The death of Jesus on the Cross is not so that you and I don't need to die again. Of course, the death of Jesus is to teach us how to also die. Only that our death won't be dying on the wooden cross, but death is a necessary condition that we must all experience if we must live a victorious Christian life daily amid the crooked world.  

There is a big lesson for us to quickly learn from Jesus' submission to the cup of suffering (the choice of the Father for Him) rather than living for His Will and pleasure as recorded in Luke chapter 22 verses 42, see what the Bible says, "Father, if you will, please don't make me suffer by drinking from this cup. But do what you want, and not what I want."

The Apostles of old understood this requirement of the kingdom life, and they were given to daily denial of self (dying to the flesh). Apostle Paul attested, "I affirm, by the boasting in you which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily."

The dying is not the death of falling and giving up the ghost, but a life yielding to the Spirit — appetites, and ambitions given up for the Will of God for you — the choices of self-life given up or denied or lay down for the choice and choose of the purpose of God for us. A life (desire, fame, taste...) crucified to live and walk in the Will of God daily being yielded to the Spirit.

For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s. And He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again. (Romans 14:7-8, 2 Cor. 15:15.)

None of us is exempted from yielding our members wholly to the Lord Jesus. It is not for pastors, prophets, teachers…or apostles alone. God is not asking us for 90% of our submission to His Will, the Living Word of God. Jesus said, "Except we are willing to die to self, say no to our craving, we can't be His followers." Do you see that there is a Cross for us to still bear, death side to our daily journey with the Master? We have not been called unto God to continue to spend our lives still on ourselves (or by ourselves) the same way we were doing when we were still in the flesh, in disobedience against the law of righteousness, Faith in the Word of God.

Our confession of Jesus as our Lord and saviour is not without a cross to bear daily. Sometimes, life will demand more than you are ready to bear or has to offer, your faith would be tested, trials will come, hard times would come, false accusations would arise...but in all of these, Jesus said, "Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." We can't keep the old and the new together in the same bottle, meaning we can't retain our old self and the new life in Christ. The old life will always insist on its ways and opinion while the new life is always a lover of the Will of God; submissive to the Will of God, our eternal Father.

Let the old life go, lay it to rest. (See Romans 12:1—2.) Always yield to the Word of God, believe every Word of God, and live just as you have believed. Don't say you believe, yet you are doing a different thing — you are in between the old and the new. When it is not palatable you excuse the new life and compromise for that time, you do what your mind is telling you, what public opinion is saying, even when you know exactly what the Word of God says concerning the thing you are disregarding the leading of the Spirit on.

You and I wouldn't have the stage forever. If you miss your turn — the season of your relevance in your generation — certainly, you can't forgive your regret at the feet of the Master — the Lord Jesus. Arise now, be up, it is time, silence can't deliver a nation, and quietness can't heal the pains of the mind and sadness of the soul. You have been called and anointed for this very time — you are not a product of chance.

Decide and stand faithful with the Lord Jesus, and walk just as He walked in obedience to the Spirit of God. Except our lives can speak Jesus in our generation, the world would lack Jesus to see or behold.

Thanks for the gift of your time, I am John Ojoagbene!

Feel free to share your thoughts or testimony in the comment box below. I promise to respond to them as soon as possible!