(Ninth part)
Memory verse (Is 58: 6) “ Is this not the fast that I have chosen: To loose the bonds of wickedness, To undo the heavy burdens, To let the oppressed go free, And that you break every yoke? ”
A yoke is a pair of wood that is tied around the necks of two bulls. Farmers use them for cultivating their farms. Tied to the yoke is the digging implement. The stronger bull is yoked together with a little young one. When the young one feels tired and does not want to move any longer, the stronger one pulls it. When the weaker one wants to take another direction, the stronger pulls it in its direction. But as the bull grows fatter and fatter, a time comes when the yoke gets broken because of the fatness (Is 10: 27).
There are spiritual yokes in believer’s lives. Some believers are yoked to non-believers or wrong people (2Cor 6: 14). Some believers are possessed in their minds. They want to be free but something is holding them back. They want to live for God but something can’t allow them. They want to leave smoking, drinking, fornication, masturbation but they are yoked or bound. They want to move forward, they want to be what the Lord wants them to be but something can’t let them go. There is yoke around their mind that has tied them to the old sinful habits. God taught that true fasting should focus on crying to God about the yoke. Effective fasting done according to GOD’S word, empowered by the Holy Spirit will destroy the yokes. As you pray more in tongues, read God’s word more, your spirit will become fatter and fatter by the anointing and finally yokes will begin to be broken and you will free.
What are those yokes in your life? Are they yokes of diabetes, yokes of barrenness, yokes of poverty, yokes of fornication, yokes of witchcraft, yokes of mental infirmity, yokes of any other demonic bondage? As you give yourself to the Lord in prayer in tongues and fasting to put to death the works of the flesh by the Holy Spirit, the yokes are going to be destroyed by God’s anointing (Is 10: 27). God is telling us that many times we ignore real issues in our lives and we get sidetracked to focus on secondary issues in prayer. God wants to deal with your yokes but he needs your cooperation. God wants you to be honest and not try to cover up and pretend as though it’s all well yet you’re struggling. So many people God doesn’t set them free just because they aren’t honest with issues in their lives. Open up and God will come in and set you free.
Tomorrow subject: “ Overcoming selfishness”
