To Be Yielded

As I’ve walked with the Lord, I’ve experienced the beauty that rests in His favor and love. I’ve lived in His faithfulness and abundance. I’ve found joy in His Presence and power in being still. I’ve come to know every good thing I was told about Him since the days of my youth. 

Yet, in all the goodness, I’ve found that the most critical part of this walk is not just trusting Him or knowing Him but being yielded to Him. To see fullness, healing, wholeness, or whatever else we desire, we must be submitted to Him. 

Yield: to relinquish possession of (something) or give (something) up

Submission: the action or fact of accepting or yielding to a superior force or to the will or authority of another person 

Though many of us are familiar with Matthew 6:33, I’d like for us to take it into deep consideration as we understand submission and yielding. 

Matthew 6:33 (NLT) ~ “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

Matthew 6:33 (NKJV) ~ “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”

Submission requires focus, an act of concentrating interest or activity on something. Focus is the state of having or producing clear visual definition. When we consider the scripture’s instruction to “seek first”, we know that our focus, interest, and clear visual should be on the KINGDOM OF GOD. We are not consumed by any other agenda except for the Kingdom agenda. 

Kingdom: royal power; of the royal power of Jesus as the triumphant Messiah;

of the royal power and dignity conferred on Christians in the Messiah’s kingdom

To be submitted to and focused on the Kingdom is to be concerned with God’s will for His Kingdom, the Kingdom’s land, and the Kingdom’s systems. To be submitted is to recognize that we are Kingdom citizens with a role to play in the Kingdom of Heaven. We are not citizens or rulers of our own kingdom. We are citizens under the rulership of the Most High God. 

We must become Kingdom-minded, seeking His kingdom above all else. We must know our place and be IN POSITION, ready to contribute to the Kingdom. We must come under the realm and dominion of the King to do the work of the Kingdom. 

To be Kingdom-minded is to make God’s priorities our priorities without resistance. 

To BECOME Kingdom-minded, we must SEEK His kingdom. 

Seek (baqash, hebrew): to seek, to diligently look after, to search for until the object of the search is located

We look diligently for the Lord’s Kingdom UNTIL we find it. When we seek His kingdom above all else, there is a level of desperation and determination that accompanies our seek. Our constanct question is “Lord, what is Your will? What have You spoken concerning my role in Your kingdom?”. When we are Kingdom-minded, we are more concerned with His Will than our careers, our finances, or our future marriage. When we truly SEEK the Lord, our visual definition and our focus is honed in on the things of Him. We develop Kingdom tunnel vision. 

We are called not only to SEEK, but to live per our identity. We are to live righteously. That is the character of a Kingdom citizen. We cannot seek the Kingdom of Heaven but live as though we belong to the kingdom of darkness. Our minds, will, emotions, and actions must be aligned. Our lives must wholly reflect the One to whom we say we belong. To seek is to have our eyes and body trained on the same path. If our eyes point in one direction and our feet in another, our seek is off. 

To be submitted, to be yielded is to relinquish possession and control of our kingdom, plans, and desires and give it to the Lord. We accept the will of His Kingdom and His authority as LORD over our lives. 

When we yield, we lose nothing and gain everything. When we yield, we see the fullness of all things being added unto us. We experience life exactly as God designed it, full and abundant. 

When we yield everything, we have everything. 

I can say without a doubt that I have lived a fuller life as I’ve learned what it means to be yielded. The yielding has not come without hardship or pressing, but it has produced a version of me that I could have never imagined. I implore you, do not fear the yielding. Do not run from the surrender. There is no greater honor than being a vessel for the Kingdom and no greater joy in knowing you’re in a Kingdom position. When you live a yielded life, you reap a full reward.