Who has your Yes?
Have you ever been told to calm down? To not be as extreme for God? That you don't need to be so radical for God's kingdom? As a teenager I went through a season of going after God with all that I had and this began to be the conversations and comments of some people around me. My question now a days in response is how can you be too extreme in your love and pursuit of God when he is worthy of ALL! How can you calm down your love for God?
Yes we must make sure to not be striving and desperate wanting things from God all the time. Or believing we must follow a religious formula in order to be holy, set apart or loved by God.. because we already are those things.
I believe God is waking up the yes in our hearts in this hour, a yes of the one thing lifestyle, a yes to radical obedience, courageous surrender and absolute lock in pursuit of him.
Who governs your yes? Is it a leader? A boss? Is it fear? Is it when you're emotionally stirred in a moment? There are so many good, even great opportunities that we can say yes to but sometimes that isn't where God’s yes for us is. How do you know when it's Gods yes? Well you will feel the grace and the sustaining presence, it will be fruitful. You come alive in alignment with His yes for your life. If your yes is not Gods and only to please man then you will only ever find yourself stuck in cycles of being unfulfilled, weary and burnt out.
The book of Esther speaks of a mighty journey of intimacy with God which brought wisdom and bravery to say a yes that changed the nation.
Esther 4: 14-16 “ For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this?” Then Esther sent this reply to Mordecai: “Go, gather together all the Jews who are in Susa, and fast for me. Do not eat or drink for three days, night or day. I and my attendants will fast as you do. When this is done, I will go to the king, even though it is against the law. And if I perish, I perish.”
This scripture as I read it weighed heavy in my spirit because this was not about Esther and the favour she had with the king, this was a yes for her nation that could have cost her everything. I think if i'm honest we have lost something of this kind of yes, especially when this past year we have had to be alone with ourselves and focussed on our lives and being formed in this year. There are so many conversations I hear about personal destiny and calling and not alot about how that connects to the wider picture of regions and nations and generations.
There's a song by a band called Circuit riders that says
“There is a yes in our hearts and it carries through eternity, simple obedience changes history, so take courage, the harvest is ripe, lift up your voice because Jesus is alive”
The power in our yes come as we obey and watch how God flows through our now available vessel
Yes because of what is to come because of the moment we are in now being so marked by God's kingdom.
I keep getting wrecked throughout times in my life of the fact that my decisions aren't about me.Backing down and giving up is not an option but digging deep into all that God has and finding my joy in him as one who has given him everything must be our option. The world needs us to burn brightly and love deeply. We can do that best with our daily yes for God even if it costs everything like it could have with Esther. We may not know the yes that will change history or transform generations but let's give him our whole yes everyday.
Are there any areas of your life that you are hesitant to give to God?
Ask him to give you eyes to see beyond yourself.
Spend some time allowing yourself to come back into alignment with a kingdom and God that way bigger than our own thoughts and timelines.
By Abigail Brown