I've been reading a book called "Experiencing the Cross" by Henry Blackaby and as I finished the book this morning, there were some passages that REALLY struck me about what it means to be a disciple for Christ, and I feel like I need to share them. I'm pulling paragraphs from different chapters at the end of the book, so it may not read in one continuous flow, but you'll get the message. And it's going to be kind of long, so bear with me, and please read it through to the end. I’m sure it will be a blessing to you as it has been to me.
Here it is:
Jesus said, "I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me." (John 6:38). That's the same reason he has come down from Heaven to dwell in your life. Doing the father's will was and is a constant for Him. He knows the will of God for your life, and knows it thoroughly. And as you surrender the days and hours of your life to him, he's living it out.
When we talk about the cross in the Christian’s life, we’re talking about releasing your life in such a way that Christ can express himself in you and through you.
Though he was God, Christ didn’t cling to his rights, but gave them over to the Father. So when Paul tells us to have this same mind that Christ had, he’s telling us to let God have His way to accomplish His purpose in our life, even to death on a cross – no matter what it costs.
The cross for Jesus was that ultimate purpose of God to bring salvation to our world; the cross in your life will be a choice to turn over everything in your life to God, to let God’s ultimate purpose come to pass in your life, whatever this requires from you. For every believer, the cross is the sign and symbol for obediently carrying out the will of God.
Christ, knowing the will of the Father, released his life to the Father’s will. He allowed his Father to work in every corner of His life, knowing that the result would be a great salvation for all humanity. In the same way, we can trust God to show His greatness through our obedience as well. If you walk in right relationship to God, He will bring to completion His amazing will for your life, and nothing in your circumstances can ultimately thwart that.
Every directive God gives for your life or mine is another expression of His perfect love for the entire world. But it goes even beyond that, stretching the limits of our finite minds: He leads us in His will with perfect knowledge of every factor and circumstance in the past, present, and future, and on into all of eternity. And every directive God gives is always accompanied by His presence and power to enable us to accomplish and carry out His will.
God never accepts our excuses when we try to justify why we aren’t doing what He tells us. Obedience is obedience, and anything less than obedience is disobedience. Some will say, “But Lord, I’ve tried.” And God answers, “I didn’t tell you to try. I told you to do it.” You cannot have your will and His will at the same time.
Every disciple of Christ needs to be made aware that in following Christ, there are certain things that come first before other things. We so often want to skip the cross and go straight to Pentecost – to avoid the suffering and go straight to spiritual power and testimony and impact. But the cross must come first. Denying of self comes first. Before you can experience more of the wonders that come following Him, you must deny self and take up your cross.
The critical factor of narrowness that Jesus taught his disciples about… He said, ”Strive to enter through the narrow gates.” (Luke 13:24). If you think deeply about those words, you may hear Jesus saying, “There’s a way that leads to true, vibrant life – in your marriage, in your family, in your church, in your workplace. But it’s not the path the majority takes, and the entrance to it is very restricted. It’s not the way most believers are walking, and that’s why there’s so little victory, so little experience of the power of the cross and the power of resurrection.”
Many believers somehow have the idea that any time they ask God to open the door [to the narrow gate], He’ll say at once, “I’m so glad you asked; come on in!” But that isn’t true. There are those who will want to get in where Christ is, where the power of the cross is, where the power of the resurrection is, and he will answer “Depart from me. I have never known you.” It’s not a matter of whether you say you know Him. Don’t you suppose there were many in Jesus’ day who eagerly heard him teach, who gladly saw his miracles, and who would easily testify that they knew him? They would say, ”Oh yes, I know Jesus.” But would he necessarily say that He knew them? No, not necessarily. To be around him and to observe him is not the same as having an intimate relationship with him, of truly knowing one another. The key to your life is not whether you can say you know him, but whether he can say to you, “I know you.”
So it doesn’t matter if a person can say he knows Jesus. After all, the demons know Him, do they not? They knew him even before he came to earth. And seeing him come to earth, they know he lived a sinless life, that he died for the sins of the world, that God raised him up the third day in victory over sin, that he now sits at the right hand of the Father interceding for us, and that he’s coming back again. The demons know all that. So what’s the difference between them and a Christian?
The Christian is one who chooses to release his life unconditionally to Jesus’ right to be Lord. The Christian no longer lives to self, but unto Him who died for us and was raised again. The true Christian does what Jesus [did]. The true Christian denies self – that is, cancels self, knowing that self is the source of all of our disconnection with God – and takes up his cross, and follows Him.
The cross is never the end. It’s only partway through. The cross is necessary, but the cross is always accompanied by the resurrection; and the victory that comes from the resurrection then explodes upon a watching and waiting world.
The whole purpose of the cross was that [everyone] everywhere would have the opportunity to hear the good news of what God has provided, and we are the bearers of that gospel. He’s depending on you and me. The Father waits and all heaven stands silent to see how those who have been redeemed will respond to the request from their Redeemer to take His message to the world.
Everyone within your circle of influence, in ever-increasing ways, will feel the impact of what it means for the Lord Jesus Christ to rule in your heart.
Isn’t it amazing that when you’re an ambassador for Christ, it’s God Himself who’s pleading through you? Our life becomes the resident presence of God pleading with those around us to be reconciled to God through the death of Jesus Christ, who is God’s provision for that reconciliation.
It would be impossible to keep quiet any person who truly understood that. From within their innermost being, God orchestrates a deep, passionate concern to let the gospel of God go forth and to let His kingdom be expanded. This comes bubbling forth like water from an artesian well.
So our responsibility is to be an ambassador for Christ. This simply means allowing the amazement, gratitude, and boundless joy of our redemption to light up our faces and fill our mouth with the overflow of His goodness in our lives. We will be constantly urging and helping others to understand what God has done – our words bearing the same love and intensity as if God Himself were stating them.
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