ManTalk

Submit All Your Ways to God

Written By

Min. Irene Mbithe - School of Ministry

Published On

February 19, 2026

"Show me your ways, LORD, teach me your paths. Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Savior, and my hope is in you all day long.” — Psalm 25:4–5"

The Danger of Living on Autopilot

LIFE has a way of becoming routine. We wake up, go to work, manage responsibilities, solve problems, and repeat the cycle. Over time, the humdrum of daily living can slowly drain the joy, expectancy, and spiritual excitement from our walk with God.

Without realizing it, we begin to operate on autopilot.

We rely on experience.
We trust our instincts.
We depend on logic.
We move forward based on what worked before.

But God never intended for His children to live mechanically. He invites us into a life of spiritual adventure, divine direction, and ongoing revelation.

When David prayed in Psalm 25, he did not ask for material success or public victory first. He asked for something deeper:

“Show me your ways.”
“Teach me your paths.”
“Guide me in your truth.”

David understood something powerful:
The greatest blessing is not provision — it is direction.

God Is a God of Revelation

God is not distant. He is not silent. He is not uninterested in the details of your life. He delights in revealing His will to those who seek Him sincerely.

Throughout Scripture, we see a pattern:

God revealed His plan to Abraham.
He revealed strategy to Joseph.
He revealed dreams to Daniel.
He revealed wisdom to Solomon.
He revealed Himself fully through Jesus Christ.

God specializes in revealing “great and unsearchable things” (Jeremiah 33:3).

But revelation requires surrender.

Many believers desire clarity without submission. They want answers without yielding control. Yet divine direction flows from a surrendered heart.

Lean Not on Your Own Understanding

Proverbs 3:5–6 gives us a foundational principle for spiritual success:

“Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”

This verse contains both a warning and a promise.

The Warning:

Do not lean on your own understanding.

Human understanding is limited. It is shaped by:

Past experiences
Emotional wounds
Cultural assumptions
Fear and insecurity
Personal preferences

When we lean on our own understanding, we may appear confident but remain spiritually misaligned.

The Promise:

“In all your ways submit to Him, and He will make your paths straight.”

Notice the word all.

Not some ways.
Not spiritual matters only.
Not Sundays only.

All your ways.

That includes:

Career decisions
Financial planning
Relationships
Parenting
Ministry
Investments
Health choices
Business ventures
Conflict resolution

Submission means inviting God into every decision — even the ones you think you understand fully.

When Christianity Becomes Ritual

One of the most subtle dangers in the Christian life is ritual without relationship.

We can:

Attend church faithfully
Pray familiar prayers
Quote Scripture
Serve in ministry
Lead others

Yet inwardly drift into spiritual routine.

When this happens:

Prayer becomes repetition.
Worship becomes mechanical.
Faith becomes predictable.
Obedience becomes optional.

God is not looking for ritual performance. He is inviting us into deeper intimacy.

He is saying:
“Come beyond routine. Come into relationship.”

Areas We Often Keep God Out

Even committed believers sometimes compartmentalize their lives. We may give God our Sunday mornings but not our financial decisions. We may seek Him for ministry direction but not for personal relationships.

Ask yourself honestly:

Have I kept God out of my business strategies?
Have I excluded Him from my emotional wounds?
Have I resisted His voice in certain relationships?
Have I relied solely on my qualifications rather than His direction?
Have I stopped asking Him for guidance in familiar areas?

Spiritual maturity does not mean independence from God.
It means deeper dependence.

Repentance: The Gateway to Alignment

If you recognize areas where you have leaned on your own understanding, the solution is not condemnation — it is repentance.

Repentance simply means:

A change of mind
A shift in direction
A realignment with God’s will

Pray:

“Lord, forgive me for trusting my reasoning more than Your revelation. Forgive me for assuming I know best. I surrender every area back to You.”

Repentance restores clarity.
Humility attracts guidance.

Ask God for a Picture of Your Life

One powerful spiritual exercise is to ask God to show you your life from His perspective.

Pray:
“Father, show me the full picture of my life. Reveal the areas where I have excluded You.”

He may reveal:

Patterns of self-reliance
Unresolved pride
Fear-based decisions
Delayed obedience
Hidden distractions

God does not reveal to shame you.
He reveals to heal and reposition you.

Release Control

Submission requires release.

We often hold tightly to:

Plans
Timelines
Expectations
Comfort zones
Personal ambitions

But surrender says:
“Not my will, but Yours be done.”

Releasing control does not weaken you.
It strengthens your alignment.

It positions you for divine acceleration.

Expect Great and Unsearchable Things

When you submit your ways to God, something shifts.

You move from:

Striving → to flowing
Guessing → to knowing
Anxiety → to confidence
Confusion → to clarity

Jeremiah 33:3 promises:
“Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

God delights in surprising His children.

He may:

Open unexpected doors
Redirect your career
Restore broken relationships
Give innovative ideas
Reveal hidden opportunities
Birth new assignments

The Christian life is not meant to be boring. It is meant to be Spirit-led.

Obedience Sustains Revelation

Revelation requires obedience.

God does not reveal simply to inform you. He reveals to transform you.

When He speaks:

Act promptly.
Adjust willingly.
Follow fully.

Delayed obedience leads back to confusion.
Immediate obedience maintains clarity.

The Adventure of Daily Dependence

Submitting all your ways to God is not a one-time prayer. It is a daily posture.

Each morning you can pray:

“Lord, show me Your ways today. Guide my conversations. Direct my decisions. Order my steps.”

And then remain expectant.

Watch for:

Subtle promptings
Peace or restraint
Divine interruptions
Unplanned encounters
Open doors

The Holy Spirit guides in both dramatic and quiet ways.

Straight Paths in Crooked Seasons

Notice the promise again:

“He will make your paths straight.”

This does not mean life becomes easy.
It means your direction becomes clear.

You may still face challenges.
But you will not walk blindly.

Even in complex seasons, submission produces stability.

A Prayer of Surrender

Heavenly Father,
Show me Your ways. Teach me Your paths.
Forgive me for leaning on my own understanding.
Reveal every area where I have kept You out.
I release control and submit all my ways to You — my family, finances, ministry, health, and future.
Guide me in Your truth.
Reveal great and unsearchable things.
Make my paths straight.
In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Final Encouragement

God is inviting you deeper.

Beyond routine.
Beyond ritual.
Beyond self-reliance.

Submission is not loss — it is alignment.

When you submit all your ways to God, your life becomes an unfolding adventure of revelation, purpose, and divine direction.

Stay expectant and obedient as God reveals great and unsercahble things to you today.

Spread the Word

Empowering you to live victoriously by identifying and breaking invisible barriers in your life

Galatians 3:13

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Common Questions

Being born again secures your salvation—your sins are forgiven, and you belong to Christ. You don’t need deliverance to be saved.

However, even as a believer, you can still struggle with patterns, strongholds, or spiritual oppression from the past. Deliverance isn’t about salvation; it’s about applying Jesus’ freedom to those areas. If you experience ongoing struggles, prayer, renunciation, and pastoral support can help you walk fully in the liberty Christ has already won for you.
Breaking a generational curse, in a religious sense, is seen as a spiritual journey of repentance, faith, and deliberate action. It begins with acknowledging sin—both one’s own and, in some beliefs, the lingering effects of ancestors’ wrongdoing—and turning away from it through heartfelt repentance and prayer. This recognition is often accompanied by a conscious renunciation of the curse, verbally declaring that one no longer accepts the negative patterns or misfortunes that may have been passed down through the family line.

Faith plays a central role in this process. Believers rely on the power of God to intervene, heal, and restore, trusting that divine authority can break spiritual strongholds that have persisted for generations. Prayer, sometimes accompanied by fasting, Scripture reading, or intercession from spiritual leaders, is used to call on God’s guidance and protection.
When we receive salvation, our spirit is redeemed immediately. Our sins are forgiven, we are justified, and the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us (Ephesians 1:7; Romans 5:1; Ephesians 1:13–14). Salvation restores our relationship with God and secures eternal life.

However, the curses or effects of sin in the world—sickness, generational patterns, fear, poverty, or emotional wounds—are not always broken automatically. The reason is that while our spirit is saved, our body, mind, and circumstances still exist in a fallen world under the consequences of sin (Romans 8:20–22).
If you struggle with something but generally overcome it, it is not necessarily a spirit. The Bible shows that even faithful believers wrestle with sin and weakness—Paul himself admitted in Romans 7:15–20 that he struggled to do what was right even as he desired to obey God. A true “spirit” or demonic stronghold is usually characterized by persistent, overpowering opposition that cannot be resisted through prayer, Scripture, and obedience.

If you are able to resist, repent, and grow despite the struggle, it is more likely an area God is using to refine your character and strengthen your faith. Struggles can reveal patterns in our lives that need God’s grace, teaching us dependence on Him, humility, and perseverance. Victory is not about perfection; it is about continuing to walk in obedience, relying on God’s Word, and trusting His Spirit to lead you forward.
Yes, according to Scripture, the human spirit can be influenced, but it’s important to be precise about what that means. The Bible teaches that we are spirit, soul, and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). The “spirit man” is the part of us that connects with God, discerns spiritual truths, and communes with Him (John 4:24; Romans 8:16).

A demonic spirit cannot possess the spirit of a born-again believer because the Holy Spirit indwells them (1 Corinthians 6:19; 1 John 4:4). The Spirit of God protects and fills the spirit man, so it cannot be taken over. However, the spirit man can be influenced or oppressed by external spiritual forces if there is neglect, unrepented sin, or agreement with lies, which can affect our thoughts, emotions, and will.

Satan and his spirits can tempt, deceive, and oppress, but they cannot inhabit the spirit of someone truly born again. That’s why Scripture emphasizes guarding your heart and mind, staying in God’s Word, and walking in obedience—this keeps your spirit man aligned with God and resistant to attack (Ephesians 6:10–18; James 4:7).
consequences of sin, wrongdoing, or negative behavior can extend beyond an individual and affect their descendants. In this context, a generational curse is not merely about inherited traits or family patterns in a psychological sense, but rather a spiritual or moral consequence passed down through family lines.

For example, the Bible mentions in several passages, such as Exodus 20:5 and Numbers 14:18, that the sins of the parents can affect their children “to the third and fourth generation.” This is often interpreted to mean that unrepented sin or disobedience to God can create spiritual or circumstantial burdens like poverty, addiction, illness, or relational strife that may continue to manifest in subsequent generations.

Religious teachings often emphasize that generational curses are not inevitable. Through repentance, prayer, faith, and obedience to God, it is believed that individuals can break these curses and restore spiritual blessings to themselves and their descendants. In Christian practice, this might involve confession, seeking deliverance through prayer, or living a life aligned with God’s commandments to end the cycle of negative spiritual influence.
Feeling anger is not automatically a “spirit.” Anger is a natural emotion that God Himself expresses in certain circumstances (Exodus 32:10; Psalm 7:11). What matters is how you handle it. If you feel angry but do not act in sin, controlling your words, thoughts, and actions, this is not a demonic spirit—it is a natural human response being managed in obedience to God.

A spirit of anger in Scripture refers to a persistent, controlling, or destructive force that dominates a person’s behavior (Ephesians 4:26–27 warns against letting anger give the devil a foothold). If your anger arises but you remain calm, forgive, and do not allow it to control you, it is simply an emotion, not a spirit.
When faced with temptation, there are times to run and times to resist, and Scripture gives clear guidance.

You run from sin when it is dangerous, seductive, or beyond your natural ability to resist. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee fornication.” You remove yourself from the source of temptation—whether it’s a place, a person, or an opportunity—because staying there puts your soul at risk. Running is not cowardice; it is obedience and wisdom.

You resist when you are confronted with pressure or attack that you can face through God’s power. James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” Resisting means standing firm in faith, speaking Scripture, and relying on the Holy Spirit. This is active confrontation, not passive endurance.

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