As you yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, you will abandon the cravings of your self – life. For your self – life craves the things that offend the Holy Spirit and hinder him from living free within you! And the Holy Spirit’s intense cravings hinder your old self – life from dominating you! So then, the two incompatible and conflicting forces within you are your self – life of the flesh and the new creation life of the Spirit. -Galatians 5: 16-25 TPT
When I was read this translation Wednesday evening, I immediately kept thing it was so descriptive and powerful. I knew I had to focus on it a little more. In my head, immediately came a “yield” road sign. When you are driving down the road and you approach this sign, we should stop to make sure nothin else is coming before we either merge into traffic or proceed. You are giving someone else the “right of way”.
Did you catch that?
What if we give the Holy Spirit that lives within us, right of way? I like the Oxford definition of right of way: the legal right of a pedestrian, vehicle, or ship to proceed with precedence over others in a particular situation or place. Why don’t we give the Holy Spirit the “right” to have precedence over our flesh in EVERY situation? I look at it like this, we try our best to obey traffic laws because we want to be safe and it’s not just about us…we have passengers and other people on the road that we don’t want to harm. Well, think about it from a spiritual standpoint? We are in covenant (a legal agreement/contract) with God through Jesus and his finished work on the cross. We are reconciled by grace through faith…with all that comes the Holy Spirit that resides within us. It’s not just about us. There is much harm to be done in the physical AND spiritual realm when we allow our words, actions and even our thoughts to be unholy.
Why aren’t we yielding to Him as easily as we do that traffic sign? Probably, because it requires letting go of the spiritual steering wheel and not being in control. We don’t like being backseat drivers.
If we will but yield to the Holy Spirit in our lives and allow Him to have first place in all that we say or do, we will easily abandon the flesh. When we zoom quickly past the yield sign of the Holy Spirit, we are hindering Him from taking our spirit man to new, better places! You are the one that causes Him to hit the brakes! Do you realize the power that lives within you, when you are no longer allowing your flesh to be the driver of your spirit?
We have a dynamic life waiting just beyond that yield sign. If we want His power manifested through us daily, we must allow Him to have the right of way in our lives. Yield to Him freely and fully…you won’t mind riding in the backseat and enjoying the view!
