Elements Of Surrender

By Michelle Faust

"I surrender all" Three simple words hold a meaning few understand.

This book is a journey into the depths of what "I surrender all" means. I share eleven personal testimonies that demonstrate that no matter what season of life you are in that you are never outside of God's guiding hand.

He will use your grea

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michelle Faust
• Release date: Nov 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088083376

Book preview

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Special Thanks

First, I want to acknowledge and honor the Lord for this work. His Word and leadership are the inspiration for this book.

Next, I want to acknowledge my husband, Daniel Faust. He is my biggest supporter and gave me space to complete this work. I thank the Lord for you and the way you have supported me. You gave me the space and time to devote to this project; I am blessed and thankful for this.

Finally, I want to acknowledge a few people in my life who directly supported this project. The first person I want to thank is my pastor, David Schlichting. Your encouragement and leadership are inspiring. Thank You for taking a chance on me and this project.

Next is Tina Broocks. Your friendship throughout this process has been valuable, and your willingness to invest in and support this project has been a huge blessing. Your investment of time to be the first to listen to the chapters and provide feedback was extremely helpful.

Last but not least is the Bratz family. Thank you for supporting this project and always being so encouraging. You are one of my favorite people to talk to at church. You are always so encouraging, and I am inspired by the lives you live. The body of Christ is stronger because you all are in it.

1

A Candle, Lamp, and Light Switch

Imagery is powerful. If someone can communicate a concept to you in a way that creates a mental image, there is a high chance that you will learn and understand whatever is being communicated. This is one reason that the ministry of Jesus on earth was so powerful. He taught in parables. Stories that always taught a more profound truth.

Jesus taught like that while walking on earth, and I do believe there are times today when the Holy Spirit teaches the same way. He will give imagery in an inner vision in your mind through your thoughts, and you may or may not understand the meaning right away.

One thing I’ve learned over the past 35 years walking closely with the Holy Spirit is that if He gives a vision, He will give the interpretation. He is the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation. It would be against the character of the Holy Spirit not to provide understanding. He will never violate His own nature.

Not every interpretation comes immediately. Sometimes it’s hours or days. Sometimes it’s two decades. I had an open vision when I was 19 years old. I was not given the wisdom to fully understand purpose and meaning until the last two years.

I am in the process of authoring another book right now about surrender to God, and I got the imagery that I am about to describe. At first, I thought it was unrelated to the subject matter, but the next day, I was amazed to see every single aspect of surrender to the Holy Spirit fall into perfect harmony and order under this imagery; I was shocked.

I have walked with the Lord since I was four years old, and I never cease to have moments of wonder and amazement. The more mature I become in the Lord and the longer I know Him, those moments seem to be becoming more and more common.

One day, not long ago, I was in prayer, and I was shown three things. One right after another. A candle, lamp, and light switch. As I was quiet at that moment, the first part of the meaning became very clear.

I first saw the candle, and this is the meaning. Candles give light and are usually intended for use as stationary light sources. In the scripture, we can see this demonstrated in Matthew 5:15. Some translations say lamp, but the KJV uses the word ‘Candle.’

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

I will never forget January 20th, 1993. I was nine years old.  I was living with my parents on the Key Peninsula of Washington State. For those who are unfamiliar with this part of the United States, this is roughly fifty miles south of Seattle, WA.

Looking outside of my home surrounded by 160-foot evergreen pine trees, I was terrified at the sight. Wind gusts upwards of 80 miles per hour were ravaging the area. The howl of the wind was relentless. We lived in a trailer, and fear gripped my mind, knowing at any point, all of the trees I saw bending fiercely could fail and fall. At least twenty are within clear reach of my home. My tin-roofed trailer, let alone the roofs of the other homes, was no match for any of the 160-foot trees that were blown down. My concern was not unfounded because six people died as a result of the storm. Some of those were falling trees.

I remember my mom trying to comfort me and saying, ‘Everything is going to be ok.’ Moments later, we heard a large crack and a massive crash behind the trailer. An eighty-mile-per-hour wind gust had pulled a full-grown evergreen tree up by the roots and toppled it right over. Thankfully, it was just far enough away that it missed the houses, including mine. Power had gone out hours before this.

After that crash in the backyard, all hope for sound sleep was gone. My parents and I hunkered down in the living room. They managed to fall asleep, but I was not able to find a moment of rest. The howl of the wind was too great a foe to allow my worried mind any respite that sleep would bring.

The first light revealed massive damage. Roofs were damaged, many trees were down, and the infrastructure of the entire area was disrupted. We had to rely on candles to provide light to play board games for 13 days. That is how long it took to restore power to the battered region. Some places, like the bigger cities and the military bases, of course, got restored first, but living in a more remote place, we were one of the last areas to get our power back.

My parents put candles in all of the needed places, and I was given strict instructions not to pick up and carry the candles. If I dropped one or tripped, it could cause a fire. The candles were meant to stay where my parents had placed them and light a single area at a time.

As a child, I learned that candles are designed to sit in one spot at a time and are not designed for movement. This imagery and understanding are no different. The candle that the Holy Spirit showed me represents our time of stillness with Him. Psalm 46:10 communicates this concept.

Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations I will be exalted in the earth.

Some aspects of surrender can only be developed in times of the Candle. These are the very key foundational ones. Without the times of the Candle, you cannot grow.

What are the times of the Candle? Daily quiet study of the Word. Times of stillness and silence. Quiet daily devotion. Prayer. The times we stop and are still in the truth of who God is. Times when it’s just you and God in the depths of the secret place. These are moments in the Candle. As I define surrender, I am going to define some of these as the surrender of the Candle.

The second thing I saw was a lamp. Lamps are intended to be carried and for movement. A description of a lamp in scripture is Psalm 119:105.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

The van doors opened, and eight of us piled out and stood on the rocky ground. It has been a long day of travel, and we are all very tired. This is a trip long planned for. Carwashes, bake sales, and many lawns weeded raised about half of what I needed to be on this mission trip. The grace and kindness shown to me by people who saw me working extraordinarily hard bridged the gap of what was not earned.

We were assigned to build two houses for the local families in Tijuana, Mexico.  We would be on site for seven days. We found our tents, which thankfully had already been set up.

One thing about this campsite was it was bare. Our bathrooms were outhouses, and our showers were five-gallon buckets of local water, which we were told not to get into our eyes and, by all means, not drink. There was also no lighting in the camp. One thing we were instructed to bring was a personal lamp.

We all grabbed our lamps as the sun went down on the first night we arrived. We gathered with the other teams on site from other churches for a combined worship service that evening. It was beautiful.

None of us knew the people around us from all different locations, but our common thread was Jesus and our desire to serve in this special way. The service started at dusk, and two hours later, the camp was pitch black. The only light coming from the lamps everyone had.

I remember all of us headed back to the tents for the night and were instructed to make sure we always took our lamps out and watched the ground in the middle of the night bathroom runs. This area was known for rattlesnakes and other not-so-nice critters in the night. Inevitably, I had to go to the bathroom around 3:30 a.m.

The camp was dead silent, and I was so thankful to have that lamp. I would not recommend a communal outhouse regularly, especially with the rumors of rats on the campsite near the bathrooms, but sometimes you make do. There is absolutely no way I would have made it there and back without that lamp.

The next five days were spent carrying buckets of sand uphill, mixing cement in wheelbarrows by hand with shovels, and putting stucco over chicken wire.

The day before we left was the most rewarding. The houses were completed, and we traveled off-site to a site I had been to the previous year. We built a church, and we were going to visit it a year later. We entered and saw a vibrant congregation of Jesus-loving people who were now able to call the place home.

I don’t know if I was more moved by the passion these people had for Jesus or that my team had built it one year prior, and this was the fruit. I remember how hot it was and that worksite was on a steep hill, and how much love we poured in. I also know that our literal blood, sweat, and tears mingled into the concrete of that church building’s foundation.

The lamps we were instructed to bring were needed for the darkness. We needed them every time we moved around after sunset to keep us safe and help us find our direction.

The Lamp that the Holy Spirit showed me represents our daily walk. Our relationship with God as we move. Psalm 119:105.

Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.

Anyone on a path is moving, and that lamp lets us see just what we need to provide our immediate direction and keep us safe. Surrender of the Lamp is your daily walk.

This is how you interact with life. How you act at work, treat your kids and your spouse. Your integrity and attitude as you interact with people. Surrender applies not just to the private areas of life that the candle covers but to every moment of your daily life. Some areas of surrender fall right into this category, and I will be defining those as the Surrender Of The Lamp.

The final thing I saw that the Holy Spirit showed me was a Light Switch. At first, I did not understand, as it seemed a bit different than the others. It did not take long for the wisdom and revelation to allow understanding.

At the flip of a light switch, a room goes from complete darkness to light in an instant. The light switch represents ministry and being used by God.  Acts 13:47-48.

For so the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have set you as a light to the Gentiles, That you should be for salvation to the ends of the earth.’ Now when the Gentiles heard this, they were glad and glorified the word of the Lord. And as many as had been appointed to eternal life believed.  

I have been volunteering for various ministries since I was six years old. I don’t have one story that could be more defining than the next. I’ve served from childcare all the way to the worship department. I’ve done janitorial and camera ministry.

I have learned over the years that no ministry is more important than another. The Light Switch is still a Light Switch even when it seems no one sees you or you start believing your role does not matter.

That Light Switch might be needed to hold a screaming baby for an hour so that mama can sit in service to hear how much Jesus loves her. That Light Switch might be directing traffic on a Sunday in your church parking lot or showing up to an empty building in the middle of the week to empty trash alone. This could look like you ministering the gospel to a coworker or handing a water bottle to a homeless person. The Light Switch is being actively used by Christ to spread His message. To show love.

Out of the Candle, Lamp, and Light Switch, this is the most dangerous one to walk in and the hardest to stay in. Many fail in ministry. They were disgraced and publicly shamed because they tried to stand as a light switch without the candle or the lamp being tended.

People want the platform of the Light Switch without the devotion and discipline of the Candle, and people want the