Do You Want To Be His Disciple?

In Luke 9:23 Jesus makes the following statement: "Whoever wants to be My disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow Me." "Whoever wants to be My disciple..." And here we find the crux of the matter for most Christians. It is easy to be a Christian, I mean really all you have to do is follow Romans 10:9 - 10 and you are born again. Don't get me wrong, that is a very important thing indeed, without that everything else is pointless. But the decision to follow Christ is where the rubber meets the road.

When Jesus says "whoever wants to be" that leaves the decision in our hands. He doesn't force us to become His disciples. Remember when He called the twelve? He didn't walk up to Peter and say, "Hey you! I'm the Messiah, stop what you're doing and come be my follower." He simply said, "Follow me." Peter still had to decide to leave what he was doing and follow Jesus.

I have been a Christian now for twenty-four years, but I can probably say that I've actually been a disciple for the last five or so. Part of being a disciple is "denying yourself", and that is what I think for me has been probably the hardest thing. I still fight wanting to do what I want to do a lot. And it's not that I don't love Jesus, I do, I just wrestle with my flesh still. Although I am a little better at putting it in its place now than back when I first became a Christian.

Not everyone chooses to follow Jesus. Remember the story of the man that told Jesus to let him go bury his father first and then he would follow Him? Jesus's reply was to let the dead bury the dead, but for him to go and preach the Kingdom of God. (Luke 9:59 - 60) Unlike Peter, who left his nets and followed Jesus, this man had other things on his mind to do first. This person remains unnamed, while Peter goes on to be one of the Apostles. Could there be a connection here?

We are told that to be disciples we must deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him. Three things that are the deciding factors as to whether or not we are His disciples. Following Jesus requires the ability to lay aside our desires, our wants and our way of doing things. But how do you know what to do in following Jesus? Where do you find that? In the Bible, and hearing His voice.

When you read through the Bible, you will see the things that are important to Jesus. And if we are His disciples, then the things that are important to Him should be important to us as well. If we see Him showing kindness to all, then we should show kindness to all. If He is ministering to people where they need it, then we too should be looking for opportunities to do the same. The Bible is full of things that we as disciples of Jesus should be doing, if we will only look for them.

We should also be led by the Spirit of God in our own spirits too. This requires getting quiet and listening in our spirits for Him to speak to us. We should also bear in mind that whatever He speaks to our spirits will never go against what He has written in the Bible. That is the standard by which we judge what is right and true. If you think the Spirit of God is speaking to you to do something and it goes against Scripture, then it is not right and you shouldn't follow it. This is why it is so important to read your Bible daily, this will keep you from doing something flaky.

Being a disciple of Jesus is a conscious effort on our part, but one that will cause us to have untold joy and satisfaction in our lives, if we will do the three things; deny ourselves, take up our cross daily and follow Him. Let's determine to do that today, how about it? Get 'em up folks, we've gotta go out and whip something for the Kingdom today!