March 16, 2009
Yielding
A few years back I watched the impeachment hearings held with the House Judiciary Committee and heard some of the following back-and-forth statements and questions: “Will the gentleman yield? No, I will not yield to the gentleman. I thank the gentleman for yielding.” As I listened to the proceedings I thought of the Spirit having a similar dialog within believers. When Jesus calls us He’s asking, “Will the gentleman yield?”
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Gail;
-----I wish it were that simple. Yielding to the Spirit is a strange thing. In the halls of Congress, when the gentlemen yields, that means another gentlemen gets to speak. In the hearts of His disciples, when the gentleman yields, we expect that means the Holy Spirit gets to speak. And from every bent of Christian faith, men are sure they have yielded and the Spirit has spoken. They go away from their hearing the Spirit to tell you what they heard and what you must do and think. But others suspect they obviously did not hear, so they leave to hear for themselves. Hence the Lord finds His church partitioned into those who believe you must be filled with the Spirit and speak in tongues, those who believe you must remember the Sabbath (Saturday) to keep it holy, those who think you must look to the Pope for spiritual guidance, those who insist once you are saved you will never be lost, those who condemn musical instruments, those who condemn pork, those who condemn medicine, those who condemn any technology of convenience, and on, and on, and on, yielding to the Spirit.
-----In a way it is sad. But in as much as any one person in any one of these multitudes of different minds in Christ is sincere in his desire to truly know, he is yielded to the Spirit. Paul said that each one should be convinced in his own mind after demonstrating that Christians have real differences in beliefs. He went on to say that everyone should make every effort to do what leads to peace and mutual edification. And if need should be, he told us to keep the faith we have between ourselves and God. (Romans 14).
-----Certainly Jesus is not going to accept only the Pentecostals. Or only the Baptists, or the Seventh Day Adventists, etc., etc. He accepts anyone who calls on His name, and Paul tells us to accept one another as Christ has accepted us. So maybe your yielding to the Spirit rather looks to me like not yielding. But, how it looks to me is not the point. How it looks to Christ is the point. And I cannot judge for Him. I have to look at you, and no matter how oddly what you think in the Lord appears to me, if you are calling on His name, I must recognize His acceptance of you in spite of how dimly you might see, or how inaccurately you might yield. Otherwise He may have trouble accepting me in spite of how dimly I see and how inaccurately I yield.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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