Yielding
I. The more you yield to the
leading of the Holy Spirit the more sensitive you’ll be to it
A.
Every time the leading of the Holy Spirit
comes you either yielded to it or suppressed it; there is no in between-1
Thessalonians 5:19
B.
To be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit
we must be yielding to that leading
1. What you suppress and push down you’ll become hardened to; what you
yield to and respond to you’ll be more sensitive to-Hebrews 3:8
2. The more you yield to and respond to the Holy Spirit the more aware of
Him you’ll be; the less you yield to and respond to Him, the less aware of Him
you will be
3. We will be most sensitive to what we yield to the most
a.
If you yield to the flesh and it’s desires,
then you’re going to be sensitive to it
C.
The more you yield to the Spirit of God the
more led of him you’ll be
1. Genesis 6:7-9-Noah was used b/c he was a man who yielded to God
a.
The more he yielded the more he was led-He
was no ark builder
2. Acts 8:26-39-People who yield to the Spirit will be led by the Spirit
a.
27-29-When Phillip was yielding to the Spirit
He was more led by the Spirit
D.
So many times people fight the leading
because they don’t understand it and they don’t trust if they yield to the
spirit’s leading that it’s going to work out for them and it’s decreasing their
sensitivity to the Holy Spirit
II. When the Holy Spirit deals
with you, you respond; when he directs you, you obey; if something comes up in
your heart to do, then you do it
A.
When the leading of the Spirit comes, don’t
question, don’t reason, just yield; When the leading of the Spirit comes we
need to respond to it with obedience
1. We don’t want to be idle when the spirit leads us; respond now &
right away
2. Galatians 1:16-17-When you’ve heard from God the only thing left to do
is yield
B.
Luke 1,2-Yielding versus resisting
1. 1:5-6-They were obeying God and walking in all his commandments
a.
People who yield to God fully and follow Him
fully are more used of God
2. 1:13-20-Yield to the leading rather than asking unbelieving questions (What
about me? If I do that how am I going to pay my bills?)
a.
He should’ve respond with thanksgiving &
praise, that would have been yielding
b.
He was unyielding to this b/c it he didn’t
understand it and he lacked trust
1) Once you know it’s from God, it’s time to yield and trust
c.
19-Gabriel is functioning in the same office
of the Holy Spirit b/c he is showing Zacharias things to come and revealing the
good things God has prepared for him (John 16:13, 1 Corinthians 2:14)
d.
He knew better than this and had the example
of Abraham and Sarah
3. 1:34-38-God uses people for big things who won’t argue with Him, who
won’t reason it out in the minds, who won’t put it off for 6 months, people who
obey Him now
a.
Mary didn’t ask how do I know it’s going to
happen; she asked how are you going to do it?
b.
Upon hearing that she was going to conceive a
child without a man she responded, be it unto me according to your Word
c.
This is faith, this is yielding, this is
being responsive
4. 1:41-45-She sensed the leading of the Spirit and yield to it and
responded to it
a.
The HS doesn’t override people’s wills &
possess them-they must yield to Him
b.
She doesn’t know this happened to Mary
c.
She calls Mary the “Mother of my Lord”
– They’re cousins this doesn’t make sense, but she is yielding to the
Holy Spirit
5. 1:63-80-Zacharias went from not yielding to yielding and when he yielded
to the Holy Spirit he became more aware of it more sensitive to it and then he
yields again
III. At the beginning of every
great thing there is a man yielding to the Spirit of God
A.
Even when it didn’t make sense, when people
yielded to God great things happened; no man has ever yielded to the Spirit of
God and been worse off because of it
1. Genesis 12-Abraham yielded to God
2. Genesis 26-Isaac yielded to God and reaped a hundred fold
3. Exodus-Moses yielded to God and got God’s people delivered, the red sea
was parted, water came out of the rock, they had bread from Heaven
a.
Pharaoh let us go doesn’t make sense
4. Numbers 13-Joshua and Caleb yield to God and went into the promise land
5. Judges 6-Gideon yielded to God and won a great victory
6. 1 Samuel 17-David yielded to God and won a great victory
7. John 2-The disciples yielded to Jesus at got wine from water
8. Luke 5-Peter yielded to Jesus and caught abundance in the day time
9.
Acts 10:19-Great things begin to happen, when
you begin to yield to the Holy Spirit
a.
Peter followed Jewish standards and traditions
his whole life. With the coming of
the NT God ended the dietary restrictions (Mark 7:19). God made salvation possible for both
Jews (clean) and Gentiles (unclean) through Jesus. Peter is getting a revelation of the
power of the blood and the New Covenant.
b.
For a man who had followed Jewish standards
his whole life it is step of faith to believe you heard from the Holy Spirit to
go with a couple of gentiles into a gentile’s house and preach & have them
get saved and filled with the Holy Spirit
c.
45-Yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit
will leave you with astonishing results
1)
Peter’s people were astonished that this
could happen
d.
Acts 11:1-12- It didn’t make sense to go, but
it manifested a great miracle-John 2
B.
When the leading of the spirit doesn’t make
sense, you have to refuse to yield to the voice of reason b/c its that voice
that’s trying to reason you out of the promises of God
1. When it doesn’t make sense and it requires faith the cop-out phrase is
we have to use wisdom; what that means is we’re pretty sure God wants us to do
it, but we don’t trust him enough that if we do it, we’ll be taken care of
2. You can’t throw the leading of the spirit off on wisdom
C.
Luke 2:25-Yielding to the Holy Spirit is key
to seeing the fulfillment of God’s word
1. He gets a promise that He would not see death before he saw Jesus
2. However to see the fulfillment of the promise he had to yield to the
leading of the HS
3. What was he doing when he was prompted by the Spirit-going about his day
a.
They brought Jesus up there to just do a
custom according to the law, but the Holy Spirit had him at the right place and
the right time b/c he yielded
4. Yielding to the Holy Spirit will have you at the right place at the
right time and sometimes that’s the main key to your victory
IV. Three reasons why people
don’t yield; if the Holy Spirit leads you to do something and you know that
He’s got your best interest at heart and if you do what he says you’ll be
blessed why wouldn’t you do it
A.
They don’t understand-Proverbs 3:5
B.
They don’t trust-Proverbs 3:5
C.
They don’t recognize-John 10:4-5