Living In The Kingdom

If any one wishes to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life shall lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake shall find it. --Matthew 16:24-25

We must flee from darkness and the kingdom of selfishness, where everyone lives for himself and does his own will. We must get into the Kingdom of God, where everyone lives for God and does His will. To be in the Kingdom, we must die to ourselves. But many people who have been saved don't yet understand that they are slaves. They want to keep on doing their own will. It won't work. When we find Jesus, it cost us everything. He has happiness, joy, peace, healing, security, eternity, everything.
So we say, "I want this. How much is it?"
"Well," "it's very expensive."
"Well, I have ten thousand dollars in the bank."
"Good-ten thousand dollars. What else?"
"Well, I have a few dollars here in my pocket."
"That's fine. What else do you have?"
"Well, nothing. That's all."
"Where do you live?"
"In my house. Yes, I have a house."
"The house, too, then."
"You mean I have to live in my camper?"
"You have a camper? That, too. What else?"
"I'll have to sleep in my car!"
"You have a car?"
"Two of them."
"Both become mine, both cars. What else?"
"What more do you want?"
"Are you alone in this world?"
"No, I have a wife and two children..."
"Oh, yes, your wife and children, too. What else?"
"I have nothing left! I am left alone now."
"Oh, I almost forgot! You yourself, too! Everything becomes mine-wife, children, house, money, cars--and you too."
Then He goes on. "Now listen--I will allow you to use all these things for the time being. But don't forget that they are mine, just as you are. And whenever I need any of them you must give them up, because now I am the owner." That's how it is when you are under the ownership of Jesus Christ. We have done wrong in the past by not telling people the whole story. We've told them that everything Jesus has becomes theirs, but we forgot to mention that everything we have becomes His. And there's no lordship if we won't do that. So it is with the Lord. We are "in Christ." It is up to us whether we stay there or not. In order to remain in Jesus, we must lose everything and become Jesus. We lose our life. We treat Jesus as if He were our slave. Servants don't say, Lord, do this and do that." Servants say, "Lord, what do You want me to do?" The satisfaction of the servant is to see the Lord satisfied. May God help us to do with joy what servants in His Kingdom do.
(From the book "Disciple" by Juan Carlos Ortiz)