Follow Me ─ How Do You Count The Cost? ─ Part Three

Most of us when we read in the Scriptures that  we have to count the cost to follow Christ, if we do not have any hindrances coming from families and friends because we decide to follow Jesus, the idea of counting the cost seems a little bit futile to us. In our mind, it remains something we read in the Bible. If you live in a country where you don’t have freedom of speech or choices, you understand first hand what it means to count the cost. You know right away that you might be killed for choosing to follow Christ. I have worked with people who have been totally banned from their families back home for having chosen Christianity, simply because God opened their eyes to the truth.

To me, counting the cost was not a big deal either.  A few years ago when God stirred up my heart and I was upset at all that I found in the Bible concerning His demands to live out true Christianity, I did not know it then, but that was His way of waking me up to the reality of what true Christianity means to Him. He knew even before I knew it, that I needed to learn what it means to count the cost and make the decision whether I wanted what He was offering. 

When I first surrendered all to Him I did it with all my heart, yet the Holy Spirit told me that I did not surrender my soul. I could not understand what He meant. I had that goofy look on my face and I was thinking “but, I am so sincere, what else does He want from me?” Then He set out to show me in the span of a few weeks, certain things that I needed to take into consideration before I could make a proper decision to surrender all to Him. These few weeks were so hard and even though I was experiencing Him, I was walking around feeling so sad and I felt I was carrying the world on my shoulders. I knew I had a decision to make but I simply could not say yes right away to Him because this time around, I knew the cost.

I found out there is a whole process and principles in counting the cost to follow Christ.

LOVE RELATIONSHIP: For instance, as you consider the cost, you find that the first commandment is not some light doctrine that we just file away with one of those things you hope to get right one day. It’s the reality of the Christian life and it is a real commitment that demands your whole life. There is a list of subtexts that you need to get acquainted with once the Holy Spirit illuminates you to understand the high standards of God vis a vis the first commandment. As you see and come to grips with His standards, it seems like you are completely annihilated.

COMMITMENT: There is a commitment that you know there will be consequences that your mind cannot even embrace yet, because it is about withstanding one spiritual battle after another and you cannot help wondering “why would I want that in my life?”

VOLUNTARY DEPENDENCE: that takes all your focus away from you and redirected toward Him. There is no room for substitution coming from your own mind anymore. It is as if God is going out of His way to somehow discourage you. Everything He shows you does not say anything about the good side of this relationship, except that you need to believe and accept the fact that, Him alone can sustain you.

The list goes on as you consider His idea of faith relationship and the cost that accompany faith through obedience and trust in Him. You know you are going to deal with the unknown and all you can do is wait, follow and trust. He wants some kind of integrity and this single-eye type of relationship that you have no idea as a human being you can pull that off.

While all these things are hard to take in, and you just don’t want to participate voluntarily in this kind of makeover party He is inviting you to. Strangely, as you go through the process of sorting things out, He sustains your heart to understand your only alternative is to say yes. He also helps you understand that the whole thing is about reaching your full potential in Him, which only Him knows the limit. In your mind, you know that you are embarking in one twisted and unknown adventure and a tiny bit of you, are curious to see where it leads. You are very well aware that it is an invitation to go forward with Him and to get to know Him. You are also aware that saying yes to Him is in itself a form of worship which causes you to be aware of the experience of worship you know so far is kind of hollow and here is your chance to step up and act upon this knowledge.

Through Him, I found the strength to say yes to Him and I know there is no adventure on this earth that could ever match the ride that He takes you on as you follow Him with full knowledge of what you signed on for. Perhaps because I have considered the cost and I knew there was pain awaiting me, although I did not know the extend of the pain that I was going to have to cope with, but, having counted the cost, helped me to walk faithfully, even when the pain was unbearable, I could not walk away and through His grace,  I am still going strong.

Follow Me ─Why Do So Many Give Up? ─ Part two

"If anyone would come after Me, he must
deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow Me." Luke 9:23

A lot of us tend to look at this verse and conclude that it is mainly about the missionaries in the field and about sharing the gospel.  What’s wrong with our view of discipleship is that we equate discipleship mostly with work. But, being a disciple simply means you are a learner and you are learning from Him. We must learn self-denial, waiting, patience, surrender, abide, complete obedience, humility and endure trials, etc, all the while, we are to cultivate a contempt for the world. There is no question that without the inward work done for us by the indwelling Spirit, the workers get easily discouraged and often give up because they are working out of their own self-interests and are unable to renew their strength in Him. 

So, as we focus on discipleship, if all we see is the outward work that can be done FOR God then, there is a strong chance that we have not learned to give up self interest yet. Because, as we learn to die to self, we learn to also get to know ourselves and we have a better understanding of the Holy Spirit’s challenge in making us His true disciples. The point is, Christ had so much more in mind when He told us to come after Him or to become His disciple. If we do not let the Holy Spirit influence the way we live out this life and it make sense that we get stuck and discourage and quit the process.

Christ has given us so much to ponder in verse 23. First we are to count the cost of our decision, second we are to learn to deny self, third we are to take up the cross He put in front of us” (not our own man made idea of what the cross should be) then we follow. Christ wanted to make sure those following Him understand what He was offering. By saying they needed to take up the cross and denied self, He was indeed saying, while at first this life might seems exciting because of the miracles, the word that seemed out of this world, and the power etc, but it would take more than mere curiosity or enthusiasm based on our own self-interests, to truly follow after Him.

Let’s think about it for a moment, any true Christian has one goal which is to follow Christ wherever He leads and where He is leading is none other than His Kingdom of course. A true Christian knows you cannot take your own navigation tools and decide you know a better way. God has never changed and He still wants us to do things, His way and it is only in learning things His ways that we can succeed. Most of the time, His way will not be the easiest one. For instance we see Him taking the Israelites by the longest route. In reality, He could have taken the Israelites by a different route and they would have gotten in the Promised Land in a few days. But that was not His plan and He had a good reason for it too. He needed them to learn to know Him and learn the art of fighting.  

What happened to the Israelites in the wilderness? First their enthusiasm gave in, then, resentment and disobedience set in. What was the result of it all? They were fascinated by the life of Egypt. In the Bible, Egypt represents sin and the world and even though they could not go back to Egypt in person, but God could never have their minds and hearts. Right until the end, in Jeremiah's book you can see the Israelites have never been able to give God their undivided attention, and truly consecrated their hearts to Him.

  

Personally I found when you count the cost of Christianity; the next step is the willingness to die to self. The biggest shock to my system was when one day it dawned on me that Christianity was not like that social club I thought it was. Then I thought to myself why is it this person told me at the beginning that I have nothing to do and I belong to the group going to heaven? Why is it the Bible shows there is much more to it? Even though I did not understand what that much more meant I knew I was lied to and the person who lied to me did not do it on purpose either. He simply never learned to count the cost, or learned to die to self.  Then I began to study the Bible just so that I could see what were asked of me, should I decide to follow. This is when I got upset and stopped making notes from my findings. It felt as if God was dangling something unattainable in front of me. I actually accused Him of being unjust. The only response I got from Him was: “well, surrender to me” That too was a few months of agony to get there.

Later on, I found out, He is the architect and He is the only one who possesses the plan as to what the building is going to look like when it is finished. As workers, all we can do is, to do as we are told and true Christian workers take their leads from the Holy Spirit directly. When we have not learned to count the cost and be led by the indwelling Spirit,   we go around saying that we are Christians, yet we have no idea why other people are making our lives miserable with stuff like higher life, dying to self etc. That is because we convinced ourselves the outward work and appearance are good enough and we have no solid foundation.  

 As for denying the self, books have been written about it but it is a life where you are aware that you are dying slowly as Christ is taking over more and more. (He must increase, I must decrease) My point here is to show you first off, the work that is involved in following after Him is actually harder than being a missionary overseas, or going abroad preaching the gospel. The real work is the inward work we are called to let the indwelling Spirit do with us in order to get us where Christ intended for us to be. The more we keep insisting on doing things our way, we only set ourselves up for disappointment. 

Help to Self-Denial

For the attaining of self-denial, let these rules be observed:

By thomas Watson, 1675

Be convinced of the incomparable excellency of Christ. He is the quintessence of goodness. He is compared to a head of gold—for riches, Song of Solomon 5:10; to the Rose of Sharon—for perfume, Song of Solomon 2:1; to a bright morning star—for beauty, Revelation 22:16. Jesus Christ is all that is good and lovely. He is all we can require for satisfaction, or that we can desire for salvation. He is fully commensurate to our needs. He has eye salve to anoint us, white raiment to cover us, and His blood to heal us. We shall never deny ourselves for Christ—until we see glory and a beauty in Him. Christ is all marrow and sweetness. He is better than life, estate, or heaven!

Endeavor after a vital principle of grace. Grace will do that which flesh and blood cannot do. A man may do that by skill—which he cannot do by strength. A burden of great weight may be lifted up by pulleys, which cannot be lifted up by strength of arm. Grace will teach one the art of self-denial, which cannot be done by strength of nature. In particular, labor for three graces.

Humility. A proud man admires himself; therefore he cannot deny himself. A humble man lays his mouth in the dust. He has lower thoughts of himself, than others can have of him. He renounces himself. He opens to God as the flower opens to the sun. He will have—what God will have for him. He will be—what God will have him be. He is like melting wax. God may set whatever stamp and impression He will, upon him. The humble man is the self-denier.

Love. Who will not deny himself for a friend whom he loves? He will part with anything he has. He will gratify him who he loves, though it is to his own loss. He whose heart is fired with love for Christ—will stop at nothing for His sake. Gregory Nazianzen said of his Athenian learning, that he was glad he had anything of worth, to esteem as nothing, for Christ. Love for God will devour self-love.

Faith. Abraham was a great self-denier. He left his kindred and country and was willing to travel to any place where God would have him. Whence was this? It was from his faith. Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham obeyed and went out, not knowing where he went." He who believes that Christ and heaven are his—what will he not relinquish for Christ's sake? The stronger a Christian's faith is, the more eminent will his self-denial be.

Pray much for self-denial. Prayer sets God to work, Psalm 10:17. Let this be your grand request—a self-denying frame of heart. Self-denial does not grow in nature's soil. It is a fruit of the Spirit. Beg God that He will plant this heavenly flower in your soul. Say, "Lord, whatever You deny me, do not deny me self-denial. Let me rather lack great abilities, nay, let me lack the comforts of the Spirit—rather than self-denial."

There may be going to heaven without comfort—but there is no going there without self-denial.