Hello and welcome back to the One Thing Podcast. Today the question is: Are you a disciple? God calls us to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we know about being a disciple? Well we can easily look at the 12 who were trained by the Lord Jesus for years.Now we know, besides for Judas, that the disciples who remained with the Lord, they were men who were transformed literally by the power of the gospel. They were filled with the Spirit of God and they carried the message of the gospel in power all throughout the nations. They were so influential, they influenced others simply by being who they were in Christ. God calls us today to be no different. To be disciples, those who would seek after the Lord, those who would simply seek His face for who He is. And to make a dent in our nation, to make a dent in our families and in those who are around us, simply by walking in the power, in the message of the gospel.

And so the scripture I wanted to share is Matthew 16, chapter 16 verse 24, it says, then Jesus said to his disciples “whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

"...put down the way that we want to do things."

Something that Jesus presented here, He said if you want to follow me, if you want to be a disciple, first off you have to deny yourself. What does it mean? Does it mean that we deny ourselves food? Does it mean that we deny ourselves earthly pleasures or different things? Whatever it may be. Listen, the whole idea of denying ourselves means this, put down the way that we want to do things, put down our own mindsets, put away how we’re used to doing everything and simply come to the Lord, and say Lord here is my mindset.

"I want to think according to your word."

I don't want to think the way that I did anymore, I want to think according to your word. I want to think according to your Spirit and what your Spirit desires for me to do today. Really to deny ourselves is to simply lay down our will. Now I know it sounds simple right, but apart from the gospel of the Lord Jesus, man has his own will and desires to do that, putting God's will aside. But today, He says deny yourself, come to me, believe in me, lay down your will and let me do my will in you.

"...the only one that will live in me is Christ."

And what do we know about the next part of this verse, to take up our cross and to follow Him. Now when we think of the cross, we know that Jesus was placed upon that cross that was a criminal's death of that day for the Romans. They would take their enemies and put them on a cross, an excruciating way of punishment. He's saying pick up your cross. What man would ever want to pick up the cross? What would ever make us want to do that? I tell you this, that when we believe in the Lord Jesus, we are not only filled with the power of His word but we are able to pick up our cross. Simply to pick up our cross, it's an attitude, it's a mentality. The cross is an attitude, it's a way of doing things. It's saying, you know what, my way is finished. The old way is done. That old man, that old woman, that old child, that old teenager, you know what, I've come to Christ and he/she is gone. Now, the only one that will live in me is Chrsit. As Paul said, to live is Christ and to die is gain.

"He will empower you to do the work of God."

You see for us the cross, is a powerful, powerful, moment. The cross for us is a moment that we live in every day. Knowing that because our Lord sacrificed His life, we also lay down our life to Him. I want to say what the Bible makes very clear, the man or woman, the child, the teenager who lays down their life for the sake of the gospel, for the sake of the Lord Jesus. I want to say, He empowers us to do so. He will empower you to do the work of God. He will empower you just as He empowered Jesus to walk down that road of cavalry. He will empower you to do the work of the Lord, even in the darkness and in the midst of the craziness of this life and this world. He said, If you trust in me, I will lift you up. See to it that you seek my will, for those who seek me, you will find me no matter what is happening. If you seek me, and you seek me with all your heart, you will find my power and glory in who I am.

So I’m praying today that we would find the call and hear God calling us to be disciples. Not just Christians, per se, but a true Christian which is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we hear His voice, and may we beckon the call and rise up in the power of the Gospel!