Yielding Ourselves to God the Right Way...

[Gideon]

Yielding Ourselves to God the Right Way

The Bible plainly teaches us that we are not our own.... we are His. He is our owner, having purchased us with His own blood. How far our present day Christianity has drifted from this concept. When Jesus met Paul, who was then  Saul, on the road to Damascus, this point was made perfectly clear, so much so that Saul made this statement.

"What would you have me to do, Lord?"

With that one profound statement, willful Saul became servant Paul and the rest is history. We all know we should be more yielded to God, and our spirit is willing, more often than not. But we know as well how hard it is to stay in that state, for our flesh is weak, and the things we want to do, we do not, and the things we hate, the things we want to avoid like the plague seem to come to us easily, just as they were described by Paul in Romans 7. 

So we end up living in a battlefield, but it is not a battle with the enemy, but with ourselves. We end up experiencing the battle of the black dog versus the white dog, and it never seems to end.

But is that what God willed for us, when He called us to His kingdom. Did He not promise to make us overcomers? Did He not assure us that He would make a way of escape in every single temptation? What good is that way of escape if our black dog is bound and determined to see that we do not take it, and instead give in to the desires of the flesh? What good is the whole armor of God if we find a  traitor living inside the armor?

There must be an answer, something we have missed.... and there is. Listen to the voice of God Himself as He gives us the answer through Paul himself.

"....but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive unto God."

There. There it is. There is the answer which has eluded us. Yielding ourselves to God is good, but even with honorable intentions, we will still fail..... unless our shield of faith is held up as to who we really are deep inside. You see, the truth is that we are no more a mixture of black dog and white. We are no more both children of this world and children of the next. We are new creatures and Paul tells us a great truth in Romans 8. We who are His are no more in the flesh, but in the spirit if Christ dwells in us. We owe the flesh a big fat nothing, no matter what we have been taught, no matter how we have lived up to this very moment. We owe it NOTHING..

Your old nature, my old nature, they are dead, no matter how fleshly you or I might have lived, even up to this very moment. And God asks that we believe that amazing truth, stand on it, and fight the good fight of faith from that perspective. Truth sets free ONLY when it is mixed with faith in the hearer, only when it is continued in, no matter how the enemy rails against us.

The black dog is dead. Not slowly dying. DEAD. He asks that in our weakness, we believe that truth, for it is that truth that promises to set us free indeed. 

Blessings to all,

Gideon

[Heleadethme]

19 hours ago, Gideon said:

"....but yield yourselves unto God, as those who are alive unto God."

Amen, such a still small word........but it is saying a mouthful.  And we cannot do it without God's help, it is by faith, by His Spirit.  It is available at any time.... now...but the reality is that for most there is a battle to get there, I think would be right to say.

(And just to let you know I got blocked from your other thread several days ago and have no idea why.....frustrating because I'm interested in that conversation. ) 

[Gideon]

6 hours ago, Heleadethme said:

Amen, such a still small word........but it is saying a mouthful.  And we cannot do it without God's help, it is by faith, by His Spirit.  It is available at any time.... now...but the reality is that for most there is a battle to get there, I think would be right to say.

(And just to let you know I got blocked from your other thread several days ago and have no idea why.....frustrating because I'm interested in that conversation. ) 

I had actually requested the thread be closed. After 23 pages, everyone had had their chance to speak as they believed, and several times, we got so far off topic, I had to re-read my own OP, LOL.

As to the battle you mentioned, it seems for many that the hard part is finally being convinced of two things.

1) Walking righteously is important for every single saint and is God’s will for us.

2) When we try, which we should, we find that we fail. Fail enough, and we finally come to the place where we see we need new natures in order to do it and walk in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. 

As children of God, we all have been given new natures as our birthright. But possessing them, and declared positionally holy and putting them on so that we can be changed by the Lord to become truly holy are two totally different things. We have to learn that before we can put the new one on, we have to put the old nature off, and there is the battle. Self cannot, or most times, will not, crucify itself. 

That is why we can make resolutions, try harder, get accountability partners, and make all sorts of efforts to force us to resist evil and sin. But the lesson that needs to be learned is that we will not ever stop being fleshly if we believe our old nature simply needs to be improved. No, it needs to die, and that happens by our reckoning it dead, not by killing it by our vain tryings. I should know. I tried fro 38 years. LOL.

Getting out of the wilderness of unbelief and self effort happens only when we have come to the point of having NO confidence in our fleshly efforts, and we know God must make us victorious Himself. And praise God, when we finally come to Him broken and hungry, as wretched men, like Paul did in Romans 7, we find the actually crossing over into the land of promise, ceasing from our own works is quite easy. What a relief when we finally see it, amen?

Blessings, 

Gideon

[Not me]

Calling believers to have a closer walk with Christ, is what, I think it means in scripture to;   

“encourage one other in the Lord” 

encouragement is excepted.

much love in Christ, Not meant  

[Heleadethme]

On 4/18/2018 at 6:22 PM, Gideon said:

I had actually requested the thread be closed. After 23 pages, everyone had had their chance to speak as they believed, and several times, we got so far off topic, I had to re-read my own OP, LOL.

As to the battle you mentioned, it seems for many that the hard part is finally being convinced of two things.

1) Walking righteously is important for every single saint and is God’s will for us.

2) When we try, which we should, we find that we fail. Fail enough, and we finally come to the place where we see we need new natures in order to do it and walk in victory over the world, the flesh, and the devil. 

As children of God, we all have been given new natures as our birthright. But possessing them, and declared positionally holy and putting them on so that we can be changed by the Lord to become truly holy are two totally different things. We have to learn that before we can put the new one on, we have to put the old nature off, and there is the battle. Self cannot, or most times, will not, crucify itself. 

That is why we can make resolutions, try harder, get accountability partners, and make all sorts of efforts to force us to resist evil and sin. But the lesson that needs to be learned is that we will not ever stop being fleshly if we believe our old nature simply needs to be improved. No, it needs to die, and that happens by our reckoning it dead, not by killing it by our vain tryings. I should know. I tried fro 38 years. LOL.

Getting out of the wilderness of unbelief and self effort happens only when we have come to the point of having NO confidence in our fleshly efforts, and we know God must make us victorious Himself. And praise God, when we finally come to Him broken and hungry, as wretched men, like Paul did in Romans 7, we find the actually crossing over into the land of promise, ceasing from our own works is quite easy. What a relief when we finally see it, amen?

Blessings, 

Gideon

Amen.....and it is a lovely clean feeling and peace with God whenever we obtain victory in any area of our life and heart...and it is by His Spirit, not of our own.  Thanks be to God for His wonderful mercy.  All for the purpose of making us living sacrifices.....completely consecrated to the Lord, and holding nothing back.....having no sin or bondage keeping us tethered to selfwill, the flesh or the world.  Yes, He brings us to face our giants and slay them....and Christ is that humble little stone which the builders refused.

 

[Heleadethme]

On 4/19/2018 at 7:11 AM, Not me said:

Calling believers to have a closer walk with Christ, is what, I think it means in scripture to;   

“encourage one other in the Lord” 

encouragement is excepted.

much love in Christ, Not meant  

Amen...encourage, succour, comfort one another.....because if we are carrying our cross and following Him, we need it.....the Captain of our faith fell three times.

But there is another aspect to being built up that I would like to mention as well.....because also if we see a brother or sister in danger, or in error, love means that we will try to help them.  Help with whatever means they need, through the correction of His word, or reproof, or however the Lord may lead.

2Ti 4:2

Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine.

Jde 1:22-23

And of some have compassion, making a difference:

And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

 

We need a right balance of these things for sure, but undergirding everything in general I believe there is a very important aspect that we must not forget the fear of the Lord and humbly remember Who it is we are serving:

Rom 11:22

Behold therefore the goodness and severity of God: on them which fell, severity; but toward thee, goodness, if thou continue in his goodness: otherwise thou also shalt be cut off.

1Pe 5:5

.........be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.