Take Up Your Cross

Feb 19

And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. —Matthew 10:38 NKJV

Jesus made the requirements to follow Him very clear.

Jesus doesn’t say that we have to experience punishment for our sins. That cross was His alone to bear. Taking up your cross means embracing the truth that your life is not about you. Romans 14:7 puts it this way: “For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.” Jesus’ cross was not about Him. His cross was about pleasing His Father and redeeming us. Likewise, our cross is not about us but about living our lives for Christ and doing our part to make His mission succeed on earth.

Jesus suffered by resisting the very things He would overcome through His death and resurrection—the kingdom of darkness and its reign of sin and death over the human race. Likewise, the cross we take up and the suffering that we endure as believers is the resistance of the enemy forces that we have been delegated to displace from the land that we have inherited with Christ. Exercising the power and authority we’ve been given to take our territory from the enemy is what strengthens our character to stand in a place of influence in that territory to establish the Kingdom. We’re not merely to bind the strongman, kick him out of the house, and take back what he has stolen from us. We’re supposed to become Kingdom strongmen who can release the blessings of Heaven to fill the house.

Thank You, Jesus, for this reminder. My life is no longer my own, and I am so grateful that that is the case. Help me to live my life in accordance with this truth.

Bill Johnson

Bill Johnson is the Senior Pastor of Bethel Church. Bill is a fifth generation pastor with a rich heritage in the things of the Spirit. This apostolic network has crossed denominational lines in building relationships that enable church leaders to walk in both purity and power. The present move of God has brought Bill into a deeper understanding of the phrase, "on earth as it is in heaven." Heaven is the model for our life and ministry. Jesus lived with this principle by only doing what He saw His Father doing. Learning to recognize the Holy Spirit's presence, and how to follow His lead will enable us to do the works of Christ, destroying the works of the devil. Healing and deliverance must become the common expression of this gospel of power once again. Bill and the Bethel Church family have taken on this theme for life and ministry. Healings, ranging from cancer to broken bones, to learning disorders and emotional healing, happen with regularity. This is the children's bread. And these works of God are not limited to revival meetings. The church is learning how to take this anointing to the schools, workplace, and neighborhoods with similar results. Bill teaches that we owe the world an encounter with God, and that a Gospel without power is not the Gospel that Jesus preached.

Take Up Your Cross

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