Yielding Ourselves to His Spirit
The distinction of Bible Days from our Modern Church World can be found in the truth of the “yielded life.” God, our Father, or His Son, Jesus Christ, never forces themselves on anyone. The early church apostles learned to be utterly yielded and to live in this state of mind from Christ’s life and teachings. All that was required for exceptional miracles was an inward prompting by His Spirit. There were many wonderful occurrences where supernatural things happened.
In chapter three of the Book of Acts a man, who was lame from birth, was perfectly restored. He had spent his life being carried to some places where religious people could share a few pence. Then, Peter and John — recently filled with the Pentecostal Baptism – came by his way. Peter was prompted by the Holy Spirit to tell the man, “Silver and gold have I none; but such as I have give I thee: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk” (Acts 3:6b). Peter was not acting on his own accord, but neither was he a robot. Peter had to yield himself to obey the Spirit’s prompting. Here were men so full of the Holy Ghost that they became partners with God in a supernatural miracle.
That’s the Biblical meaning of being yielded to the Spirit and His purpose in our lives. It is not flesh taking control of God, but God taking control of a life that is wholly yielded to Him. When the Bible speaks about our partnership with God, it must be connected to a life that is no longer ruled by the flesh. Pride cannot be a partner with God. Selfish pursuits to claim the great promises of God will fail every time. His miracles and promises cannot be stopped when He is allowed total Lordship that is for His glory alone.
We live in a day of almost total sociological dominance. Nearly every expression of human thoughts or human dreams is connected to what we want, need, or desire to get. The Church World has been so humanized that we cannot think outside the box of self. Utter abandonment to God has become so elusive that we despair in dreaming of such surrender. Even when we do dream of such devotion to Him, we are so surrounded by the comforts of modern life that our flesh feels helpless to give up all of self. How can we become such a zero that He alone is one hundred percent?
We may be down to ten percent, but that means He is still only ninety percent. He will not accept such rebellion. I’m convinced that our Father is looking for this kind of surrender and abandonment of self, so that He can possess a modern Moses, a modern Abraham, a modern Paul, or a modern John Wesley. There are many godly disciples that he is using; however, His call is for an army of dead (crucified) saints. Apostle Paul was such a man and he admitted his abandonment before God in his declaration, “I die daily” (I Corinthians 15:31b). No other dedication was sufficient for God to make him His partner in the supernatural.
The Holy Spirit is a person, fully God and absolutely holy. He cannot abide, much less control, a compromised vessel. This generation knows very little of such a Holy God, who is the complete Lord of their life. This is the driving force of a “Spirit-filled church.” Apostle Paul prophesied by the Spirit, “Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body. What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Corinthians 6:18-20). He further stated, “If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are” (I Corinthians 3:17).
The exceeding glory that filled the tabernacle in the wilderness when Moses dedicated it to God is the same glory that the Holy Spirit provides to the church. When Solomon and the priest gave the golden temple — built at a value far exceeding billions in today’s worth — in dedication, the Shekhinah of God appeared beyond description. The priests could not continue their sacrifices because of the glory of God in that place.
Without question, that same Holy Ghost is exactly what God desires with which to flood the totally surrendered life. The apostle to the Gentiles said, “Who also hath made us able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not steadfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance; which glory was to be done away: How shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory” (II Corinthians 3:6-9). We have no right to suggest that this anointing of God is no longer available.
It is not God’s Holy Ghost that is not available; it is the utterly yielded vessels that are missing. A yielded vessel is not the work of flesh. We do not earn this glory by good works. It is the grace of righteousness that Christ willingly imputes and imparts to the soul that surrenders all to Him. We earn nothing, but He imparts His gifts when we give up all of self for the “Pearl of Great Price” (Matthew 13:46).
Joseph R. Chambers