I’m not surprised if you flinched or hesitated before deciding to go ahead and read this post.
Why? Because nobody wants to die!
The world views death with a finality that suggests it is the end, a thing to fear and avoid at all costs but the worlds perspective on everything is skewed and opposed to truth!
For Jesus, surrendering to the Father’s will for Him to die in the garden of Gethsemane (which was the culmination of an ongoing daily surrender), was the gateway to Him being glorified.
We want the glory, the unfolding of God’s great plans for our lives but we don’t want to die; to our own ways, desires or fleshly tendencies, which move us out of the will of God. Our inclination is to hold on tightly to life and everything we erroneously think is ours.
When we cry out, ‘Jesus I want more of you’, in the throes of intimate worship, He responds with the word, “DIE”.
Father must wonder at our misunderstanding of what it truly means to follow Him.
When certain Greeks came to Philip saying they wished to see Jesus, the response they got from the Son of God was a far cry from their expectation.
Jesus responded, referring to His imminent death with the words,
“The hour has come that the son of Man should be glorified. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life – John 12: 23 – 25.
The way to life is death!
I’m not referring to the cessation of our lives in a physical sense, but the surrender of ourselves to the purposes of God.
In case you think I’m insinuating this to be a walk in the park, a look in at the scene in the garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus’ sweat turned to blood in the agony of ferocious prayer beyond imagination, paints a realistic picture. He battled against His own will and submitted to the will of His Father.
We are not called to die for mankind in exactly the same way as Jesus, but we are called to die to the world, selfish living, our fleshly desires and our will, in favour of God’s will.
We are also called to share in the fellowship of His suffering, a part of discipleship rarely highlighted in today’s Church.
Without the cross, the symbol of death, and us living our lives dead to the world but alive to Christ, there is no glory.
The Israelites were victorious in their exit from Egypt because they embraced the death of the red sea. Behind, their enemies were in pursuit of them and moving forward, the red sea confronted them. The only way out was forward.
In the natural their actions spelt death but spiritually speaking, they entered new life.
The decision to die to self, has led countless numbers of people into destinies beyond the scope of their expectation and natural capabilities.
Think of Heidi Baker, who serves the poor in thirty-four nations or the story of Jim Caviezel in ‘Sound of freedom’ (go watch it if you haven’t already done so!), who risked his life to rescue sex trafficked children.
Joni Eareckson Tada, another example, became a quadriplegic after diving into shallow waters at the age of seventeen. Dying to self-pity, depression and the pain of her predicament, she chose to surrender to the Father.
She’s an author, radio host, artist and runs a worldwide organisation reaching out to needs and transforming hearts in the disability community.
No doubt, we will wrestle with the call to surrender all to Him, as the flesh always wants its own way, but as Jesus cried out to Father in Gethsemane and was strengthened, we will find strength when we cry out to Him to supply the grace needed for us to submit our wills to His.
Will you say YES?
overjoy1 