The JOY of the cost of saying YES to The Lord
Many persons forget that a YES is costly. A YES to the will of God means that I am willing to submit to whatever is necessary to walk in the will of God.
It’s always amazing to me when people say, “I didn’t know I would have to go through all this when I said yes!” They didn’t understand that their YES didn’t just mean that they would be challenge by Satan, but it also meant that they would be chastised and disciplined by The Lord!
The greatest cost of our YES, is the ability to go through the persecution trials and test that God allows the enemy to put us through, in order to purge us cleanse us and break us of all stubbornness rebellion and pride! Our YES puts us in a position of being broken before The Lord, so that we can learn how to be totally dependent on Him.
Our love and faith in The Lord will be challenged by a series of circumstances to build our trust in Him, so that we can be firmly planted in our walk with The Lord. Learning stability in adversity, staying strong under extreme persecution, and walking in victory in dangerous opposition, is what The Lord is trying to accomplish in our lives.
Our YES is costly. It will require you to come out your familiar place, to learn how to adapt to continual change, to adjust your mindset, so that you can walk in a spirit of dependency in God! It’s the ability to rely on The Lord, as you allow Him to maneuver you through life, pulling you, driving you, directing you, commanding you, to follow Him as He brings you through unfamiliar and treacherous territory, spiritually, to transform you into a willing and obedient vessel.
It’s not the loss of people or things that is most disturbing when you say YES, but it’s the knowledge that you will have to be broken, crushed, hurt and persecuted, so that your flesh, which naturally wants to be in controlled, is assaulted, killed, and brought under subjection to the control of the Spirit of God. This brings us the most discomfort and agony because this is how He conditions us to walk through pain, without murmuring or complaining.
My YES, has been costly, for it has cause me to go through fires that were so hot until I thought I wouldn’t make it out alive, or with my sanity. If people could see my life sometimes, and understand the price of the OIL that now pours from me, they would understand why I am so passionate dedicated committed and sold out to The Lord.
But only those that have surrendered to the true process of a YES will understand it. When I was saved on that Father’s Day Sunday and that night The Lord shook my bed and spoke to me and said, I was no longer my own, but I have been brought with a price. Immediately from that moment, God begin the process of destroying my agenda, my thoughts, my ways, to transform me into His servant!
Did I suffer? Yes! Did I go through? Yes! Did I lose things that seemed important to my life? Yes! Did people walk away from me? Yes! Did people misunderstand me? Yes! Was the trials hard? Oh Yes!
Like I said, sometimes I didn’t think I was going to make it through them, but they brought me to a place in my relationship with God so that I trust Him and believe Him and I don’t waver in my knowledge, that no matter where He takes me. I am in His hand and I’m going to be alright!
Would I say YES if I had to do it all over again? OH YES! My love for The Lord and my desire to be pleasing to Him is greater than anything that I have to suffer to walk in His will! Is obedience better than sacrifice? Yes!
Through my walk with The Lord, I can definitely say it most certainly is! I cried as I was writing this, not tears of regret, or because I remember the painful experiences I encountered, but I’m crying tears of JOY, because I survived the process and my YES is truly for real.
~ Apostle Barbara R. Thomas
Perfectly said. I am going to save this and use for new converts so they understand what they just commited to.
Amen!!!