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"Surrender." What does this word tell you? In literal terms, surrender means to give up something to another person. It also means to relinquish something granted to you. This could include your possessions, power, goals, even your life.

Christians today hear much about the surrendered life. But what does it mean, exactly? The surrendered life is the act of giving back to Jesus the life he granted you. It's relinquishing control, rights, power, direction, all the things you do and say. It's totally resigning your life over to his hands, to do with you as he pleases.

How can anyone who calls himself a lover of Jesus knowingly continue in sin? As followers of Christ, we claim to be delivered from sin's power. We testify that the cross has fully redeemed us from the bondage of iniquity. Yet multitudes of believers today continue to cling to lusts, habits, grudges, bitterness.

I received a letter from a brother in Christ who probably would claim he is a very upright man. Yet there was bitterness in his words to me:

"Brother Wilkerson, what has happened to you? You used to preach so powerfully against sin. But I believe you've gone soft on sin lately. Your recent message on Jubilee gives people a license to sin. You're offering comfort to compromisers, instead of convicting them!

I have never claimed to be a prophet. But there comes a time when the Word of God becomes such a fire in my bones, I have to speak out what I see and hear. Call it a watchman's message, or whatever you will — but I have to tell you what God has put on my heart concerning this nation!

I do believe God has true prophets — those who are occasionally moved upon by the Holy Spirit to foretell future events and coming judgments. Indeed, on a few rare occasions, the Spirit has compelled me to warn of impending judgments. But the prophecy I bring you now is not predictive.

I have a godly friend who has undergone incredible suffering -- physical, spiritual and emotional. This person's suffering has seemed to me to be beyond human endurance. It has been so intense at times, I've wondered how my friend could go on without collapsing under the burden of it all.

Home Depot is a chain of large warehouses that sells home products wholesale. I was in one of their stores recently just as a new work shift arrived, and I watched some of the employees "gird up." They put on black, wide-band belts — or girdles — that were required by their employer. These girdles provided added strength in lifting heavy items, and they helped safeguard against injury. They were an apparel made specifically for the workplace.

Every Christian claims to trust the Lord. But the truth is, many of God's children are not ready to face the black storm of sorrows that is fast approaching!

The vials of God's wrath are soon to be poured out upon the earth, ushering in a time of trouble like none seen before in man's history. And unless we lay hold of a special, unshakable trust in the Lord, few Christians are going to survive the very hard times ahead!

"And it came to pass, when all the kings of the Amorites, which were on the side of the Jordan westward, and all the kings of the Canaanites, which were by the sea, heard that the Lord had dried up the waters of Jordan from before the children of Israel, until we were passed over, that their heart melted, neither was there spirit in them any more, because of the children of Israel.

It is amazing how the Word of God literally cries out against the way a majority of Christians live today. Old Testament prophets spent much of their time exposing the greed and graft of priests, false prophets and of the masses. With broken heart Isaiah said, "His watchmen are blind: they are ignorant, they are all dumb dogs...sleeping...loving to slumber...yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough...they all look to their own way, every one for his own gain..." (Isaiah 56:10,11).

"Awake, awake! Put on your strength, O Zion; Put on your beautiful garments, O Jerusalem,the holy city; For the uncircumcised and the unclean shall no longer come to you. Shake yourself from the dust, arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem; Loose yourself from the bonds of your neck. O captive daughter of Zion. For thus says the Lord: You have sold yourselves for nothing. And ye shall be redeemed without money" Isaiah 52:1-3, New KJV)