We have been following the call of the Spirit, leading us into greater awareness of what is it to have a life of never-ceasing prayer. He has given an acronym to follow in this study on prayer and the word IS prayer.
We have gone through the lesson on "P" which stands for preparation, the "R" which stands for Repentance, the "A" which stands for acknowledge our dependency and today we are at the letter,
"Y" which stands for yielding to His Will and His Ways.
One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "you trust Me but do you trust My ways?"
Whenever the Holy One asks me a question like that one, I know He knows the answer but wants me to go deeper into discovery about myself and our love relationship. So, I take the "bait" and begin to ponder that question. He obviously makes a distinction between the big issue of trust as in for my eternal salvation, and the smaller things where I get hung up and anxious in life circumstances.
We all have need and we all have desires. Neither of these things are sinful in and of themselves. We are faced with the need for food and shelter, etc. Then there is desire. We all desire to be loved and in relationship, and even to help each other thus being appreciated.
These are not things we have to run away from. God created us. He set us up with needs and desire. In His Masterful Creativity, the Creator designed the created to need and desire Him. However, it takes time and introspection to recognize that God is at the baseline of our needs and desire and He is the only One who can bring the ultimate fulfillment to both.
The next step in our life of never-ceasing prayer is to allow Him to bring those needs and desires into our lives, His Way. This is what it is to yield in part: to allow without demanding priority or rights. The Lord took me to John 11 and the account of the death of Lazarus to emphasize this lesson.
Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha were beloved friends of the Lord. It so happened that Lazarus became sick. Jesus was in a different place and received message that His friend Lazarus was ill. Mary and Martha were concerned for their brother's health and knew Jesus to be the Healer. They had, no doubt, witnessed His powwer over sickness and disease.....so they sent for Him.
The Holy Scriptures tell us that Jesus tarried. He didn't rush to heal His friend but in fact, stayed longer in the place where He was.
Then, the unspeakable worst thing that could happen did. Lazarus died. For Mary and Martha, this death was even more devastating than the emotional loss of a beloved brother. In the culture of the day, Lazarus represented their security and their future. So Mary and Martha's futures as well as their hearts were broken by his death.
So they mourned. All they wanted, or desired and needed was to have Lazarus healed and restored to them. When Jesus finally arrived, they were crushed and hurting and even bitter because they "knew" Jesus as capable of healing their brother. But Jesus had a better plan, a Glorious plan. His Will, God's Will was always to restore Lazarus to Mary and Martha, but His way was through the death and unbelievable resurrection of this man.
The Lord pointed out to me that the sister's desire and the His will were one and the same, but His ways are not like our ways. By delaying the answer that was to come, Jesus was drawing them into deeper understanding about who He is. This is the message and the reason we must yield in prayer and say, "Thy Will be done" and accept how God's Will is enacted in the circumstances of our lives.
We are privileged to take our desires and needs to Him in prayer, but then, in trust we allow Him to work things out His way. If our desires are not in our best interests and according to His desires for us, then we must ask Him to change them. He has created us to desire but we need to look to Him for what we are to desire as well as for the fulfillment thereof.
Remember that He is Sovereign, outside our frame of understanding. He knows all things, how they begin and how they will end. He sees the end from the begining and what is down each and every pathway. He is trustworthy to lead us beside the still waters as well as the rushing stream. Why rely on our limited view of the road ahead when it is God who knows the map?
When we "know" that our desires are Ok and fall within the guidelines of the Word of God, we wait and yield to His ways of bringing them into our reality. All of the most disasterous things can happen in our lives when we try to fulfill our desires our way. Our desires may truly be God's Will, but unless we yield to His ways of bringing forth His will, we may miss something amazing but far more worrisome, we may actually fall into the enemy's agenda in our self-serving efforts and demands for resolution on our terms.
Independence is the refusal to yield to the authority of another. Rebellion is to follow the established rule of authority. Let's stop here to get our minds on the Lord's Will and try to gain His perspectiveon our lives, generally or specifically. Ask Him to speak to you about trusting and yielding to His ways. If you fear His sovereignty, confess that and repent, asking the Holy One within to set a new course for trusting and yielding to His Ways.
Here is another time to listen with your heart. Let the Holy One lead yiou into all Truth. Don't be afraid of what you might hear even if it contradicts your present course of life. God's Will will never contradict His Word but it will often contradict our thinking.
Don't worry about being a little "schizophrenic" at this point becasue you are in fact the "possession" of another....The Holy One within is bringing you into Trinity Unity away from self-serving, self-protecting, self-providing, self-centeredness. I.E. As yield to the Spirit, we are surrendering the Throne of our lives to His rule. As He establishes his government within we are safe.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
We have gone through the lesson on "P" which stands for preparation, the "R" which stands for Repentance, the "A" which stands for acknowledge our dependency and today we are at the letter,
"Y" which stands for yielding to His Will and His Ways.
One day the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "you trust Me but do you trust My ways?"
Whenever the Holy One asks me a question like that one, I know He knows the answer but wants me to go deeper into discovery about myself and our love relationship. So, I take the "bait" and begin to ponder that question. He obviously makes a distinction between the big issue of trust as in for my eternal salvation, and the smaller things where I get hung up and anxious in life circumstances.
We all have need and we all have desires. Neither of these things are sinful in and of themselves. We are faced with the need for food and shelter, etc. Then there is desire. We all desire to be loved and in relationship, and even to help each other thus being appreciated.
These are not things we have to run away from. God created us. He set us up with needs and desire. In His Masterful Creativity, the Creator designed the created to need and desire Him. However, it takes time and introspection to recognize that God is at the baseline of our needs and desire and He is the only One who can bring the ultimate fulfillment to both.
The next step in our life of never-ceasing prayer is to allow Him to bring those needs and desires into our lives, His Way. This is what it is to yield in part: to allow without demanding priority or rights. The Lord took me to John 11 and the account of the death of Lazarus to emphasize this lesson.
Lazarus and his sisters, Mary and Martha were beloved friends of the Lord. It so happened that Lazarus became sick. Jesus was in a different place and received message that His friend Lazarus was ill. Mary and Martha were concerned for their brother's health and knew Jesus to be the Healer. They had, no doubt, witnessed His powwer over sickness and disease.....so they sent for Him.
The Holy Scriptures tell us that Jesus tarried. He didn't rush to heal His friend but in fact, stayed longer in the place where He was.
Then, the unspeakable worst thing that could happen did. Lazarus died. For Mary and Martha, this death was even more devastating than the emotional loss of a beloved brother. In the culture of the day, Lazarus represented their security and their future. So Mary and Martha's futures as well as their hearts were broken by his death.
So they mourned. All they wanted, or desired and needed was to have Lazarus healed and restored to them. When Jesus finally arrived, they were crushed and hurting and even bitter because they "knew" Jesus as capable of healing their brother. But Jesus had a better plan, a Glorious plan. His Will, God's Will was always to restore Lazarus to Mary and Martha, but His way was through the death and unbelievable resurrection of this man.
The Lord pointed out to me that the sister's desire and the His will were one and the same, but His ways are not like our ways. By delaying the answer that was to come, Jesus was drawing them into deeper understanding about who He is. This is the message and the reason we must yield in prayer and say, "Thy Will be done" and accept how God's Will is enacted in the circumstances of our lives.
We are privileged to take our desires and needs to Him in prayer, but then, in trust we allow Him to work things out His way. If our desires are not in our best interests and according to His desires for us, then we must ask Him to change them. He has created us to desire but we need to look to Him for what we are to desire as well as for the fulfillment thereof.
Remember that He is Sovereign, outside our frame of understanding. He knows all things, how they begin and how they will end. He sees the end from the begining and what is down each and every pathway. He is trustworthy to lead us beside the still waters as well as the rushing stream. Why rely on our limited view of the road ahead when it is God who knows the map?
When we "know" that our desires are Ok and fall within the guidelines of the Word of God, we wait and yield to His ways of bringing them into our reality. All of the most disasterous things can happen in our lives when we try to fulfill our desires our way. Our desires may truly be God's Will, but unless we yield to His ways of bringing forth His will, we may miss something amazing but far more worrisome, we may actually fall into the enemy's agenda in our self-serving efforts and demands for resolution on our terms.
Independence is the refusal to yield to the authority of another. Rebellion is to follow the established rule of authority. Let's stop here to get our minds on the Lord's Will and try to gain His perspectiveon our lives, generally or specifically. Ask Him to speak to you about trusting and yielding to His ways. If you fear His sovereignty, confess that and repent, asking the Holy One within to set a new course for trusting and yielding to His Ways.
Here is another time to listen with your heart. Let the Holy One lead yiou into all Truth. Don't be afraid of what you might hear even if it contradicts your present course of life. God's Will will never contradict His Word but it will often contradict our thinking.
Don't worry about being a little "schizophrenic" at this point becasue you are in fact the "possession" of another....The Holy One within is bringing you into Trinity Unity away from self-serving, self-protecting, self-providing, self-centeredness. I.E. As yield to the Spirit, we are surrendering the Throne of our lives to His rule. As He establishes his government within we are safe.
The Spirit is calling. Can you hear Him?
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