For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

Matthew 11:30

When it comes to prayer, the burden of the Lord, intercession, and prayer houses, to our souls, it can seem like anything but an easy yoke.  Getting tired, frustrated, discouraged, and even occasionally burn out can attempt to rob us of the simple joy of following Jesus.

But, the simple truth of the Gospel remains the same.  As we allow Him in and “dig deep” (Luke 6:48) into our hearts, and uncover what is the hindrance, what is the blockage, or what is the distraction from the Truth of who He is, the light of His love and presence continue increase and abound.

What are the things that hinder love?  Are they not the fears, the worldly concerns (thorns of the parables of the four soils), and the various trials and tribulations of life?  Yet, did not Jesus say, in Matthew 6:33, that if we seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, that all these would be added to us?

Surely, if we are living for this life, looking to see what we can get out of this world, other than simply to know Him and to make Him known, we will be on a “rocky road”.  Small is the door and narrow is the way that leads to life, and there are few who find it.  But, to those who do, to those who enter in, and allow the wine of His anointing to expand, bubble, and ferment within us, stretching us and working through us, we become fit vessels for honor.  While at first, the anointing in us was a new wine, with little depth of flavor and character, as we allow the continuing work of the Holy Spirit within us, it grows and increases in complexity and bouquet until people prefer what God has put into us over others.  Yet, never unto ourselves, but only ever to Him!

Whenever we choose to perform, to push down the inconsistencies and our own weaknesses, rather than letting them come to the light of the knowledge of who Christ is, and let His life live through us, we will always find an increasing weight in ministry.  As spiritual and natural promotion comes, the pressure never decreases with the increase in prophetic insight, demands and criticism from others, and the weight of the load God puts on us.

But, at the end of the day, when we can lay every yoke and burden at His feet, judge only with His judgement, we can realize that we are only obliged to follow.  We do not need to prophesy over everyone unless God is, we do not need to break every principality until God says we are ready, we do not need to even be “successful” as we think it, we need only to be faithful to the charge He has given.

And, in that, in simple obedience, doing the works God has prepared for us, longing for more righteousness, we will find that His yoke is the lightest and the easiest.

Whenever we find ourselves departing from the simple laws of God, we know there is a problem.  This is the point of the Sermon on the Mount.  But, as we do find that rock of His Spirit, and live life for Him because of His worth, we find what is a crushing weight for others, the life of absolute sacrifice and surrender for others, to be the life of least resistance, only because of love.  Not our love, nor a love that even expects anything in return, but as the Song writer wrote, we despise even the recognition that we have done anything noble.

This is the way of the cross, and this is the way of love.  His love.  Not as the world knows love (1 John 4:7-8), but as He has loved us.

Many waters cannot quench love; rivers cannot wash it away.
If one were to give all the wealth of his house for love, it would be utterly scorned.

Song of Songs 8:7