Spiritual Disciplines
Yielding to the Holy Spirit
One day God was looking down at Earth and saw all of the evil that was going on. He decided to send an angel down to Earth to check it out. So he called one of His best angels and sent the angel to Earth for a time.
When she returned she told God, yes it is bad on Earth, 95% is bad and 5% is good.
Well, he thought for a moment and said, maybe I had better send down a second angel to get another point of view.
So God called another angel and sent her to Earth for a time too.
When the angel returned she went to God and told him yes, the Earth was in decline, 95% was bad and 5% was good.
God said this was not good. So He decided to E-mail the 5% that were good and He wanted to encourage them, give them a little something to help them keep going.
Do you know what that E-mail said? Oh, you didn’t get one either, huh?
As we wind down in our series on the Spiritual Disciplines, I would like us to see today’s message as the first of three final steps of living the life that is Spiritually Disciplined.
Fortunately for us, God has sent us something better than an encouraging email. He has sent us The Holy Spirit.
Today’s message is titled “Yielding to the Holy Spirit”. Last week we highlighted this point in Spiritual Discipline; today I’d like to dive deeper and discover what that means to each believer on a practical level.
1. The Stage is Set
As believers, we all need a reminder from time to time that we have been given access to the power of the Holy Spirit from the moment we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.
Acts 2:1-4 (NLT)
On the day of Pentecost all the believers were meeting together in one place. 2 Suddenly, there was a sound from heaven like the roaring of a mighty windstorm, and it filled the house where they were sitting. 3 Then, what looked like flames or tongues of fire appeared and settled on each of them. 4 And everyone present was filled with the Holy Spirit and began speaking in other languages, as the Holy Spirit gave them this ability.
Here we see the moment when everything changed! God’s Spirit has come to live in all believers permanently!
A. Baptism of the Holy Spirit
Question: Do we have to have an experience just like Acts 2 to be baptized and filled with the Holy Spirit? NO! These disciples had the unique experience as the Holy Spirit came down to live in believers for the first time. Special Effects!
The fact that our experience will be different should not limit our expectations of how the Holy Spirit will work in our lives:
“Can’t do it that way.” - God does things the way he chooses
“It has to happen this way.” – You may not have an “Acts 2”
“The person of God comes into our lives through His Spirit.”
Billy Graham once wrote:
“All believers are baptized with the Holy Spirit. This does not mean, however, that they are filled or controlled by the Spirit. The important thing is the great central truth—When I came to Christ, God gave his Spirit to me.”
1 Corinthians 12:13 (NASB)
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Think of the difference between salvation and sanctification: Salvation is the starting point; when we are saved through grace.
Sanctification is the next and continual process of spiritual growth – The Outward Sign of an Inward Work!
It’s the same here, when we repent and receive Christ as Lord, God’s spirit comes upon us, but it is not the end! It is quite literally setting the stage for a new life of living for God.
Galatians 3:26-27 (NLT)
For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 And all who have been united with Christ in baptism have put on Christ, like putting on new clothes.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is something God does for us in establishing our relationship with Jesus Christ. The filling of the Holy Spirit is the daily yielding to the Holy Spirit’s control.
2. Yield to the Holy Spirit
I want to present to you a word to keep in mind in regards to the daily “filling of the Holy Spirit”.
yield: give way to arguments, demands, or pressure
• [ trans. ] relinquish possession of (something); give (something) up
• [ trans. ] cease to argue about
• (esp. in a legislature) allow another the right to speak in a debate :
• give right of way to other traffic.
If we look a little closer than the passing glance at these definitions, we can see a relationship between the meaning of the word “yield” and what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit.
A. Allow the Indwelling (inhabit, infuse, abide)
• relinquish possession of (something); give (something) up
Yielding acknowledges we are not our own; our life has been given over to God!
1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NIV)
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body.
Upon baptism, the Holy Spirit has come to live in our lives. This experience of God’s Presence is now the everyday experience of every believer!
Remember, before Christ’s death and resurrection we could not have this experience. In fact, before this God’s presence could only be experienced in the tabernacle or Temple (Holy of Holies)
So now this should never be something we take for granted, it should always amaze us!
How many times have you gone an entire day or days even without acknowledging the presence of God in your life?
Next time you feel you are struggling with sin, remember that you have God’s Spirit living inside you—allow that to be what reminds you to deny yourself, and be continually cleansed of unrighteousness!
We can get off track when we focus on the “stuff” of life. That’s where we need to allow the “filling” of the Holy Spirit to take place.
But before we can do this, we must be willing to give up on our thoughts of “self-focus” because we are not doing this alone.
B. Allow the Spirit to Lead
• [ trans. ] cease to argue about
• allow another the right to speak in a debate
I love these definitions, because they speak on a much bigger level of letting the Holy Spirit be our “advocate”; someone who works on our behalf.
John 16:7, 13-15 (NLT)
7 But in fact, it is best for you that I go away, because if I don’t, the Advocate won’t come. If I do go away, then I will send him to you. 13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own but will tell you what he has heard. He will tell you about the future. 14 He will bring me glory by telling you whatever he receives from me. 15 All that belongs to the Father is mine; this is why I said, ‘The Spirit will tell you whatever he receives from me.’
Do we realize what a tremendous blessing this is? The Holy Spirit is readily available to help us discern, and provide wisdom and guidance.
Elizabeth Elliot (missionary) tells of two adventurers who stopped by to see her, all loaded with equipment for the rain forest east of the Andes. They sought no advice, just a few phrases to converse with the Indians. She writes: “Sometimes we come to God as the two adventurers came to me — confident and, we think, well-informed and well equipped. But has it occurred to us that with all our accumulation of stuff, something is missing?
We may think we know where we’re going, but we must never be too prideful to yield to the wisdom the Holy Spirit gives freely. While this simple act does show dependence on God, it does not show us to be weak, but rather strengthened in a way others are not!
C. Allow the Spirit to Move
• give right of way to other traffic.
This definition is important, but can be most often the only one overlooked. We can let go of control, and even seek the Spirit’s wisdom, but if we are not willing to yield to the Spirit’s moving, then we will never see our full potential realized.
Sometime back the Associated Press carried this dispatch: “Glasgow, Ky.–Leslie Puckett, after struggling to start his car, lifted the hood and discovered that someone had stolen the motor.”
When yield to the Spirit’s movement, we are turning against the sinful nature that resided in us. It is only by yielding to this power that we will overcome the problems of sin and habit. Like the car with no engine—we will go nowhere!
Romans 8:8-9 (NLT)
Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. 9 You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.
Understand this passage does not just speak to sin’s control, but “our Control” that we find hard to let go of. Sometimes the Spirit is moving us in a direction that is not what we think is best, but we must remember what “yielding” truly means. The Spirit always knows what is best!
Understand that yielding to the Holy Spirit is to be “Filled” with the Holy Spirit. This process must be a daily, repeated process, like breathing.
We need air to breathe, and the way we bring air into our lungs is through the repeated action of taking breaths. The average human takes over 21,000 breaths a day.
In the same regard, the filling of the Spirit is like spiritual breathing. It is not something that can be skipped! It must take place daily. We have been renewed and given new spiritual life, and when we deny the Filling of the Holy Spirit, we are denying the new life we have been given!
3. The Result of Yielding
Isaac Newton, First Law of Motion:
Everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it.
When the Holy Spirit moves in us, there are results that can only be attributed to work of the spirit inside us.
A. Gifts of the Spirit
1 Corinthians 12:4-11 (NLT)
There are different kinds of spiritual gifts, but the same Spirit is the source of them all. 5 There are different kinds of service, but we serve the same Lord. 6 God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.
I want to pause there, because that last verse really sticks out. It basically says that God cannot be put in a box. The Holy Spirit gives some certain gifts, and not others.
Just because you do not speak in tongues does not mean you are filled with the Holy Spirit! The problem is we are looking for a way to put a name to an experience, and the gifts are not meant to strictly be an outward showing of the inward work.
Look as it continues:
7 A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other. 8 To one person the Spirit gives the ability to give wise advice; to another the same Spirit gives a message of special knowledge. 9 The same Spirit gives great faith to another, and to someone else the one Spirit gives the gift of healing. 10 He gives one person the power to perform miracles, and another the ability to prophesy. He gives someone else the ability to discern whether a message is from the Spirit of God or from another spirit. Still another person is given the ability to speak in unknown languages, while another is given the ability to interpret what is being said. 11 It is the one and only Spirit who distributes all these gifts. He alone decides which gift each person should have.
We are given these spiritual gifts to strengthen and help and strengthen the body of believers; Not to show that how spiritual we are!
This passage even tells us that each one of will have different gifts to various degrees.
I’ve spoken in tongues, but never healed anyone, does that mean I have not allowed the filling of the Holy Spirit? No!
B. The Fruit of the Spirit
Unlike the gifts of the spirit, all the fruit of the spirit must be cultivated and evident in our lives.
Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
This is how we can truly judge if we are being filled by the Holy Spirit. If these Fruit are not evident in our life, there’s a problem at the source! This is not a Fruit Basket that we can pick and choose from, this is a full course meal that we must partake of daily!
C. The Power of the Spirit
The power of the Holy Spirit gives you strength to do what you never thought you could or would do!
2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)
Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.
- Ministry, Evangelism, Being Stretched Boldness & Confidence through the Filling of the Spirit!
Remember the word yield. This might seem backwards in the eyes of the outsider, but if I am ever going to see the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s Power in my life, I have to first be willing to yield all I have.
-Prayer
