“Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.” And the angel departed from her.” Luke 1:38…………
“Stop resisting me,” the Spirit of God told me one night. “When I tell you to do something,” He said. “Simply do it.”…………..
He was reminding me of something He had told me before, taught me before, reminded me before, and continued to remind me as He teaches me to follow Him the way He desires to be followed by me – and by all of us.
The Lord wants His children to be HUMBLE, to be SUBMISSIVE, to be YIELDING, to SIMPLY SURRENDER to Him, to hear His instructions, and to simply say yes and go forth in loving obedience, in His strength, to bring glory to His name. WITHOUT RESISTANCE. With no arguing, debating, questioning, rebelling, procrastinating, defiance, with no walking the other way, pretending not to hear, hear and refusing to comply, not with anything other than loving faithful committed obedience to Him.
Mary the mother of Jesus when the angel told her she would give birth to the world’s savior instead of resisting the Lord and His will meekly submitted herself utterly to Him!
Abraham when the Lord gave Him instructions to essentially pack his bags and go forth, leaving so very much behind, simply got up and went!
The apostle Paul time and again simply went where the Lord called him to do what the Lord called him to do!
All the people mentioned in Hebrews 11 as examples of extreme faith are remembered to this very day not because of their resistance but because by love and faith they followed the Lord and lived for Him against all odds and despite unfathomable circumstances.
Jesus Christ was so surrendered to the Father that when it was time for Him to go to the cross, facing the most heinous death known to man, to take on the sins and sin penalty of the whole world, to bear upon Himself the wrath of God all this world deserves for our sins, in His love for the Father, and His love for humanity, didn’t resist God but yielded Himself utterly to God the Father and laid down His life.
Every example above, and every example in the Bible in its entirety, of people who chose not to resist God but to lovingly faithfully humbly yield themselves to Him instead have these three things in common:
- They lived for God as an active visible tangible real and practical manifestation of their faith in Him and love and reverence for Him
- They submitted their hearts and lives to Him whereby they were yielded to Him
- Their lives brought honor and glory to the name of the Lord
The Lord strongly compelled me to write this message to say this:
Stop resisting God if you’re resisting Him. For Christ’s sake! To God be ALL the glory!