The Hard Truth About Following Christ

Jesus Christ is either God or He is absolutely nothing else. He cannot be just a prophet. He cannot be just a holy man.

He cannot be anything but God. He is either God or every Christian. Pack yourself up and go and find you a different way.

John the Baptist said, the baptism I was calling and crying out in the wilderness about, that was a baptism of repentance. I'm just preparing the way to receive the Messiah. The Messiah will give you a birth from heaven, not from earth.

And this birth is eternal because everything to do with heavenly things is eternal. He is the only one who's going to give you this eternal birth where there is no more death, no more pain, no more aging, no more crying, no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more weakness, no more darkness. Everything is in the light forever.

Every time we come to be in the light, there has to be a challenge proceeding. Every time we want to come close to the Lord, there is a struggle prior to it. Every time I come to church, someone or something has to happen to ruin my beautiful mood.

I was ready. I was happy. I was looking forward to going to church because I miss church.

I miss the Lord. I love coming to church. And just before leaving the house, someone from inside that family circle ruined it for me.

They just stood before me and gave me a couple of words that destroyed my entire mood and it ruined it. There has to be a challenge. Why? Because my beloved, we are living in a realm that is in darkness.

We need to get this fact, this reality into our minds, heads, our thought, our entire being. We are living in a realm, in a world, in other words, we're living in a world that is ruled by darkness. And when I say darkness, I mean Satan.

We are living in a world that is ruled by Satan, darkness. Every time you wish to come to the light, Christ the King, all glory to his holy name, darkness will try to stop you. Satan, it wasn't the Pharisees.

The Pharisees were used by Satan, just like Satan uses so many people nowadays. So Satan saw and realized that there are so many people going to Jesus Christ. He is losing people to Christ.

He is losing people from the kingdom of the world to the kingdom of heaven. In any business, when they realize their company is losing, they will try anything and everything under the sun to make it profitable. Again, they want to at least stop the loss or minimize the loss.

So they'll try everything and anything. This is why when Satan saw that he is losing to the kingdom of heaven, his business is going downhill. So he sends the Pharisees to just cause a bit of a drama and division, confusion between the disciples of John the Baptist.

I tried with John the Baptist. I didn't win that easily. I'm going to try and hurt him through the closest people to him.

Why are you questioning your teacher since you've heard from him beforehand saying that this is the Lamb of God? Why are you coming and questioning him again and saying, remember the one whom you testified about? Guess what? He's taken your people. He's after your position. He's trying to be famous.

When he came to the Jordan, we remember he was a nobody. You were the holy man of God. All of Israel held you so highly as the holy man of God, the prophet of God.

Everybody bowed before you. But when Jesus of Nazareth came, nobody cared that much. Who is this man? We don't know much about him.

He was a nobody compared to you. And look what he's doing now. Because you testified, you see, you gave him that credit.

You shouldn't have spoken about him like that. People are going to him now. They're not coming to you.

He said, well, it's good that you were my witnesses. When I said, oh the Lamb of God, have you forgotten? Or have Pharisees influenced your way of thinking again and put doubts in your heads? Two things delay us from getting to the light. Who is Christ Jesus? Two things.

One, challenges. Two, doubt. When challenges don't work, Satan will put doubt in you.

And when doubt doesn't work, he will bring challenges your way. Satan operates in two ways. Satan operates in two ways.

As a snake. Two, as a lion. This is biblical.

These are the two ways of Satan. No more, no less. What is a snake? One is a lion.

What is a snake? A snake, that's where the word sneaky comes from. He comes in a very, you know, calm, quiet, deceptive way he sneaks in. What is that sneaking? Doubt.

Doubt comes in a very quiet way. It doesn't come with noise. Doesn't come with a big bang.

And all of a sudden, these ideas come into your head. And you start thinking. And you start following.

And you start dwelling on it. And you start nestling on it. And you start believing in it.

If it doesn't work, he will come as a lion. A lion doesn't come like a snake, very quiet, till you get to it. And then it bites and that poison in you.

But the lion comes roaring from a hundred miles away. You can tell a lion from a very far distance. And what is the lion? What is this way Satan uses? Lion is people around you.

They'll get up. They'll tell you off. They'll start going at you.

They want to kick you, punch you, ridicule you, and cast you out. It will be a physical one-on-one face-to-face. A roaring lion.

So the doubt comes, which leads later on into a lion. So they came to John the Baptist, their master. Look at this Jesus.

Well look what he's doing. He's taking all your people. He said, well yeah, it's only normal.

It's only natural for him to do. Because he came from heaven. I'm from earth.

All of us need to follow him. When you pray, always ask the Lord Jesus to protect you from the snares of the enemy. Whether it's visible lion or invisible snake.

But it's incredible how John the Baptist testified till the very end of his life's journey on earth. Which made the Lord Jesus testify about him. And the Lord said about John the Baptist, there is no one born of a woman greater than John the Baptist.

What was the greatness of John the Baptist? Self-denial humility. While he was at the peak of his fame, denied himself and humbled himself so low where he said, I'm not worthy to undo the shoelace of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. From the highest level to the lowest level, he put himself down to glorify Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

Now this is when you are seen as the greatest in the eyes of God. When you are a humble down to earth, serving the Lord for his glory, no one else's, neither yours nor anyone else. When you come and through the grace of Christ saying, Lord, I am here do as you wish unto your servant.

I am your true servant. I humble myself before you. A humble person will always be content.

A humble person will always be exalted. A humble person will always walk in the light of Christ. Yes, they will go against you.

Yes, they will persecute you. Yes, they will try to defile you. Yes, to defame you.

Whatever they try to do, they will fail because when you are humble before God, it is God who is defending you and fighting for you. And when God is with me, who can be against me? When you come in the name of the Lord and they go against you, remember they're not going against you. They're going against the Lord who is in you.

So they'll have to answer to the Lord. Let me see what they will do when they face Jesus Christ of Nazareth. This little story, it's metaphorical, but it's true.

This man saw a dream and while in the dream, he saw that he had a big mansion and while he was sitting downstairs, he heard a knock at the front door. So he gets up to open the door and he sees the Lord Jesus at the front door. From joy and happiness, he bowed to worshiping the Lord and saying, oh my goodness, I can't believe this.

Lord Jesus himself coming to my doorstep. I can't believe it. Oh please, please come on in, come on in, please Lord, come on in.

He took the Lord Jesus upstairs and gave the Lord Jesus the biggest room upstairs. He said, Lord, this room is all yours. The Lord is humble.

The Lord is simple. Whatever you give him, he will accept from you. Even though he is not happy as yet, but he wants you to come to this realization, to do it yourself, not him doing it for you.

He wants to teach you, but he will do it with love, with humility and with care. So the Lord said, thank you son, thank you for the room. And the man goes downstairs.

After five minutes, there's another knock. He opens the door, this time it's Satan, enters, bashes the man up and leaves. After a few minutes, he wakes up bleeding.

He said, I can't believe this. The Lord Jesus is in my house and Satan entered and bashed me up and yet the Lord is in my house. How can that be? I must have done something wrong.

So he rushes upstairs. He says, Lord, I'm really sorry, forgive my ignorance. The whole upper level is all yours.

Now this man made the Lord Jesus the owner of the house. So this time the Lord Jesus, as naturally, walks up and opens the door. Satan looks, it's the Lord Jesus, runs away like a frightened little dog.

A true servant of the Lord Jesus does not welcome the Lord in his house. He makes himself all the house for Christ Jesus. You don't say to the Lord, come into my house.

The Lord will say, it's okay, I'll accept it because you haven't learned who I am truly. Therefore, I'll teach you, but it will take time and through that time there will be persecutions. There will be dark tunnels because I need to teach you.

I can't force you to learn. I need to teach you willingly. You need to say, Lord, I'm willing to learn.

I'm willing to accept this punishment. I'm willing to accept this treatment. I'm willing to accept this and that because the freedom must be there all along till the very end of your life.

You have to come to me freely, willingly, not forcefully.