In Matthew 28, Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel:
“Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you…” (verse 20).
In Mark 8, we read one of the most important things that He told them. Read it carefully and receive it in your heart:
And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it (Mark 8:34-35).
In The Amplified Bible Jesus said it this way:
If any one intends to come after Me, let him deny himself—forget, ignore, disown, lose sight of himself and his own interests—and take up his cross, and…follow with Me—continually, [that is,] cleave steadfastly to Me. For whoever wants to save his…life, will lose [the lower, natural, temporal life...]; and whoever gives up his life [which is lived (only) on earth], for My sake and the Gospel’s, will save [his higher, spiritual life in the eternal kingdom of God].
Now Jesus not only was talking about our going to heaven, although that is included. He also was talking about our living for Him while in the earth. To live for Him, we cannot cling to our natural lives, or the things our souls desire in the natural realm—ambition, money, recognition, or any other desires of the flesh—things that natural man seeks after with his whole heart.
He was saying, “If you will lay down your natural desires, lose sight of yourself and your own interests, you will lose that lower life. Take up your cross. Do what you are told. Follow Me and you will find that higher life.”
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
You and I not only have the written Word, but we have the guidance of the Holy Spirit within us. The Word has been given to us to teach us and train us in God’s ways and precepts, but also we need answers in our individual lives: “What am I supposed to do about this problem? What am I supposed to do today? What can I do today, Lord, to please You?”
Jesus knew the written Word of God, and He operated by the voice of God. The two always agree.
In John 5:46 Jesus said, “For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me.” If He had been dealing with the people who knew the books of Moses, they would have believed Jesus when He came, because Moses wrote of Jesus. But He said, “If ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?” (John 5:47).
Unless we believe the written Word of God, we won’t follow the voice of the Holy Spirit telling us what to do. We won’t believe the Spirit of God as He speaks to us, unless by the written Word we know His ways. God’s ways are so high above our natural ways.
We must have the written Word in our hearts so we can learn to discipline ourselves to make the right choices and live our lives according to the Word of God. Then when the Spirit of God tells us to do something, we will be quick to recognize it as God leading us because we already know how God thinks.
When we walk with God, we must totally learn to rethink our lives because the world’s way—the way we first learned to think—is foolishness to God. The world is in darkness and is backward compared to what God says and knows. The Amplified Bible says that the whole world around us is under the power of the evil one (1 John 5:19).
Because of this, you and I are faced with a decision. We can live in either of the two realms—the natural or the supernatural. We are born again in the spirit, so we can walk in the spirit, or we can walk after our soul (mind, will, emotions—or natural thinking). We can acknowledge God in all our ways and lean not to our own understanding, or we can continue to live like the rest of the world in permanent defeat until we leave this earth. But why choose what the world chooses when we can walk with God?
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
Granted, it isn’t easy to keep your attention centered on the Word like that. It takes real effort and commitment. It may require getting up a little earlier in the morning or turning off the television at night. But I urge you to do whatever is necessary to take God’s medicine exactly as directed.
It won’t work any other way!
That really shouldn’t be so surprising. After all, we wouldn’t expect natural medication to work for us if we didn’t take it as prescribed. No rational person would set a bottle of pills on the night stand and expect those pills to heal him. No one would call the doctor and say, “Hey, Doc! These pills don’t work. I’ve carried them with me everywhere I go—I keep them in the car with me, I set them on my desk at work. I even have them next to me when I sleep at night—but I don’t feel any better.”
That would be ridiculous. Yet, spiritually speaking, people do it all the time. They cry and pray and beg God to heal them, all the while ignoring the medicine He’s already provided. (They might take a quick dose on Sunday when they go to church, but the rest of the week they don’t take time for the Word at all!)
Why do people who love God and believe the Bible act that way? I think it’s because they don’t understand how putting the Word in their heart can affect their physical bodies. They don’t see how
something spiritual can change something natural.
Kenneth Copeland Ministries
