The Yield
Nebuchadnezzar answered and said, “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and delivered his servants, who trusted in him, and set aside the king’s command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own God. Daniel 3:28
The story of these three men, obedient to Yahweh God, is an intense and extreme demonstration of yielding to the Father regardless of circumstance, but ultimately their faith and obedience turned even the heart of a king, and caused him to bless the One true living God. As a reminder, this event took place because of their refusal to worship a golden idol, a false god, an image created by the king. If you read further, it says that when the people heard the horns blow, all peoples, nations, and languages fell to worship the golden image… except Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men quite literally “yielded up their bodies rather than serve or worship any god except their own…” They yielded their minds, bodies, spirits, thoughts, ideas, and wills unto death and what they “yielded” resulted in abundant life.
There is a key reminder that I think is often overlooked. The yield. Even knowing it could result in physical death, they yielded. They did not yield to the king, nor a golden image, nor the world they were surrounded by. They yielded to the Fatherand His will. They lived because they yielded, they flourished because they yielded, they were given authority (in that day) because they yielded.
When we yield, as Paul taught in Romans, we present ourselves as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to the Father. Again, in Galatians Paul reminds us, it is not we who live, but Christ who lives in us. All that we do is for the glory of Yahweh God, every word, action, deed, thought, and choice. This is yielding. We yield our thoughts, and trade them for His. We yield our bodies to honor Him. When we do, we are not losing or lacking, but it produces and produces abundantly. As we yield there areactually gains and increase, exponential growth, for His glory. The fruit yielded in our lives is far more than anything we could have done on our own and it is authorized by heaven.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.John 15:5