I once lived firmly in the belief that when I obeyed God, He would bless me. And when I didn’t, the opposite “cause-and-effect” principle applied; He would surely make me regret my disobedience. I hear Christians say, “I want to be careful to obey God so He blesses my family”; or “I don’t want to miss out on His blessing.” Does this pattern of cause-and-effect thinking sound familiar? It is the same old burdensome thinking the Israelites engaged in under the Old Covenant (which we refer to as the Law). Under this old agreement, blessing or cursing was directly connected to how the Israelites conducted themselves.
What is the typical thought process and logic, under this old thinking, when things appear to be going wrong in our life? Usually the believer begins to get anxious about their relationship with God. How have they displeased Him? I hear one Christian after another say, “I wonder what I’m doing wrong? God is not blessing me.” This old thinking eventually leads us to believe that God is either smiling or frowning down at us depending on how we are acting. He is that stern Taskmaster, or that “Big Eye” in the sky, watching everything we do. If He likes what He sees, He pulls the blessing lever. If He doesn’t like what He sees, He hits the lightning switch, or hauls out the “big club,” depending on how long we’ve been acting in a manner that displeases Him. He is not averse to hiding Himself on a cloud somewhere, ready to squish us with His thumb for the least provocation.
God’s new agreement with us is much different. Under this New Covenant of Grace, God has already given (to every believer) one hundred percent of His blessings. Let’s take a look at this in scripture. Ephesians 1:3 reads, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us [past tense] with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Paul says that God has taken every spiritual blessing contained in the heavens and placed them all in Christ. This is a completed historical fact.
For the Christian, where is Christ? God has placed Christ in us. It is no longer a matter of God giving His blessings, or withholding them, depending on how we are acting. What remains is our progressive realization of all God’s blessings in our daily living. It is experiencing, step by step, the freedoms discussed in this book, which are but a tiny fraction of all God’s blessings in Christ. This is the good news in God’s New Covenant of Grace.
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 175-176.

Have you ever stressed over being a “good and faithful” servant? We have all read or listened to a sermon about the parable of the three servants to whom the Master entrusted five, two, and one talent before leaving on a journey (Matthew 25:14-28, KJV). When the Master finally returned, Matthew 25:21 tells us that he gathered his servants together and told the five-talent servant (who had doubled the Master’s talents to ten), “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” Similarly, he told the same thing to the two-talent servant, who had also doubled the talents given him by the Master. But for the third servant, who only buried the one talent entrusted to him because he was afraid, the Master called him a “wicked and lazy slave” and ordered him thrown into outer darkness, where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth.
I don’t know about you, but I stressed for decades over this parable. I feared deeply that God would someday say to me what the Master in the parable said to the one-talent servant. But I don’t fear this any longer. By God’s grace, I am now experiencing more and more of the Exchanged Life in me, and I realize that God has made an irrefutable way which guarantees that I will hear “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” How is this possible? Because 2 Corinthians 5:21 says that God sees the Exchanged Life of Christ in you and me as that good and faithful servant. It’s not me, but Christ, whom God sees. My heart cries out in praise and worship to Him each time I read this verse. What peace and freedom this has brought into my life.
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 143-144.

Scripture declares that Christ’s resurrection power is greater than sin’s power. John says, “Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4). This includes he who is in our flesh. Greater is the Almighty God in my spirit than God’s enemy in my flesh. You talk about an altered condition!
Paul goes further in Philippians 2:13—that this Greater One in us is not passive, silent, distant, or dormant. Paul says, “It is God who is [present tense] at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.” Notice that God’s “good pleasure,” in this verse is synonymous with GOD'S WILL and work within us (see also Hebrews 13:20-21).
In earlier years as a Christian, I completely misunderstood what the term “GOD'S WILL” actually meant. I thought of GOD'S WILL as either: (a) where He wanted me to go and what He desired me to do; or (b) in terms of a “perfection” that I should strive to align myself with. I never contemplated the scriptural definition in this verse: that GOD'S WILL is His progressive and continuous working in me. What a wonderful paradigm shift this truth created in me spiritually!
What does this mean in our daily living? Let’s start with what it does not mean. It does not mean that you are relegated to the sidelines and can feel nothing going on during your life. No, your life is full of positive and negative personal experiences, and you will often make decisions pregnant with consequences. The use of the present tense is in this verse tells us that the essence of God’s work in us—which is to say GOD'S WILL for us here and now—is progressive and continual. He is working in our hearts—layer by layer, and year after year—until we discover that we desire only Him and increasingly trust Him for everything.
So, what does this verse mean? The freedom-truth contained in this verse is revolutionary. It means that you can never fall out of GOD'S WILL for your life. GOD'S WILL lives in you! Is it possible for your flesh to rise up and act sinfully? Yes, we all experience this every day. But can this sinful action remove you from GOD'S WILL? Never! Why is this an irrevocable truth? Because GOD'S WILL is not dependent on our performance in living up to what we think He wants us to do (or in somehow aligning ourselves with Him). Such thinking comes from the Old Covenant mindset that we will discuss in chapter ten. In this verse, GOD'S WILL is referring to His working in us for His good pleasure. If we find ourselves in the midst of a sinful thought or action, God IS also simultaneously active within us to will and to work for His good pleasure.
I can still vividly remember my early days of struggle, when I chased the idolatrous gods of money and success. I sought after those idols for decades until I was burned out and could go no further. I didn’t know, at the time, that I was clinging to those twin idols in my heart and they were the source of my misery. But God knew. He knew that they were robbing me of true joy and peace in Him.
Could I change any of this by myself? No. Well then, was it GOD'S WILL that I engage in all of this degradation and sin, or be miserable, exhausted, and suffer through those many decades of hellish frustration on my own? The answer to this question is also a resounding no. But Almighty God knew, before the foundation of the world, every sin in my heart, every thorn in my flesh, every selfish decision I would make, and every idol I would chase. He knew it all and still chose to give me eternal life anyway. Why? Because He is the Greater One in me!
GOD'S WILL, according to Philippians 2:13, is nothing less than this patient and loving God “working for His good pleasure” in each of His children, despite all of the flesh and sin that we choose to partake of during our lives. After decades, He finally brought me to a place, by Dave’s bedside, where He could inwardly slay those idols. He gave me a first taste of tangible peace that changed me forever. Had you been observing me in those days, you would have seen nothing but a man’s energetic striving to run a business, yet God was performing His hidden work from within.
Does this mean that God’s work is now completed in me? Far from it! At the same time that God was destroying those twin gods of money and success in my heart, He was working on even more deceptive and subtle idols entrenched in deeper enclaves— hidden, remote, and protected—within me.
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 93-95.

God has provided us everything we need for a day-by-day, moment-by-moment abundant life in Christ. At the instant of our “new birth,” we were fully accepted by God the Father in Christ (Ephesians 1:5-6; Romans 5:1) and He made us complete in Him (Colossians 2:9-10). By His grace we were forever saved through faith. It had nothing to do with us and we have nothing within ourselves to claim credit for or boast about. It was the gift of God (Ephesians 2:8-9). He has clothed us with Christ (Galatians 3:27), adopted us as His own children into His household (Ephesians 1:5), and sealed us with the Holy Spirit as an irrevocable pledge of our inheritance and His claim on us (Ephesians 1:13-14).
All debt for our sins was paid in full by His only begotten Son, on our behalf (John 1:29, 3:16; Ephesians 1:7-8). And where there is forgiveness of sins, there is no longer any offering for sin (Hebrew 10:18). We have an eternal Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the propitiation for our sins (1 John 2:1-2). We have been separated from our sins as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12), and God remembers our sins no more (Hebrews 10:17). Christ became our life (Colossians 3:4). For we have died and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).
When the Lord Jesus cried out on the cross, “It is finished,” He meant it. He didn’t say, “Father, I am thankful that Our part is finished,” or, “It is almost finished, except for man’s part,” or “It will be finished in the fullness of time as people come to accept what I’ve done.” No, His exclamation from the cross was absolute and final. It ushered in the New Covenant of Grace: “IT [God's eternal plan] IS [present tense] FINISHED [completed, accomplished, done]. Who better to know whether God’s eternal plan is finished than Almighty God? God accomplished all that was needed to redeem a people, as a family, to Himself. In doing so, He didn’t need our help. As difficult as it is for our pride to accept, there is nothing more for us to do. There is nothing for us to boast in or claim credit for. It is the very person of Christ, as a free gift, to us. This is the life-changing good news of the New Covenant: Grace.
Through His Son’s death, resurrection, and ascension, God ordained that we be completely forgiven, justified, sanctified, and glorified in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30; Romans 8:30). He has made us a new creation in Christ; all the old things are gone and all things are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We have passed out of death into life in Christ (1 John 3:14). Before God, we are not in the flesh (our inheritance from the first Adam), but in the Spirit (our inheritance from the last Adam): Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45, 49).
In Galatians 3:3 the Apostle Paul is saying that the entire life of the believer is God caring for us in every way, including growing His faith in us. We are His workmanship (Ephesians 2:10). Paul is “confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 1:6).
All of this is what scripture declares is God’s grace to us. His loving grace is not a “thing” for us to put a theological label on, but a person to intimately experience. Grace is not just a ticket to get into heaven. Grace is God in us, doing everything for us to transform us into His same image from glory to glory; in His time, and at His pace.
IT IS FINISHED!
From the book, “A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 180-182.

At some time or another, most of us have observed a flock of sheep. Out of a flock of one hundred sheep, I readily concede that some may be smarter than others. But they are all sheep. You do not see any of them reading self-help books or gathering together to discuss how to be better sheep. It is the shepherd’s job to call them, care for them, and lead them where they need to go, when they need to go. The sheep have no responsibilities. They are simply subject to the shepherd’s care and guidance throughout their entire life. Do the sheep trust the shepherd automatically? Not often. It is normal for the shepherd to develop this trust over a period of years, through consistent and beneficial care.
Do you think the sheep would want to depend on, and follow, a shepherd who was a hard taskmaster? Who left them to fend for themselves when times were hard, or brutalized them whenever he was around? I don’t think so. So it is with our relationship with Christ. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so is His loving-kindness toward us (Psalm 103:8, 11). He is the Shepherd who is in complete control of caring for us. This is not limited only to our physical needs, but includes our spiritual needs as well. Yes, every aspect of our spiritual maturity is in His hands!
How comforting is this to you? How confident can we be that God has given us a Great Shepherd, and He will do everything necessary to produce in us all that is pleasing to Him?
We can be very confident. Why? Because scripture declares that our Great Shepherd Jesus, whom God raised from the dead, has given us a promise in a unilateral and everlasting agreement which He signed with His own blood:
"And now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, equip you with all you need for doing his will. May he who became the great Shepherd of the sheep by an everlasting agreement between God and you, signed with his blood, produce in you through the power of Christ all that is pleasing to him" (Hebrews 13:20-21, TLB).
These verses magnify two freedom-truths that are part of the foundation of our relationship with God. As is frequently the case in scripture, one truth comes from what the verses affirmatively say, while the other comes from what they do not say.
First, these verses do include a sweeping promise from God. This promise is specific and made as a blood oath. You don’t get more serious or sobering than an agreement that someone has been willing to sign in his or her own blood. Well, that is what God did in this case. God gave His personal guarantee that HE would produce IN us, through the power of the Great Shepherd Jesus Christ, ALL things pleasing to Him. Reread these verses carefully and let that sink in for a moment. Do you believe God? He said that HE (not us) would do it all—every last bit of it!
Isn’t that an incredible statement? What part of that promise is left for us to do? Nothing! He promised in a blood oath to do all of it. This is what we see again in Philippians 1:6: “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.” Who is the one that produces in us ALL that is pleasing to God? Praise the Lord—it is all produced in us by our Great Shepherd!
Second, these verses are also wonderful for what they do not say. They are entirely devoid of anything that God requires us to do. Nowhere in any of these verses does it say, “God will produce everything that is pleasing to Him, if you let Him,” or, “God will help you produce in your life those things that are pleasing to Him.” No, it says that He will produce it all in you. By what means? By your energy, willingness, or effort? No, by the power of Christ working in you. Praise God for our Great Shepherd!
This is yet another example of how important it is to read scripture carefully. It is easy to misread these verses and conclude that we have something to do for God. We can read the phrase, “Equip you with all you need for doing his will,” and think that we have a part to play in doing God’s will. If we didn’t have a part to play, certainly God would not have “equipped” us to do His will. But look more carefully at Hebrews 13:21. It is clear that the “equipping” God did was to equip us with Christ as our Great Shepherd. It is this very Christ in us who signed this agreement with His own blood, to “produce in you through the power of Christ all that is pleasing to him.” In reality, we are just dumb sheep and Christ, our Great Shepherd, is producing it all in us.
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 279-282.
 

In Romans 6:7 Paul says: “For he who has died is freed from sin.” Paul isn’t saying that Christians don’t sin any more. He is saying that, by God’s uniting us with Christ’s death, we have been set free from the continual influence of sin. Do we still have our sin-infested bodies, where we feel the “warring” going on every day? Yes, we can all testify to this fact. We still have that war within us, urging us to be selfish, or to get angry, or to let our mind wander with immoral thoughts. Whether it is the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, or the pride of life (1 John 2:16), our flesh still holds habits that run deep. It wants to be right in an argument; it wants to have its way. We still "feel" all of that.
But greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)! When old habits rise up from our sin-infested flesh to influence us, Christ is also there. He resides deeper than our flesh, as our new nature, and He is not enslaved to the flesh like our old nature was. Even when our flesh succeeds in distracting us for awhile, it can no longer control us indefinitely. Christ gently makes us aware of this foreign influence and draws us back, again and again, to our new nature in Him. He is the Great Shepherd directing our path. God has hidden us with Christ in Himself. I like to think of Christ as an impenetrable God-sphere around our spirit, shielding and protecting us from the sin and death radiating from our flesh.
Our fellowship with God is sustained and nurtured by Christ’s life, and by His continual working in us. God’s drawing in this way is evidence that He is the one who maintains His fellowship with us and that our fellowship with Him cannot be broken. I was always taught that it was my responsibility to maintain my fellowship with Him, and I tried to do so by performing all the “right” things. In reality, it is God who maintains His fellowship with us.
So what happens, in terms of practical Christian living, when sinful distractions occur, whether they are in thought or deed? Do we need to feel guilty and pray our way back into God’s favor? No. Must we feel condemned, and somehow do something to reestablish fellowship with Him through repentance and seeking forgiveness for our sins? Again, the answer is no. Don’t take my word for it. Believe in God’s word. Christ has already paid the price for our sins once and for all (1 Peter 2:24, 3:18). God has already forgiven and forgotten them (Jeremiah 31:34; Hebrews 8:12, 10:17). He has separated us from those transgressions as far as the East is from the West (Psalm 103:12). There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1)!
Scripture doesn’t say, “IF you feel guilty enough, and pray long enough to humbly seek forgiveness, THEN God will forgive and forget your sins (until the next time you sin).” Scripture is concise: Christ paid the price for the sins of the whole world over two thousand years ago. He didn’t work out an installment plan with God. He paid for each and every one of them—once and for all. God has also accepted Christ’s payment, and has forgiven and forgotten those sins. Yet our human pride refuses to accept this. We continue to insist on being partners with God, not only for our salvation, but throughout our entire Christian life. It is this insistence that robs us of glorious freedom in Christ. Our part in God’s plan is not as a partner, but as a vessel of mercy to contain His glory; a glory that God reveals in us when it pleases Him. A glory that increasingly grows in us from glory to glory as God gently and progressively performs His work in us (2 Corinthians 3:18). We are nothing and He is everything.
If I could encourage you to do one thing, it would be to stop wasting time focusing on the sins and shortcomings that you perceive in your life. From God’s perspective, as revealed in His word, you are the only one who still dwells on them. Instead, experience the joy of God drawing you to focus on Christ as your new nature.
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 108-111.

Does this sound like a strong salvation or a weak one? Do you think the Lord Jesus is big enough and strong enough to secure your salvation for all time? When scripture says that we have been placed, by God, into God (1 John 4:15), do you believe it? If you do believe, would not "being in God" be the absolute safest and most secure place in the universe? He claims that no one can snatch us out of His, or the Father's, hands (John 10:28-29). Is this salvation secure enough for you? Is there anything more that you can do to help God keep you saved? Is there any boast you might claim of how you added anything to your own salvation? 
For those who may doubt their salvation from time to time, I want to make sure that we understand exactly who it is that now lives within us. Scripture declares that Jesus, who spoke all things into being (John 1:1-5), dwells in us as our salvation. Most of us, while carefully listening to a sermon or Bible study on this spiritual truth, will readily nod in agreement. Yet in our daily life as Christians, we often act as though this same Jesus is a ninety-pound weakling, an easy target for any bullying circumstance that comes along. If you ever question or doubt whether you are saved, your idea of Jesus is far too small. Let’s see whether Jesus is big enough for the job of keeping you saved.
We'll start with the fact that He is God. You know the God I am speaking of don’t you? The How-Great-Thou-Art Almighty God? The Creator-God who spoke, “Let there be light” and the sun, moon, and billions of stars sprang into existence in uncountable galaxies across an immeasurable universe (Genesis 1:14-18)? He is the “Word” of God that existed from the beginning, who is the source of everything that exists (John 1:1-3). He is the same God who maintains this creation from moment to moment by His power (Colossians 1:17). If He were to remove His breath from the earth, all living things would perish (Job 34:14-15). For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things (Romans 11:36).
He is the God who laid the foundation of the earth, and set the boundaries of the waters; who lifts His voice to the clouds and fathers the rain (Job 38:4, 10-11, 34, 28). It is He who set the sun in its place and the moon for the seasons (Psalm 104:19). He is the one who fixed the storehouses of snow and rain, and commanded that they come down and water the earth and make it produce, to furnish seed for the sower and bread to the eater (Job 38:22; Isaiah 55:10).
He is the source of every good thing and every perfect gift; the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow (James 1:17; see also Acts 17:24-25). As the Amplified Bible states, “Now to Him Who, by (in consequence of) the [action of His] power that is at work within us, is able to [carry out His purpose and] do super-abundantly, far over and above all that we [dare] ask or think [infinitely beyond our highest prayers, desires, thoughts, hopes, or dreams]” (Ephesians 3:20, AMP). The world is His (Psalm 50:12).
Yes, I am talking about that God. The only true God (John 17:3). Shall I go on about His infinite wisdom, holiness, righteousness, and sovereignty? Or can we safely acknowledge the fact that God is not small? That He is big enough to save you and keep you saved? The only thing “small” is our thinking of Him!
This is the God who is our salvation. It is a salvation evidenced by the attraction we have for Him, an attraction that He quickens in our hearts as part of His continual working in us. It is a salvation confirmed by our belief, which He has given us, in contrast to the world around us that does not believe.
Ask yourself: “What can I possibly do to add anything to this perfect salvation?” By God's sovereign mercy, He has chosen to grant us salvation fully accomplished by God Himself. We have nothing to boast of in ourselves before Him (1 Corinthians 1:29). Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31)!
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 65-67.

In Romans 9:20-21, we read about Paul's description of the Potter and the clay. How much freedom is there in contemplating the question, “What can the clay do? Can it give itself eternal life? Can it make itself more beautiful? Or help the potter shape and craft it?” This is an absurd notion, I know. But I didn’t choose the example, God did.
What is clay? It is a natural earthy material that is plastic when wet, used for making bricks and pottery. I want you to imagine that YOU are God for a moment. Attribute to yourself, as God, all of the characteristics you think the real God has toward you as a Christian. Now I want you to imagine going outside and “saving” some clay—by scooping up a big handful of clayish dirt. Bring it back into your household and put it in the center of a large plate. Set it out of the way on a shelf somewhere and leave it alone to work out its own sculpting. Certainly, that is the least it should do in gratitude for your gift of salvation. After a week, fetch the plate, with its lump of clay, and look at it closely. Has it progressed in shaping itself? Is it now a beautiful bowl, cup, or vase? No? Maybe just a brick then, surely it could accomplish that much? No, not even that much?
Well then, it is time for you to act—like the real God—as you perceive Him. Is your God distant and aloof? Then turn your back on the clay, go into the next room, and peek around the corner to watch the clay from there. Is your God a hard taskmaster? Then put your unhappy face right up close to the clay and yell at it to do something. Tell it how displeased and disappointed you are for it being a “do-nothing” lump of clay. Tell it how you rescued it from the outside world of inclement weather—and brought it into your household—and you expect some appreciative response, at least a little effort in trying to change. Finally, take your clay to church and set it in the pew next to you. If this doesn’t work, take your fist and pound it again and again until it is a pancake. Throw in an imaginary “lightning switch” and shock it into obedience. That should inspire and teach it to respond and shape itself into something you can be proud of.
Again, I know that this illustration is a ridiculous and absurd notion. Obviously a clump of clay has no ability or capability to do anything for itself. If you left it on that plate for years, it would still be powerless to shape itself. It would dry out, but not shape up. Even if you gently worked the clay until it began to take shape as an elegant bowl, then you stopped—will that clay now have the “hang of it” enough to complete the shaping on its own? Never!
No matter how you look at it, clay is completely powerless to take shape on its own. It cannot even deliver itself to the potter’s wheel where the shaping takes place. At each step along the way, the potter is in absolute and total control of the clay and is the one who determines what is made from that clay. He never seeks the clay’s opinion, or asks the clay for help. There is never a time, not even for one fractional instant, that the clay has power to shape itself or control what it becomes. It begins and finally ends, at the complete mercy of the potter’s will.
The reality of this word picture is glorious. It will make you drop to your knees in your heart with praise to Him when the importance of it sinks in. It sweeps away every complexity of doctrine and theology. God tells us from His inspired word that we have no power to do anything spiritually for ourselves. He, as the Potter, is in complete control and is doing it all. We are only lumps of clay and objects of His mercy. What we become in our lives is dependent on Him. This is truly wonderful.
But, when we start thinking of ourselves as more than clay, the warring of the flesh begins. After all, we love Him and want to serve Him, right? The moment we entertain the thought that we are more than clay, the guilt starts to assail us. The feelings that we are not serving God “enough” begin to torment. This leads to thoughts that we must be a disappointment to God, or that we are letting Him down, or that we need to serve Him more. But can the clay ever let the Potter down? No!
Stop reading for a moment, close your eyes, and meditate on the fact that you are a lump of clay. Form a vivid picture in your mind of the Lord, as the Potter, shaping that clay, and working all things together for good to affect that clay. Tell yourself, “I’m just a lump of clay. Whatever my shape is today is what He has shaped me for today. Whatever shape He purposes me to have tomorrow, He will add that tomorrow. And whatever shape He desires for me to have a year from now, He will add what He wants then. What ability do I have to add any shape to myself? He who has begun a good work in me will continue to shape me.” In my experience, when the warring of my flesh begins to rage, the Lord often brings the thought that I am but a lump of clay. What a wonderful freedom this is!
But you may ask, “Isn’t our surrender and trust an essential part of the equation?” Yes, it certainly is. But know this freedom-truth: God is at work in you, both to will and to work His good pleasure (Philippians 2:13). In other words, He is molding us as clay to conform to His good pleasure. This means, in reality, that “our surrender” and “our trust” are also the very things that God is working in us. He is growing more surrender and trust in us day by day! As Jesus said, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him” (John 6:44). We can be confident that even our “surrender” is a part of God’s will for us. We have been made His “slaves of righteousness” and He is drawing us (Romans 6:19).
From the book, "A Different Place," The peace and freedom that comes from knowing: God has done it all—He is all we need, pages 276-279.