That which altered Oswald Chambers' life

Oswald Chambers' crisis of full surrender to God in 1901 profoundly altered his life.  Later he spoke of it in a letter to a friend.

You ask a question about the baptism of the Holy Ghost -- did I get there all at once, or easily?  No, I did not.  Pride and the posession of the high esteem of my many Christian friends kept me out for long enough.  But immediately I was willing to sacrifice all and put myself on the Altar, which is Jesus Himself, all was begun and done.
Holiness is not an attainment at all, it is the gift of God, and the pietistic tendency is the introspection which makes me worship my own earnestness and not take the Lord seriously at all.  It is a pious fraud that suits the natural man immensely.  He makes me holy, He sanctifies, He does it all.  All I have to do is come as a spiritual pauper, not ashamed to beg, to let go of my right to myself and act on Romans 12:1-2.  It is never 'Do, do and you'll be' with the Lord, but 'Be, be, and I will do through you.'  It is a case of 'hands up' and letting go, and then entire reliance on Him.                                  -- From Oswald Chambers: Abandoned to God by David McCasland