- Kristi Louis
- Kristi Louis
“The same posture in which we receive is the posture in which we surrender,” the Lord whispered to me a few weeks ago during worship. And what is that posture? It’s arms extended, hands open. That’s the posture. God can put nothing in hands that are tight-fisted. He can only put something in hands that are open. It’s always an exchange. He never leaves us empty-handed.
Years ago, I experienced this reality but I didn’t actually understand what was happening until I looked back. Hindsight is always 20-20, they say. In 2015, I surrendered a long-standing “God-dream”—a call to South Africa, but in its place another dream was birthed. Braveheart was born that same year, and so was my son, Samuel. I didn’t know at the time that South Africa 🇿🇦 which appeared to be a dying dream was simply a seed in the soil, to be birthed in time. I didn’t know that on the other side of my surrender was the blossoming of a dream that had been in my husband’s heart. I didn’t know then, but I know now. You always know when you look back. I have had this discovery of late that this is perhaps the pattern…if there could ever be a “pattern.” Giving. Surrender. New life.
The story of Abraham and Isaac has always been a precious one to me. It’s a story of a man called, not because of his own merit, but by God’s simple choosing. It’s about a God who gives a promise because He’s bent on blessing and giving and showing the world what He’s actually like. It’s a story of a covenant-making God who walks in friendship with an imperfect man, who believed God, and that simple “faith was counted to him as righteousness.” It’s the story of a man and a woman, who waited for that promise, messed it up a long the way, and yet, still received that promise because the covenant-making God can never lie, and ultimately they trusted Him to be faithful. And He was…He always is.
It’s a story or receiving, surrendering, and inheriting. All in God’s timing, all in His Way.
I was reading that story again the other day, and I saw something I hadn’t yet seen before. In Genesis 22, God instructs Abraham to go to Mount Moriah and take his son, Isaac, to be sacrificed to the Lord as an offering. What??? Abraham’s response was different than mine would have been, I think. My internal dialogue would have probably been, “But wait, God…this son is THE PROMISE….the long-awaited promise. Not only is he my pride and joy, but You said that nations will come from this son…this is him…I sacrifice him, and the promise dies…your purposes get thwarted. Surely not?” No. He listened and obeyed. Hebrews 11:17-19 records it this way, “It was by faith that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham, who had RECEIVED God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even though God had told him, ‘Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will be counted.’ Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him back to life again. And in a sense, Abraham did RECEIVE his son back from the dead.”
What is your God like? How do you perceive Genesis 22? I think we often look at Genesis 22 through the lens of sacrifice. I believe religion overemphasizes that. “I’ve gotta lay this down. I have to surrender this. I have to give this up, etc. etc. etc.” And somewhere along the way, many of us have related to God more as a taker than a giver. The enemy has done that. Religion makes God out to be one who’s always asking us to “lay something down.” Now, don’t hear what I’m not saying. Abraham DID in fact obey God to the point of laying his son on the altar…but then what happened? GOD GAVE. GOD PROVIDED a ram in the thicket.
It hit me like a ton of bricks when I read it…”Then Abraham looked up and saw a ram caught by its horns in a thicket. So he took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering in place of his son. Abraham named the place Yaweh-Yireh (which means ‘the LORD WILL PROVIDE’). To this day, people still use that name as a proverb: ‘On the mountain of the LORD it will be provided” (Genesis 22:13-14).
That mountain was not named “Sacrifice.” It was named “Provision,” meaning this…God is desirous to GIVE you something on the other side of your surrender. I don’t know what it is, but He wants to become to you the God that provides, not the God who takes. God provided the sacrifice, and then, God GAVE Isaac BACK to Abraham. God GAVE the son back to Abraham. God gave the promise back to Abraham. On the other side of surrender is a Father who gives “pressed down, shaken together, and running over.”
The other day I was on a walk, and I was wrestling with God over some “injustices” that I was experiencing…some things that I just didn’t think were “fair.” I was struggling to reconcile in my head why I felt like some things He had “given” to me in His kindness and provision now weren’t working out the way I had thought they would. I felt gipped by God, and I was struggling to forgive those that had hurt me and to make sense of how things had worked out. I heard God whisper to me, “Will you open your hands? You’re strangling this thing, Kristi. Will you release? Will you surrender? Will you forgive and let me give you something that I want to give you? But you can’t receive with closed fists, Kristi.”
He reminded me of Jesus in the Garden, wrestling with God, struggling with His Father over the pain He was about to endure. “Father, is there another way? Is there a better way that doesn’t involve giving My life, that doesn’t involve rejection, betrayal, and suffering? Take this cup from Me…please.” Yet His labored response to God, “Not My will, but Your Will be done,” and so He surrendered.
What was on the other side of Jesus’ surrender? What was on the other side of Jesus’ death? LIFE. RESURRECTION. TRIUMPH. RECONCILIATION. The Father provided.
He never leaves us empty-handed. I walked a bit further, and as I caught a glimpse of Jesus in the Garden, wrestling it out with His Father, I was filled with courage to do as He did. Hebrews calls Jesus the “Pioneer of our Faith.” He had trodden this path before me, so that I could follow Him.
I looked and right off the path that I was walking on, I saw a table. “Go and sit at that table, Kristi, and make an exchange with Me.”
“You will prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows” (Psalm 23: 5).
What are your enemies? Maybe it’s a sin habit. Maybe it’s a relationship that you really shouldn’t be in. Or maybe it’s more “hidden” than that. Maybe it’s unforgiveness or offense or disappointment over being left out of something. Maybe it’s a dream or calling or relationship that has exalted itself above God and is now an idol. Maybe it’s not necessarily an “enemy” but something that you’re strangling that you can’t let go of? I can assure you on the other side of surrender is a GIFT.
There’s resurrection, reconciliation, triumph and an overflowing cup.
And right there at that table, He GAVE me a fresh promise of identity and fresh hope for what was to come, “And you will be given a new name by the LORD’S own mouth. The LORD will hold you in his hand for all to see- a splendid crown in the hand of God. Never again will you be called ‘The Forsaken City’ or the ‘Desolate Land.’ Your new name will be ‘The City of Gods’ Delight” and “The Bride of God,” for the LORD delights in you and will claim you as his bride” (Isaiah 62:2b-4).
There’s nothing more precious than to be identified by God, to be chosen by Him, seen by Him, known by Him, and loved by Him. There’s nothing more restful than to release my grip, so that I can be lovingly placed in His. And when I’m placed there, all of my dreams are, too…all the promises, all the desires…they’re all there in His hands, awaiting His fulfillment at the appointed time, for me to receive as an inheritance from Him at the appointed time.
I don’t know what is on the other side of your surrender, but I can assure you that it’s better than whatever you lay down. It could be fresh promise or a heightened sense of identity. It could be that very promise fulfilled in HIS time, but it’s only after surrender that we can receive it.
