Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did. 1 John 2:6 (NIV)
Then he said to them all: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self?” Luke 9:23-25 (NIV)
Jesus used a simple command to His first disciples and continues on to each believer today: “Follow Me.” “Follow Me and let Me show you how to take hold of the life that is truly life.” “Don’t get bogged down with all the prevailing nonsense of the day – and each day has plenty.” Why do we want to waste our energies on things that will never make it through the fire that will test the quality of each man’s work? And why would we want to waste the one life we are given and held accountable for? Trust me, what we do in the here and now matters greatly - presently and eternally.
It seems odd, does it not, that we can treat life so cavalierly. Ask most anyone with a terminal condition if each minute is not extraordinarily valuable. Why do we so often fritter away our most important resource with frivolity? The Spirit within each believer in Christ Jesus beckons us “Follow”. The Holy Spirit is engaged to preserve the soul’s walking according to the dictates laid down in Scripture. The indwelling Holy Spirit strengthens, encourages, directs, convicts, intercedes, gives insight, equips the saints and a myriad of other things. If we were to go into a prison on death row and ask them how they came to such a miserable condition, would we not seek to avoid the outcome they are now suffering? Seems logical to me. Choose life. Who wants to be bound, facing death with no freedom? Remember, Christ came to set us free. We are not to be in bondage to anything or anyone excepting Christ Jesus – He is to be our Master, not ourselves. We take His yoke upon us and learn from Him - exclusively. And He has not left us as orphans. He has sent us the Holy Spirit to direct our paths and lead us home.
Fruitful and useful in kingdom work is to be found in a life modeled after that of Jesus in obedience to His Word. The disciples learned to minister to real people with real problems. They also learned to love without prejudice, to preach the Gospel clearly no matter the conditions, to perform miracles, and to obey unto death. They had faith in the One who was with them as should we. So how does that flesh out? Sometimes this just looks like doing the next right thing, for His glory, for our good. The extraordinary discovered in the ordinary.
However, as it is written: “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”-but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 (NIV)