A Yielded Will

Then Jesus said to His disciples, "If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 16:24-25).

The soul is comprised of the mind, the emotions, and the human will. The soul also has the capacity for imagination. Of these three elements, the will is the king of the soul. The mind, emotions, will, and imagination follows the paths the will allows.

The will is sacred. The Father will never violate the will of a person. He allows us to make our own choices, and then we must live with the results of those choices. Jesus said if any man will let him come unto Me and drink (John 7:37). If you be willing and obedient you eat the good of the land (Isaiah 1:19). Choose this day whom you will serve, life or death blessing or cursing…(Deuteronomy 30:19).

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil gave a test of will to Adam. He failed the test. Since then, the will of man has generally been opposed to the will of God. The will has been tainted by sin and is largely self-centered.

In every gospel, Jesus admonishes believers to subdue the will. He tells us that if we’re going to follow Him we must deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. Jesus spoke these words addressing the will.

Every believer receives a summons from the Holy Spirit to yield the will daily to the Father by yielding it to the Lordship of the Word. No believer can walk closely with the Master until he or she has submitted their will to him in humble faith.

Let’s take time daily to willingly give ourselves to the Father. He will not coerce or force us. We must be willing to daily humble ourselves to and to obedience to the Word and to the inward promptings of the Holy Spirit.

We receive the best that God has according to the yieldedness of our will to Him. May we be able to say what Paul said as he addressed the giving of his will daily to the Father: Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:10-11).