Embracing death is the key to life.
Posted by appolus on April 27, 2017
Embracing your circumstances is not surrender, it is overcoming. The battle within almost every human being is the battle of circumstances. It is the source of almost all fear and all anxiety. Your life is a journey. How will you journey? Will the majority of your journey be taken up with the fear of what is going to happen? If you get caught up in the swamp of despair and anxiety then you have lost your ability to live an abundant life.
But Frank, I have cancer and I only have six months left to live. Question, will you spend your last six months on this earth in the swamp of despair? Will it change your circumstances? I have a theory. There is life in surrender. But Frank, you said that embracing your circumstances is not surrender but that it is overcoming. Yes indeed, but there is two kinds of surrender. The first surrender is the surrender of the world and it could also be known as the swamp of despair and hopelessness. In this place there is only death.
The second kind of surrender is the surrender to God. Oh brothers and sisters this could not be more different from the surrender of the world. This surrender is the entrance to His rest. A place where you have laid down your burdens. A place where you walk in peace, a peace that surpasses all understanding. In this place circumstances are merely vehicles to draw you even closer to God. In the other place circumstances are vehicles for drawing you away from God.
What world do you live in brothers and sisters? Remember, you cannot have a foot in one world and a foot in the other, if you do you will love one and reject the other. I believe God is calling you to step from one world, this world, with all of its cares and anxieties and circumstances, into the other world where those very circumstances are robbed of all of their death and are infused with the light of life. There is no escaping the circumstances of this life, there is only surrender. Which surrender will you choose? The one that leads to despair and hopelessness or the one that leads to life and that more abundantly.
A Call To The Remnant 
Prayergate said
Brother Frank,
My precious friend and brother in the Lord for almost 40 years just fell asleep on April 19th from a massive bout of cancer. He exemplified the “:surrender” that your article speaks of. In those 40 years, he suffered numerous physical maladies and circumstances from which the Lord always delivered him. During those times, he never submitted or sought the “help of man” (other than prayer from the few who knew him). To the best of my knowledge, he only visited a medical clinic once in his life (at the behest of his granddaughter) and that was just 3 days before he passed.
His name was John Durfield, and I write this on your site as a tribute to his lifelong walk in the Lord and the faith that he persistently exercised in the revelation of the Word of God that was in his heart, even unto the end. His favorite scriptural reference was:
“Follow after peace.”
Tim
appolus said
When I pass over I will have a word with John, sounds like a guy I would have liked. Sorry for your loss bro Tim, friends are precious and men typically dont have too many………….bro Frank
Fiona Burky said
Excellent word!
appolus said
Thank you Fiona………………..bro Frank
Rebecca said
Dying to one self daily is required … I am learning this hard task day by day. I don’t even have to understand I just have to surrender and submit to His will. It is a journey .. I find some days it is easier than others. It seems that to die to self is the path of more Christ likeness … in this there have been circumstances that seem hard and challenges that require a hard choice. I desire Christ more than anything this world has to offer … at the same time it is hard letting go of certain desires. What I have discovered is GOD considers that idolatry … and I do not want to be separated from Him … so I do not need an explanation from Him … I just have to follow. I know this is jumbled and may not make sense to you. Just know your word helped me today.
appolus said
Thank you Rebecca, it makes sense to me sister……………….bro Frank
Maureen said
Beautiful guys! It doesn’t make sense to the world but we’re not of it. This surrender is our greatest weapon ,that’s why the enemy Hates this one!
We needHoly Spirit for this as flesh wont succumb on its own, it can’t. We have been called to walk impossible walk ,to the flesh that is , but not to the Spirit .and He sent Him , made all possible through Christs death on the cross.
This is the cross life, so powerful.
Thank you Jesus.
appolus said
Maureen writes…………” This surrender is our greatest weapon,” amen sister………………..bro Frank