Take My Yoke Upon You - And Find Rest For Your Soul

 This is the Good News of the Bible! Jesus is offering us the gift of an eternal spiritual life of joy. This can begin when we put our trust in Him. Jesus sends His Holy Spirit to live in our personal spirit to guide us, heal us and comfort us. The challenge is that the Holy Spirit cannot live on a sin polluted spiritual garbage heap. We need to understand the Spirit – Soul - Body relationship and how the Yoke of Christ guides through life:

1. Our Spirit: Conscience /Intuitive Connection to Jesus

The Genesis story of creation explains how God created man out of clay – then breathed the life of the Holy Spirit into the man. Our personal spirit gives this life to our body:

·     Our spirit is our conscience or intuitive connection to the supernatural spiritual dimension

·     Intuition is when we just know something– but not how or why we know

·     Examples are experiences of prayer, singing praise, love, joy or peace 

2. Our Soul is like the meat in a sandwich

Our soul is our mind, will and emotions. This is the decision centre in the struggle between the desires and needs of our body for “more” – and the needs and desires of our spirit for a deeper spiritual life in Christ:

·     Soul gets spiritual desires from our spirit

·     Soul gets desires from our body – am I hungry, thirsty, cold, sexually frustrated etc.

·     Gets demands from our mind – emotions, fears, desires, hopes etc.

·     Will decideswhich demands to pay attention to. 

·     God gives us free willto choose

·     Soul is the battlegroundbetween the desires of our personal spirit and the desires of our body

·     One or the other has to be in control

3. Our Body: connection to the physical world and the “Desires of the Flesh”

·     Legitimate needs of food, water, human relationship and physical comfort

·     Desires for more food, more drink, more power andcontrol, more sex

4. The Yoke of Christ is the Guidance of Holy Spirit

In baptism Christians voluntarily enter a covenant relationship of love and obedience to Jesus and His teachings:

·     We die emotionally to “my way” and the sinful desires of our human nature 

·     Sin polluted soul cannot be in the presence of a God who is holy

·     We promise to love and obey Christ as our “Lord” 

·     We promise to return to Him for forgiveness when we fall into sin 

·     We can invite the Holy Spirit to come into us and guide us, heal us and comfort us