BURDENS AND YOKES

Greetings and Salutations friends. How's the world treatin' ya? People ask me that all of the time..."Hey Rodney...how's the world treatin' ya?" My stock answer is..."The world ain't treating me good at all...but Jesus is treating me just fine." When I respond that way...I am not trying to be cute...or spiritual...or philosophical... just being honest.

Some days are good...some days are great...but some days stink. The weight of the world presses down on our shoulders. We turn on the news...and read about another bombing...another dip in the economy...another kidnapping...another authority figure caught in theft, adultery, child molestation...another (fill in the blank). We live our lives like a soap opera drama where...our personal lives are constantly in flux...as people disappoint us again....or we disappoint ourselves as we fight the demons within...and end up on the mat for an eight count. We no longer walk upright...we are bent over with the WEIGHT OF THE WORLD. We use to rule the beast of burden...but now...we are the beast.


Yokes of sin lead us to places that we don't want to go. Where once we were in control...now someone or something...controls us. The lust of the flesh...the lust of the eyes...the boastful pride of life... where we once found comfort is turning up comfortless. How's the world treating ya? We were once in control...once had authority of our lives...and now...the things that were under our control...controls us.

In Isaiah there was a glimmer of hope for the BURDENS and YOKES.

"And it shall come to pass in THAT DAY...that his BURDEN shall be taken away off thy shoulder...and his YOKE from off thy neck...an the YOKE shall be destroyed...because of the ANOINTING."
(Isaiah 10:27)

This was speaking of a day when the cruel burden and yoke of ASSYRIAN oppression would be lifted from an enslaved people.

The ANOINTING...is burden lifting...yoke destroying power. Notice the yoke is not just removed...but it is destroyed to the point of not being usable again to enslave them. Have you ever breathed a SIGH OF RELIEF...when the pressure is off...when the problem is resovlved...when life returns to normal? Imagine being enslaved with burdens and yokes...and then they are removed and destroyed.

Fast forward...to Acts 10:38..."You know of Jesus of Nazareth...how God ANOINTED Him with (a) the Holy Spirit (b) with power...and how He (the Christ/the Anointed One and His anointing)...went about
(a) doing good (b) healing ALL who were OPPRESSED by the devil (little d)...for GOD WAS WITH HIM." (Acts 10:38)

Jesus had BURDEN lifting YOKE destroying power. But the question is...how do the two verses connect with your life in 2007?

Jesus came to planet earth for a purpose. He was being obedient to the Father...to come and be the perfect sacrifice in YOUR place...on the cross...to Die...be Buried...and then Raise from the dead (D.B.R... death, burial, resurrection...nothing more...nothing less). For three years Jesus went about, doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for GOD WAS WITH HIM. As a matter of fact is Jesus was his first name...His middle name could have been Immanuel...which means GOD WITH US (Matthew 1:23)

Jesus had received an anointing...for a purpose. In Matthew 3:1-17 we see Jesus getting baptized with water (in obedience to the Father)...the Holy Spirit coming down upon Him in the form of a dove...the Father affirming His pleasure with His son in whom he was WELL PLEASED. This is the pivitol point of THE ANOINTING OF JESUS.

Immediately after this spiritual high...Jesus was led BY THE SPIRIT...into the wilderness (a lonely place) for temptation/testing by the devil. NOTE: When you are on a spiritual high...don't think that when things come crashing down that you are out of the will of God...you are probably smack dab in the middle of the will of God as your faith is being tested...tried...proven...for the next step in your journey.

Jesus passed the test with flying colours. Remember the nature of temptation/testing. The devil's purpose is not to pull you into something...but to pull you away from who you really are. He tempts to destroy. God will take the same thing that the devil means for harm...and make it good for you as you are strenghtend and matured. Jesus defeated the lust of the flesh...the lust of the eyes...and the boastful pride of life with (1) the Word of God (2) the Anointing of God (3) Obedience to God (4) the Authority of God.
These are the same tools that we have. (Read Matthew 4 and Luke 4 for full details). In Luke 4:13 we see that after the temptation...and Jesus utilized His authority and said, "BEGONE SATAN"...that He returned to Galilee IN THE POWER OF THE SPIRIT. What was the POWER OF THE SPIRIT? It was THE ANOINTING. He was the CHRIST...the ANOINTED ONE...with an ANOINTING for a PURPOSE.

The purpose of the BURDEN LIFTING...YOKE DESTROYING...HOLY GHOST POWER...is found in Matthew 4:17-25. Jesus began to demonstrate "Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Jesus began to lay out the WILL OF GOD. If you ever wondered if it was the will of God for you to be healed...read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John...and see the WILL OF GOD demonstrated as Jesus went about doing good and healing ALL who were OPPRESSED (burdened down and yoked) by the devil (little d).

Jesus went out in the ANOINTING and began to (1) preach (2) teach
(3) heal the sick. This was his modus operandi (M.O.) He went about everywhere doing the same thing. "And Jesus was GOING ABOUT in all Gallilee, (a) teaching n their synagogues (b) proclaiming the Good News (gospel) of the kingdom (c) healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness among the people. And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were (a) ill (b) taken with various disease (c) pains (4) demoniacs (5) epileptics (6) paralytics...and HE HEALED THEM ALL."

How did He do it. Was it because He was the Son of God...empowered with abilities far above those of mortal man? Was he exclusivly the healer? How did his followers do the same things...and even greater things? What does that mean for me with my burdens and addictions in 2007?

The answer to these and other questions...NEXT TIME...after this commercial break.

Love and Thought Probing Kisses
Rodney "Riding the Beast of Burden instead of the beast riding me" Boyd