“Be ready for service
and have your lamps lit. You must be like people waiting for their master to
return from the wedding banquet so that when he comes and knocks, they can open
the door for him at once” (Luke 12:35-36).
To walk in the path of the Lord Jesus Christ, calls for our
complete attention and obedience to Him and Him alone. It is a call to follow
Him completely – to be ready at all times. A following that demands our
complete attention and concentration or we lose sight of Him through
unpreparedness. You do not follow someone successfully if you are the one
dictating the route. The whole idea of following someone presupposes the fact
that we do not know the way, but we know whom we are following: “Jesus told him, ‘I am the Way, the Truth,
and the Life. No one comes to the Father except through Me’” (John 14:6).
When the rich young ruler thought he was well on his way to perfection since he
had kept the commandments of the Lord from his youth, the Lord replied: “If you want to be perfect…go, sell your
belongings and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow Me. When the young
man heard that command, he went away grieving, because he had many possessions”
(Matthew 19:21-22). To follow Him is not a journey of us receiving and being
blessed alone or of self discovery, self-ownership, self-indulgence or acquisitions,
but a journey of self-sacrifice and blind devotion to the Master: “When they looked up they saw no one except
Him – Jesus alone” (Matthew 17:8). Except we walk in this manner we will be
powerless against the onslaught of the enemy of our soul.
We are admonished to
live a life of preparedness so as not to be lured away by the antics of this
enemy. These battles he wages against us are not only to deprive us but to
mostly entice us away from the righteous path of following the Lord Jesus
Christ. So many succumbed to this and they turned away from the Only path of
Life, to the present world; “For Demas
has deserted me, because he loved this present world, and has gone to
Thessalonica” (2Timothy 4:10). The reality is, as long as we are in this
body living on this earth, we are in constant battle with the enemy of our
soul: “For our battle is not against
flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the
world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the
heavens” (Ephesians 6:12). This is why we must live intentionally (a fasted
life) fully kitted with the full armor of God at all times.
To show us how to
live like this, the Bible tells us: “Summoning
His 12 disciples, He gave them authority over unclean spirits, to drive them
out and to heal every disease and sickness” (Matthew 10:1). However, a few
chapters down the line, we saw the disciples unable to cast out a demon: “’Lord’, he said, ‘have mercy on my son,
because he has seizures and suffers severely. He often falls into the fire and
often into the water. I brought him to Your disciples, but they couldn’t heal
him” (Matthew 17:15). Does this mean the authority they received was not
true? It was true, but they did not have faith that it could be done. To have
faith in God is to purposely seek Him out and believe Him no matter the
conditions and situations around us: “Now
without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him
must believe that He exists and rewards those who seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Jesus telling His disciples that this kind of demon does not come out except by
prayer and fasting, points to the fact that we must live a lifestyle centered
on prayer and fasting: A lifestyle that is solely depended on God through
prayers and self-denial (A fasted life). Daniel, Paul and countless others
lived in this manner and their lives were a great testament to the wonder
working Power of God.
Beloved, what is your life a testament to? Is the
testimony of your life based on the things you had acquired, and the knowledge
of God you had received though your Pastors and mentors? Then you are not
different from the rich young ruler. A life that thinks he is rich in God but
in reality is poor, blind and wretched (Revelation 3:17): “But Ephraim says: ‘How rich I have become; I made it all myself. In
all my earnings, no one can find any crime in me that I can be punished for!’”
(Hosea 12:8). This is a terrible self-delusion and the end result is eternal
damnation! Beloved, do not get deceived or entangled with the lusts of the eyes, flesh and
with the pride of life, but humble yourself under the mighty Hand of God and
allow Him to lead you. The truth is, without Him, we truly do not know the way
and neither can we find it! Search Him out daily for yourself beloved, just
like the Berean Christians. Let your knowledge and experience of Him not only
be based on what you had been taught but on what you had seen and heard for
yourself through the studying and meditating on His Word. That manner of
experience is life changing and permanent: “What
was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes,
what we have observed, and have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of
life – that life was revealed, and we have seen it and we testify and declare
to you the eternal life that was with the Father and was revealed to us”
(1John 1:1-2). This was the conviction of the Disciples/Apostles and they were
ready to go through and did go through, joyfully, the mocking, beatings and
killings, because they knew Whom they have believed! May the Lord bless you by
opening your eyes to see what He is saying. May your heart be strengthened in
your knowledge of Him as you daily live a life of sacrifice (fasted life) to
Him in times like this, in Jesus Christ name, Amen!
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