Written By Major W. Ian Thomas
Jesus displayed the “Light of Life” from Heaven while walking as a man in a weak mortal body. His whole life was a miracle. Because He always walked in the power of the Holy Spirit, He could honestly say, “I do nothing of Myself.”
Similarly, when we have stopped living by our own sufficiency and have learned to live wholly by faith in the power of God, the Lord will also enable us to display the same “Light of Life.” (John 8:12) But, as we shall see, this is not an easy lesson for Christ’s disciples to learn.
(The church of our day has also had a difficult time with this revelation and has missed it's required mark. How? By calling it seed time and harvest time, sow in your seed faith i.e. financial resources,tithes and offerings, or under the prosperity of blessings found in God's promises both for Israel and Christ Jesus and a host of plans of men and programs for increase of church membership or stewardship, to mention only a few of the misdirections by means of deception.)
Dying to Self-Sufficiency
For they had not understood about the loaves; their hearts were hardened.(Mark 6:52)
As the first disciples demonstrated in their own walk with Jesus, it is not easy to learn to live by faith in God’s power. This difficulty of learning to walk wholly by faith in God has prevented many from entering into the Life of promise. Fallen man has lived by his self-sufficiency for too long to suddenly begin depending on God for everything. As we shall see, the first disciples had a difficult time adjusting to this walk of faith, even after being taught these same lessons many times during a close walk (intimacy)with Jesus.
The Kingdom-Life of God, where everyone lives under the control and power of the Holy Spirit, is not easy to enter. It will therefore be necessary to explain to new converts, as Jesus did, how difficult it is to enter into the Life of promise. Jesus said, “Difficult is the Way which leads to Life {the Kingdom-Life where God’s children live under the control and power of His Spirit}, and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:14) If we do not strive to enter into this “Rest” where everyone truly lives by faith in God’s power, we will be unable to manifest the “Light of Life” from Heaven.
(For more understanding on this subject of God's Rest turn to our blog found listed in the left hand margin of this blog.)
There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God’s Rest also rests from his own work… Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that Rest… (Heb. 4:9-11 Emphasis added)
Because of the difficulty involved, Jesus told people to consider the cost before they tried to follow Him into His Kingdom-Life. A real decision had to be made. They would need to determine beforehand if they were prepared to devote themselves entirely to the task at hand. "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, saying, “This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.” (Luke 14:28-30)
Although we seldom hear these words from preachers in this day, they are the words of Jesus. His Words and His Ways will never change. Men may try to change the Lord’s teachings to better fit their own desires, but all they are doing is departing from the Lord. They may be found wanting and guilty of mocking Him with whom we have to do.
Everyone who wants to follow Jesus will need to learn these Truths (the mysteries of God that had been hidden from Israel and man in the heart of God). They will experience just as much difficulty following Him into His Kingdom-Life today as did the people who first received this warning from Jesus. Let us therefore believe our Lord when He says, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter {the Kingdom-Life} and will not be able to.” (Luke 13:24)
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