Page 11 - The Gate and the Way

Let us be very pointed now, and ask the question, “Am I truly following Christ, or am
I falling short of the invitation of Christ?” What is the source of direction for your life? We
previously read the words of Christ where He declared, “No one can be My disciple unless
he hates... even his own life.” The Greek word rendered as “life” in our English translations
is “psuche.” This word means “soul.” Christ is saying that a man must hate his own soul to
walk as His disciple. What does this mean?
The soul is the seat of the mind, will and emotions. All that pertains to a person’s
dreams, desires, and plans for their life reside in the soul. To be Christ’s disciple, a man or
woman must lay aside their dreams, desires, and plans for their life and they must embrace
the life God has chosen for them. In essence, they must hate their own soul. They must deny
what they would choose for themselves, and embrace what the Father would choose for
them.

John 4:34
Yahshua said to them, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to
accomplish His work.”

John 6:38
“For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who
sent Me.”

A disciple must become like his Master. Seeing that Christ did not live to please
Himself, neither must His disciples. Seeing that Yahshua was not directed by His own soul,
neither must His disciples be directed by their own souls. ALL must surrender their life if
at the end of the journey they would receive life eternal.

Matthew 16:25
“For whoever wishes to save his life (psuche - soul) will lose it; but whoever loses his
life for My sake will find it.”

Using the illustration Christ gave about salvation being a narrow gate to be entered,
and an afflicted path to be walked, we have to conclude that the church for the most part
has entered in through this narrow gate, but have not found the path that leads to life.
Christ declared that there would be “few” who “find” the path. Implied in this word “find”
is not only the act of discovering The Way that leads to life, but also walking it to the end.
Christ never gave any other invitation aside from the invitation to be His disciple. I
have found that there are Christians today who think Christ gave two invitations. One was
to be a disciple, and this required taking up the cross and living a life of complete surrender.
The other invitation was to be a believer in Christ. People of God, this is great error. The
folly of it will be seen on that day when all must give an account of their lives.
A profound parable occurred last year as I was traveling around the country. At two
locations at which I spoke, both of which were in people’s homes, the hosts’ dog got sick and
threw up on the floor. On both occasions this occurred at a moment in my presentation
when I knew that what I was sharing was difficult, and some present were unable to receive
the message. At the latter home, this occurred as the man who owned the house was arguing
that it was not necessary to be a disciple to be saved. He suggested that one could be a
believer, but not a disciple, while still being assured of salvation. At that moment his dog