God has chosen to work with people. Rev. 3:20 serves as a perfect illustration of this. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me". (ESV) God has a will, a purpose, a plan, a vision and it involves us. When God knocks we must choose to open the door. When God speaks we must choose to listen and once we've heard we must choose to respond in obedience. God had a plan for the first generation of "exodus Israelites" but His plan would only be fulfilled as IF they responded in faith, obeying Him and moving forward step by step, not looking at their own inabilities and inadequacies but looking to God to do for them what they could not do for themselves. They like us were exhorted to follow the Lord.For the New Covenant Believer following the Lord definitely looks different than it did for the nation of Israel. While theirs was, in general a physical journey, our is spiritual. Their enemies were physical ours are spiritual. Their swords were physically held in their hands, ours is God's Word spoken through our mouth. Though our journey differs in many way it has this vital similarity, we're required obey God's commands.
For the New Covenant Believer our journey of following Jesus requires that we become personally involved with the "work of the cross' in our own life. This is an area in modern Western Christianity that we're not too familiar with. The overemphasis of the prosperity doctrine has all but totally blinded us to reality of this vital truth. A truth, by the way, that MUST be understood and fully embraced if we are to see any kind of lasting spiritual revival.
Here's what said to His disciples and here's exactly what Jesus is saying to us today. Mar 8:34-36 And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 35 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. 36 For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? What does this "cross bearing" look like? How does this involve us today? Jesus' cross is where He was physically put to death. Our cross is where we choose to nail our old sin nature when we're being tempted to yield to desires. Notice what the Apostle Paul says in Col 3:5 So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual immorality, impurity, lust, and evil desires. Don't be greedy, for a greedy person is an idolater, worshiping the things of this world (NLT). This "putting to death" of desires that come from the old sinful nature is the work of the cross in our life. The cross is an extremely "suffering death". Some things that are generated out of the our old sin nature are not that easy to say "no" to. It can be a real spiritual battle to nail unforgiveness to the cross. It can be hard love the unlovely, to refrain from speaking evil about someone who has just slandered you. The list goes on and on. Make no mistake though, if we're talking genuine spiritual revival then we're talking about "taking up our personal cross and following Jesus along the pathway of the Father's will.
Let's for a minute, voluntary put our self on the scales. Where are we at in comparison to Gal. 2:20- My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me (NLT) and Gal 6:14 As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world's interest in me has also died (NLT). .
Personally I'm fully convinced that Jesus' call upon our lives to "daily take up our cross" is in agreement with our calling to suffer for Christ. Ph. 1:29 - For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake, (ESV) Peter identifies the inner suffering that occurs when we choose to resist the temptations to sin. There is a battle that rages when ever we choose to have the "old sin nature" die and the "new life" to reign in us. Notice here what Peter says in 1P. 4:1,2 - Since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves with the same way of thinking, for whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, 2 so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for human passions but for the will of God. The cross Believers are to take up on a daily basis is to be spiritually applied to the old sin nature. Of our own free will and in obedience to Gods Word we choose to crucify the old nature every time it seeks dominion over the ways of the Lord Jesus.
In concluding this section I want to draw our attention to Rom 6:11-14 - So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. What I feel is important to see from here is "perspective". When we are saying "no' to sinning we are also saying at the same time "yes" to the resurrection power of God. We're believing that sin has lost its hold on us and that we are victorious through the power of the Holy Spirit who has taken up residence in our heart. The enemy often tries to keep us focused on the "no" making appeals to old sin nature to start feeling sorry for ourselves as though we're so hard done by. It a trick all right, one that I'm afraid works all too well far too often. When we're saying "no" to temptation we're at the same time looking Jesus the Author and Perfecter of our faith.
When we are saying no to sinning we're at the same time calling upon the Lord for His power to be released in us. Heb 4:14-16 - Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. 16 Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
