these fleeting moments in time that we call our lifetime all about the glory of the Lord, He shows us that He has far more for us than if we had been concerned only for ourselves.

It works like this: If we really do give everything away, He draws so close to us that our nature is superseded by His nature; and consequently, we care less and less about our own needs the more we come to Him. (Supersede – to force out of use as inferior, to take the place, room, or position of.) Our surrender causes the Lord to develop in us the character of Christ - a nature that is deeply in love with the Father and wanting only His desires - in place of our selfish, carnal character. The freedom achieved through our submission is the really good news of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God lovingly brings us out of the horrors of our fleshly nature.

I choose to fully submit to Your ways, Lord,

Jim Corbett