Luke 1: 26 Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, 27 to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David.
34 Then Mary said to the angel, “How can this be, since I do not know a man?” 35 And the angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Highest will overshadow you; therefore, also, that Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God. 36 Now indeed, Elizabeth your relative has also conceived a son in her old age; and this is now the sixth month for her who was called barren. 37 For with God nothing will be impossible.” 38 Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”
This young girl’s submission to God was great, she was submissive to the plan of God for her life, she was submissive to the word that God brought to her she was submissive to bear the reproach for the Lord.
These areas of submission are very important. There are some that want the plan of God worked out in their life, but they are not willing to submit to the work of the cross or the humiliation or the reproach that comes to our self-life to see that done.
There are some that would be submissive to the Word of God as long as it’s in a general sense, but when that specific will of God needs to be worked in their life, they back away.
Everyone that God uses must be submissive to the Lord. It must be this deep, deep submission.
In the New Testament, we find much on this subject. Submit yourselves one to another as unto the Lord. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands. Children are to be submissive to their parents.
We are told to obey those that have the rule over you as they that watch for your souls as they that must give an account.
We’re told by the Scripture, Submit yourselves therefore unto God. Resist the devil and he’ll flee from you. Even the Lord taught us to pray, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
And Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane prayed, Nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. It’s a serious thing that you and I should approach God with this thing of submission within us, that we should be concerned about any state of rebellion that might exist in your heart or life, anything that might be there that’s unsubmissive to your brother or sister in the house of God too.
An unyielding heart is a serious matter with God. It’s the broken and the contrite heart, O God, that Thou wilt not despise. There’s a perverseness, a rebellion, a stubbornness that’s natural to the human heart.
It’s only when we set our hearts upon God, and we seek His face that He’ll work into our very life and nature the submission that is so essential for us to do the will of God.
Now let me ask, are you submissive to the Lord? Do you find in your heart that there are such things as rebellion, stubbornness, perverseness, that just seem to choke the very life that God has put within you, the spiritual life? Let’s get rid of it. Let’s be concerned about it.
Our goal is to come into a progressive absolute submission to the Lord.
We need to be not so much concerned about the specific little individual practices, but more concerned about the general state of sin and its classification.
These sins of an unyielding heart, these sins of hesitation and disobedience and perverseness, it’s not the specific manifestation of them because you know how they flare up.
But that we come to the Lord saying, O God, now let the axe be laid to the root of the tree. Hit this root, this stubbornness, this hesitation, this perverseness, this unyielding thing in my heart.
Because like the Virgin Mary of old, I want to be submissive. Behold, the bond slave of the Lord be it done unto me according to thy word.
But don’t you understand what that’s going to mean? Don’t you know that your neighbors are going to think that you’ve been a wicked woman? They’re going to think that you have committed fornication. You’ll have a child, and your reputation will be ruined as long as you live.
For about 30-some years after that, in the temple, they taunted Jesus. We are Abraham’s seed. We were not born of fornication. A reproach that you’ll bear, Mary, if you do the will of God.
This woman is innocent and pure. She’s doing the will of God. You’ll suffer because you will remember the prophecy, A sword also shall pierce your own heart, that the thoughts of many may be revealed. There will come the time that you weep when you watch this one born of you to be crucified.
It isn’t easy, but the will of God is never easy. Will you yield? Will you say, be it done unto me according to thy word?
What do you want from my life, Lord? How would you involve me? What will be the personal price that I must pay?
I can’t tell you and you can’t reason it out, all I can tell you is that if you really want to do the will of God, you’ll have to say behold the bond slave of the Lord be it done unto me according to thy word.
It’s just like signing a check and say Lord you fill it in whatever price is involved because you don’t know. You say an unconditional yes, and you don’t know what you’re saying yes to.
But you do say, Lord, whatever it is, I know that if I have a submissive heart, a yielding heart to you, you’ll strike at the root of perverseness and hesitation and disobedience in my life, that moment, because I’m yielded to you, you’ll give me the grace, you’ll give me the strength, you’ll give me the blessing to do what you want me to do. To be what you want me to be, to say what you want me to say, whatever the cost.
Something deep should be stirring our hearts. Do you feel deeply within your heart the great problem of stubbornness and disobedience and perverseness Do you want, above everything else, to be yielded in your heart to the Lord? Is this the prayer of your heart?
Behold the bond slave of the Lord, be it done unto me according to thy word. Deep in your heart, this must be your cry?
May the blood cleanse you from the stubbornness. May that holy blood cleanse you from the disobedience. May it cleanse you from the perverseness and anything in your heart that is unyielding or would not go the way of God.
Blot out our transgression, remove our sin far from us. O God, bring forth to us now that which we desire above all else, to be loosed from the hindering sin in our heart so that we can truly yield ourselves to Thee.