My family and I spent Thanksgiving at my parent’s house just south of Austin. We made the 4-hour trek down there the Wednesday prior to Thanksgiving. We had a great time with the family. It really was quite restful for me.

On the drive back, I just had this most wonderful connect time with the Lord. Often, when I drive on long trips, I take my iPod and earphones and just listen to sermons or podcasts or praise music. This trip was no different.

I was really sensing a call from the Lord to just surrender. I knew there were a few things in my life that I was holding on to–things I put my hope in. And, I knew the jealousy of God was fighting fiercely for my heart.

As I drove back to Dallas on Sunday, I listened to Jimmy Evan’s message on The Power of Surrender. And, through it, God really just touched my heart on the need to let go of those things in this life that I trust in for peace, for provision, for whatever. Because ultimately, God is my source of peace, my source of provision, my source for everything.

As we were about to roll into Dallas, God outlined four steps to help me surrender:

1. Guard my heart
“Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life” (Proverbs 4:23).

2. Take thoughts captive
“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5).

3. Speak Godly thoughts
“May the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be pleasing to you, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer” (Psalms 19:14).

4. Believe
“Listen to me! You can pray for anything, and if you believe, you will have it” (Mark 11:24).

Guard, capture, speak, believe.

As I studied these four steps, I kept wanting to add a step 2.5, to listen, because you can’t really do much until you listen to God and hear his heart.

Then, just yesterday, I knew that it wasn’t a step 2.5. Rather, it was the encompassing step that wraps around all four of those steps. Think about it:

• To guard your heart, you must listen spiritually to what’s attacking your heart.
• To take thoughts captive, you must listen to those thoughts and discern the source.
• To speak Godly thoughts, you have to listen to God to know what his thoughts are.
• To believe, you must first listen, because faith (believing) comes by hearing.

So, let me challenge each one reading this to guard, capture, speak and believe, and do all those things while listening!