To yield or obey

To yield or obey - that is the question.

And WHY it is the question today I have no idea. I just started thinking about it this morning on the way to work and can't seem to quit so I wonder if it is one of those times when I am to yield and it doesn't matter why.

See - my experience as a Christian - and I think this is true of most - trained me to obey God. I was to obey the written word and if I heard him directly then I should obey his voice.

Well, somewhere in the early 2000's I went to a conference in Atlanta, GA and I heard something there that radically changed my idea of obedience to God. It wasn't even the conference holder who said it. It was a young man who was one of the speakers on the agenda. He spoke of yielding and of course, by now, I can't really remember how he said it. It is a reality that has become my own.

Now, however many years later I think this way.... As I understand the principles and the ways of the kingdom that I learn from the written word I live them to the best of my ability and when I feel the urging of the God who dwells fully within me, (living his life in this earth through all of us - hence the need for diversity), then I am to yield to that.

Maybe this is one of those times.

See, here is the difference and why I don't focus on my own obedience. Because when I do that the focus is on me and my ability to LIVE A GOOD CHRISTIAN LIFE and attain to the objectives that are so variously interepreted in the written word. I have discovered that I am woefully inadequate for that task and was quiet relieved when one of my teachers - a couple named John and Paula Sanford spoke about this in one of their books. He said very directly that God never intended that we be able to LIVE A GOOD CHRISTIAN LIFE. God knew that humanity could not accomplish that - whatever it is and it will be defined differently by all the denominations and many of the people. That was about the same time period that Jesus spoke to my heart and said that he wasn't trying to fix me. Line upon line, precept upon precept, truth comes to us.

I have found it so much easier to just learn to be who I am, trying to live my life to honor God, be a life giver to my friends and family and understand when he wants to do something and be willing to yield to that, just letting him be himself through me.