Lordship is Yieldedness Lesson Eight — E.A. Johnston

I used to live in a forest, and I liked to go walking right before daybreak. It was quiet and peaceful, and I could make use of that time to be alone with God. And as I walked through the trees, I would often be engaged in prayer.

While I was out on my morning walk one day, I was begging God to use me more, to make me more fruitful to Him. And as I walked out in the woods that day, God spoke to my heart in answer to that prayer.

Four Words for a Fruitful Christian Life

He gave me four words in a particular order. These four words were yieldedness, obedience, fruitfulness, and usefulness. Those four words struck my heart like arrows as I realized what God was requiring of me in order for my life to have more usefulness to Him.

Yieldedness to the Lordship of Christ

I kept focusing on those four words, yieldedness, obedience, fruitfulness, usefulness. And as I contemplated those words, I realized that the Christian life must be a surrendered life of yieldedness to the Lordship of Christ.

He must have first place and first priority in all things concerning me. And out of my yieldedness to His Lordship would follow my obedience to Him, obedience to His Word and will in my life, that self had to go the way of the cross if I expected a life of deeper usefulness to Him.

Romans 6:13 and the Meaning of Yielding

Romans 6 .13 was brought to my mind where the Apostle Paul tells us, But yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. And here it is where I take issue, friends, with our modern Bible translations because the meaning of a text can be altered to suggest something entirely different from the original translation.

That's why I prefer my King James Bible because in Romans 6 .13 the word yield is changed in modern translations to the word present to read present yourselves unto God. Well what comes to your mind when you think of presenting yourself to a king?

The focus is on ourself, how we look and how we will come across as we present ourselves to this royal. We want to look our best and make a good impression so the focus is on us. But if you use the word yield then that evokes an entirely different thought.

The emphasis goes from ourselves to another, in this case King Jesus. It is now an act of submission on our part to a higher authority. We are to yield ourselves to God and that's the meaning here in our text of Romans 6 .13.

Submission to Christ Produces Holiness and Obedience

Meaning that if a believer will live a life of submission to King Jesus by yielding his all and all to Christ in a life of holiness that would flow out from that, that is our yieldedness to his lordship in our daily living.

That makes all the difference in the world, friends, as far as our walk with God is concerned for God is looking for obedience from us. We see the dire consequences of not obeying the Lord Jesus from 2 Thessalonians 1 .7 -8.

The Lord Jesus should be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. So out of a life of yieldedness to God follows a life of obedience to God.

From Surrender to Fruitfulness and Usefulness

And from a life of surrender will flow fruitfulness unto God. And as we are bearing fruit in our service to God by bringing him glory, it is here we become a clear channel that God can use to flow through us as a means of blessings to others which will result in a life of deeper usefulness to him.

See how it all flows together, friend? But it begins with our willingness to be yielded to the lordship of Christ. If we try to go our own way with our own agenda and ask God to bless that, it will only end in failure.

Christ's Sufficiency for Fruitful Living

Jesus says, without me you can do nothing. Let us always remember that lordship means yieldedness, like in a marriage relationship where your desires are yielded to your spouse. In Romans 7 -4 we see this principle, that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Let us pray.