The Cost of Discipleship - Page 2

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Then a scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." Yahshua said to him, "The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head."  Another of the disciples said to Him, "Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father." ButYahshua said to him, "Follow Me, and allow the dead to bury their own dead."</div> <bR> <div> Are you coming to Christ today saying that you want to be His disciple, but in your heart you are unwilling to give up your home and material possessions? Christ would say to you, “The beasts demand a permanent dwelling on this earth, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head. If you would be His disciple you must be willing to live as He lived. He accepted whatever the Father chose for Him. Sometimes He slept in a bed in the house of friends. Sometimes He slept on a hillside in the wilderness. Sometimes He slept in the stern of a boat. He never demanded that the Father give Him anything in this earth. We all enter the earth naked of all possessions, and we leave the same way. The true attitude of a disciple is expressed in the apostle Paul’s words:</div> <bR> <div> Philippians 4:11-13</div> <div> For I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am. I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need. I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.</div> <bR> <div> A disciple is content with whatever God chooses for him. A disciple cannot choose those things he must have in this world. Christian discipleship is a complete surrender to the will and pleasure of God.</div> <bR> <div> It is also recorded that one man who would be a disciple came to Him and said, “Lord I will follow You, but first permit me to bury my Father.” This man loved his father, and the Scriptures state that it is God’s will that we honor our parents. Yet Yahshua saw that there was more in this man’s statement and request. This man placed the love of his father above a love of God. He was not willing to offend his father by openly following Christ while his father lived. Christ is very compassionate in nature and is near to those who suffer because of their obedience in following Him. Yet Christ will never give a man permission to avoid the cost of discipleship. All must take up the cross. All must bear the cost. God gave all for us, and we must give all for Him.</div> <bR> <div> Mark 10:17-25</div> <div> As He was setting out on a journey, a man ran up to Him and knelt before Him, and asked Him, "Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?"  And Yahshua said to him..., "You know the commandments, "DO NOT MURDER, DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY, DO NOT STEAL, DO NOT BEAR FALSE WITNESS, Do not defraud, HONOR YOUR FATHER AND MOTHER.'"  And he said to Him, "Teacher, I have kept all these things from my youth up." Looking at him, Yahshua felt a love for him and said to him, "One thing you lack: go and sell all you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But at these words he was saddened, and he went away grieving, for he was one who owned much property. And Yahshua, looking around, said to His disciples, "How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!"  The disciples were amazed at His words. But Yahshua answered again and said to them, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."</div> <bR> <div> We are told here that Yahshua felt love for this young man. This young man was doing many things correctly. He was fulfilling many of the commandments. He yearned to please God and to inherit eternal life. But despite the fact that Yahshua loved this man, He did not shrink back from putting the focus on the one thing that this young man was unwilling to give up in his devotion to God. This young man was wealthy, and Yahshua told him to sell all he had and give it to the poor, and then come and follow Him. Only in this way could this young man truly follow Christ with an undivided heart and a pure devotion. Christ would accept nothing less than absolute commitment and love.</div> <bR> <div> The church today avoids teaching the same radical commitment and the same high cost of discipleship. The church is afraid it will run people off. The church has judged that there are few in this material age of ease and comfort who would be willing to make such a commitment to follow God. And they are right. The church counts there success by nickels and noses, rather than by the purity of a man’s devotion to Christ. As long as the church can amass great numbers of followers it will be content with half-hearted devotion. Christ has never made the same judgment, not two thousand years ago, and not today. Although He loves you, He will put His finger on the one thing you fear to give up the most, and He will demand it from you.</div> <bR> <div> If Christ were to enter one of the churches today and hear the masses profess that they wanted to follow Him, He would tell them straightway what following Him would cost them. The majority would go away grieved, not being willing to pay the cost. Only a remnant would remain.</div> <bR> <div> Men, the Spirit is saying that the hour is late. The time is at hand to decide whether we would walk as weak women, or as mighty men after the pattern of David’s mighty men in the Old Testament. Do you have the courage to embrace the hardship, sacrifice and rigors of discipleship? God has no stomach for those who only offer to him the remnants of their devotion, that which is leftover after having spent themselves on a pursuit of the world. He will vomit those who are lukewarm out of His mouth.</div> <bR> <div> We live in an age where being a Christian in the churches throughout the land carries no real cost. Other than attending services and putting your tithes in the offering plate, the church puts no other burden upon the people. Yet true discipleship has always been the costliest of pursuits. As Christ stated:</div> <bR> <div> Luke 14:25-27</div> <div> Now large crowds were going along with Him; and He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life,<I><U> he cannot be My disciple</U></I>. <U>Whoever does not carry his own cross </U>and come after Me <I><U>cannot be My disciple</U></I>.”</div> <bR> <div> Yahshua declared who it was who cannot be His disciple. Can you be His disciple? Will you pay the cost? The church somehow believes that we live in a more civilized time when radical obedience is not required as it was in the day Christ spoke these words. They are greatly mistaken, though many will not realize the depths of their error until the hour when mankind stands before the throne of God and He separates the sheep from the goats.</div> <div> The requirements of discipleship have never changed, because the manner of our purchase has never changed.</div> <bR> <div> I Corinthians 6:19-20</div> <div> Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?<I><U> For you have been bought with a price.</U></I>..</div> <bR> <div> If you and I have been bought with a price, then how much of our lives belong to us? The mind set of most Christians is that they are still in ownership of their lives. They are pursuing their own goals and dreams. They are making their own plans, and living the lives they have chosen for themselves. Yet they seek to pay lip service to Christ and to attend the church of their choice. Their lives are their own, and their faith is merely an appendage tacked onto the perimeter of their lives. They are self-directed while manifesting a Christian flavor to their lives.</div> <bR> <div> There is nothing in such a life that can be described as Christian discipleship. Christ defined the cost of discipleship. He said you must hate your own life. You must give up all your own possessions. You must love God with every last part of your being.</div> <bR> <div> The church of this hour explains away the true meaning of these words. The spirit in the church is “offend no one, and accept everyone.” Yet in seeking to make entrance into the kingdom of God easier on man, the church has offended God. If there are any of you here who have not actually taken the time to count the cost of discipleship, then I would encourage you to do so now.</div> <bR> <div> If you love any person in this world more than Christ, then you cannot be His disciple. Meditate upon this for a minute. </div> <bR> <div> Back in 1999 God’s Spirit led me to count the cost of following Him and to make a radical commitment to follow Him wherever He would lead me. Since that time my mother and father have rejected me, counting me as a fool. My brother and sisters have condemned me. My fellow ministers have separated themselves from me. Even my wife and son have separated themselves from me. I have given up house and land and material possessions.</div> <bR> <div> Matthew 19:27-30</div> <div> Then Peter said to Him, "Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?" And Yahshua said to them..., “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.”</div> <bR> <div> The cost of true discipleship has never changed. The cost is not one thing for one man, and another thing for others. All are called to count the cost and to surrender ALL to Christ.</div> <bR> <div> Men, because I have counted the cost and have given all things to Christ, being proven in this devotion through many losses of relationships and worldly possessions. I have no place in the church of this hour for as Paul testified.</div> <bR> <div> II Timothy 4:3-4</div> <div> For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.</div> <bR> <div> The preaching of the disciple’s cross is sound doctrine. Yet the church will not receive it today. My message and my preaching are considered too radical. Yet, God has sent me to those outside the camp of mainstream Christianity to proclaim sound doctrine. The Spirit has determined that you should receive this message today.</div> <bR> <div> What I want you to see is that nothing less than absolute and total commitment and devotion to Christ is acceptable unto God. If you offer Him anything less, He will despise your offering. He poured out the blood of His beloved Son, the most precious thing to Him, in order to purchase men for Himself. He will accept nothing less than the same unreserved love in return. </div> <bR> <div> Do you fear that if you give all to God that you might somehow come out the loser in the deal? This is nothing less than the work of the enemy. He would use fear to turn men back from a wholehearted devotion to God. The apostle Paul said:</div> <bR> <div> II Timothy 1:12</div> <div> For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.</div> <bR> <div> God asked of Abraham a terrible sacrifice, even to give up his beloved son whom he loved. Yet this was nothing more than what God was willing to do Himself. Abraham was convinced that God was able to raise his son back up from the dead, and the apostles were told by Yahshua that all who gave up “houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name's sake, will receive many times as much, and will inherit eternal life.”</div> <bR> <div> I want to share with you my own testimony for in it you can see that the cost of discipleship has not changed since the day that Christ spoke His words to the multitudes gathering around Him.</div> <bR> <div> I was raised in church. Baptized at the age of ten.</div> <bR> <div> From my youth I was zealous for God and devoted to understanding the word of God. Yet into my adult years I was marked with the same compromising spirit that was present in the church in which I was a part. I loved God, but I also spent much of my life pursuing things I wanted.</div> <bR> <div> There were areas of my life I had not surrendered to God. I was a covetous person, and got into debt in order to gain those things I desired, rather than submitting those desires to God and waiting on His provision, or the lack thereof.</div> <bR> <div> God brought discipline to me over this area of my life that was not submitted to Him. Share story.</div> <bR> <div> At the same time God had been teaching me to walk by faith. A life of faith is the heart of a disciple’s life, for faith consists of hearing God speak to us concerning His will, and our response of trusting obedience. We cannot be a disciple without entering into a walk of faith. Without faith it is impossible to please God.</div> <bR> <div> Share progression of faith.</div> <bR> <div> Speak about opposition of faith and fear.</div> <div> On July 15, 2004 my wife Tony chose to leave me. We had been living at the house of her aunt who had asked us to come live with her. Tony had been struggling for many months with issues of faith, and a spirit of fear that had been present in her family for generations. The Lord allowed me to see what was coming ahead of time, and I experienced many months of sorrow and difficulty as my wife’s heart became more set upon turning back from a whole hearted devotion to Christ, to return to the ease of the lukewarm affection of the church.</div> <bR> <div> We had just returned from Atlanta where we had put our daughter Kristin on a plane for the state of Maine to stay with a friend who was having a baby. My daughter is the joy and delight of my heart, and she is a child full of faith. She relentlessly encouraged her mother to walk in faith and to not turn back. When we returned from the airport, my wife, my son and my wife’s aunt got in a car with a wealthy Christian woman who had been encouraging my wife to leave me, and they drove off. They told me they expected me to be packed up and gone when they got back.</div> <bR> <div> I loaded the few possessions I had in my Ford Tempo, along with our two dogs which I was instructed to take with me. It was about 8:00 in the evening and I only had $5.00 in my pocket. I drove to the Wal-Mart in Perry, Georgia and parked there.</div> <bR> <div> You might expect that I would have been very troubled at my circumstances, and not knowing what lay ahead. In truth, I experienced a great peace settle upon me as I drove away from my wife’s aunt’s house. There had been such a spirit of fear manifested there that I felt almost suffocated by it at times. Fear is the antagonist of faith, and it ever seeks to drive us away from a life of trusting God. As I left the house I left behind the pervasive spirit of fear that was being manifested through my wife and her aunt.</div> <bR> <div> As I sat in my car at Wal-Mart I sensed the presence of the Spirit of Christ along with me. The apostle Paul wrote:</div> <bR> <div> Philippians 3:8-10</div> <div> More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ...,  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and <I><U>the fellowship of His sufferings..</U></I></div> <bR> <div> When we enter into suffering due to our obedience in Christ, there is a fellowship to be shared with Christ that is deeper than any other fellowship I know of. When we go through the fire, Yahshua is there walking in the midst of the fiery furnace with us. At the time the Lord had led me to read out of a devotional book every day called “Streams in the Desert.” As I sat in the car I pulled out this book and read the day’s entry.</div> <bR> <div> “<I>This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith.” (I John 5:4)</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Trusting even when it appears you have been forsaken; praying when it seems your words are simply entering a vast expanse where no one hears and no voice answers; believing that God’s love is complete and that He is aware of your circumstances... desiring only what God’s hands have planned for you; waiting patiently while seemingly starving to death, with your only fear being that your faith might fail - “this is the victory that has overcome the world”; this is genuine faith indeed. George McDonald</I></div> <bR> <div> As I meditated on these words I was struck by the words about our only fear being that our faith might fail. This was truly my greatest fear at the time, and would be in coming days. That night, however, I experienced a great peace. God sent a cool breeze to blow in the evening and through the night, which was a blessing in the month of July in Georgia. I slept in the car that night and was comfortable.</div> <bR> <div> The next morning I awoke and experienced the first real pangs of fear. I did not know what the future held for me. The only thing I had of value was the computer that I had used to carry out the Internet ministry of writing that the Father had directed me to in the previous years. I had concluded that I was to sell the computer to get some money to take care of my immediate needs. Yet as I thought of it that morning I had many doubts assail me. I worried that I might not find a buyer. I worried that I would be without direction in knowing what to do next.</div> <bR> <div> I got out of the car and walked across the parking lot to the Wal-Mart store to use the bathroom facilities. I was praying for the Lord to give me some direction and encouragement of His presence with me. As I entered the bathroom stall and shut the door I noticed a sticker that someone had affixed to the back of the door. It was a small square sticker that had two words in large type printed on it. The words were “Fear Not!” followed by the Scripture reference Isaiah 41:10.</div> <bR> <div> I pealed the sticker off the door and took it with me back to my car. I then got out my Bible and looked up the Scripture verse. It read:</div> <bR> <div> Isaiah 41:10</div> <div> Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.</div> <bR> <div> I knew the Lord had led me to the sticker, that He had ordered my steps and set this message before me. I was greatly encouraged and began thanking God for His presence with me. The Lord was walking me through one of the darkest periods of my life. My wife and son were separated from me. I was all alone with no money, and my pathway was uncertain. The only leading I had was to sell the computer in my possession, and this too was a momentous thing, for in doing so I was surrendering the ministry that I had labored in for the previous six years.</div> <bR> <div> Once more I opened my devotional book, this time to the entry for July 16. The words were pregnant with meaning and application to my circumstances.</div> <bR> <div> <I>Because you have done this and have not withheld your son, your only son, I will... make your descendants as numerous as the stars of the sky... because you have obeyed Me. (Genesis 22:16-18)</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>From the time of Abraham, people have been learning that when they obey God’s voice and surrender to Him whatever they hold most precious, He multiplies it thousands of times. Abraham gave up his one and only son at the Lord’s command, and in doing so all his desires and dream’s for Isaac’s life as well as his own hope for a notable heritage, disappeared. Yet God restored Isaac to his father...</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>This is exactly how God deals with every child of His when we truly sacrifice. We surrender everything we own and accept poverty - He then sends wealth. We leave a growing area of ministry at His command - then He provides one better than we had ever dreamed. We surrender all our cherished hopes and die to self - then He sends overflowing joy and His “life.. That we might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10)...</I></div> <bR> <div> <I>Dear Soul, do you believe that Abraham’s experience was unique and isolated? It is only an example and a pattern of how God deals with those who are prepared to obey Him whatever the cost. “After waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised” (Hebrews 6:15), and so will you. The moment of  your greatest sacrifice will also be the precise moment of your greatest and most miraculous blessing...</I></div> <bR> <div> The entire devotion for that day spoke to my circumstances. I was giving up my son, my wife, and a growing ministry in obedience to God. Yahweh’s promise was that He would give back to me multiplied times more than I had surrendered to Him. The voice of the Spirit rang out clearly through the words of this devotional book, and I understand now that this is part of the grace that God gives to all who freely surrender all to God that He might begin to work on them to conform them to the image of Christ. When we present ourselves as a freewill offering unto God, it is pleasing to Him and He provides extraordinary grace to help us through our trial. The cool breeze, the sense of His presence, the peace that had surrounded me as I left my wife’s aunt’s house, the sticker on the bathroom stall, all were manifestations of God’s grace.</div> <bR> <div> God must deal with all those whom He has called to be sons. He must lead us through a death of all that is of the flesh. He must try our hearts and test our affections to see if there is anything we love more than Him. He will prove our faith which is more precious to Him than gold that is tried in the fire. Our way may be filled with sorrows, but we will also have the fellowship of “the God of all comfort.”</div> <bR> <div> Those who resist this perfecting work of the Father will not escape the purification process. They will be cast into the Lake of Fire and, because this is a mandatory offering, God does not find pleasure in it. The same grace is not afforded those who are purged in this way, neither is there any reward.</div> <bR> <div> After I was made homeless, I spent five months living out of my car, and in a tent that a friend had given to me. </div> <bR> <div> One of the great difficulties of walking in faith, and bearing the cost of obedience in this hour, is that we see nearly all other Christians avoiding suffering. When our obedience also causes those around us to suffer, even our loved ones, we experience anguish and are tempted to question whether it is a good thing to bring such suffering to those we love. The only thing that will keep you to the course is by taking a longer view of things.</div> <bR> <div> We must understand that these are all momentary, light afflictions not worthy to be compared to the glory to be revealed in us. We must see that if we avoid suffering now, that we will forfeit reward and the pleasure of God, and that the purification will then come by a much more difficult process as we and our loved ones are cast into the Lake of Fire where there is limited grace and no reward.</div> <bR> <div> Men, I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am in. Peace comes from knowing that we are in the midst of God’s will. If we are walking with God then we can have peace even if we are living in a tent in the woods with no food to eat. We can know that when God is ready, He will deliver us from our circumstances and He will make His provision known.</div> <bR> <div> The Lord was led to the wilderness and knew hunger. Elijah was led to the wilderness where the ravens brought him his food while the brook dried up. God tested an entire nation during forty years in the wilderness, often testing them with hunger and thirst. His methods for perfecting men have not changed.</div> <bR> <div> Do not receive the lie that we are too civilized today to live radically for Christ. Do not be deceived into thinking the cost of discipleship has somehow been lessened during the last 2,000 years. Christ still requires everything. Today He is asking you whether you will follow Him with a whole heart. Will you give up all you possess? Will you count the cost of even losing son and daughter and wife and mother and father and brothers and sisters and friends? Do you require a house like the birds and the foxes, and will this requirement keep you from living as Yahshua lived? I urge you to count the cost.</div> <bR> <bR> </td> </tr></table></body>