Yielding to God:The Experience of Prayer

Yielding to God
Sandy Brunson
Jul 11, 2009

Recently, I came across an old book written in 1986 called Clinging: The Experience of Prayer by Emilie Griffin. I read it in the early 90s, and it truly blessed my heart and life. In looking through it once again, in this current season of life, I saw, yet, more deeply into the precious truths I found there...and was even able to add and imbed a few thoughts and lines of my own to it...due to my own experiences in prayer over these many years. I shared this "excerpt" with some of God's women recently during a day of Christian fellowship...and just sense to share it with you on COMPASS: Looking unto JESUS! ...that is may bless you readers, too! ENJOY!

Looking unto JESUS,
Sandy
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Yielding to God: (Excerpt from Chapter 2 of) Clinging: The Experience of Prayer,
By Emilie Griffin

When we sense a deep and pure prompting welling up within ourselves without meaning or intending it, most times it is the Lord's Voice speaking, calling us to Himself. Yet sometimes, at first, it comes so quietly that without stopping to listen, we don't hear it. But the call is real. The Lord is there.

It is the call of Him who made us and meant, from the beginning, that we should not only belong to Him, but also be able to interact and communicate with Him. He shaped us, formed us, and…with a special destiny in mind. This is the secret we are longing to know – the reason for our being. It is a secret known only to Him, and only He will tell us… when we take the time to draw near to Him…in prayer.

He is the One who can tell us the reason for our existence, our place in the scheme of things, our real identity. It is an identity we can't discover for ourselves, that others can't discover in us – the mystery of who we really are. How we have chased around the world for answers to that riddle, looked in the eyes of others for some hint, some clue, hunted in the multiple worlds of pleasure and experience and self-fulfillment for some glimpse, some revelation, some wisdom, some authority to tell us our right name and our true destination on earth. Each of us is a child of God IN Christ Jesus, and out of that…He places us in His Body…with our personal and specific part in establishing His Kingdom on earth.

But there was, and is, only One who can tell us this: the Lord Himself. Only HE can define us…and He wants to do so. He has made us to know our reason for being and to be led by it. However, it is a secret He will entrust to us…only when we ask, and then, only in His own way and in His own time. He will whisper it to us…not in the mad rush and fever of our striving nor our fierce determination to "be" someone or something, but rather when we are content to rest in Him, to put ourselves in His keeping, into His Hands. Most delightfully of all, it is a secret. He will tell us slowly and sweetly…when we are willing to spend intentional time with Him: precious, intimate time with Him who is beyond all time.

" I, Myself, taught Ephraim to walk, I took them in my Arms; yet they have not understood that I was the One looking after them. I led them with reins of kindness, leading with strings of love. I was like someone who lifts an infant close to his cheek; stooping down, I gave him his food." Hosea 11:3-4

The act of prayer is yielding: laying down our defenses, taking off masks, recognizing that God has already called us and is already waiting for us to come to Him. Yielding is putting aside our self-importance, our cares and schedules, and undertakings, in order, very simply…to be with God! Yielding up of everything that keeps us from the Lord, letting go of all anxiety and restlessness. It is the gift to Him of time, the only coin we have to spend: the gift of ourselves, one we find all too difficult to give.

How hard is it to set aside time each day to be with God? Sometimes, it seems impossible. Yet how many minutes do we spend each day in conversation with people we care little about and who care about us…not at all? How much time do we spend in searching for more effective ways to manage our time so we can spend more time in becoming effective? How much time do we spend in anxious fretting and striving about things that are beyond our control? Think of it…

"Can any of you, for all his worrying, add a single cubit to his span of life? If the smallest things, therefore, are outside your control, why worry about the rest?" Luke 12:25-26

Even one minute a day, sixty seconds by the clock, is more than we can sometimes find for the interaction in real, meaningful prayer with our God. With all our managing, we often cannot manage time for this. Yet that very minute with the Lord can be a step into eternity, a passageway into the Kingdom…the place where "righteousness, peace, and joy abides….in the Holy Spirit." Romans 14:17

"Set your hearts on His Kingdom, and these other things will be given you as well. There is no need to be afraid…for it has pleased your Father to give you the Kingdom." Luke 12:31-32

Is it possible, with all our striving, that we can't find so much as a minute a day…a TRUE minute of quality, meaningful time for the Lord? A time of pressing in, drawing close, bowing down, surrendering our thoughts and agendas to the King of kings and Lord of lords. Would five minutes be completely out of the question? Is it possible that we have allowed ourselves to slide so far, to be so distant to the true meaning of prayer, that we suppose five minutes would not do because first, we would need fifteen minutes to unwind and prepare? Suddenly….we know that the barrier is not time at all, not the pressure of events, not the many demands on our talents and our charity, but rather an obstacle within ourselves…a fleshy stubbornness that will not yield to Him.

Yielding is bending. Bend out of the natural realm…into His, the Spirit realm. It is hard to think about …easier to do. Once it is done, it is a loosing of every bond that holds us in the here and now, a step into the glorious freedom of the sons and daughters of God. It is a step into spiritual reality, a movement through the darkling glass that tries to keep us from our Lord: a passage into freedom, into a childhood of the spirit where identity is known not by hints or explanations, but by a light that falls on us from Him.

"God, you are my God. I am seeking You; My soul is thirsting for You, my flesh is longing for You. A land parched, weary and waterless. I long to gaze on You in the Sanctuary and to see Your power and glory!" Ps. 63:1-2

It is by His Presence that the Lord teaches us to pray! In prayer by His Spirit, when we begin to pray, He prays in us…through us; it is His power and grace that help us pray, till we don't know where we leave off and He begins. We yield and give sway…to HIM! And when that yielding comes, we find that all the prayers made up since time began are swept aside and something new occurs. Something happens now, for the first time, between the Lord and us, something springs from His reality and our response, from His identity and ours in Him. We do not speak. He speaks. We do not ask. He asks. HE is the music that fills the universe, and we – with our first fumbling steps – now catch the rhythm of the dance…doing what we see HIM doing…and saying what we hear HIM say. Giving sway to Him….

"Your love, O Lord, is better than life itself; my lips recite Your praise; all my life I will bless You, in Your name, and lift up my hands. My soul will feast most richly. On my lips is a song of JOY, and in my mouth…Praise!" Ps. 63:3-4

There are no words now…for our prayer moves beyond words. And yet there is a to-and-fro about it. He is calling us…and we are following. He is surprising us…now here, now there..and we are chasing Him. Time stops. The music of His Presence moves us, leads us in ways we had not dreamed of, shows us gleams of an existence we hardly guessed at.

We are children now…chasing the Kingdom, stepping free of where we were and who we were…into our new selves, made into His image and likeness, selves of HIS making, meant for Heaven and for Him! In this place, we exist with God. IN HIM…we live and move. This changes us…more into His image. This is always so, the reality of our spiritual existence…even when we do not sense it. BUT IN SUCH TIMES OF HIS PRESENCE…we know it to be true; the truth of it is suddenly…made clear! His Presence overshadows us. His power is 'round about us. Here in this place…we know…for a time…that He who hung the stars and moves the planets made us, too – made us for His own reason, called US into being, holds US each instant in existence, and calls us to reality…IN HIM!

How can we KNOW that…except by Grace: God IN US, making known a mystery beyond speech, beyond reason and head knowledge…a "knowing" deeper than all ordinary knowing? It is as though our lives are lit up…from within; and some revelation – not breaking through like a miracle, but some entirely natural disclosure meant for each one alone – being whispered in the depths of the heart…

"Do not be afraid, for I have redeemed YOU; I have called YOU by your name…YOU ARE MINE! Should you pass through the sea, I will be with you; or through rivers, they will not swallow you up. Should you walk through fire, you will not be scorched and the flames will not burn you!" Isa. 43: 1-2

THIS is the "knowing" that comes from yielding, believing that the Word of God is TRUE and will be finally made plain…in us, opening up to that astounding possibility without reserve and without hesitation.

"On my bed I think of YOU; I meditate on YOU all night long, for YOU have always helped me. I sing for joy in the shadow of YOUR wings; my soul clings close to YOU, Your right hand supports me." Ps 63:6-8

We know Him…because we yield to Him – opening up every crevice of ourselves where anger, fear, unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy, and doubt are hidden – yielding up even our imagination, to be transformed by Him into a means of grace, a way of entering the Kingdom. "See" HIM…as He is, a Spirit who reveals Himself to us through His Word, His Creation…His Acts and His LOVE for us!

When we find Him, wherever and whenever we do…we do not need to force or will ourselves to pray…prayer, a communion with this ONE whom our soul doth love, will spring up, a sudden fountain of wonder and praise! But always…there must be a yielding…a yielding to God in us, in others, and in Himself. A continual willingness to bend the knee and KNOW that HE has made us…and not we, ourselves. Most of all…that He has made us to be loved by Him and longs for our love, too!!! Release it through yielding to Him…moment by moment. HE is Lord and God…worthy of our all.

(Thanking God for the life and writings of Emilie Griffin who penned most of these words in Chapter 2 of her book on Clinging. She has shared many insights with God's people over the years on the deeper life in the Spirit and has "put in words for us"...many concepts and ideas that have dumbly struggled in us for expression on our own...but which were very real in the depths of our spirits!)