Yielding the Volition

In reality we may choose to follow any decision of our own. This privilege was gained when the first two humans ate of the tree of knowledge. Along with the knowledge of good and evil came our privilege of choosing which one we wanted to follow. We normally choose whichever suits our circumstances at the time. The problem is that every choice not made with God’s approval is evil and is in violation of the righteousness of God. Most of us have learned that Jesus came to earth in order to save us from our bad decisions. The obvious question is “How does this happen?” The decision behind our choice is called our volition. The way Jesus saves us is to gain control of our decisions after we yield our spirit to Him.

We have been taught for years that one decision is all we need for salvation. This is not understood by many people. The “one” choice of Salvation is to yield all our decisions. Paul says that YOU are slaves to sin, which leads to death, OR to obedience, which leads to righteousness. Rom 6:16 Here is the same old question again. Who will control our choices as we walk through this life? When we received the right to make our choices, we did not receive the power to make all our choices good ones. This leaves us with only one choice that can save us from ourselves. We must yield our volition to someone who can always make the right decisions for us.

No one wants to be a slave. Unhappily, we have all been born a slave because oddly enough it is the price for our free choices. As seen in the verse above, our eternal choice is to live a life leading to death or a life which leads to righteousness. This is very frustrating to many people. They want to choose a life of fun and parties because a godly life seems to dull to them. However, the righteous life is necessary if we want to live with God. Paul also said that we must know that our old self was crucified with Him. (Rom 6:6)  We accept this fact into our life by faith and live every day doing our best to make this truth real.

Church people like to say, “We believe, therefore we will live with God”.  Many of these same people do not want to say, “We believe, therefore we have died to this world”. One of these statements is just as true as the other. The scripture says it this way, “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him”.( Rom 6:8) These two beliefs do not stand alone; they are part of each other. We must accept them both or the Spirit cannot lead in our new life. Our baptism was a public statement of these very things. We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that…we too may live a new life. (Rom 6:4)

The fact that we are dead to sin only applies when we are living in Christ. When we fail to yield our decisions to the Spirit and make our own choices, we are no longer dead to sin. The remedy is to immediately confess our sin and Jesus will forgive us because we are repentant. Remember that the old life is nothing like the new life. Making our own choices is being buried in the old life but yielding to the choices of the Spirit is being resurrected into life. We must learn to say “no” to people around us. Do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.( Rom 6:12) There will always be temptations but we can beat them by asking the Spirit to show us the righteous way to go.

So many believers are struggling to live for God. The truth is that when we are doing it correctly it is very easy. It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. (Gal 5:1) For several reasons the Church will begin to place burdens upon a believer. Some have said that it is necessary to give work to people in order to keep them from wandering back into the world. Instead, we should be teaching people to rely on the Spirit rather than the Church. The Spirit will remind people when they wander. Jesus said that his burden is light. When the Spirit is motivating a person to fulfill a task it is done with joy and gratitude which makes it a light job.

Trusting God is the secret to a successful Christian life. All things work together for good to those who love God. (Rom 8:28) This verse does not apply to the general public that claims to love God. This only applies to those that are walking in the light by yielding their volition to the Spirit. People that give their life to the Savior have placed all their eggs in one basket we might say. We make only the decisions that He gives us. Our Lord does not want us to have a back-up plan. Give everything in our life over to Him no matter how much it hurts to do it. The sooner we get started trusting Jesus with our entire life the sooner we will enjoy the rest of God.

Prayer Ingredients

A good prayer is important but as time overtakes our prayers, they can become brief and lack focus. It is not right to ignore this condition. Our Heavenly Father is redeeming a family that loves Him and his ways. It is our desire to improve our communication with the Lord. Our neglect is harmful to our relationship. The Bible tells us that God wants to hear from us continually. Our goal should be a well-rounded talk with our savior, rather than a continual string of complaints. Surely, there are things we can discuss with the One who loves us so much. God knows every breath and feeling that we have. It can become natural for us to talk with the one who knows everything. Going over the ingredients of a prayer will remind us of how God cares for us.

Deep down, people know that God is bigger and stronger than anything is and that all the creation should adore Him. However, this feeling has a strange effect on some humans and they refuse to worship God. These people are in trouble because our Creator is choosing the cream of the crop of believers. The Lord is looking for good family members to live with Him in eternity. It will be to our benefit to tell everyone that we adore the Almighty and will give anything to join His family. In fact, worship must be an ingredient of our conversation every time we pray. There are also people who do not glorify God because they do not obey him with a clean life. Their actions are offensive and cause guilt in their life. Living in guilt is not contributing to a healthy relationship with God. Do not stand before God with a life that does not honor Him.

Our worship should be even greater than that of the Old Testament people. The life that Christ has made possible for us is far superior to their lives. We can have the Lord inside us giving his blessing every minute of the day. Failing to be thankful for everything that is available in Christianity is sinful. In addition to the written words of God, we now have the living word of God inside us. The Bible actually tells us to be thankful when things are not so great. Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. Do not put out the Spirit’s fire. (1 Thes 5:16-19) In order to be joyful always we must continually pray and give thanks. Our prayers can cultivate the excitement that the Spirit has already brought into our life.

Many times a Christian will thank God in anticipation of the “answer” to their prayer. This is one of the types of confession seen in the Bible. An example of this can be seen in Rom 10:10 where Paul says, it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Salvation is a life long pursuit but we are celebrating our ultimate salvation now.  Believing God before we see any answer to our prayer is something that is precious to our Father. Another kind of confession is given in 1 John 1:9 saying If we confess our sins. Believers must confess their sins continually and not allow them to ruin the righteous life that God loves. We may also confess the sins of others. This is seen most often as men of God asked for the sins of a nation to be forgiven.

Prayer is usually a request for our needs or even godly desires. This is called petitioning of our Lord. God really wants to help us but there are some hindrances to our prayers. For example, we have a sin that we have not confessed of if we need to forgive some other person. Sometimes our own pride gets in the way or maybe we just doubt God. Usually these problems are resolved when we follow the Spirit in our life. On the positive side, as the Spirit leads us to help others and our life becomes more righteous our Savior does things daily for us. Prayer is most effective when we are surrendered to the Spirit. We have no idea of the power of prayer.

It is a wonderful privilege to have been given the opportunity of prayer. In addition to reaching God for our own benefit, we are to touch the lives of others. Therefore, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. (James 5:16) We may feel that our prayers are going nowhere at times but God assures us that they are effective. Making intercession for others is a sign of maturity in a Christian life. Many loved ones have been saved because of prayer. This includes both physically and spiritually.

Prayers of dedication are of spiritual value. We need to state our intentions in order to have rallying points to add meaning to our journey. When our prayers include love, understanding, peace, patience, joy and steadfastness, our life will make great strides toward pleasing God. Another great area of prayer is the voicing of revelations that the Spirit has given us. It does not need to be great to be enjoyed. Even a new understanding of a Bible verse is a wonderful experience with the Lord. One dictionary tells us “prayer is the principal means by which Creator and creature are bound together in realities that define our relationship.” If this is true, then we need all the realism we can obtain.

Fruit of Repentance

One of the discussions among believers today “is confession necessary for salvation” is based primarily on misunderstanding. The people that do not like confession stand on the fact that repentance is all they need. If we go to the scriptures, we find that these two subjects do not challenge one other. Confession is a vital part of repentance. This is like saying that wheels are not the engine of our car. They may not be but they support each other when we want to go somewhere. Repentance is a change in our belief. But if we refuse to profess our belief (confession) then no one will know what we believe. In other words, we are all professing our beliefs whether we live a righteous life or a worldly life. For example, a tattoo is a confession that we do not believe God’s word. Do not …put tattoo marks on yourselves. I am the LORD. Lev 19:28

John the Baptist tied repentance and confession of sins together during his ministry. John came, baptizing in the desert region and preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. The whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem went out to him. Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. Mark 1:4,5 We see clearly that confessing sins is a part of the repentance process. Confession is also important to our health. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. James 5:16a Confession and repentance are part of our salvation development. People have a need to confess all kinds of things. Somehow, this helps humans with their guilt. A profession of our beliefs can be either right or wrong. However, confession is how we let the world know who we are and where we stand.

Look how important our confession is in this passage spoken by Jesus. “Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit.  You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.  The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him.  But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken.  For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned.” Matt 12:33-37 Our mouth confesses what is in our heart and then we are judged by our own words. Maybe we should confess the righteousness of Jesus more often.

Another interesting verse is about our continuing to confess. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives. 1 John 1:9,10 We are to use our confession of sin properly. Praying to God under the direction of the Spirit is the best way. The Spirit can also direct us to confess to other people. All types of confession are part of who we are and what we believe. As we walk this life we must confess our sins and confess the righteousness of Jesus. It is all part of our salvation. Paul wrote, For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Rom 10:10

May the fruit of your repentance be as the Spirit directs.