Unequally Yoked

Welcome to Self Talk. I'm your host, Dr. Ray Self. In this show I want to talk about what it means to be unequally yoked. Unequally yoked. What are the ramifications of that? What do you do if you're, you're stuck in that? What's going to answer to that? And what does Jesus mean when he said come unto me if your heavy laden and, and you’re burdened? Take Jesus's yoke upon you - how do you take Jesus's yoke upon you? You know, what is that all about? Why is Jesus and the Lord keep talking about yokes? Let me tell you something this is a very important principle of God that you need to hear. Thank you for listening to today's show.

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Hello welcome to Self Talk, I’m your host Dr. Ray Self. This scripture you've heard many times I want to talk about it maybe in a different, different light. 2 Corinthians 6:14 this is King James version says “be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? What communion hath light with darkness?” and we’ve heard this quoted: “do not be unequally yoked.” You know that's a principle that God wants us to understand because it can affect your life. When God give us commandments in the Word of God it's not to hurt us, it's to help us. It’s actually a commandment of love it's something for our benefit. Do not be unequally yoked. Then, of course, we go into another scripture which is very very famous and very, equally important and that’s gonna be from Matthew, uh, Matthew 11 and let's look at that real quick. It’s in your show notes but it's very very critical for us.

So we go down to Matthew 11. Jesus said, 28,  “Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy burden and I will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest for your souls my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” There's that word yoke and he uses it multiple times so when God uses an imagery multiple times, he’s trying to get across a particular message. 

Now, the Bible was written at a time when oxen were used to plow the fields. And typically a plow team was two oxen which to me look like very very strong bulls. Very powerful. But these two oxen were yoked together. There was a piece of wood that will go across the top of their necks and then there was a little loop underneath it where they would stick their heads through. This was called a yoke and it would connect the two auction together so when they pulled, they'd be pulling together. When they turned, they would turn together. When they stopped, they would stop together. Why? Because they were yoked and they were two very strong oxen equally yoked and able to do a very difficult job. It’s very interesting, some years ago I saw this in the Philippines. I was traveling through something very remote areas in the Philippines and I saw, uh, water buffalo being used to plow and there were two water buffalo yoked together. Again, they had this single piece of wood that went across the back of both their necks and their head goes through a loop and its connects them together. 

So Jesus says something to me that is extremely encouraging when he says “my yoke is easy and my burden is light, take my yoke upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart. You shall find rest for your souls.” So now the oxen yoked together, each of them were equally powerful and they pulled together and they had an equal workload. Hope you see where I'm going here. 

Now when I am yoked with Jesus, he's much much much much more powerful than I could ever imagine and I'm connected with him but he's literally taking the burden for me. He, when I'm yoked with Jesus and I'm pulling the load with Jesus so to speak, or plowing a field yoked to Jesus, I want to tell you something, the heavy part of the work is gonna rest upon Jesus because he's so much stronger and more powerful. So, and to me that's just God's mercy. I can't, I can't keep up with Jesus. I'm not nearly strong enough, you know, to stay up with Jesus but he tells me that if I will come to him and verse 28, Matthew 11 “when I labor and I'm heavy burded”, other words when I am having a hard time and I'm really burdened down and I'm stressed and I'm carrying a heavy weight, “come to me and I will give you rest.” 

How do I get that rest? Because I take - Jesus said “take my yoke upon you. Take my yoke.” So, in other words I must in the spirit know and imagine by faith that Jesus and I are yoked together. And the load that I have to carry, the weight that I have to carry, the responsibilities that I have to carry, my Lord and My Savior Jesus Christ, yoked with me, is carrying the load with me. And he is so strong, so powerful and so capable that he makes it easy. He says again in verse 30 “my yoke is easy my burden is light”. So when I am yoked with Jesus, taking the load, plowing the field so to speak; those ploughs were very heavy, uh, they had to do a lot of work breaking up the ground. When I am yoked with Jesus, it’s going to be easy and it's going to be light. 

Now, there's a condition to this in verse 28 he said “come unto me”, especially if you're laboring and your burden is heavy, “take my yoke upon you”. So two things God wants us to do: one is come to Jesus. And it may go like this, it may be a prayer a, uh prayer of surrender. Trust “Lord I come to you now. Jesus I come to you. Lord help me. I cast my burden upon you. Lord I desire and I believe that I am yoked with you, Father I come to you. Lord, I take my yoke, as you said Jesus I take the yoke of Jesus upon me. Father by faith - see everything with the Lord happens by faith - I take the Yoke of Jesus upon me. I thank you Father and Lord I know because I'm yoked with you, I have come to you and I've chosen to take that yoke that now my burden is light.” My burden is light.The yoke is easy, the burden is light.

You see the principal here is when I am - make the move to Jesus. I choose to be connected to him. I choose to work with him not apart from him. I choose to to partner with Jesus in everything that I do. That's what I - I'm yoked with him. He's my partner, he, he's my, he's my mate. You know he's there he's with me so everything I do, I don't do it alone. Remember the Bible says I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I do everything for his glory working with Jesus not apart from Jesus. I want to work with Jesus, go to Jesus. It's not going to be difficult because there's a promise. My yoke is easy and my burden is light. 

Some years ago I was called to pastor church out up a little small town in Tennessee. It was an hour and a half drive to this church and I had a wife and a couple of kids. I'm driving a little stick shift with no air conditioning. And this was some years ago early in my ministerial career; and I remember that drive and people say how could you drive an hour and a half to get to church in a  non air condition car? With your family? You know what? It was just something that I chose to do but it wasn't hard for me. It was something God called me to do. I was working with Jesus, not apart from Jesus doing his work as a minister he called me to and I'll never forget this, I mean every Sunday I looked forward to the trip. And when, whenever I had to go up to this other town to do my pastoral duties, Jesus’s yoke was easy and his burden light. It didn't make sense but it was like-

Some of you are listening right now and you’re carrying a load. You’re carrying a lot of weight. And it, it’s slowing you down. It's like you're walking through quicksand, you can hardly move and I think I just see that in the spirit it’s like you're, you're almost stuck and you're getting so tired of all the stress and all the worrying and all the, the pain and the burden. Jesus is saying my child come to me now. Come to me choose it, choose me. Come to me; and say these words: “Lord, I come to you. I take your yoke upon me, and Lord you gave me a promise that when I come to you and I take your yoke and I choose to be connected to you and bound to you, I thank you Father that now this yoke is easy and this burden is light.” You see, it’s a choice and it makes life much easier, much better, much better. 

So now, we see the scripture in Corinthians, the warning the warning that we had in Corinthians which was very serious about what, uh, do not be, do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers; 2 Corinthians 6:14. Why is that? Well if you look at the context, Jesus was talking- the, the yolk was a connection that allowed two people to share a burden. But if you're unequally yoked, you're going to get the larger share of the burden, do you understand? And if a believer who can walk in faith, who can walk in the anointing, who can walk in the power of God, who can walk in the peace of God, yoked to an unbeliever who has none of these things, the believer is going to be carrying a terrific burden. His burden’s not going to be easy his yoke is not going to be light because he's out of the will of God, he's unequally yoked.

Now I'm not saying there's no hope of your unequally yoked but Jesus is warning us when you are unequally yoked you'll have an unequal share of the burden. An unequal share of the burden and therefore, the yoke that you're carrying is going to be heavy and the burden is going to be heavy. Okay? You're going to be pulling more than your weight. You're also, in the spirit realm which can be very exhausting, pulling the weight of the unbeliever any unbeliever can be like an anchor in your walk and an anchor in your life. I mean I’m not talking about not a good anchor but an anchor the slowing you down. 

Now, some of you listening to me are going uh, oh, you know, I know I've heard the scripture and I know that I’m unequally yoked. Well, God has mercy and God has Grace and God knows that we make mistakes. What do you do in the Bible when you make a mistake? If we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If you believe you made a mistake and you can became unequally yoked with an unbeliever, Just say Lord please forgive me. However, hear me closely. If you have married the unbeliever and you're in a covenant with them, you're in a new territory now ‘cause God expects us to honor our covenant, especially our marriage covenant. So if you're in a covenant with an unbeliever, to begin with it was probably not the best move but once you've made the move now the covenant becomes the will of God. 

You see, it’s, I don't like it when I hear people say well this was never God's will for us to get married, but what I like to say is once you got married it became God’s will because you're in a covenant. So once you married the unbeliever it became God’s will because you're in a covenant with this person and God expects you to honor the covenant. Now it is going to be more challenging than being married to a believer that you're equally yoked with, it's going to be possibly more difficult but God's grace is sufficient. God’s a-, God’s anointing is sufficient. Maybe you made a mistake but you know what, it's not a mistake this is what I believe very clearly. I don't want to go back and say your marriage was a mistake. The moment you made that marriage covenant, I want, I've done a lot of marriages. I’ve facilitated a lot of marriages it became God's will. It became God’s- when you entered into a covenant and that marriage became a covenant of God, God establish the marriage covenant, okay? 

Now even with that you get into a marriage covenant and then all of a sudden the marriage becomes abusive or harmful, I'll tell you right now that's not God's will. Whether it’s abuse, emotional abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, it’s never, ever God's will and God doesn't expect you to stay in that mess, okay? Now I’m not saying divorce but you can always set boundaries and remove yourself from harm. God does not love the institution of marriage more than he loves his people, okay? So if you, it all, if at all possible in relationships, stay equally yoked. Find people on the same spiritual ground that you're on and walk with them. It’s going to be a whole lot easier. They can carry their load, you can carry your load. 

Okay, now if you are just burdened and, weighted down. Take the yoke of Jesus upon you. Get connected to Jesus. Put his yoke upon you and your burden will be lighter. So again the principle I’m trying to get across to you: when you're yoked with an unbeliever, you're going to end up carrying a lot more of the burden. When you’re yoked with Jesus, he's going to carry a lot more of the burden. You get what I'm trying to tell you here? And please hear me I'm not condemning a marriage. Maybe you're in a marriage and you were a believer in your spouse was not. I'm not condemning that; now God warned us about that however one more time, once that covenant is made things change. ‘cause now you have a covenant commitment to this person and God expects us to honor our covenant, okay? And God has grace for us. When we do that he has grace for us when we honor the covenant of God. Now again if it's abusive, separate yourself. Don't allow yourself to be abused. God does not want any one of his sons or daughters to ever be abused that is not the will of God.

I hope this is making sense to you, to, to you today. What I'm talkin about is just the principle of the yolk. Not to be unequally yoked but be yoked with Jesus. And on a positive note, you may be blessed where you marry and you’re in a relationship with a person that is a Christian just like you. A Spirit-filled Christian just like you. And it is a wonderful thing to be yoked together with two Holy Spirit-filled Christians. They can pull together, they can carry the burden together, they can support each other, they can help each other, they can pray for one another and even better than being yoked with another equally spiritual or another Christian your spiritual level is to be yoked with Jesus, where he carries so much more than you ever have to carry. His burden is easy and his is light. Again, Jesus multiple times, Paul and the apostles of Jesus, and the Lord who wrote the Bible, multiple times talk to us about the principle of the yoke that is a bond between two people, allowing them to share a burden. You don't want to have to share more than your share so that's why you don't want to be unequally yoked. But again when you’re yoked with Jesus he will carry the burden and your part is easy and your part is light. Isn’t that wonderful? Come to Jesus.

Lord we come to you right now. I pray for each person father here that feels they've been unequally yoked. Father there’s those are just stressed and burdened and freaking out over all the weight they’re carrying so Father help them right now to come to you. Renew that yoke, that tie with you Father. They come to you Father. We come to you Father, we come to you Father. We take your yoke upon us Father. Father your word says that your yoke is easy and your burden is light and I pray that over each person listening to me that needs an easy yoke and a light burden. I thank you Father for these people. And Father those who are in a  marriage that maybe started out unequally yoked but now a covenant has been established, a covenant of God, that marriage covenant. I thank you Father for your grace, I thank you for your mercy, I thank you for your anointing. And Father if there is one spouse that needs to be saved and filled with the Spirit, to become equally yoked Father, you can convict them. Holy Spirit fall upon them. Right now, convict them to salvation, Father. Now Lord I just lift up every person listening to me. I pray your anointing, your favor and your blessings on them. In Jesus name. Amen and amen. 

This is Doctor Ray Self. I just want to thank you so much for listening to my podcast. Uh, check out my website. You can go to icmcollege.org/selftalk. icmcollege.org, that’s my college website, but then do /selftalk, and you’re at my podcast website where you can subscribe, share, write me, email me, all kinds of cool stuff. I appreciate you. God bless you. 

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Thank you for listening to Self Talk I’m your host, Dr. Ray Self. The principle of being yoked to Jesus and not unequally yoked is critical for all of us. Again thank you for being part of the show today. Please go to my website icmcollege.org/selftalk. This is where you can subscribe, you can put yourself on our email list, you can write a review which would help us a lot to reach more people. Be sure and download and share this with as many people as possible. Again, I also a very special offer for you we have a feature course called Foundations of Spiritual Warfare. This is a critical course for any believer. What is spiritual warfare? What are principalities and powers of how do you combat them? It's a very systematic 6 Lesson course. Each lesson is an hour. This is a college course taken from the International College of Ministry catalog and we will send you this course. We’ll send you a link; you can download the entire course, Foundations of Spiritual Warfare by making simply a $35 donation to our scholarship fund. This fund helps us help those with financial hardship who cannot afford a college education and we're able to give them scholarships. You’d be surprised how many pastors and leaders are unable to afford, afford a seminary education. So this will help me a lot. So download, uh, go to the link, download the course. Actually, just make the donation of $35 and we will send you the download to the course, that’s how it works. This is Dr. Ray Self, thank you so much for being part of my show, Self Talk with Dr. Ray Self, real answers to tough issues.