Copyright 2011 Theresa Harvard Johnson
Matthew 10:32-40 CJB says this: “Whoever acknowledges me in the presence of others I will also acknowledge in the presence of my Father in heaven. But whoever disowns me before others I will disown before my Father in heaven.
“Don’t suppose that I have come to bring peace to the Land. It is not peace I have come to bring, but a sword!
For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, so that a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household. Whoever loves his father or mother more than he loves me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than he loves me is not worthy of me.
And anyone who does not take up his execution-stake and follow me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his own life will lose it, but the person who loses his life for my sake will find it. “Whoever receives you is receiving me, and whoever receives me is receiving the One who sent me.”
In my previous blog on this topic, Father led me to discuss the seriousness and severity of our walk with him. I am convinced that so many believers just DON’T take this walk with the Lord serious enough. For some, it’s just something else that they are doing, and is regarded as nothing more than a business venture or an opportunity to make one’s self great before men. Their ministries are nothing more than platforms for their great success before others….
This, people of God, is not pleasing to the Father. Somehow, we need a true revelation of why our souls have been purposely sent from Heaven to earth. The true walk of taking up your execution stake is a bloody one. For some of us, there are more battlefields than blessings on this earth; more opposition than agreement; and definitely more personal cost to the human soul than one could ever imagine. But when we DIE to live, reign and rule in HIM… it is easy to say, “It was worth it…”
“Taking up your execution stake,” as we discuss it here, is a METHOD of agreeing to be tortured. It is declaring to the Lord, “Here I am… send me out to do and endure all that is required of me.” Many have referred to how Christ was crucified as “an art form” because of the thought process behind the process and the type of pain it inflicts on the human body and the human mind. Please remember these bolded words, as I will be coming back to them shortly. Our Yahshuah endured a slow death at the very height and most critical point of His ministry. In fact, this slow death was a critical PART of His ministry. Without this process, we wouldn’t be sharing with one another today. (http://www.frugalsites.net/jesus/crucifixion.htm) The cost He paid was more severe than that of ANY MAN to ever walk this earth.
This “cost” is our human thinking can sometimes be limited to a “what-people-are-doing-to-me or look-what-I-have-been-through” perspective verses the true perspective which is this: How is Christ reflected IN ME in the midst of what I’m going through.” In this very hour, Father is urging us to cling to the latter.
You see, YOUR COST – meaning what it is going to COST YOU to fulfill your purpose and destiny in the earth – is unique to your specific PURPOSE & DESTINY. The COST that Christ paid was UNIQUE to what HE was sent from Heaven to earth to accomplish. NO ONE ELSE was destined to DO what He did, just as no one else is destined to DO every single thing that you have been called to do. We all have our unique role here in the earth realm.
Walk with me through this next part.
The COST that you must pay… that taking up of your EXECUTION STAKE… IS NOT ABOUT the trial(s) that you have or will face. Let me say that again. THIS COST IS NOT ABOUT the trial(s) that you have or will face. You see, Jesus’ cost wasn’t about what happened to Him! His cost wasn’t THE BETRAYAL and HOW PEOPLE TREATED HIM!
The TRIAL ITSELF wasn’t the test… as our reasoning and intellect often causes us to believe. The trial may be what throws you INTO the test or what initiate the tests, but it is NOT the test.
It is about what comes from YOUR HEART IN THE MIDST OF THE TEST that begins to uncover the price you will pay. If there is a lot of bitterness and hatred there, then you will have to walk through that gutting process to have it die! If there is pride and unforgiveness, then you will have to go through that gutting process to purge your soul of it. If there is embarrassment, shame and secretiveness… that will have to die to!
You see, when you’ve been WOUNDED DEEPLY OR HAVE DONE EVIL… this process of DYING isn’t as easy as one might think it is to overcome. Condemnation can run as another person’s shame! Father want’s us FREE! He wants us able to fulfill our purpose and destiny. We can’t do that without paying THIS COST!
Jesus’ trials and tribulations SHOWED FORTH HIS FRUIT. He fought WITH HIMSELF to rise above HIS HUMANITY (the natural responses of our flesh and emotions) to get to a place in GOD in which HE DIED TO HIMSELF long before ANY MAN could attempt to take His life! He was able to conquer hatred, bitterness, unforgiveness, vengeance and all of the fruit of the flesh that seek to take over one’s SOUL!
His trials produced the ultimate fruit — that of GREATER LOVE!
SO I ASK YOU WHAT WAS CHRIST’S COST? YOUR COST?
It is BROKENNESS!
It was and is a constant process of death to all those things THAT BLOCK THE GOD-KIND OF LOVE from flowing from our lives! It is getting to that assured place in which the SIN NATURE OF OTHERS ignites a passion within you to SEE HE HOPE OF CHRIST in them…
EVERY TRIAL reveals what is in our hearts – whether it’s something someone else causes (Mordecai/Haman), something you cause (David/Bathsheba) or something God allows to prove you (Job/Satan)!
This is why we MUST CARRY OUR EXECUTION STAKE – SEEKING TO DIE DAILY IN THE MIDST OF EVERY TRIAL! THIS EXECUTION STAKE, this COST… is about a HEART-PRICE! it is about a SOUL-PRICE… meaning that it is going to continuously COST YOU —- YOU… until we reflect the fruit of Christ! Relationships may die, shift or change; your character might be attacked… and you may be hunted down for your very life. In the midst of all of this can YOU PRESS THROUGH TO SEE THE HOPE OF CHRIST?
Father wants us to get into a position in which we can answer by faith, “YES LORD!”
Jesus showed us that we can get this place. He showed us that we can step beyond the HUMAN BODY & THE HUMAN MIND into the supernatural realm where we can SEE spiritually what happens as a result of US PAYING THAT COST!
Jesus showed us that NO MATTER the TRIAL we can say, “Father FORGIVE THEM BECAUSE THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO & MEAN IT!”
It is getting to a place where you can be BEAT DOWN, BETRAYED AND ABANDONED… and the ONLY THING IN YOUR HEART IS LOVE FOR THE PERSON WHO DID THE UGLY TO YOU! Everything and I mean everything… everything people of God will always come back to loving the Lord or God with all our might AND loving our neighbors as ourselves.
WHEN YOU PAY THE COST, you will come out of that place REFINED BY FIRE AND WALKING IN CHRIST’S FRUIT… able to withstand that last stretch that leads to your total crucifixion… and the fulfillment of your purpose and destiny.
My prayer for you today is this: That you no longer see that thorn in your flesh as a curse, but as an opportunity for greater works. I pray that you see every trial that tests your very sanity as an opportunity to press into understanding the LOVE OF GOD… and growing in Christ’s immeasurable understanding. I pray that every testimony forms a step in the realm of the spirit in which you climb higher in the things of God…. and that you do not despise His growth process.”
It takes fertilizer to grow strong healthy plants. Some of the most beautiful diamonds came out of the roughest lumps of coal. Don’t run from the refiners fire. HE WILL NOT HURT YOU…. but the stuff he desperately wants to burn out, will destroy you if allowed to remain.
Humility and love… are GROWN AND DEVELOPED by FIRE… in the hearts of most of us. I beg you, destroy the banner that says “look at what I’ve been through” and pick up the one that says, “Let me tell you how I got through and what I learned about how to love…”
