. . . Yield?

Guest (Male): Wise words about yielding and obedience to God from Dr. Michael Youssef, as he begins this episode of Leading the Way audio.
Dr. Michael Youssef: Now here’s the tricky thing about yielding. God demands it. He doesn’t come to me and say, "Now, Michael, it would be very nice for you to yield to me." He doesn’t do that. He demands it. Why? For my good and His glory. That’s why. Why is it that we don’t have true joy or peace until we yield? Stay tuned. I’m going to tell you why.
Guest (Male): Thank you for making time in your day for Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef. Everyone lives under some form of authority. The boss, the government, even in the family, someone is definitely in charge. And then there’s God’s authority. Today on Leading the Way, Dr. Youssef helps you understand that God’s authority doesn’t come with a list of "thou shalt nots." In fact, it’s just the opposite: freedom through submission. And here is Dr. Youssef continuing his encouraging series, *You Want Me to Do What?*
Dr. Michael Youssef: The yield sign is there for a reason. But human nature, the way it is, if you pass the yield sign routinely on your way to work or school day after day, I have a deep hunch that most of us probably get used to it. We ignore it, and after a while, actually, we don’t even notice it anymore. We become oblivious to it. We know it’s there. Subconsciously, you know it’s there. You know what you’re supposed to do when you see it, but then you get used to it and then you give it kind of a cursory glance as you pass it by until, of course, the day comes when you get into trouble and you find yourself sitting on the side of the street and saying, "Why didn't I yield?" Now, obviously, I know all about that. The yield sign is there for a reason. When you obey it, you’re blessed and you’re safe. When you don’t, even though you might get away with it for a long period of time, sooner or later, it’s going to catch up with you. And in a far greater way, in a far more serious way, in a far more important way, the entire Bible from cover to cover is that sign saying, "Yield to God." The message of the entire Bible from Genesis to Revelation is one message: "Yield to God." For meaningful life, for peaceful heart, for a contented spirit, for effective witness for Jesus Christ in your workplace or in your school, for fruitful and productive life, for victory in the spiritual battles, you and I must yield. Yield to the Lord’s will in our lives. Yield to His command in His word. Yield to His direction as revealed in His word. Yield to His instructions in His book. Now, I’m going to level with you. Yielding is never easy. You see, yielding is never fashionable. Yielding is never popular by the masses, but yielding is the only option that you and I have. It’s the only option that God gives us. I read an old preacher from the old times, back in the days of the horse and buggy, and he and his wife were driving their horse and buggy along a narrow and dangerous stretch of road. And the woman got so nervous and she immediately grabbed one of the reins. And the husband, as calmly as he knew how, handed her the other strap. And she said, "No, no, no, I don’t want to take both of them. I could never manage this animal by myself." And the husband said, "Look, you’ve got to make a choice. You either drive it or I drive it. We can’t both drive the same horse." And the frightened soul quickly handed back the other strap to the husband and they made their way home safely. And this is where we find the Israelites in Joshua chapter five. Turn to it with me, please. They are at that point where God is saying to them, "You must learn to yield to me." At this point of their journey to the promised land, God has taken them across the river of impossibility, supernaturally, miraculously. He provided for them. And now they are facing the fortified walls of Jericho. Now, the river which dried up supernaturally and miraculously is behind them, and now is flowing at full force. And there is no turning back. In front of them, there is that fortified wall. Talk about caught between the rock and a hard place; this is it. And so they have no choice but to yield to the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief. And let me just stop for a moment here and give you the explanation that was in that chapter. The Israelites, who have come across that river of impossibility, they have not seen fortified walls before. They were all born in the wilderness. They have never experienced climbing obstacles that are formidable. And Joshua, in his perplexity, thinking about the river that’s flowing full force and looking at that fortified wall, and in that perplexity, in that time when he doesn’t know what to do, where to go next, he sees this man with a drawn sword. And he didn’t know who he was. And so he says to him, "Are you with us or you against us? Are you with us or are you with the enemy? Are you here to take sides?" And he said, "No, I’m here to take over." Now, beloved, listen to me. That is yielding. Now, here is the tricky thing about yielding. Are you ready for it? God demands it. He doesn’t come to me and say, "Now, Michael, it would be very nice for you to yield to me." And He doesn’t do that. He doesn’t say, "You know, it would be a great honor for me if you yield to me." No, God doesn’t do that. He demands it. He demands it of me. Why? For my good and His glory. That’s why. But why is it that we try so hard to wiggle out of it? Why does God have to go to the trouble of ensuring that we have no other option and we come to the end of the road and we say, "Okay, I give up"? Why is it that we don’t have true joy or peace until we yield? Stay tuned. I’m going to tell you why. You see, in the last message, Joshua told them to consecrate themselves. What does consecration mean? You see, consecration is that big word that we use in Christian circles, which only means one thing: yield. That’s it. That’s what it means. This week, I saw an email from a couple in our church. And it says that God kept on impressing upon them to host a backyard Bible club. And God kept impressing upon them, kept impressing upon them, but they kept on resisting and resisting and resisting. And for a very good reason, let me assure you. It was very good reason. They have a three-year-old and a two-month-old. That is a good reason not to host a Bible club, right? That’s what the natural mind would say. But they could not get away from God’s persistence in getting them to yield at this very time in their life. And so, with a couple of other apostles, members who live in their neighborhood, they stuffed the mailboxes with announcements. And guess what? 51 kids turned up. I can’t even think of having 51 kids in my backyard. Isn't that great? But that’s not all. As a result of this, nine moms started coming for a Bible weekly Bible study in that same home. Listen to me. For you to be used of God, for me to be used of God, whether it be in our workplace or our neighborhood or our communities where we live or the schools, we must be willing to yield. The Israelites had to yield before they can even get across that fortified wall. They had to yield spiritually. They had to yield mentally. They had to yield emotionally. They had to yield, yes, physically. And if God is teaching us anything in this whole series of messages, beloved, listen to me, if He is teaching us anything, anything at all, it is this: consecration precedes conquest. That yielding precedes harvesting. What kind of yielding did God ask the Israelites? Well, you can see it in the passage there, between verses two to nine. There was a physical circumcision. I’m going to come to that in a minute. In verse 10, there was a celebration of the Passover. In verse 11 and 12, there was the appropriating of the fruit of the produce of Canaan. And then verses 13 to 15, there was the following of the Commander-in-Chief and taking direction from him. Now, on the face of it, it just—all these things, they seem to be either kind of outrageous insanity or rituals that are really not necessary at all. Why didn’t God just click his fingers and get them across the walls of Jericho? Why couldn't God do it some other way? Oh, listen to me. The whole question of yielding is not yielding what I want to yield, but yielding what God wants you to yield. And if God is God, then He’s got to tell you and you have to obey. And you have to ask Him, "Lord, what is it that you want me to yield?" However, I have a hunch that you already know what God wants you to yield. The problem is that you’re not willing to do it. You see, God may say to you or may be saying to you for weeks or even months or years—He may be saying to you to yield something that to me is not really a big deal at all. Easy. But to you, it’s huge. You see, He knows you and He knows me and He never asks of us to yield the same things. He may be asking me to yield something that to you is like, "That’s easy." But to me, it’s huge and it’s a challenge. Now, I know I can hear some of you are literally kicking and screaming right now. You say, "How can you do that?" Oh, listen, I’m the expert on kicking and screaming. I’ve done my fair share of screaming and kicking in the past. I know all about it. Some of you may be saying, "But what God is asking of me does not make sense." Do it anyway. "What God is asking of me, I can’t do." He will give you the power to do it. Think about this. Just think about this from the human logic. To have the Israelite males to be circumcised on the eve of the greatest battle of their history? It doesn’t make sense. You see, this is not a seven-day-old baby in the hospital where a lot of hygiene and clinical stuff and the baby doesn’t know what in the world is going on. There are cultures where the babies don’t get circumcised until ten or 11. And listen, that’s called physically incapacitated. It’s called pain. And they had no painkillers back then. These were grown men. How are they going to fight this battle? This is incredible battle that they are facing. This is unbelievable enemy of all the Canaanites and the Amorites and the mosquito bites and all they were all there. And they’re going to face them the next day. It does not make sense. But it makes perfect sense to God. Do you know why? Because God never wanted them to say, "We did it." God didn’t want them to say, "We accomplished it." God did not want them to say, "We brought the victory." When God strips you, when God strips me of the last vestige of personal strength, that’s the beginning of Him working in you supernaturally. As long as we rely on our wealth, our numbers, our resources, our strength, our intelligence, our intellect, our strategy, and the willpower, as long as we rely on these things, God says, "Go, be my guest. Keep on spinning your wheels. Keep on trying. Go for it." You see, this generation of Israelites were all born in the wilderness, as the writer tells us again and again. Only a handful of them like Joshua and Caleb really know what it was like in Egypt, in the land of slavery. Only a handful of them saw what it’s like for the mighty Red Sea to part. Very few of them knew what it was like to see the mighty Egyptian army to be drenched. Now, not only that, but this generation was not circumcised, which is the sign of the covenant that God made with Abraham. I’m so grateful Paul says that the circumcision is the circumcision of the heart. Neither did they participate in the Passover before. You see, there were three Passovers. This is the third one. The first Passover was in Egypt, when God told the Israelites to slay a lamb and then to put the blood on the door posts so that the angel of death will go to the firstborn of the Egyptians, but then would miss those who have the blood on the door. He said, "I will see the blood and I will pass over." That is the very first Passover. The second Passover was in the Sinai desert. And this is the third time that they are celebrating the Passover. And this was God’s way to remind them that in the past, God brought them out of the slavery of Egypt. It’s also in the present that He is delivering them today and that in the future He will deliver them when He sent the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ, to shed His own blood on Calvary so that all who cover themselves with the blood of Jesus Christ will make it to heaven. You see, circumcision stripped them from their physical strength. Passover reminded them of God’s deliverance. Appropriating the produce of Canaan is the foretaste of God’s fulfilling of His promise to Abraham and giving them the victory. But the ultimate yielding, you see it here at the end of the chapter: surrendering to the Commander-in-Chief. Joshua did not know who he was. You see, this is what sealed the deal. Joshua's encountering of the Commander of the Lord of hosts, to me, is one of the most exciting, the most thrilling part of the whole scripture. You see, most theologians refer to this as a theophany. It’s a big word that means the appearance of the pre-incarnate Christ in the Old Testament. He appeared to Abraham under the oak of Mamre. He appeared to Jacob at Peniel. He appeared to Moses at the burning bush. He appeared with His chariots of fire to Elisha and his servant when they needed victory over the Assyrians. And here He’s appearing to Joshua. He’s appearing with sword drawn, ready for the fight. You see, Jesus had not died on the cross yet and completed the victory. What kind of a military force did the divine Commander lead? The Bible calls them the host of the Lord. The Bible called them the host of heaven. The Bible calls them legions of angels. Beloved, listen to me. They are always ready to be deployed on your behalf when you yield. The moment you yield to the Lord and His call upon your life to be an effective witness for Him, His minister in your workplace and in your school. The moment you yield to Him and accept the call of being a missionary in your mission field, of being an apostle in your environment, of being an ambassador in your world, of being a warrior in your battles, God begins to deploy these mighty invisible forces on your behalf. When you yield your will to God’s will, when you yield your plan to God’s plan, these hosts of angels are always ready to be deployed on your behalf. When you yield to doing the work of God, they are ready to be deployed on your behalf. When you’re ready to yield your timidity and your fear and fear of rejection and go forward in His name, He’s ready to deploy all these armies on your behalf. When you yield to taking the sandal off your feet by recognizing that the very place in your neighborhood where He placed you, in your workplace where you work, in your school where you go—when you see those places as holy places, He is ready to deploy on your behalf mighty armies to fight for you. When you yield your desire, when you yield your wants, when you yield your opinion, when you yield your comfort zone, when you yield your self-indulgence, when you yield your time, your talent, and your treasure, when you yield your frustrations and your depression and your helplessness and your bitterness, He is ready to deploy that mighty army. Listen to what Hebrews chapter one, verse 14 said. He said, "They are ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation." Those of you who have read my book, *Know Your Real Enemy*, you know you read the fact that how it is absolutely thrilling to me to know that when Satan fell from heaven, one third of the angelic beings—and we don’t know how many there could be billions or could be trillions of them. The Bible says untold numbers, so we don’t even know. Maybe even they cannot be counted. But the Bible said when Lucifer thought that he could depose God and sit on the throne and become God, he was thrown out of heaven. One third of the angelic being followed him in that foolishness and they were thrown out of heaven. And to me, that is absolutely the most exciting thing because it says to me that two third of the angelic being are ready and committed to be deployed on your behalf. That means that for every demon that’s harassing you, for every demon that is warring against you, there are two angels who are fighting on your behalf. When you yield to the Commander-in-Chief, Jesus is going to show up. He’s going to show up in your workplace and school and neighborhood. And He doesn’t show up to take sides. He shows up to take over. And you must be willing to let Him take over. He will show up, put words in your mouth. He will show up to soften hard hearts. He will show up to change lives. He will show up to bless your work. He will show up to give you favor. He will show up to encourage you. He will show up to meet your needs. He will show up to give you victory. He will show up. And the best thing that you can say today is, "Lord, I yield." You know that matter that the finger of the Holy Spirit is pointing to in your life and saying this? "Lord, not now." This? "Lord, I can’t do it." This? Or, "Lord, you know that I’m struggling with that one. In due course, I’ll be able to overcome." Listen, we worship a supernatural powerful God. And the greatest thing that you can do in your life, the greatest thing that I’ve ever done in my life is when the finger of the Holy Spirit pointed in my heart, in my mind, in my life and says this. And after kicking and screaming, I said, "Lord, I yield." It’s the greatest thing you could have done or you could do today.
Guest (Male): Joshua lived a life committed to obediently serving God. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way. And if you have any faith questions, please let me encourage you to visit ltw.org/jesus. Get connected with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor. No question is too hard and they’re so happy to help you with whatever is on your heart. You know, gospel work is tough, often lacking tangible rewards. But one way the staff at Leading the Way stays encouraged is by receiving testimonies from listeners. And a note came to the office recently that brought inspiration to the entire team. It’s from a man in Egypt. He wrote Leading the Way a note, and here is a short summary. He says: "I was proud to be born and raised in a Muslim family, never thinking I would ever leave Islam. However, I began to see many Christians face persecution and still maintain love for their attackers. This made me seriously question my faith. One day, I received a Bible from a customer. As I read it, I also searched the internet for information proving the Bible wrong. Eventually, my studies led me to Dr. Youssef. "The more I read the Bible and heard Dr. Youssef teach about biblical truth, the more my life changed. So I eventually called Leading the Way and the team member led me to Jesus. I have since been attending a church and am thankful for the help, as now I too am experiencing oppression due to my new faith." Oh friends, our staff was so encouraged seeing how Leading the Way was playing a part in reaching the lost and in discipling this new brother in Christ. Let me encourage you to read and watch these amazing stories. Visit Dr. Youssef at ltw.org. L-T-W dot org. You can also speak to a ministry representative about resources and how you can stand in support of Leading the Way: 866-626-4356. As we bring today’s episode of Leading the Way to a close, allow me to invite you also to watch Leading the Way Television. Each week, dig into the truth of God’s word and be challenged to love and serve the Savior. Leading the Way Television is available in most areas on TBN, NRB, TCT, Fox Business, and more. Visit ltw.org for details. That’s L-T-W dot org. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.