February, 2015 | Norma L. Brumbaugh

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

We have a lot to learn.

The Christian faith walk is a spiritual journey in which our destiny and purpose plays out on a daily basis. The longer we walk in closeness of unity, the more we will become like the One we follow. There are some requirements. One requirement is that we quit doing life our way and start doing it God’s way.

Part of taking the yoke is what comes with it. We are told, “and learn from me.” That is pretty specific. There is a lot to learn, but we must be willing learners. It’s not our deal, it is God’s. Now, that doesn’t sound too hard unless you think it will crimp your style or inhibit your excesses. But, I do believe it keeps many people from wanting to “take His yoke.”

You see, there is a giving up that is going on and then a change of focus from self-interest to God-interest. What can help a person let go of bondage to these things is by seeking to know and love God. When our love for God flowers into radiant life, then also our desire is for God and not as much for the temporary things of life.

Submitting to God’s yoke is acquired through intention. It takes our personal initiative and the act of seeking God with our heart, mind, and soul. By taking His yoke upon us and then learning from Him as we work as a team, we will find a key that opens us to find immediate access to God and His truth. We can’t learn freely from Him until we surrender our “me” that has been occupying the throne of our life.

We must abandon ourselves to God until it is God occupying the throne of our life. This often requires a frequent submitting of our will to Him. When we do so, it changes the whole spiritual dynamic we have with God.

We may know how to climb a mountain using crampons and ropes and all the right tools for mountain climbing but until we actually climb the mountain using these tools, it has only been a mental preparation. We don’t become a mountain climber until we climb the mountain.

We can know all about loving God and following God, but until we begin loving God and following God in our reality, we have not done it. It must become part of us for it to be real in us. This opens a capacity within us to hear God and internalize His plans for us.

The learning is a consecration process. It is not something we seek externally, an adding on, but rather, it is an allowing of God to meet us where we are at in an internal state of change. He becomes a well-spring inside of us by releasing His cleansing fountain to make us into pure vessels as objects that have Christ’s stamp, His identifying mark for all to see.

We will learn God’s daily purposes, not only the long-term plans. God will remove the dross, the many, many foreign particles, sins and issues, that don’t belong in our lives and which have deflected from His life in us.

In our surrendered life, we have a greater capacity to learn from Him and of Him. God is more fully active in our mind and heart. We allow a transforming to take place by submitting our lives to God and to His yoke. God will revolutionize our life.

We give it all up to Him and let go of our agenda, both positive and negative issues and things in our lives, our hopes, our dreams, our plans, our desires, our wants, our right to vengeance, our rights to happiness and self-fulfillment and so forth. When we have done this, and only then, will we truly learn what God would have us to learn, know, and understand within the intimacy of a Father to child meaningful relationship.

In this, we ascertain that it involves our heart-knowledge and not just our head-knowledge. It is not just listening, believing, or knowing all the right scriptures, correct theology, or scripted answers. That is half of the equation. It requires involving the emotions and the will in active willingness to follow God and to learn from Him. This is when spiritual life becomes exceedingly wonderful.

The learning becomes a way to live life. It is never satiated. We want more of God than we had yesterday. We are in a constant state of interactive dependence on God in a loving and reciprocal relationship. We won’t be able to stop growing and changing because we’re loving it and loving Him. Nothing will stop this new way of living unless we turn away, quit yielding to God, and return to being our own source and guide.

Few turn away from following God at this stage once close intimacy of relationship with God is established. At this depth of learning, we begin to know God in an ever-expanding awareness. It becomes “meat” to our souls and “delight” to our beings. Our lives have flip-flopped. What once was ordinary has now become spectacular and beautiful. People who walk in close intimacy of relationship with God have a unique beauty that attracts notice.

Something has awakened in us that responds to God with pure love. We have crossed over. Now we are living our spiritual life out of love instead of out of duty. Through the joining of God with human, the journey has enlivened and broken free of formalized spiritual conventions.

It is no longer religion or spiritual beliefs, it becomes you and God and God and you, a yoke formed and bound in loving relationship with Him in the lead position guiding us in on our daily journey. We have learned, we answer to God first.

Let go and let God, that's the best way to spiritual wholeness.

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The character of God infuses into our character as a form of Christ-likeness which comes through the seeking and finding. It is a beautiful work of God in our lives. Praises to Him.

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LINKS:

>Next post: A radical makeover: A Spiritual Intervention (19)

<previous post: God’s A team and you are on it: A Spiritual Intervention (17)

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©N. L. Brumbaugh

We are on God’s “A” team.

We are on a team, and it’s an “A” team. We are teamed up with the best in the business. Today’s study is about this “yoke” a Christian wears which is indicative of our relationship with God: take my yoke upon you, and learn from me. The “yoke” is not a bad or demanding thing as one might think. This is descriptive language to illustrate our union with God and that we are together, work together, facilitate a spiritual dynamic together, and function as one unit with two entities; God and me.

This phrase, take my yoke upon you, is a picture analogy of our relationship with God. I visualize the “yoke” we have with God as something like this: When we pull ahead of God with a burst of independence, He slows us down and moderates our activities. When we fall or drag behind and begin to fade or give up, God lifts us up and pulls or carries us along.

The yoke tethers God and us together in a good way, not as a forced behavior but as a loving friendship. The yoke is an interesting concept. Once yoked, we are unable to act independent of God. God is in us and with us, and we cannot move independent of His presence. This binds us in a secure relationship with God that is so tight that it cannot be broken.

“Take my yoke upon you” is active. Active, again? We take it upon us. Why would we want to do this? Why do we do this? Why the word, yoke? A yoke suggests a joining, a binding together, an interdependence. We willing take His yoke upon us, but, I believe, God is the one who does the binding and is the lead person in the relationship, just like with a team of horses there is the dominate lead animal or even a lead dog on a dogsled team.

We cannot operate as mavericks in our spiritual life. The spiritual life is not designed to be an independent venture. It is just the opposite. The child of God spends their days in a position of yielding their will to God, the Father’s will. It is an essential part of the “binding” in our yoke with God. We are bound to our heavenly Father for the purpose of learning from Him and of Him.

Everywhere we go God is with us, teaching us, guiding us, helping us, and strengthening us. We are not alone in our endeavors, and it is God’s intention for us to achieve and succeed for He is here, yoked with us, to make sure the mission is accomplished. The success of the mission is dependent upon what we learn and absorb and the person we become in our Christ-likeness and Spirit-living.

God’s yoke is a gift to us. It keeps us on track and it helps us when we are weak or self-willed. Just watch a team of horses or cattle bound together with a harness apparatus or yoke, and you will see that they must work together or they will be at odds and little will be accomplished and much will be confused or ruined.

We desperately need God to temper us and guide us. God’s yoke is a kindness to us, not a burden inhibiting our progress. God is becoming our strength in all areas of our lives and we are learning to depend and trust in Him with our daily stuff and our scary stuff.

It is a relief to know that our spiritual success is not only up to us, for we are weak and easily distracted, instead it is up to God to help make a way for us through the wilderness of living this crazy life along with its struggles and joys, sorrows and blessings.

Soon we will know and enjoy the gift that we receive, what we learn deep in our souls, which the Giver gives to us from out of the “learning,” of a child with his Master Teacher.

Come in out of the shadows and start living anew.

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You are on the A team.

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LINKS:

>Next post: Grow in your relationship with God: A Spiritual Intervention (18)

<previous post: What we really need is rest: A Spiritual Intervention (16)

|<<first post: A Spiritual Intervention

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