Humility, Yielding, Surrender
Throughout scripture we see a truth that is the bedrock of our relationship with God: a humble heart. It’s a heart that finds joy in yielding and surrendering its will and desires to God’s will and desires. Sadly, this doesn’t appeal to many in the Body of Christ today. It sounds too much like submission, which is a good word by the way. But it has been so misused and twisted by some leaders in the Church that the love of God has been choked right out of it.
I’d dare say this is one reason why many Christians don’t truly understand what it means to live before God with a heart that’s humble, yielded, and surrendered. These three words communicate the same powerful truth that David expresses so beautifully in Psalm 119:128 – “Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right: and I hate every false way.”
When the Lord began His search for King Saul’s replacement, 1 Samuel 13:14 says that He had one criterion: “a man after his own heart.” Most of us are familiar with this verse. The Holy Spirit recently peeled back a layer of understanding for me. I love it when He does that!
God had TO SEARCH for a man whose heart would willingly follow His heart. God had TO SEARCH for a man who would hear His instructions and make a willful decision to obey them. God found in David a heart that was teachable – a heart that would follow Him.
The contrast is so vivid to me. God searched for a man who was not like King Saul, who, verse 13 says, had not “kept that which the Lord commanded.” A couple of observations:
First, when God named Saul king, 1 Samuel 9:2 said “there was not among the children of Israel a goodlier person than he: from his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.”
The word “goodlier” means “handsome.” Saul was handsome, tall and now a king. The people “looked at him” and “looked up to him.” Somewhere along the way, Saul began to let the people influence how he reigned rather than the One who chose him to reign.
Second, in 1 Samuel 13 we see that, instead of waiting for the appointed time for Samuel to arrive and offer the sacrifice, Saul gets impatient and decides to offer it himself. This sad event shines a light on a life of disobedience that culminates with his death, after seeking assurance of victory against the Philistines from a familiar spirit.
God SEARCHED for a heart like His until He found it.
As God’s sons and daughters, we have His heart in us. Unlike David who, because of a sin nature had to willfully decide to obey God, when we make a willful decision it is oftentimes a decision that disagrees with our hearts.
Now listen to me – our new nature does not have to decide to follow righteousness. We can obey our Father simply because that is who we are.
David said in Psalm 119 that whatever the Lord said was right. For us today, we would say “whatever the Bible says is always right.” It doesn’t matter the subject. The Bible is always right.
We’re talking about humility, yielding and surrender. We can attach whatever meaning we like to living a humbled, yielded or surrendered life, but it will always boil down to what the Bible says is always right.
And there’s the rub. Many Christians disagree with the Bible on the behavior it identifies as sin. Instead, they want the Bible to be fluid, to change, to adapt to the mores of society. It’s....not....gonna....happen!
For David, all the precepts of the Lord – every mandate, every commandment – became his standard for right and wrong. Ladies and gentlemen, this must be our hearts desire today. We must esteem, place above all else, what the Bible says and let it establish the rhythmic beat of our hearts.
Turn we me to Psalm 138:2 – “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above
Now look at Malachi 3:6 – “For I am the Lord, I change not.”
We’re going back to the Psalms, this time Psalm 119:89 – “For ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven.”
Turn to Hebrews 13:8 – “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and for ever.”
The passages we just read communicate two key things.
First, there is nothing in this world that the God of universe reveres more than His Word – the Bible. And when He says His Word is settled in heaven, He saying – now grab a hold of this – He’s saying it is not going to change.
Second, not only does the His Word not change, neither does He. God is “poster child” for consistency, faithfulness, dependability, truthfulness, etc.
For many in the body of Christ, oftentimes, what is perceived as humility is really pride masquerading as humility.
Over the years I’ve talked with Christians who had a hard time saying a person living a sinful lifestyle is wrong and needed to repent, especially if the person was living an “alternative lifestyle.”
“Who am I to judge?” Who’s to say that person won’t go to heaven? Only God knows that.” The person may truly believe he was being humble by not “judging,” but what he said dripped with pride and arrogance.
Okay, Bro. Barry, help me understand what you mean. We know that God is the only Judge and since the Bible is God speaking to us in written form, whatever it “judges” to be sin is sin. No debate. No “let’s have a conversation about it.”
When a Christian has difficulty repeating what the Bible has judged as sin, he’s saying “I am not willing to say that is a sin.” Now tell me, how can you not call that pride and, possibly fear?
Proverbs 8:13 says “The fear of the Lord is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”
Many of you Bro. Bronc Flint, who pastors the Family Prayer Center in Immokalee, Florida. As I was thinking about this teaching, he delivered the message “Clothed with Humility.” I thought to myself, the Holy Spirit’s timing is so precise! I want to share something he said that I’ve seen too often in the body of Christ.
“Pride is a destructive force because it is so blinding. You can’t see pride. Pride will camouflage itself and even call itself humility while walking in arrogance. ... Humility remembers that we only have one source of all power, authority and revelation.”
Ladies and gentlemen, pride destroys our relationship with God. Pride says “I can disagree with God – I can disagree with the Bible – and still be okay.” But, of course, most don’t see that as pride. What people often say, and it’s really the same thing as disagreeing with God, is “People interpret the Bible differently.”
Let’s look at 2 Peter 1, verses 20 and 21.
(20) Knowing this first, that no prophesy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.
(21) For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.
Most Christians prefer to talk about God’s will rather than do God’s will. That’s pride. When it comes to the Bible, shouldn’t we seek its meaning from the One who authored it? I’m just asking. ?
One example of a life of humility, yieldedness and surrender is found in Saul (who later became the Apostle Paul) when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus in Acts 9.
The high priest had given Saul permission to hunt down and capture those who claimed to be followers of Jesus and to bring them to Jerusalem. Before Saul could execute his assignment, the Lord had, shall we say, a “heart to heart” with him.
(4) And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest you me?
(5) And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
(6) And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
“Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?” Doesn’t this sound a lot like what Jesus Himself said in John 5:30? Let’s read it. “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”
Again, let’s go back to the Psalms. We’re going to Look at what David writes in Psalm 51:16-17.
(16) For thou desirest not sacrifice; else would I give it: thou delightest not in burnt offering.
(17) The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
David said, “Lord, if you want a sacrifice, I’ll give it to you. But I know that what you truly want is me.” Can you say humble? Can you say yielded? Can you say surrendered?
Many of you have heard the Praise & Worship team sing a song by Hillsong called New Wine. The more we sing it, and the more I sing it at home, the more it cuts me because I know there is more humility, more yieldedness, and more surrender I can give to Jesus.
Here are a few of the lyrics.
In the crushing/ in the pressing/ You are making/ New Wine/ In the soil, I/ Now surrender/ You are breaking/ New ground
So I yield to You and to Your careful hand/ When I trust You I don’t need to understand
So make me Your vessel/ Make me an offering/ Make me whatever You want me to be/ I came here with nothing/ But all you have given me/ Jesus, bring new wine out of me/ Jesus bring new wine out of me/ Jesus bring new wine out of me.
‘Cause where there is new wine/ There is new power/ There is new freedom/ And the kingdom is here/ I lay down my old flames/ To carry Your new fire today.
There’s a book that I often return to and it’s called The Wigglesworth Standard. Most, if not all, of you have heard of Smith Wigglesworth, a turn of the century evangelist whose life exemplified total surrender to God.
The healings and miracles that God worked through him are still talked about in pulpits today – more than 70 years after his death. I’m going to share with you some passages that inspire me each time I read them.
“God really starts to use men and women when they become totally consumed by Him, to the extent that their thinking, their ways of acting, their praying, their worshipping, their all becomes Spirit-controlled. Their lives are no longer their own but His.” (Page 36)
Wigglesworth tells the story of a young Russian who came to England and how the power of God worked through him. When asked about the secret of his power, the young man said:
“First God called me, and His presence was so precious that I said to God at every call I would obey Him, and I yielded, and yielded, and yielded, until I realized that I was simply clothed with another power altogether, and I realized that God took me, tongue, thoughts, and everything, and I was not myself but it was Christ working through me.” (Pages 60-61)
Wigglesworth was also influenced by another visiting evangelist. The presence of God rested on him so much that people asked him what his secret was.
“Years ago the Spirit of God began to speak to me, but I was too busy to heed His voice. He persisted, until I commenced to go aside when He spoke, so that I could hear what God the Lord had to say. This became my manner of life. I obeyed His pleading voice; until now, at the slightest breath of the Spirit, I leave everyone and everything to be in His presence, to hear and to obey His Word.” (Pages 76-77)
When he heard this testimony and caught the vision of it, Wigglesworth adopted it as a principle by which he would live the rest of his life.
Ladies and gentlemen, you can hear humility in a person’s speech. You can hear yieldedness in a person’s speech. You can hear surrender in a person’s speech.
When I read these passages from The Wigglesworth Standard, my mind goes back, once again, to the writings of David. In Psalm 19:14 he writes, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
Our words communicate our humility. Our words communicate our obedience. And what David says, Jesus reaffirms in Luke 6:45 – “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.”
Ladies and gentlemen, there are so many passages of scripture that directly or indirectly point us toward living a life of total humility, total yieldedness and total surrender. Let’s look at a few.
Proverbs 23:26 – “My son, give me thine heart, and let thine eyes observe my ways.”
Proverbs 10:17 – “He is in the way of life that keepeth instruction: but he that refuses reproof erreth.” (Proverbs 10:17)
Proverbs 8:32-34
(32) Now therefore hearken unto me, O ye children: for blessed are they that keep my ways.
(33) Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not.
(34) Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors.”
Proverbs 15:33 – “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom: and before honor is humility.”
James 4:6-7 and 10
(6) But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble.
(7) Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
(10) Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.
1 Peter 5:5-7
(5) Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble.
(6) Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
(7) Casting all your cares upon him; for he careth for you.
2 Chronicles 34:27 – “Because thine heart was tender, and thou didst humble thyself before God, when thou heardest his words against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, and humbledst thyself before me, and didst rend thy clothes, and weep before me, I have even heard thee also, saith the Lord.”
2 Chronicles 7:14 – “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.”
We’re going to close with Matthew 18:1-4. I encourage you to read the entire chapter because it answers the question: “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
(1) At that same time came the disciples unto Jesus, saying, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
(2) And Jesus called a little child unto him, and set him in the midst of them.
(3) And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
(4) Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
The phrase “Whosoever therefore” is referring to those who have been converted. After being converted, we must willingly choose to humble ourselves as a child to be great in the kingdom of heaven. There are three characteristics of a little child that Jesus expands upon in this chapter.
? A little child is totally and completely teachable.
? A little child is totally trusting.
? A little child is totally forgiving.
What we have just read, John the Baptist said so simply in John 3:30 – “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Humility. Yieldedness. Surrender. That’s the heart of our risen Lord and Savior. Can I get an Amen?
