AND THE YOKE WILL BE DESTROYED
ISAIAH 10:24-27
Isaiah here speaks to the children of Israel reminding them that the Assyrians were only able to oppress them because God allowed it.
This makes it helpful for me to understand that there is nothing that happens in my life by accident.
That nothing in my life happens by happenstance.
Now you need to understand that God does not nor has He ever promised to give you everything that you want.
You see His image and His Character is solid in spite of what you or I might think or feel—in spite of what kind of picture the world (or the church for that matter) tries to paint or portray Him as.
He is who He is—He is who He says He is—He always has been and He always will be God and there will never be a replacement for Him regardless of what does or does not happen the way you or I think that it should.
Whatever God does is always perfect and it’s right no matter how wrong we feel about it!
Everything God does, He does out of His love for us, and His love is perfect, but the perfect love of God also has judgment.
The Bible says that “For whom the LORD loveth He correcteth; even as a father the son in whom he delighteth”
It is simply a sign that you belong to God when He chastens you
And I don’t know about you, but I appreciate the correction of the LORD.
I appreciate strong ministry
I appreciate conviction—because some people have gotten beyond conviction—nothing convicts them anymore—nothing bothers them anymore
And the very fact that God would challenge you about your behavior or your attitude or your lifestyle is a sign that He loves you—and that He has a plan for your life—and that He has an agenda for you
So whom the LORD loves He corrects and that defines me as a son and not a fatherless child (you can read between the lines)
The Bible says that if I endure chastisement, it proves my sonship.
Not by how I shout or sing or preach or pray or speak in tongues; but when I can endure the chastening of the LORD it is a sign that I’m actually His son.
There are many people who started with Jesus, but when it got tough they went away.
Jesus asked Peter “Wilt thou leave me also?” and Peter answered “Wither shall I go, for thou hast the Words of eternal life”
I don’t know about you, but there has been times when God has laid the wood to my life real tough, but I had to stay because in Him are the Words of eternal life.
I’ve been in some tough places and I’ve gone through some dark days and things have not always gone the way that I wanted them to go; but because I am a son, I am joined to Him—His divine DNA is in me—and I belong to Him and He belongs to me—I am His son and He is my Father and my God.
When I do well, I’m His son and when I completely blow it and mess up—I’m still His son.
The Bible tells us in Galatians 4:6 that “God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out, Abba, Father!”
And so it is through the indwelling Holy Spirit that we are connected to God and also through whom we are corrected by God.
In the text, when God begins to deal with Israel, He says “the Assyrians have attacked you because there were areas in your life that God was not pleased with.
And God will often use adversity to get your attention.
Sometimes we’re not focused
Sometimes we’re not committed
Sometimes we take Him for granted
Sometimes we take our own lives for granted…….
So we go through adversities to get us back in line and cause us to re-focus our attention on Him.
So now through the oppression of the Assyrians, it drove Israel to prayer…..
Nothing will make you pray like trouble!
People, who normally don’t pray, will pray when they’re in trouble.
People who have never prayed before will pray when they’re in trouble.
You’d be surprised how people can pray when they get a bad report from the doctor……
Or when their jobs are in jeopardy……and the list goes on……
There are just certain things that will rattle you and bring you to a point of prayer…..because what God wants to do is to bring you around full circle where “He” has your full and undivided attention.
The problem is, once He has gotten your attention, and you have lined up with His purpose, the enemies and adversities of life tend to “linger” in your life and all of a sudden you’re doing all you know how to do to serve Him, yet there is a yoke of bondage around your life.
Now this term “yoke of bondage is a little difficult for us to understand in our contemporary society because we don’t generally have oxen in our back yard……..
But in order to control the oxen which was as large as a large steer or a large cow…..there would be a large yoke placed around their neck….generally two oxen under one yoke and it would bind them together
And whenever you were ready to move the oxen, you did it because the yoke was around their neck.
So the oxen could not go where he wanted to go because he was controlled by the yoke…..
In other words, the oxen were not free….in essence they were imprisoned by the yoke….they were bound, they were not liberated-not having the freedom to go where they wanted to go
And so now God says to His people, “I may have used the Assyrians to get your attention…..but I will not allow the Assyrians to oppress you, once you have turned to me”
Oh that’s good news! Once you have turned to me (God says) then I’m through with them and I’m now ready to make sure that you are delivered.
So God says I “will” destroy the yoke that’s around your neck and liberate you through the anointing—the New King James says “through the anointing oil”
So now when we begin to talk about this anointing…..I want to help clarify what the anointing is
You hear people talking about; touch not my anointed and do my prophets no harm….. And the term anointing often times becomes an ambiguous term that people use frequently but often don’t understand.
So in the absence of a real understanding, they deduce that the anointing is manifest by outward expressions
That is to say that when a person quivers or jerks…to someone that’s called the anointing…as if to convey that if you’re not demonstrative, then you’re not anointed.
How you move and how you respond only has to do with your emotional reaction and your personality and it ought not to put pressure on anyone to act in a way that is outside of who they are in order to look or feel anointed.
There are at the same time, people who are very quiet and very subdued who are anointed and used mightily for God.
So what makes us anointed?
When we are anointed, we are endowed by God to function in a particular category.
Whenever God anoints somebody, He anoints them to do something….it is not to entertain you
Neither does God anoint anybody just so they can say “I’m anointed” and somehow make yourself superior to other people.
We see through Scripture that when God anointed someone, He anointed them to prophecy or to preach or they were anointed as Kings and so forth
The anointing then, became their unction to function
The anointing then becomes the enabler to function in a place that they could not otherwise function in
So the anointing is to us, what gasoline is to a car.
You don’t fill your tank with gas if the car doesn’t work and can’t take you anywhere.
Gas is an enabling influence that enables the car to run and get you from point A to point B.
Now at the same time, it does not matter what kind of car it is, whether it’s a BMW, a Mercedes, a Bentley or a Rolls Royce and you could have paid thousands or hundreds of thousands and you can shine it and wax it and keep it serviced but without any gas it will not perform.
Why? Because the gas empowers or enables the car to perform.
So when God anoints you, He anoints you to perform
A lot of people who are dossal, who are slothful, who are lazy, or fearful or intimidated or insecure most likely have never experienced the anointing of God on their life because they don’t function.
That doesn’t mean that they’re in sin, or evil or bad….it just means that the anointing is for somebody who is going to “do something”…..
If you’re not going to “do” anything, why would God anoint you to sit? Why would God anoint you to look cute? Why would God anoint you to make excuses? Why would God anoint you to procrastinate?
The anointing is what comes along side of you when you’re witnessing or talking or preaching or singing or helping or reading to someone or writing music or doing whatever it is you do
It’s the thing that kicks in to give you the boldness or the understanding or the knowledge or the charisma or the words that make you effective and not just influential.
The anointing may or may not make you shout or cry or shake or quiver or be slain or whatever….. any of those things may or may not happen, but one thing the anointing always does is makes you effective.
When God anoints you, He anoints you to be effective.
Way too often we just want to be impressive…..but God is not in the business of impressing you or anybody else……but He is in the business of effecting your life for the good.
The anointing is what empowers you to be effective. That’s why you can’t allow yourself to be fooled or influenced by people’s antics or flatteries or spiritual clichés that’s meant to make you think that someone is anointed.
Now one thing you need to understand about oil is that it will flow. When you pour oil, it flows on whatever it is poured out on.
So also the anointing, it will flow, and what God wants for His people is to get them in the flow of the anointing. When you get in the flow of the anointing things begin to happen that would not otherwise happen.
Now there is a law that is used concerning the Word of God that is called the law of first mention.
It simply means that whenever something is mentioned in its first context, it sets precedence throughout the rest of the Bible of what that thing means.
So now then we see in the Bible the first time where the Spirit of God is mentioned is in the book of Genesis.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God “Moved”
And so the very first thing that God teaches us about His Spirit is not just that He is powerful, not just that He’s effective, but rather that He is “moving”, that there is a flow of the Spirit of God, that God’s Spirit is flowing, that He is functional, and that He is moving…..He’s not dossal, or quiet or indifferent nor can He be marginalized by the darkness that He encountered!
So now if God’s Spirit is a moving Spirit and He’s inside of you and you’re not going or growing…..then He’s grieving! The Spirit of God is inside of you to “move” you!
Tell your neighbor, “You need to move!”
I’m not talking about your physical location…..no, I’m talking about a change on the inside that will allow you to do a work for God and bring glory unto Him!
If He’s in you, He wants to “move” you. He wants to take you to the next level!
The Spirit of God is a “moving” Spirit, He is a progressive Spirit….God’s Spirit does not want to hover around somebody who is obstinate and stubborn and refuses to “move!”
And so you begin to grieve the Holy Spirit because He is a moving Spirit!
Somebody holler “Move!” and so God’s Spirit will empower you to move.
Move where?
From Faith to Faith, From Glory to Glory, From one level to another, From Failure to success, From the Prison to the Palace, From shepparding sheep to King of Israel or from the background to the forefront, From indifference to stability….
God’s Spirit will move you…..out of your inhibitions, out of your insecurities, out of your intimidations, out of your low self esteem
Tell your neighbor, “God wants to move you!”
You see, that’s why some people don’t want you to be Spirit filled, because as long as you don’t walk in the Spirit they have a hope of controlling you……
But when you start flowing in the Spirit of God, they can’t get you to stay in your place, or sit in your corner, or lay down in your cage….because the Spirit of God is a “moving Spirit”
It’s a jail breaking Spirit, it’s a curse breaking Spirit, it’s a yoke destroying Spirit and when He begins to move He liberates you!
Listen; there is no freedom like walking in the anointing of God!
He will free you where you’ve been restricted, and hindered, and held back…..God’s Spirit will release you so you can move!
Tell your neighbor, God wants to move you!
I believe that there are some people in here right now who have never enjoyed your life…..you’ve spent your whole life in a prison…..in a cave, with a yoke around your neck!
Yokes that were placed on you early in your life; people’s words that became a yoke around your neck…..
People that told you all kinds of negative things concerning who you are and what you were going to become and what you couldn’t do and what you wouldn’t be able to do…..”They yoked you”
Now every time you try to do something or accomplish something…..those words from your past begin to play out in your mind and prevent you from being successful
You’d be shocked at some of the people right in this room who would be much further along in life if they didn’t have to deal with the “yoke!”
As a matter of fact, some of you are with people that you thought you knew, but you don’t really know because you’ve never seen them “free!”
The whole time you’ve been with them or around them, they’ve been laboring with a yoke around their neck holding them down! And whatever they did, they did it dragging a yoke around their neck
Some may even have had a few accomplishments and successes but it was done under pressure and under weights because of the yoke that you’ve been carrying around with you all of your life and it has kept you from being who you ought to be.
Oh but I came in here to tell you today that you owe it to yourself to find out just how much further you can be in your life if you got that yoke off of your neck!
Look at somebody and tell em, “I’ve got to get this thing off of me!”
I’m not going to spend another ten years with this thing around my neck!
I’m not going to spend another ten months with this thing around my neck!
I don’t even want to spend another ten days with this thing!
I’ve got to get this thing off of me!
I want to see who I really am, without the restrictions!
I want to see who I am without the limitations!
I want to see who I am, not based on what others have said about me….
I want to see who I am based on what God says about me!
Tell your neighbor, “All I want, is to get this thing off of me!”
I’ve heard too much Word to carry it any longer
I’ve got to much Faith to carry it any longer
The Holy Ghost is on the inside of me and He’s moving me to be free!
THIS IS THE LAST DAY I’M GOING TO CARRY THIS THING AROUND!
IF I DON’T GET IT OFF OF ME, IT MIGHT GET ON MY SON
IF I DON’T GET IT OFF OF ME, IT MIGHT GET ON MY DAUGHTER
IF I DON’T GET IT OFF OF ME, IT WILL DESTROY MY MARRIAGE
IF I DON’T GET IT OFF OF ME, IT MIGHT DESTROY MY LIFE
I REFUSE TO MISS OUT ON THE GREATNESS THAT GOD HAS PLACED INSIDE OF ME!
SOMEBODY IN HERE WHO’S SICK AND TIRED OF BEING SICK AND TIRED JUST HOLLER “ANOINTING FALL ON ME!
IF YOU’RE TIRED OF EVERYBODY ELSE SUCEEDING WHILE YOU CONTINUALLY FAIL, JUST HOLLER, “I NEED THE ANOINTING”
