February 20, 2008

February 20, 2008

Today I begin my second twenty-one day fast of this New Year. Over the next three weeks I will be chronicling this journey on a daily basis here in my blog. My purpose in telling you of my fast is to give you a context for the writing that will appear here. At the beginning of the year over one hundred people joined me in a similar fast and we are seeing the results of that consecrated time of sacrifice. A group of about forty people have committed to fast the first seven days of each month with me beginning on the first Sunday of the month. Fasting is one of the most powerful ways to break negative life cycles and realign to God’s purpose for our lives.

I am fasting to increase my capacity for spiritual revelation. I am fasting to deny my flesh the carcinogens it craves from a diet of processed foods. I am fasting to clear my mind of the clutter that forms when the swift pace of everyday life leaves a trail of carnage in unfinished ideas and projects that taunt me to accept mediocrity. I am fasting to diminish the voices of secular humanism that scream for access to my belief system, so they may inject the godless rhetoric of a nation that is rapidly forgetting God. I am fasting to present my body a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, because this is my reasonable service. I am fasting because I cannot lead the people I pastor somewhere I am not willing to go.

The command of Jesus in Matthew 16:24 is pounding in my spirit, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” In these nineteen words there are four distinct areas that we must deal with to truly become the Disciples of Christ. Today I want to examine these four areas in my own heart, and as I do maybe you can find some similar places in your own life for spiritual growth.

Jesus left the power of choice completely up to you and I when He said, “If any man will come after me.” What are we pursuing with the twenty-four hour segments we are given each day? Each day I wake up with a driving urgency in my spirit to personally engage the spirit realm and be led of God to do His will on this earth. Matthew 7:7-8 gives us the daily key to access the Divine, and implement the protocols of God’s Kingdom upon the earth, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened.” The power of choice we have is one of the most awesome tools God has given us. We can choose the truth of spiritual satisfaction in the patter of Psalm 42:1, “As the hart pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul after you, O God.”

When we read the words of Jesus, “let him deny himself,” they are much easier to accept if we can point them at someone other than ourselves. But the reality regarding self-denial is found in the fact that only you can deny yourself! John the Baptist came preaching a two part message in John 3:30, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” Jesus himself proclaimed this message in Mark 10:44, “And whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all.” The word “deny” in this text comes from the Greek word, Aparneomai, which means: to forget one’s self, lose sight of one’s self and one’s own interests. How long has it been since we really lost sight of our own interests to see the desires of God!

We don’t hear much any more in modern Christianity about taking up an individual cross, and bearing it for the Lord Jesus Christ. Have we come so far from Golgotha, the place where Jesus was crucified, that we can no longer associate the suffering and bearing of the cross with the Christian lifestyle we embrace? Without the cross we have no connection to approach a Holy God who must punish the sinful. The cross is our symbol of access to the freedom Jesus died to give us. Bearing the cross of Christ is the act of physically correlating our daily lives in fellowship with the suffering of Christ. 1 Corinthians 1:18 reveals to us the advantage of the cross, “For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.” We must take up the cross God has given us to bear if we are to truly know Him in the power of His resurrection.

The final separation of service to God in Matthew 16:24 leaves no room for doubt, “…If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.” Ephesians 5:1-2 commands us, “Be therefore followers of God, as dear children; And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us, and has given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor. We have an obligation to do more than just hear what God desires of our lives. James 1:22 encourages us to escape deception by being, “…doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.” Make up your mind to follow Christ today with reckless abandon. What have you go to lose, your life? Jesus already covered that in Matthew 16:25, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
There is a powerful encounter with the Holy Spirit waiting for you when you, come after Jesus, deny yourself, take up your cross, and follow Christ. What are we waiting for?