Let Go!

John 3:²⁷ “John answered, A man can receive nothing [he can claim nothing, he can take unto himself nothing] except as it has been granted to him from heaven. [A man must be content to receive the gift which is given him from heaven; there is no other source.]” (AMPC)

Jesus says in Luke 9:²³ “…If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross daily, and follow me.” You have to take self-righteousness, self-confidence, self-deception, self-centeredness, self-hatred, and nail it to the cross. ‘The Beauty’ deals with all these in great detail and I urge you to please read it on YouVersion; www.bible.com/reading-plans/3906-the-beauty. One key component of self not mentioned there is self-preservation. For you to be all that God wants you to be you must overcome the way of self-preservation. “He that saves his life will lose it but he that losses his life for My sake”, Jesus says, “will save it”. An anonymous writer defines self-preservation as the first law of nature. The first instinct of man is to preserve himself.

There are so many marriages that can best be described as divvied camps because the man and the women involved are not really united. The husband is thinking of how to checkmate his wife and vice versa. Something is seriously wrong with that setting. Husband and wife have to be on the same page, each one has to die to self. The story is told of the French king Louis the eleventh, and he loved astronomy. It just so happened that there was this astronomer who through astronomy had given some very accurate predictions of events. He predicted that a woman was going to die in the king’s palace and eight days later it happened just like he said it would.

The king was very upset, and he sent for the astronomer. The guards had been instructed to bundle the astronomer and throw him down the citadel such that the man’s bones will scatter on the floor on the king’s signal. When the astronomer got to the palace, the king asked him this question, “Tell me when you will die and how you will die”, and the astronomer’s response was, “I do not know the details of how I will die but I know when, it is exactly three days before the king dies.” Instead of the death that had been planned for him, the king ordered that he should be served a beautiful lunch, and his house be relocated from the village to near the king’s palace. All for the sake of self-preservation.

The principle of self-preservation is key, yet as natural as it is, it can be a hindrance to the fulfilment of destiny. When the enemy offers you the way of self-preservation at the crossroads you have to overcome it. Jesus himself had to overcome it. Please read Matt.26:36-44.

Prayer: Lord, there is nothing that I am or possess that You have not given to me. So, I bring myself to you as a living sacrifice to You, in Jesus Name. Amen!