I Have to Go This Way
Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
Luke 9:23-24 (New King James Version)
Sometimes I wonder if anyone else feels like they had to constantly put down their feelings, or put down who they perceived themselves to be for the purpose of enduring a particular situation. Is there anyone else who has ever felt like they have to constantly put aside their feelings and beliefs for the sake of peace or righteousness? Is there anyone else who has to put aside everything for the sake of fulfilling the will of God in their life? This scripture in the book of Luke is one that many Christians quote and memorize. It makes a great Sunday school memory verse - come to think of it. But to truly live out the words within this scripture is far deeper than memorizing this scripture. The issues that surround this scripture may or may not be a popular subject in all of Christendom, but it is one that I find myself dealing with everyday: denying myself and taking up my cross daily to follow Jesus.
THE WAY
The “way” that I am referring to is the way of the cross—being crucified. What, is in me that needs to be crucified? I have asked myself this question many times and I have narrowed it down to these two things since everything I could think of fell into these two categories: my flesh and my will. My will is my choice to do what I want to do; for instance, vindicate myself, make a name for myself, take up for myself, and get things for myself. The only explanation that I can give concerning flesh is this: feeling led to express the sick heart. (Jeremiah 17:9)
In the Amplified Bible, Luke 9:23-24 reads:
23) And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also]. 24) For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death].
Ouch! This is really serious. There is not one part of this scripture or, any scripture in the Bible for that matter that should be disregarded. The amazing and difficult thing is that this is the truth no matter what we think or say. This is the way God is calling us to live. We all have to go this way, if we want to be His disciples. A disciple is one who adheres to, spreads, and embraces a teaching by any means necessary. The Amplified version of this scripture really lays out what the scripture means which of course adds to or explains its unpopularity. Nobody wants to really take up their cross because if you take up your cross it means that you will be crucified. Oh, it is not a “maybe”; it is a definite and absolute thing that you will be crucified. The thing that may easily beset us in taking up our cross is determining what needs to be crucified. Sister “That’s the way I was raised” and Brother “That’s just how I am” hear me: those things that we think are us and should not change needs to do much more than just change. They need to die. It needs to be crucified. Galatians 2:20 wont mean anything until we die, until we are crucified. We need to disregard and lose sight of ourselves in order to become a disciple. Everything you think you are and what you feel you are going to be has to be crucified. Taking up your cross means all of those things quoted in the Amplified version of the text in Luke. The part of the scripture that talks about losing your life for Jesus’ sake to save it from eternal death is serious. Many times we don’t realize that when we give up our will we are giving up our lives for the sake of Jesus so that the glory of the Lord will be made manifest in us. At times we hold on to things within our lives and we won’t give it up. Instead, we try to hold on to it with the thought of saving it or asking God if this one thing can stay in our so called submitted lives. But if we save that part of ourselves we will end up losing it and destroying ourselves.
All in all we are to be examples of Christ no matter what! We have to do all of what He did in order to be like Him. It’s not enough to heal the sick, cast out demons, and prophesy like He did. But we have to endure our cross, just as He did and die like He did. We must die to everything about us that is not like Jesus.
THE TRUTH
The truth of the matter is that if I don’t go this way then, I will not posses any power in God. I mean REAL power! I am talking about ALL power, GREATER WORKS power! Jesus received all power after he was crucified—key word: AFTER. After dying on a cross, He was vindicated by God the Father by way of resurrection. You don’t get the power of His resurrection without the fellowship of His suffering. (Philippians 3:10) He suffered the cross, disregarding its shame but looked at the joy that was coming after the cross. (Hebrews 12:2) In order to endure our cross, we need to have a submitted will that would allow us to go the way of the cross. Jesus, being crucified, submitted His will. No one took His life. He willingly gave it up. While being crucified, He did nothing to reverse the process. Neither did He command or bind the hand of Satan. His death process was NOT the work of Satan, but the will of the Father that had to be fulfilled. Our death process (being crucified) that we go through is not authored by Satan the devil but by God so that we may be purified, resurrected, and assume all power as Jesus did. It is impossible to do the greater works (John 14:12) Jesus promised without having been crucified with Christ. (Galatians 2:20) When we die, then He can live. (Galatians 2:20)
Many times we think that we can bypass this way and still be who God has called us to be. Impossible! It will never happen that way because the glory that resides in Heaven must be present in the Earth. Jesus knew this to be true because when the disciples asked Him how are we to pray He said, “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on Earth as it is in heaven.” (Matthew 6:9-10) Sorry folks, we wont manifest anything like the nature of Christ until we have completed our daily death process. When we die, then He can live; He can heal the sick, He can love those that hate Him, He can go through difficult circumstances, He can sit respectfully in the assembly of people who despise Him, He can forgive.
Another important thing to look closely at is that Jesus has set the example for us to follow and we need to follow it and not lose sight by looking at other things. One of the other things that I am referring to is the gifts that we have in the Body of Christ as believers. We have the gifts of the Holy Spirit which were made available to us in order to minister to the needs of the people of God and as an extension of witnesses of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Beloved, God gives us gifts with out taking them back, so it is easy to think that one who is amazingly talented or operates beautifully in charismatic activity has had the ultimate death process. Nope! Not so. They just have gifts that God has given and He is not going to take them back. Charismatic activity and other gifts do not take the place of the death process that we all have to endure. It is easy for us to believe that we have it all together in God because we can preach, sing, speak in tongues, and interpret tongues, prophesy, and lay hands -- but that is not it. Those are not the greater works either, because Jesus did some of those things before He died and rose again. Possessing these gifts does not ultimately mean that we have taken up our cross.
THE LIFE
The lifestyle that Jesus lived prepared Him to go to the way of the cross to be crucified. He was submitted from beginning to end to under go such a process. It is amazing to look into our lives and to see the different areas of our lives where this process is being carried out.
For me, it was funny how God would put me in situations where who I was didn’t matter. It (who I was and how important I thought I was) all had to die and be crucified. When I got to my fifth year in college, I had to do the most crucial thing ever. Deny the very thing that I felt I was entitled to: a college degree. I had been in school for about five years and in those last 2 to 3 years I felt a tugging on my heart but I didn’t know who or what it was. But it became clear finally in my fifth year. I was always told I was going to be great because I was smart and I did well in school but I heard God tell me “You’ll be great because of what I have done not what you have accomplished on your own.” I have to interject here with a side thought: people think that materialized success can only be achieved with God but they fail to realize that the wicked or the ungodly has wealth that they have attained. Materialized success and wealth can not be translated as the ultimate indication of God’s favor or whether or not God is with us! This was and still is a very hard process for me. It is a heavy and dreadful thing to go through. Give up school to do what? It was hard because I did not know what I was going to gain—good or bad—by giving up what seemed to be everything to me. I thank God for the opportunity. It has been two years and God has been faithful to me. He has provided for me. It’s been hard to cope with the ridicule many people try to dump on me for following the way that was set for me. For some, it seems like blasphemy that I would even go through such a thing but the truth of the matter is that this is me taking up my cross. This is my death process because I am determined to see that God gets the glory out of my life. Not the prestige of having this thing or that thing. Because all of those things mean nothing if God didn’t give it to you and believe me if He gives us anything, the glory ultimately goes back to Him. God gives things that reflect His glory and express His love toward us, not a reflection of pride that was like Lucifer’s. Ultimately, God getting the glory should be our life focus.
It is funny now that I look back on it because so many times I have attempted to undo this process. The more I try to go against it, the more God confirms it to be a real and valid process that He has made for me to go through. I say real and valid because I have seen brothers and sisters in the Body of Christ make take themselves through things that they did not have to go through. They send themselves through some very unnecessary things! Each time I thought I was doing that—taking myself through things unnecessarily—God would use a preached word or a situation that arose to show me that He had made me to go this way. Once I was so distraught that I began to figure out ways to get the resources I needed in order to get myself enrolled again and I went to church and the man of God said while preaching, “You had to drop out of school because God is taking you through a process.” And yes I did lose it and gave God a glorious shout and praise after hearing a thing like that. One thing I know for sure, God will lead, guide, and direct. You just have to be willing and obedient.
I have to go this way. My will, my thoughts, and everything that I think I am must be crucified. No matter what anyone says or thinks, God has a plan for my life and I am not going to live out that plan by doing what it is that I want to do. The death of so many things about me that I was comfortable with has been a painful, yet a joyous process. The Apostle Paul wrote to the saints in the church at Philippi this message: to die is gain. (Philippians 1:21) Although He was going back and forth about whether He should go to be with the Lord or stay here on Earth and continue to be a spiritual father, there is revelation in this truth. When it is that you die to yourself, you gain more of Christ being made manifest in your life. To die to yourself, your way, and your thoughts is gain.
I would love to hear what cross God has called you to carry, please share Shola@wheretoworship.com
