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Being crucified with Christ and becoming more like Him is not easy. Us becoming more like Christ requires us to be stripped of our flesh, stripped of all that we became in this world outside of Him. It takes abandoning what is comfortable and safe to us and doing some things that seem to go against every fiber of our being of what not to do, to do the very things Jesus is leading us to do. John said, "He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30 KJV). This is just a part of the process in following Jesus. We saw this when Jesus called His disciples, they all left their livelihood and their families to follow Him (Matt 4:18-22). In order to become more like Christ we have to lay down our lives, if we do not, we will not gain any of who Christ is or who God created us to be (Matt 16:24-25 & Matt 10:37-39).
As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen. “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him. Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him (Matt 4:24-25 NIV).
“Anyone who loves their father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves their son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Whoever does not take up their cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds their life will lose it, and whoever loses their life for my sake will find it (Matt 10:37-39 NIV).
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will find it (Matt16:24-25).
When we choose to follow God with our whole heart and holding nothing back, this will ignite a battle. Everything that is in us that satan had planted through lies and deception will rage against us, and he will try to intimidate us with fear to stop us from gaining ground. We must keep our eyes on Jesus, press into the word and pray. Prayer and fasting are two of the most powerful weapons we were ever given, it is imperative that we use them. As we step into the process of stripping us of us, we will learn and see more clearly what is love and what is true. We must cling to those things (Phil 4:8). We must not be ashamed of what we must walk through to become more like Christ and we must not be afraid(2 Tim 1: 7-8). We can be confident in Christ's ability to do a complete work in us and resting in the power of prayer and fasting, by loving people, and by knowing what is true (Phil 1:6).
And now, dear brothers and sisters, one final thing. Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise (Phil 4:8 NLT).
being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus (Phil1:6 NIV).
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; (2 Tim 1:7-8 KJV).
Prayer
Father, I thank you for the powerful work of the cross that you have brought through your son Jesus. We welcome the process and we thank you for the process. We know that though it may be difficult process that we count it a blessing that we get to be more like your son. That through overcoming these lies in our lives that you have given us the ability to know what is true. We thank you for Jesus. Thank you for not standing idly by while we perished from not knowing the truth, but that in your love you fulfilled all that we would need to live the life you have destined us too. Your are so wonderful, ground us in your love so that we will not abandon the process and go back to our old ways of doing life, but that we will press through, press in, and press on to becoming more like Jesus. In Jesus name we pray, Amen!
Have you been saved?
If you are someone who has not been saved. I would like to ask you, do you believe in your heart that Jesus is Lord and that God raised Him from the dead? If you believe that then declare openly with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. If you do these things, then you are, in fact, saved, and I would like to welcome you to the body of Christ.
If you declare with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Romans 10:9).
Have you been filled with the Holy Spirit?
If you would like to receive power in your walk with God, welcome the Holy Spirit into your life today.
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8 NIV).”