The Believer's Part in Becoming Spirit-filled # 6

Life On The Highest Plane

The Life Yielded - Why?

Cleansing

A Life for a Life

"Oh, hands, outstretched upon the tree,

Nail-pierced by shameless cruelty!

Why, blessed Christ, had this to be?

A voice most loving said to me:

'Dear child, these hands of Mine were bruised

That thine in ministry be used

In loving service such as Mine;

My hands were given to purchase thine.'

"Oh, feet of Christ, so rent and torn!

How could such suffering be born?

In life, so often spent and worn,

In death, must they be given to scorn?

'On mercy's errands thine may go,

A free, glad helpfulness to show;

It was for thee,' the Saviour said,

'My feet for thine so sadly bled.'

"Oh, head of Christ, with thorn-wrought crown!

In grief and agony bowed down;

Why didst Thy heavenly renown

Exchange for earthly jeer and frown?

'My child, beneath those thorns I bought

Thy intellect and all its thought;

The glory-crown was left for thee,

That thou mightest give thy mind to Me.'

"Oh, heart of Christ! Oh, wounded side!

Oh, Man of Sorrows, crucified!

Who in such anguish sinless, died,

Hast Thou done aught for me beside?

'Ah, child of mine, my heart was given

That thou mightest live and love in Heaven;

That all thy heart, thy life, might be

Surrendered joyfully to Me.' "

I had been saying "Must I give myself to Him?" But on that day kneeling in spirit at the foot of the Cross of Christ I said from the depths of my heart "May I yield all that I am and have for time and for eternity to Him who gave all for me?"

And what was the basic motive in the yielding? It was the joyous response of love to Love following the spiritual apprehension of the reasonableness and rightfulness of Christ's claim upon my life and the use He desired to make of it.

Then let us define yielding. Yielding is the definite, deliberate, voluntary transference of the undivided possession, control and use of the whole being, spirit, soul and body from self to Christ, to whom it rightfully belongs by creation and by purchase. In yielding to Christ we crown Him Lord of all in our lives. "Consecration does not confer ownership, it presumes it. It is not in order to be His, but because we are His, that we yield up our lives. It is purchase that gives title; delivery simply gives possession. The question is no, 'Do I belong to God?' but 'have I yielded to God that which already belongs to Him?' "

Christ has the title deed to your life. The price was paid nearly two thousand years ago. It is His by the right of purchase. Have you moved out that He may move in and occupy what He already possesses?

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 7)