The Cross
In Our Lives(part 2) © by Gary W. Crisp
Three Crosses & Three Deaths
There are three crosses, or three deaths, that we must “go through”, if we are ever able to reach our full potential in God. They are: The world, the flesh and the devil, but we will look at it this way---the devil, the world and the flesh (and we’ll look at the flesh in the greatest of detail).
The devil: Upon meeting Christ, it’s easy to “bear a cross of death” and die to our relationship with the devil. We can plainly see his lies and his ways are ways of death and defeat, and certainly not worth living for any more, so we gratefully and willingly “die” unto that area of our lives. If we wanted to “live for the devil”, we’d have never come to Jesus anyhow. It is by far the easiest death, dissolution and renouncement in our lives. Of course, the only exception to this would be those who are involved in withcraft, demon-worship or other satanic things, but that we will save for another teaching.
The world: “Dying unto the world” is somewhat more difficult. Most of us had put 10, 20, 30 or more years into this life when we finally gave our hearts to Jesus. This made it a little more of a problem in “relinquishing”, or letting go of, the world; that which we had allowed to “rule” for so long was not so easy to “die to”. The world, and the things of the world, are not so easily discerned, nor do we so readily acknowledge those things where the Spirit of the Lord may lay His finger. But if our hearts are truly longing after God, and if we allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and lead us, then there will come a day when we will understand: We are in the world, but not of it.
Shortly after this simple, but vital, point of awareness, we will likely find ourselves at our own personal Golgotha. We may not know it, until years later, that a particular time or place had been our “cross”, and we may not have so “willingly” gone through it, but, as certain as we are born again, we must also die to the world and all of its sullied glamour and empty promises. (We will deal with this area of our flesh more fully, later in this teaching.)
Some reach this point of awareness and surrender sooner than others; some never do quite grasp it, struggling with this sin that “so easily besets them” or that lust or desire that won’t seem to “let them go”. Those who have not gone through the “Valley of the Shadow of Death” and on into the Way of the Cross will live their entire Christian lives unfulfilled, frustrated, and even in a state of spiritual depression. I spent years in a “spiritual blue funk”, a real depressive state, before realizing that I didn’t have to! Being
“in the world, but not of it” is quite an important revelation.
Moses forsook the “way and the lure of the world” and chose to follow a path that would strip him of all his worldiness, his intellectuality and even his individuality. That’s where some of us stumble (we just must be our own “individual self”!), but losing our individualism, our assertion of self, is a great victory and a wonderful stage of spiritual growth. After forty years of tending sheep and almost complete isolation, Moses was a changed man -- the kind of man with the kind of heart and spirit that God delights to use. And God did.
The High Calling
Christ’s calling is a High Calling. There is nothing about it that is common-place, earthy, and certainly nothing in it that is sensual. And yet, many Christians are living in and fulfilling sensual pleasures. These pleasures range from the obvious (sexual, drugs, alcohol) to the sometimes greatly overlooked or ignored pleasures of the emotional realm. In this area of the emotion, we can find those who take great delight in ruling and lording over others. This can be seen in those who manipulate, those who intimidate, and those who dominate, whether it’s in the home, at work, in school or in the church. Many people deny that such a thing exists in the church, but here is where you’ll find it more often than not.
Many leaders in the church today use manipulative and domineering tactics to get their way and to accomplish their goals. I have seen it over and over and over again. And in good, spiritual churches! Oh, they claim, “It’s for the Lord!”, or, “This is the Lord’s will, and that’s how He wants it done!”, or “I had a vision...”, (or dream) or some other such nonsense. Let me just say here: God will never, I repeat -- Never give a person a dream, vision or visitation where He instructs that person to be cruel or hurtful or intimidating to the Sheep of the LORD’s Pasture! Never!!! Some of these “so-called” ministers run roughshod over and through God’s people, and I’m telling you now---God has not been pleased with this whole matter, and He is preparing a group of believers who will confront and “tend to” this issue.
No one -- no pastor, no evangelist, no prophet, and certainly no apostle -- has the right to lift the rod of authority to smite and bruise or even terrorize God’s people, the Sheep of His Pasture. Nor do they have the right or the place to ignore it or even allow it to occur in their presence, and certainly not in their churches. Yet, I have seen it countless times, by many “leaders”, in more churches than I care to name. Moses wouldn’t do it; the true prophets of old didn’t do it; Jesus didn’t do it, and neither did the apostles of the 1st century church.
Paul, if anything, used the greatest of restraint and tremendous compassion when dealing with the people of the Lord, even when dealing with the most major of problems (1st Corinthians 5:1-5 & 2nd Cor.2:6-8.) There were very few times when Paul used his God-given authority, and they were usually accompanied with his deep sorrow and regret. He loved the church dearly, and he led and taught and cared for it with his great love. He did not “lord and rule” over anyone.
Renouncing our relationship and dying to the rule of the devil is one thing. Dying to the world is another. But dying to the flesh is a whole other matter altogether.
The Powerful Flesh
The flesh: Dying to the power of our own flesh is the most difficult undertaking we will ever encounter, because the world and all the demonic forces know how to prod us and poke us and prevent us from ever becoming what God has called us to be. God has called us to be His sons and daughters, created in His Image and His Likeness. Only, we sometimes don’t look or act very much like Him, do we? These are the areas where the Spirit of the Lord uses God’s Word, His Calling, His Gifts, as well as other Christians in shaping us and molding us into useful vessels, much like He did with Moses many years go. We must hope, though, that it will not take us forty long years on the backside of some lonely, dusty desert for Him to bring us to a place of complete surrender and understanding of His will in our lives.
As difficult as it may be to grasp His Will, it is just as difficult to grasp our own, which is why the Holy Spirit begins very soon after we are saved in showing us that of which we are truly made. And it is not a lovely sight. We do not truly “know” what is in our desires, our motives, our hearts, or our wills. It can take years, if not our entire lives, in trying to see what we are made of. And that is where the Spirit of God comes in.
If we allow Him, He will show us -- bit by bit, here a little, there a little -- what is “inside” these very deceitful and tricky hearts of ours (Jeremiah 17:9 & 10). He will not “overwhelm” us, because He is not impatient, as some people are -- who will over-run us with rules and regulations and all sorts of limitations -- as they try to keep us “safe”...safe in their own eyes; safe in their own limited (and faithless) understanding. Although we certainly do have weak and deceitful hearts, God did not make these hearts to be so wicked and deceitful, or to be so hard to understand. That is what the influence of the world and the devil has done to us, which is why dealing with the flesh can be so tricky...which is why we desperately need the Holy Spirit to aid us in this endeavor.
“Hidden” Thin
gs...
We may be “walking in craftiness” and not even know it. Others may think our “walk” is fine. We may even be given a place of leadership or authority. Everyone, including ourselves, is convinced of the “great person” we seem to be. Paul was not so easily convinced, though. In 2 Corinthians 4:2, he states:
“We have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty and shame; we will not walk in craftiness or deceit; neither will we handle the Word of God deceitfully. We want to walk and show ourselves as truthful and honorable, commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.”
Verses 5-6 add: “We do not preach what we think, nor do we preach or promote ourselves... we only preach Christ Jesus, the Lord, and we are your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, Who commanded His Light to shine out of darkness, is the One Who shines in our hearts, and He gives the Light of the Knowledge of the Glory of God in the Face of Jesus Christ.”
