Willingly

“He told him, “Go wash yourself in the pool of Siloam” (Siloam means “sent”). So the man went and washed and came back seeing!” John 9:7

To submit means to willingly allow another person do to you as he or she pleases. Jesus smeared the man’s face with mud, making him look like a masquerade. The man was blind and then Jesus made him lose all physical appeal, so how will he get help. But this man stayed the course. He submitted to the entire process and he allowed Jesus put all the mud on him. To be submitted to the Holy Spirit means to allow the Holy Spirit have His way. It means you let Him do whatever He wants to do, and yours is to yield yourself and be willingly available.

The Holy Spirit could say something as simple as, do not wear that dress! But your response is, what is wrong with the dress? The dress really suits me so I have to wear it. What has happened there? Sometimes, we wonder how come some people are not able to sustain a walk with God. It is simple, they do not submit to the Lordship of the Holy Spirit. They do not submit. If you are submitted to the Holy Spirit already, I thank God for you. But there is still a lot of room for growth in submission to God. Such that when God says ‘xyz’ is what I want you to do, your response would be ‘yes Sir’ – Total Submission.

The Principle of Obedience: What is the difference between submission and obedience? To illustrate the difference, I will tell you a story. The story is about a boy and his uncle. The uncle was trying to get the boy to sit down but the boy simply refused. ‘I am not going to sit down’, the boy said. The uncle said to him, ‘I am older and stronger than you are, obey your elders and sit down’, but the boy refused. The uncle began to take off his belt and it occurred to the boy that he was going to get a whooping, so he sat down quickly. But after a while the boy began to giggle. Puzzled, the uncle asked him why he was giggling. And the boy said, ‘I am sitting down on the outside but I am standing up on the inside. You cannot make me sit down on the inside’. The truth is nobody can make you sit down on the inside. Did the boy obey? He obeyed, he sat down but he did not submit? Rebellion is a heart issue not really an act issue. This is why, while men look on the outside, God looks on the inside.

Prayer: Holy Spirit, teach me obedience and true submission, in Jesus Name