Orange Moon Friday, May 3, 2024 "Yield Yourselves". Part 3 - A Dual Yielding

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Yield Yourselves"

Part 3 -  A Dual Yielding

"Whether yielding the self or the body, we do so joyfully in the wonder of Christ's resurrection life serving as the Life of our lives."

  

      "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13).

    

    The Apostle Paul calls born again believers to a dual yielding in his epistle to the Romans.  Paul mandates the acknowledgement of our selves as spiritually united to the Lord Jesus, and thus alive unto God through our risen Savior's indwelling presence.  We present our selves not just as our selves, but as our selves united to the Spirit of Christ.  The Apostle then calls us to recognize our "members" as "instruments of righteousness."  This refers to our earthly components and faculties - our "body" or "flesh" - that do not yet dwell in our Lord's direct presence, but belong to Him as the means whereby He reveals through us "the power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10).

     "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness" (Romans 8:10).  

      "The flesh lusteth against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17).

    Believers are living spirits, alive in the life of Christ, who dwell in bodies dead in the sense of requiring the infusion of our Lord's risen life to motivate, guide, and empower lives of faith and obedience.  Thankfully, Paul assures us of such grace:

   "But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (enliven) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:11).  

    In order to think, speak, act, and relate in accordance with God's will, resurrections are required.  The Christ of our born again spirits must infuse His life within and upon our natural bodies to enable godliness.  Indeed, left to itself, a "body of sin" that is "dead because of sin" will always sin (Romans 6:6).  Thus, we present our bodies to God as "living sacrifices" because we are confident our Lord will impart the grace of His life to enliven our capacity to trust and obey Him (Romans 12:1).  Like our selves yielded in the confidence of being already enlivened by the indwelling Christ, we yield our bodies not yet enlivened in the assurance the Holy Spirit will moment by moment infuse our earthly members with Christ's life.  

    Whether yielding the self or the body, we do so joyfully in the wonder of Christ's resurrection life serving as the Life of our lives.  In the innermost depths of our being, His empty tomb means that our spirit is full  - "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).  Regarding our earthly frame and faculties, our Savior's resurrection promises that the same power that raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will empower us as we trust God, and as we properly yield both self and body in the light of truth.  Life and death presently exist in believers.  This explains the great challenge we face in walking with God.  However, it also presents the great opportunity to rejoice in a resurrection that has already taken place in us, and in countless other moments of grace that will take place as we yield self and body in the light of the empty tomb, our full spirits, and our bodies ever subject to being enlivened by the presence and power of Christ's risen life.

"For I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  O wretched man that I am!  Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?  I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin" (Romans 7:22-25).

"Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.  For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live."

(Romans 8:12-13)

    

Weekly Memory Verse

    Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

(Jude 1:2)

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Orange Moon Thursday, May 2, 2024 "Yield Yourselves" - Our Gaze; Our Glance

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Yield Yourselves"

Part 2 - Our Gaze; Our Glance

"We yield to God not merely ourselves, but rather ourselves as united to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus."

  

      "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13).

    

    Yielding ourselves to God as "alive from the dead" by viewing ourselves in spiritual proximity to the Lord Jesus Christ does not place focus upon ourselves.  Born again believers ever serve as the dependent party in our relationship with God.  We exist to serve as vessels needy of His presence, leading, and enabling.  As the Lord revealed to the Apostle Paul, "My strength is made perfect in weakness" (II Corinthians 12:9).

   No exaltation of the human self results from believers affirming themselves as alive through Christ, and yielding ourselves to God accordingly.  Consider a lightbulb.   It must be constructed properly and installed into a lamp correctly.  However, when the lightbulb serves its function, we do not exalt its role as if it were the essence of the light it shines.  We rarely even think of the bulb when switching on the lamp.  However, without our proper understanding and application of the bulb's role, the lamp would not shine.   In similar manner, we must know the truth of our born again selves as "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).  Paul commands that we "reckon" (consider) the truth to be true.  We view ourselves as spiritually united to Christ and enlivened by His presence, yielding ourselves accordingly.  This acknowledgment of truth and reality prepares us to "walk in the Spirit" even as we "live in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

   It is one thing to yield ourselves to God apart from Christ.  It is quite another to precisely obey Scripture by yielding ourselves to God "as alive from the dead."  What constitutes such a presentation?  The risen Christ provides the answer.  The only reason believers can account ourselves as alive from the dead involves the fact that Christ dwells in us, and we dwell in Him - "Christ is our life" (Colossians 1:27; I Corinthians 1:30; Colossians 3:4).  We yield a self spiritually united to the Spirit of the risen Lord Jesus.  Such consecration places our hearts and minds in a far greater position to live in a manner reflective of our Savior's dynamic presence within us.  "Now unto Him who is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us" (Ephesians 3:20; emphasis added).  Our gaze is indeed upon Christ.  Our glance, however, does not fail to realize and affirm the "new creature" we are in the light of His grace-given presence (II Corinthians 5:17).  This perspective involves a promised received by faith and a command obeyed by faith.  "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."

    Much may seem to counter the fact of ourselves being alive unto God through the Lord Jesus.  However, we do not live by "seem." We live by "It is written" and "Thus saith the Lord" (Matthew 4:4; Isaiah 66:12).  If God declares ourselves as alive unto Him through Christ, and if He commands that we yield ourselves to Him not merely as ourselves, but as ourselves united to the Lord Jesus, we must trust and obey.  A far more consistent walk in faith and faithfulness will ensue, and most importantly, a life far more lived for the glory of the Lord Jesus.  He lives in us, we live through Him, and our confidence in such truth empowers our capability to "walk even as He walked" based on His promise, "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16).

"We also are weak in Him, but we shall live with Him by the power of God."

(II Corinthians 13:4)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

(Jude 1:2)

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Orange Moon Wednesday, May 1, 2024 "Yield Yourselves"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"Yield Yourselves"

"We yield to God not merely ourselves, but rather ourselves as united to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus."

  

      "Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead" (Romans 6:13).

    

    The word "yield" in the Apostle Paul's command means to place beside.  This involves how we view ourselves in spiritual proximity to God.  Born again believers must see ourselves as united to our Lord, and thus "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).  "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17).  We acknowledge His presence with and within us,  yielding selves declared by Paul as alive in the life of Christ.

    "And you hath He quickened (enlivened) who were dead in trespasses and sins" (Ephesians 2:1).  

    This may seem counterintuitive, based on how we feel, how we naturally view ourselves, and what we have experienced in our walk with God.  We may often appear and seem anything but "alive unto God" and "alive from the dead."  Believers can still live in a manner that ignores and neglects the truth of the risen Christ dwelling within us as the Life of our lives.  We can walk after the flesh rather than by the Spirit (Galatians 5:17).   If we fail to yield ourselves in accordance with Paul's mandate - as "alive from the dead" - we limit by unbelief the "the power that worketh in us," seeking to journey upon the path of righteousness as if alone and apart from our only hope for consistent faith and obedience (Ephesians 3:20).  "We shall live with Him by the power of God" (II Corinthians 13:4). 

    We also unintentionally minimize the effect of Christ's atoning work in His death and resurrection.  Did He die for us and thereby justify us as righteous in God's sight?  He did.  "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1).  Did He also birth and enliven our spirits by sending the Spirit of God to dwell within us when we believed?  He did.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Can our spiritual selves be anything other than vibrantly alive if the risen Christ dwells within us?  They cannot.  Thus, we yield to God not merely ourselves, but rather ourselves as united to the Spirit of the Lord Jesus.  We do so as a matter of faith, a matter of faith based on the reality of God's faithfulness and the promise He made to all who believe.  Indeed, even to the carnal Corinthian believers, who walked after the flesh, Paul affirmed,  "the Spirit of God dwelleth in you" (I Corinthians 3:16; 3:3).

    "Heavenly Father, we praise and thank You that You sent Your Son to the cross of Calvary so that You might send Him into our hearts to serve as the Life of our lives.  We acknowledge His living presence as administered through the indwelling Holy Spirit, and yield to You our risen selves, alive in the life of Christ.  Father, we rejoice that this is truth and reality, and by Your grace, we will more and more live accordingly as we believe the truth of so great a salvation and so great a Savior.  In His name we pray, Amen."

    Appearance, emotions, and experiences may conflict with such blessed truth.  They do not change the truth, however.  Thus, we obey the Word of God by yielding a self acknowledged as alive unto God through Christ's presence and life.  Thereby we "live through Him" and avoid the sad indictment of long ago: "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (I John 4:9; Matthew 13:58).  Yes, the risen Christ dwells with us if we have believed.  Moreover, He dwells within us as the very Life of our lives.  In the light of such grace and truth, how can we yield anything other than a self "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord?"

"Christ… is our life."

(Colossians 3:4)

"To live is Christ."

(Philippians 1:21)

Weekly Memory Verse

    Mercy unto you, and peace, and love, be multiplied.

(Jude 1:2)

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