Absolute Surrender Andrew Murray Quotes

Being filled with the Spirit is simply this - having my whole nature yielded to His power. When the whole soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God Himself will fill it.

God has a plan for His Church upon earth. But alas! we too often make our plan, and we think that we know what ought to be done. We ask God first to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God go before us.

If you are not willing to sacrifice time to get alone with him, and to give him time everyday to work in you, and to keep up the link of connection between you and himself, he cannot give you that blessing of his unbroken fellowship.

And to every waiting heart that will make the sacrifice, and give up everything, and give time to cry and pray to God, the answer will come. The blessing is not far off. Our God delights in helping us. He will enable us to perfect, not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, what was begun in the Spirit.

Oh, become nothing in deep reality, and, as a worker, study only one thing—to become poorer and lower and more helpless, that Christ may work all in you.

The fruit of the Spirit is love.” We read that “Love is the fulfilling of the law”’ (Romans 13: 10),

Workers, take your place every day at the feet of Jesus, in the blessed peace and rest that come from the knowledge—I have no care, my cares are His! I have no fear, He cares for all my fears.

love—God’s love to me, and my love to God, and my love to my fellowmen. The three are one; you cannot separate them.

We ask God to bless our feeble efforts, instead of absolutely refusing to go unless God goes before us.

Father, may the Holy Spirit have full dominion over me: in my home, in my character, in every word of my tongue, in every thought of my heart, in every feeling towards my fellowmen; may the Holy Spirit have entire possession.

Christ Jesus said: “I am the Vine, ye are the branches.” In other words: “I, the living One who have so completely given myself to you, am the Vine. You cannot trust me too much. I am the Almighty Worker, full of a divine life and power.” You are the branches of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is in your heart the consciousness that you are not a strong, healthy, fruit-bearing branch, not closely linked with Jesus, not living in Him as you should be—then listen to Him say: “I am the Vine, I will receive you, I will draw you to myself, I will bless you, I will strengthen you, I will fill you with my Spirit. I, the Vine, have taken you to be my branches, I have given myself utterly to you; children, give yourselves utterly to me. I have surrendered myself as God absolutely to you; I became man and died for you that I might be entirely yours. Come and surrender yourselves entirely to be mine.

And there they were, empty, ignorant, helpless, glad, and joyful, but deeply humbled.

Moment by moment I’m kept in His love; Moment by moment I’ve life from above.

How often we say prayers, but how little we really pray! May God make us worthy of doing the work for each other.

They want to claim, want to take, and want to get, and yet what they crave eludes their grasp. Why? Because they do not wait for God to give it.

First, let us look at Peter the devoted disciple of Jesus; next, at Peter as he lived the life of self; then, at Peter in his repentance; and last, at what Christ made of Peter by the Holy Spirit.

love to God by your love to your brother; that is the one standard by which God will judge your love to Him. If the love of God is in your heart, you will love your brother. The fruit of the Spirit is love.

absolute surrender to God—was sincere, then it must mean absolute surrender to the divine love to fill me. I must be a servant of love to love every child of God around me. “The fruit of the Spirit is love.

Notice how Christ uses that word deny twice. He said to Peter the first time, “Deny himself” (Matthew 16:24); He said to Peter the second time, “Thou shalt deny me” (Matthew 26:34). It is either of the two. There is no other choice for us; we must either deny self or deny Christ. There are two great powers fighting each other the self-nature in the power of sin, and Christ in the power of God. Either of these must rule within us.

I find that many people mistake faith for the blessing that faith is intended to bring. By faith I am to inherit the promises. Oh, believe and trust God; then look to Him to give the blessing. Be filled with the Holy Spirit.

Dear friends, maybe you have never sincerely said it because you never thought it was needed; but say it now if you mean it. “Oh Christ, let me be filled with the Holy Spirit. I will give up anything and everything. Accept my surrender of all to You!

are to love him. Love is to be the fruit of the Spirit all the day and every day. Yes, listen! If you don’t love that unlovable man whom you have seen, how can you love God whom you have not seen? You can deceive yourself with beautiful thoughts about loving God. You must prove your

Do believe that when He takes charge of you in Christ, it is possible for God to make you a man of absolute surrender. And God is able to maintain that. He is able to let you rise from bed every morning of the week with that blessed thought directly or indirectly: “I am in God’s charge. My God is working out my life for me.

Some are crying to God for a great revival. I can say that that is the prayer of my heart unceasingly. Oh, if God would only revive His believing people! … It is not for nothing that there are in thousands of hearts yearnings after holiness and consecration: it is a forerunner of God’s power. God works to will and then He works to do. These yearnings are a witness and a proof that God has worked to will. Oh, let us in faith believe that the omnipotent God will work to do among His people more than we can ask. “Unto him,” Paul said, “who is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think. . . . unto him be glory.” Let our hearts say that. Glory to God, the omnipotent One, who can do above what we dare to ask or think!

Do we not begin to fear that love has fled from the earth? That if we were to ask the world: “Have you seen us wear the badge of love?” the world would say: “No; what we have heard of the Church of Christ is that there is not a place where there is no quarreling and separation.” Let us ask God with one heart that we may wear the badge of Jesus’ love. God is able to give it.

One of the great causes why God cannot bless His Church is the want of love. When the body is divided, there cannot be strength. In the time of their great religious wars, when Holland stood out so nobly against Spain, one of their mottoes was: “Unity gives strength.” It is only when God’s people stand as one body, one before God in the fellowship of love, one toward another in deep affection, one before the world in a love that the world can see—it is only then that they will have power to secure the blessing which they ask of God.

Let us, at the very commencement of our meditations, admit that there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Let us feel that [as if] nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will discover [show] how lacking we are in the grace of humility, and how impotent to obtain what we seek. Let us study the character of Christ until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of his lowliness. And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a sense of our pride, and our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ himself will come in to impart this grace too, as a part of his wondrous life within us.

He humbled himself and became obedient unto death.—Phil. 2:8 Humility is the path to death, because in death it gives the highest proof of its perfection. Humility is the blossom, of which death to self is the perfect fruit. Jesus humbled himself unto death, and opened the path in which we too must walk. As there was no way for him to prove his surrender to God to the very uttermost, or to give up and rise out of our human nature to the glory of the Father, but through death, so with us too. Humility must lead us to die to self: so we prove how wholly we have given ourselves up to it and to God; so alone we are freed from fallen nature, and find the path that leads to life in God, to that full birth of the new nature, of which humility is the breath and the joy.

Forsake All I ask you to remember that the disciples were men who had forsaken all to follow Jesus. The Lord Jesus went to a fisherman and said, “Leave your net behind and follow Me.” To another man He said, “Leave your position as a tax collector and come and follow Me.” They did it. They left those things behind and followed Jesus. They could later say by the mouth of Peter, We have forsaken all and followed thee (Matthew 19:27). They left their homes, their families, and their good names. Men mocked and laughed at them. Men called them the disciples of Jesus, and when He was despised and hated, they were hated too. They identified themselves with Him and gave themselves up entirely to follow Him. This is the first step to being filled with the Holy Spirit. We must forsake all to follow Christ.

I sanctify myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.’ The giving up of His will to God’s will in the agony of Gethsemane, and then the doing of that will in the obedience unto death, this was Christ’s sanctifying Himself and us too. [. . .] Let us understand and hold it fast: Christ’s giving up His will in Gethsemane and accepting God’s will in dying; Christ’s doing that will in the obedience to the death of the cross, this is His sanctifying Himself, and this is our being sanctified in truth. ‘In the which will we have been sanctified.’ The death to self, the utter and most absolute giving up of our own life, with its will and its power and its aims, to the cross, and into the crucifixion of Christ, the daily bearing the cross—not a cross on which we are yet to be crucified, but the cross of the crucified Christ in its power to kill and make dead—this is the secret of the life of holiness—this is true sanctification. [. . .] The steps in this path are these: First, the deliberate decision that self shall be given up to the death; then, the surrender to Christ crucified to make us partakers of His crucifixion; then, ‘knowing that our old man is crucified,’ the faith that says, ‘I am crucified with Christ;’ and then, the power to live as a crucified one, to glory in the cross of Christ.

If there is one thought with regard to the Church of Christ, which at times comes to me with overwhelming sorrow; if there is one thought in regard to my own life of which I am ashamed; if there is one thought of which I feel that the Church of Christ has not accepted it and not grasped it; if there is one thought which makes me pray to God: “Oh, teach us by Thy grace, new things”—it is the wonderful power that prayer is meant to have in the kingdom. [. . .] And that is the law of the kingdom—the King upon the throne, the servants upon the footstool.

Let a man be what he will, you are to love him. Love is to be the fruit of the Spirit all the day and every day.

Jesus does love you. He does not wish to be separated from you one minute. We want to believe in the love of Jesus. No mother ever delighted in the baby in her arms as much as Jesus delights in you. He wants to be near you and to have unceasing fellowship with you. Take that in, beloved believer, and say, “If that is possible, God helping me, I must have this filling of the Holy Spirit, so I may always have Jesus dwelling in my heart.

I am weak, stammering, and have much to learn, but I know my God is using me, for I have given myself into His hands, and I am willing to be anything for Him. I do not mind whatever He has for me to do; though my work is feeble and I sometimes feel ashamed of it, I have put myself into God’s hands as an instrument for Him to use.

If there is one thought with regard to the church of Christ, which at times comes to me with overwhelming sorrow; if there is one thought in regard to my own life, of which I am ashamed; if there is one thought, which I feel that the church of Christ has not accepted or grasped; if there is one thought, which makes me pray to God, “Oh, God, teach us, by Your grace, new things” – it is the wonderful power that prayer is meant to have in the kingdom. We have so little availed ourselves of it. We have all read the expression of Christian in Bunyan’s great work, Pilgrim’s Progress, when he realized that he had the key that would unlock the dungeon. (Bunyan’s book used to be read by nearly all Christians and should still be read by Christians today.) We have the key that can unlock the spiritual dungeons of London and New York and Chicago and Washington, D.C. and of all heathendom. But, we are far more occupied with our work than we are with prayer. We believe more in speaking to men than we believe in speaking to God. Doesn’t this convict us when we are too busy to pray or rush through prayer in order to get on with our work or are so caught up with work that we never sit at the feet of Jesus?

God Has His Own Plans First of all, we see that God has His own plans regarding His kingdom. His church at Antioch had been established. God had certain plans and intentions regarding Asia and Europe. He had conceived the plans; they were His, and He made them known to His servants. We might talk about and plan some work for the Lord, but we do not know all the details. We know that our great Commander is in charge, and even His generals and officers do not always know the plans. They often receive sealed orders, and they have to wait on Him for what He gives them as orders. God in heaven has work for us to do. God has wishes and a will in regard to the work to be done and the way it must be done. Blessed is the man who gets into God’s secrets and works under God, doing God’s work God’s way.

God wants us to seek for the Holy Spirit as a Spirit of power in our own heart and life to conquer self and cast out sin and work the blessed and beautiful image of Jesus into us.

May God write the Word in our hearts!

These disciples of Jesus were men who had been led to despair of themselves. At the beginning of their three years of instruction, they had to give up everything they possessed; but only at the end of that time could they begin to give up themselves. They had given up their nets, and their homes, and their friends, and that was right and good to do; but their self, their self-will and their self-desire remained strong all three years! Jesus had often spoken to them about humility, but they did not understand Him. Time after time contention arose among them as to who should be the greatest. At the table at the Last Supper, they were still talking about who would be first among them. They had not given up self. As was made plain more than once, they struggled to live in the Spirit of Jesus!

Many think of Jesus as their Savior, yet never realize that Jesus ought to be their friend and guide and keeper all day long, their leader and master whom they gladly obey. Many Christians might talk about Him, yet not know what it means to walk with Him.

Humility is often identified with penitence and contrition. As a consequence, there appears to be no way of fostering humility but by keeping the soul occupied with its sin. We have learned, I think, that humility is something else, and something more. We have seen in the teaching of our Lord Jesus and the Epistles how often the virtue is inculcated [repeatedly taught] without any reference to sin. In the very nature of things, in the whole relation of the creature to the Creator, in the life of Jesus as he lived it and imparts it to us, humility is the very essence of holiness as of blessedness. It is the displacement of self by the enthronement of God. Where God is all, self is nothing.

The condition for obtaining God's full blessing is absolute surrender to Him.

WHAT a solemn thought, that our love to God will be measured by our everyday intercourse with men and the love it displays; and that our love to God will be found to be a delusion, except was its truth is proved in standing the test of daily life with our fellowmen.

Humility before God is nothing if not proved in humility before men.

The humble man feels no jealousy or envy. He can praise God when others are preferred and blessed before him. He can bear to hear others praised and himself forgotten, because in God's presence he has learnt to say with Paul, 'I am nothing.' He has received the spirit of Jesus, who pleased not Himself, and sought not His own honour, as the spirit of his life.

By Your grace I desire to do Your will in everything, every moment of every day.” Say: “Lord God, not a word upon my tongue but for Your glory. Not a movement of my temper but for Your glory. Not an affection of love or hate in my heart but for Your glory, and according to Your blessed will.

do not mind whatever He has for me to do; though my work is feeble and I sometimes feel ashamed of it, I have put myself into God’s hands as an instrument for Him to use.

God’s love, and I begin to long for God’s love in a very different sense from which I have sought it so selfishly—as a comfort, a joy, a happiness, and a pleasure to myself. I will not learn it until I realize that “God is love,” and to claim and receive it as an

Christ spoke of power to the disciples, but it was the Spirit filling their whole being that worked the power.

In claiming the Holy Spirit, we should make this the first object of our expectation. The Holy Spirit comes as a Spirit of love.

God delights to pour His love into us. Why? Because, as I said, God keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing

God delights to pour His love into us. Why? Because, as I said, God keeps nothing for Himself. From eternity God had His only begotten Son, and the Father gave Him all things, and nothing that God had was kept back. “God is love.

The Spirit of God is love, and “the fruit of the Spirit is love.

The Spirit of love, to come and banish selfishness and envy and pride, and bring the love of God into the hearts of men. “The fruit of the Spirit is love.

And now He calls us to live and to walk in love. He demands that though a man hate you, still you love him. True love cannot be conquered by anything

Love Conquers Selfishness “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.

not prayed for power for full deliverance from self. That means not only the righteous self in fellowship with God, but the unloving self in fellowship with men. And there is deliverance. “The fruit of the Spirit is love.” I bring you the glorious promise of

The reason is simply this—they have never learned to believe and accept the truth that the Holy Spirit can pour God’s love into their heart. That blessed text has often been limited!—“The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts” (Romans 5:5). It

God’s love to me, and my love to God, and my love to my fellowmen. The three are one; you cannot separate them.

cause of the weakness of your Christian life is that you want to work it out partly, and to let God help you.

but I need a divine omnipotence to work it in me. And that is what the apostle Paul teaches in Philippians 2:13: “It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

and unlovable a man is the more I will love him. When I am brought to such a state that the more obstacles, hatred, and ingratitude surround me, the more the power of love can triumph in me. Until I am brought to see these, I am not saying: “It is impossible

You know what John says: “No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another; God dwelleth in us” (I John 4:12). That is, I cannot see God, but as a compensation I can see my brother, and if I love him, God dwells in me.

cannot love him.” Oh, friend, you have not learned the lesson that Christ wanted to teach above everything. Let a man be what he will, you

but God must send the power. The man works in his own will, and God must give the grace—the one reason why God often gives so little grace and so little success. But let us all take our place before God, and

will not be withheld from it. What is done in the will of God must have the mighty blessing of God.” And so let our first desire be to have the will of God revealed.

Peter utterly changed—the self-pleasing, the self-trusting, the self-seeking Peter, full of sin, continually getting into trouble, foolish and impetuous, now filled with the Spirit and the life of Jesus. Christ had done it for him by the Holy Spirit.

Him, that I have allowed self, the flesh, and my own will to work where the Holy Spirit should have been honored! May God forgive me that I have allowed self, the flesh, and the will to actually have the place that God wanted the Holy Spirit to have.

week with that blessed thought directly or indirectly: “I am in God’s charge. My God is working out my life for me.

I heard of someone who had been an earnest Christian and spoke about the “cruel” thought of separation and death. But you don’t think that, do you? What are we to think of separation and death? Death was the path to glory for Christ. For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross (Hebrews 12:2). The cross was the birthplace of His everlasting glory. Do you love Christ? Do you desire to be in Christ and not just like Him? Let death be to you the most desirable thing on earth: death to self for the sake of fellowship with Christ.

May God give us the great gift of an intercessory spirit, a spirit of prayer and supplication! Let me ask you in the name of Jesus not to let a day pass without praying for all saints, and for all God’s people.

Some of you have read the words of that aged saint, George Müller, who on his ninetieth birthday, told of all God’s goodness to him.[1] What did he say he believed to be the secret of his happiness and of all the blessing with which God had given him? He said he believed there were two reasons. The one was that by God’s grace he had maintained a good conscience before God day by day; the other was that he loved God’s Word.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness. Self is the great curse, whether in its relation to God, or to our fellow men, or to fellow Christians. We usually think of ourselves and seek our own benefit. Self is our greatest curse, but praise God, Christ came to redeem us from self. We sometimes talk about deliverance from the self-life and praise God for every word that can be said about it to help us. I am afraid, though, that some people think deliverance from the self-life means that now they are no longer going to have any trouble in serving God. They forget that deliverance from the self-life means to be a vessel overflowing with love to everybody all day.

I will not learn it until I realize that “God is love,” and to claim and receive it as an indwelling power for self-sacrifice. I will not love until I begin to see that my glory, my blessedness, is to be like God and like Christ, in giving up everything in myself for my fellow-men.

The fruit of the Spirit is love.” Why? Because nothing but love can expel and conquer our selfishness.

Oh, that the Holy Spirit might be held in honor as a power to fill us with the very life and nature of God and of Christ!

One of the worst things sin did for man was to make him selfish, for selfishness cannot love.

One of the old Church fathers said that we cannot better understand the Trinity than as a revelation of divine love—the Father, the loving One, the Fountain of love; the Son, the beloved one, the Reservoir of love, in whom the love was poured out; and the Spirit, the living love that united both and then overflowed into this world. The Spirit of Pentecost, the Spirit of the Father, and the Spirit of the Son, is love.

Do make this your first prayer every day: “Lord, bless thy saints everywhere.

Ah, yes, a good conscience is complete obedience to God day by day, and fellowship with God every day in His Word, and prayer—that is a life of absolute surrender.

the church at large. What divisions! Think of the different bodies. Take the question of holiness, take the question of the cleansing blood, take the question of the baptism of the Spirit―what differences are caused among dear believers by such questions! That there are differences of opinion does not trouble me. We do not have the same constitution and temperament and mind. But how often hate, bitterness, contempt, separation, unlovingness are caused by the holiest truths of God's Word! Our doctrines, our creeds, have been more important than love. We often think we are valiant for the truth and we forget God's command to speak the truth in love. And

As a child, Andrew Murray’s “world” spanned two continents, Africa and Europe; but ultimately his preaching, teaching, and writing fueled spiritual awakening and revival with a worldwide impact. Andrew Murray was born in 1828 in South Africa, into a Dutch Reformed parsonage. At age ten he and a brother sailed to Scotland for schooling and later to Holland for theological studies, before returning ten years later to South Africa for pastoral ministries of their own.

Lord God, I have given myself to be led by Your Spirit. You have accepted me and blessed me, and the Holy Spirit now leads me.” Let us recognize that with God helping us, we can leave the carnal side and begin life on the spiritual side.

The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.” All around you there is a world of sin and sorrow, and the Devil is there. But remember, Christ is on the throne,

Christ is stronger, Christ has conquered, and Christ will conquer. But wait on God. My text casts us down: “The things which are impossible with men”; but it ultimately lifts us up high—“are possible with God.” Get linked to God. Adore and trust Him as the omnipotent One, not only for your own life, but for all the souls that are entrusted to you. Never pray without adoring His omnipotence, saying: “Mighty God, I claim Thine almightiness.” And the answer to the prayer will come, and like Abraham you will become strong in faith, giving glory to God, because you account Him who hath promised able to perform.

I must have the Holy Spirit sanctifying my whole inner life if I am really to live for God’s glory.

pour out His Spirit, we must enter into a covenant with God that we will love one another with a heavenly love.

There can be only one answer. We have not honored the Holy Spirit as we should have done. Is there one who can say that that is not true? Is not every thoughtful heart ready to cry: “God forgive me that I have not honored the Holy Spirit as I should have done, that I have grieved

The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

The first lesson is this—You may be a very earnest, godly, devoted believer, in whom the power of the flesh is still very strong. That is a very solemn truth. Peter, before he denied Christ, had cast out devils and had healed the sick. Yet, the flesh had power; and, the flesh had room in him.

God works to will, and He is ready to work to do, but, alas! many Christians misunderstand this. They think because they have the will, it is enough, and that now they are able to do. This is not so. … The power to do is not a permanent gift, but must be each moment received from the Holy Spirit.

All these searchings and hungerings and longings that are in your heart, I tell you, they are the drawings of the divine magnet, Christ Jesus. He lived a life of absolute surrender. He has possession of you; He is living in your heart by His Holy Spirit. You have hindered and hindered Him terribly, but He desires to help you to get a hold of Him entirely. And He comes and draws you now by His message and words. Will you not come and trust God to work in you that absolute surrender to Himself Yes, blessed be God! He can do it, and He will do it.

Jesus did not send me to war at my own expense and in my own power. He did not ask me to go and preach and teach in my own strength. Jesus intended for me to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit, even when I am at home in my house teaching my children.

In this matter of surrender, there are: God and I—I a worm, God the everlasting and omnipotent Jehovah. Worm, will you be afraid to trust yourself to this mighty God now? God is willing. Do you not believe that He can keep you continually, day by day, and moment by moment? Moment by moment I’m kept in His love; Moment by moment I’ve life from above.

Oh, friends, we must have such a beginning. Some people would forsake everything for the sake of their religion. For a false religion multitudes have given up all. Some people would forsake all for the sake of their church. Some people would forsake all for the sake of their fellow citizens. That is not what is needed though. We need to forsake all for the sake of Jesus. We need to let Him come into our lives and take possession of our hearts. Do we have a life of tender personal attachment to Jesus and joy in Him? I do not ask if you have perfectly achieved this, but I do wonder if we can honestly say, “It is what I am striving after. It is my main desire and goal. It is what I long for above everything else. Jesus Christ must have my heart and my will every moment of every day.

Being filled with the Spirit is simply this: The whole personality is yielded to His power. When the soul is yielded to the Holy Spirit, God himself will fill it.

Think of the church at large. What divisions! Think of the different bodies. Take the question of holiness, take the question of the cleansing blood, take the question of the baptism of the Spirit—what differences are caused among dear believers by such questions! That there are differences of opinion does not trouble me. We do not have the same constitution and temperament and mind. But how often hate, bitterness, contempt, separation, unlovingness are caused by the holiest truths of God’s Word! Our doctrines, our creeds, have been more important than love.

This teaches us that no outward instruction, even from Christ himself, or His words in Scripture, can bring us the full blessing—until the Holy Spirit works it in us.

Father, let the Holy Spirit have full dominion over me, in my home, in my temper, in every word of my tongue, in every thought of my heart, in every feeling toward my fellow-men. Let the Holy Spirit have entire possession.

The Holy Spirit has not only power, but He has the Spirit of love. He is troubled over this dark world and is troubled over our country. He is concerned about every sphere of work within it, and He is willing to bless. Why isn't there more blessing? There can only be one answer. We have not honored the Holy Spirit as we should have done. Is there anyone who can honestly say that we have? Every thoughtful and sincere heart should be ready to cry out, 'God, forgive me that I have not honored the Holy Spirit as I should have done, that I have grieved Him, that I have allowed self and the flesh and my own will to work where the Holy Spirit should have been honored. May You forgive me that I have allowed self and the flesh and the will to have the place that You intended for the Holy Spirit.