Sometimes I am wanting to find the application of this word into my life, but I’ve got no aptitude for it. To that I would say, “God give me a mind for what you think, so I could be effective as your disciple.” I came across this scripture the other day taken from Isaiah 50 which says; “The Lord has given Me the tongue of disciples, that I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word. He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.” Often, we look for ways to apply this word in our lives only to find the simple truth is not merely conveyed with great oration or vivid illustration. The truth however is best understood by what Jesus said in Luke 14, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me.” While men often go here and there to find great preaching looking for that one great illustration, nothing connects me to Jesus like the cross. Jesus is affirming the cross as a means of application but more importantly as a means of identity. When by taking up our cross we deny ourselves, we are saying no our thinking and to our own reasoning and even our own cause. When we do that, we are identifying with the thinking that had Him at the cross for us in the first place. Taking up my cross aligns my life with the cause and thinking of Christ. Presently, most Christians know more about God than they are able to apply for lack of the cross. All of us have a cross to be sure, but is yours currently out for repairs? Paul said in Galatians 2:20; “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.” Paul saw himself as crucified with Christ because He’d taken up His cross. There was with Paul a death to this world and its thinking, but also the applied ability to actually live as Christ would because he had nothing else to live for. Full faith in Jesus had taken over his mind to actually comprehend the height and depth of Christ’s love for him. That is ultimately what Jesus is saying in Luke 14, namely this: that as long as you have something else your living for, you won’t carry your cross. Jesus is saying, ‘nothing can come ahead of me, so get square with me and I will order your thoughts aright and connect your head with your heart and you will live and speak as my disciple.’
Tag: relationship
The Work of God in Prayer
Recently in prayer, I began to understand the source of my frustration with others. In my discovery, I realized how I had waited on men and not waited on God. I had waited on men to be my help; I had waited for men to have the answer. I was waiting on men for my next move. It was hindering my progress slowing me down and making me angry. I saw my failure to wait on God was causing me to miss His move and with it, His great provision. Bottom line, it was the fear of man and not the fear of God. I began seeing where the fear of man ensnared me and left me without a Godly mandate to move forward. That fear of men kept me from confronting my problems and issues with others. It left me without a voice that could speak as God to inspire true leadership that moves to victory. I did a lot of preaching at the problem, but was distant from confronting it head on with real solutions born out of relationship. The people were not my problem, but failure to wait on God was. Could it be God is calling you to a ‘relationship of waiting on Him’? In your frustations, your failure to wait is a failure to get a word from Him to speak directly with divine wisdom into the lives of others. You like me need to see the work of God in prayer. It is a work that reveals willingness to wait on God bringing rest from other men’s agendas. In prayer, the Spirit of God will cause you to find a ‘fresh wind’ to fill your sails and propel you forward to victory.
The Kingdom of God
What is the Kingdom of God like? How could you Illustrate It? These questions Jesus asks and then answers by saying, ‘It is like a tiny mustard seed’, planted in a garden. Planted within earthen vessels, the Kingdom is within you. God has given to each a measured task in this Kingdom. And He has not called me to compare my work to the work of others, He simply seeks for me to follow my unique talents in bringing an increase to this living structure. Right now, in the crucible of your circumstances, God is developing faithfulness to make sons of His kingdom in order that in these days ahead, we might be that city set on a hill–a bright light and living demonstration of relationship marked by His love. Recently, it was impressed upon me and now I say to you, God is not finished with your mistakes and is working to prepare you for the work of His kingdom..hear His voice and follow His call.
GraceLife 