The Two Kinds of Cross

“And there went great multitudes with him: and he turned, and said unto them,
If any [man] come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14v25-27)
Christ carried His cross, to redeem us by giving us His holy divine Life. That was the ultimate purpose of the cross He carried in walking in the will of His father, which finally led Him to Calvary to die and resurrect so that He might manifest His resurrected Life in us. This was His Cross not ours.
Of a recent, I learn from the spirit that Christ never told us to carry His cross, but our own Cross. We do not need to carry the Cross of Christ, for He has completed His work which was purposely to redeem us from the fall. To carry the Cross of Chris, will mean we are helping Him in His work of redemption. It is because of Christ cross that we receive salvation through His life yet that same principle of the cross that led him to Calvary to give us His life, will lead us there to receive that very life he gave us.
It is true this attitude of our trying to Carry Christ Cross is manifested in us in diverse ways like:
1. When we live as if Christ Carried His Cross so that we will not carry our own cross
2. When we ague against the reveal will of God as if God is not wise or caring enough to see and feel as we see and feel.
3. When we try to work when God ask us to stop or stop when he asked us to work.
4. When we try to defend God when He will have us to be silent or when we are silent when He will have us defend His truth through His spirit in us.
We carry our own cross to die so that Christ might live in us. Our Cross will lead us to Calvary; to gain the Life Christ gave us in Calvary, when we cease living for Christ to live in us.
Carrying our Cross is simply:
A. Doing what God will have us do and not what we will like to do.
B. Pleasing God and not to please our own selves.
C. Forsaking the world with it custom, vain fashion and wisdom and not to love the world with its carnal wisdom.
D. To receive from God and freely give to men without expecting nothing in return. To give not because we received from men but because we received freely from God.
E. To love not because we are Loved , but because the unchanging Love of God is in us
F. To be at peace not because we have no sorrow in the world but because we have received the divine peace which no tumult, adversity or sorrow in the world can take.
G. To seek the comfort of others not because we are comforted but because we are able to stand through Christ divine life even in the absence of the things that gives us comfort and joy.
H. Hating the things we love, like land, house, wife, husband, children, brothers , sisters etc and loving the things we hate like our human enemies , so that we will Love the things we love and hate in our selfish natural state with a pure unselfish love because the unselfish pure love of Christ is shed in our hearts.
I. To care the need of others not because we received care from men but knowing there is a God who care us, is enough for us.
J. To accept and be patience with the view of others not because we are accepted or tolerated by men but because we are accepted, and approved by God.
There is a salvation from hell, we received by repentance from all gross sins and daily trusting God strength yet there is a more advance kind of salvation which is a salvation from the fall. This will take a far deeper work of the Cross. There will be more Crosses we have to bear for Christ to manifest more of the fruit of Calvary in us, which is His divine life.
Our invincible personality which is known by what we love, or how we behave when we are faced with negative or positive situation, is our really being not our natural outward body. This is the fallen inward man in us, who must die for Christ to manifest His invincible life in us.
This inward man in us, who we are in our natural state, is very deep and only the Cross can reveal him, because we know very little of this inward fallen man. This is why it is always very dangerous to lean in our own understanding, because doing so is to walk in the dictate of this fallen man in us, whose works are only works of death.
All those who press into the high calling of Christ, will witness the fact that anytime they set there hearts on some blessing they receive from God be it land, house, wife, husband, Job, children, riches etc something of divine judgment will come and bring a chaos, frustration, to remove their hearts from this natural blessing because the love is being tainted with selfish desires.
The Cross will teach us, to hate the selfish love we have towards the things which give us joy, comfort and happiness and love them in the unselfish and unconditional love of Christ as He manifest His invincible personality in us; so that tomorrow when the comfort, joy and happiness we received from them cease we will still love them because we love them not because of the comfort, joy or happiness but because of the pure undivided love of Christ manifesting in us.
When we Love in the nature of Christ, we will not see anything as our own but what Christ has permitted us to own. And we will not fall, discourage or stumble when the owner take what He gave , because we knew from the beginning that all is His and whatsoever He give or take from us is for our own good , having the right to do with His own as He sees fit.
When are we going to realize the fact that, when we are in discouragement , perplexity, sorrow etc we have make a great progress, though it is tragedy to remain in that state , because the challenges have reveal who we are , our invincible personality , that we might seek Christ to manifest His personality in us. Are you going through trials or difficulty? Here is a savior who knows you better than you know yourself; he wants to make a new thing in you if you will come to His term, in stillness and waiting for His salvation.
Our Cross must first lead us to sorrow as it led Christ, but there is Life, victory as the Living resurrected Christ manifest His nature in us. We do not know who we are as we aught to know and only the cross can reveal who we are as we submit to its yoke.
Christendom in a majority of cases, is only different from the world by head doctrinal belief because when men are not taught to carry their Cross and follow Christ, the only thing that can distinguish them from the world will only be head doctrinal belief, not the manifestation of the personality of the living Christ.
Things are increasing getting dangerous because we know vey little of our fallen nature and worst we called it Christ. Confusing, divisions, carnality abound because one fallen natural man in us is still comfortably doing his work without any man (Christ in us) to hinder and destroy him. The problem of Christendom today is not the need of men of sincerity, in fact there are many sincere men out there including, false prophets and teachers who are very convince they are serving Christ because they know not the difference between Christ personality and their personality.
Nothing can open ours eyes to our depravity but the cross, and nothing can save us but Christ Life or personality being manifested in us. The truth is we know very little of ourselves and so seek very little of Christ. False security, indifference, lukemwarness and wordiness is the order of our day yet we think we are full and need of nothing. The scripture below are having fulfillment in us because we are blind and yet think we see.
“There is] a generation [that are] pure in their own eyes, and [yet] is not washed from their filthiness.
[There is] a generation, O how lofty are their eyes! and their eyelids are lifted up” (Proverbs 30v12-13)

“There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof [are] the ways of death” (Proverbs 14v12)
“They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.” (John16vv2)
“But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them” (Matthew 17v12).
It is time to search ourselves and ask the spirit of the Lord to search us and see if there be any wicked way , lukewarmness, false security in us least we regret for eternity when He closed the doors of the kingdom . Today is the day of new things, forgiveness and salvation. If we are willing we will eat the heavenly fruits of the land of Canaan. Amen.

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JAMES F JARJOU