We Must Leave Everything Behind to See the Glory of God

It came to pass, when they had taken them out, that he said, "Escape for your life! Don't look behind you, neither stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest you be consumed!" — Genesis 19:17
When they had brought their boats to land, they left everything, and followed him. — Luke 5:11
Dr. Roberto Miranda

Author

Dr. Roberto Miranda

Summary: To be used mightily by the Lord, we need to submit our entire lives to Jesus Christ with humility and simplicity. This surrender requires obedience in advance: responding with docility to the Word and to God’s call, placing our dreams, plans, affections, possessions, ambitions, reasoning, doubts, and fears at his disposal. Leaving everything behind does not mean merely giving up material things, but inwardly relinquishing control so that God may define us and conform us to his image. When our independence and will are surrendered, divine grace can flow unhindered. In this way, we will be able to experience God’s glory and blessings, become instruments of his supernatural power, and follow the Lord as Paul, Peter, Levi, and the other disciples did.

Total Dependence on GodAccepting God's WillListening and Obeying GodSeeking God's BlessingSeeking God's GuidanceTotal Surrender to God

Until you learn to submit your life to the Lord, until you become a humble, simple servant, wholly surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ, you cannot be used greatly by the Lord. We have to ask the Lord to take us through that process in which our independence is subjected to what the Lord wants. We simply obey when God asks something of us.

We have to ask the Lord to bring us to that posture of what I would call preventive obedience, where we have already been so thoroughly dealt with by the Holy Spirit that, at the slightest pressure of the Word of God upon our lives and of God’s specific call upon our lives, our being, like soft wax, humbles itself before the requests and demands of the Kingdom of God, and we set aside any request. We have then reached that point where everything is surrendered to Him, everything is subject to Him: every dream, every prerogative, every plan for the future, every affection, every possession, every dream of greatness or of influence in the world, of material gain—everything is subject to the Lord, available to Him whenever He wants, including the reasonings of our minds.

I believe that is why the Lord Jesus Christ says that unless we become like children, we will not be able to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Unless we believe, we will not be able to see the Glory of the Lord. Unless we reach that point of complete surrender of our being to the Lord, we cannot see His Glory; we cannot experience the great blessings He wants to give us. We have to reach the point the apostle Paul reached when he said: It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. When we reach that point, then we are willing, as Paul himself was, to leave everything behind. When these men see the Glory of God manifested through Jesus Christ, it says that: "Leaving everything behind, setting aside their boats," they brought them to shore, "and leaving everything behind, they followed Him."

Until you leave everything behind—we saw this also in the case of Levi and the other disciples—until they left everything behind. And we have to leave everything behind, and not merely in the material sense; rather, in our heart and mind, a surgical operation, so to speak, must take place—psychological and emotional—in which we sign a blank sheet of paper for the Lord and preemptively detach ourselves from everything we love, everything we are, and everything we consider valuable or desirable. And we give the Lord full title to our life, and we say to Him: Lord, now do whatever You want, including with my reasonings, plans, doubts, fears, social values, and ways of viewing morality or ethics; I leave it all in Your hands so that You may define me and make me, conforming me to Your image and likeness.

When we reach that point of total surrender of our whole being, then we can see the Glory of God, and the Lord can perform His supernatural miracles. The supernatural power of God cannot be manifested through reason, through the flesh, through emotions, or through an unbroken will; it can flow freely and smoothly only through a vessel, a conduit, that is completely subject to Him, hollowed out by God’s dealings, which then allows divine Grace to flow in an uninterrupted, powerful, smooth, and effective way. May that be your experience and mine as well, so that we may surrender everything, leave everything at the Lord’s feet, so that He may use us greatly and manifest His Glory to us and through us. This meditation is part of a series of five brief messages about the miraculous catch of fish and the calling of the apostle Peter to ministry. In them, Dr. Miranda discusses practical aspects of Christian growth and service:

  1. God Wants to Work with You and Your Resources
  2. God Calls You to a Process of Deep Sanctification
  3. God Can Move You into Another Category
  4. If God Calls You, You Have to Take the Plunge
  5. We Have to Leave Everything Behind in Order to See the Glory of God