From time immemorial, it has been the desire of God to have men/a people who are made in His likeness/image so He can have a very intimate fellowship/communion with them. This singular desire of God can only be achieved by the consistent followership of these men whom He has made in His likeness. This can also be regarded as our walk with God. Adam and Eve lost their place before God in the garden by choosing not to follow God just for a moment. Their momentary disobedience led to an eternal consequence which mankind has not entirely recovered from today. They lost their place in the eternal purpose of God by refusing to follow God for a moment. Beloved of God, do you know that a moment of engaging in fleeting pleasures of sin can be thy greatest undoing in life? So, give close heed to your daily followership of Jesus.
The Bible is filled with men and women e.g. Lot, Samson, Saul, Demas etc who lost their place in the purpose of God by refusing to follow God at a particular point in their life. Though many of them started well, their end cannot be recommended by heaven for us to emulate. It is my prayer that our end will not be like theirs in Jesus name. Amen.
Therefore, it is pertinent for us to pay close attention to the eternal instructions that God will bring to us as we consider this matter that made many of our forebears victorious and also the ignorance which made many of them to be a disgrace to heaven.
As you hear the voice of God through the lines of this study, don’t hide your nakedness as Adam and Eve did in Gen. 3:8-10, there is mercy and grace for you even at the feet of Jesus.
IT IS A COMMAND/ AN INJUNCTION FROM GOD
“When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said, I am the Almighty God; walk and live habitually before me and be perfect (blameless, wholehearted, complete). Gen. 17:1. Amp.
The first thing I want you to note here is that this injunction is not age specific/sensitive. Here, Abram was ninety-nine years old when the Lord brought again this command to him if the covenant He had made with him earlier on was to be established. So, whether you are very young or old like Abram, you are not exempted from this command. Even if like Abram you have gone down to Egypt (Gen. 13) where you have acquired a seemingly insignificant ‘Hagar’ that later became the greatest undoing of your life (Gen.16), which is now compelling God to bring to you again this injunction, it is not too late for you. So this command is regardless of your age and your past experiences and mistakes. It is both for the young and the old, for the saints and also the vilest of men. And through the pages of this study the Lord is appearing to you to bring back His injunction to you as He brought it to Abram and the early Apostles.
Now this injunction as recorded in the Amplified version is to walk and live habitually before God with all our heart. To be habitual about it means it should be regular and daily and should become our habit. Until following God becomes a daily habit for you then, the verse 2 of Genesis 17 which says “And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly”-KJV, cannot be your experience. Therefore, if you must fulfill the purpose for which you were created and recreated in Christ Jesus then you must give utmost heed to this injunction. It is time for you to forsake the ‘Hagars’ that accompanied you on your way out of ‘Egypt’ (worldliness, fleeting pleasure of sin etc) in order to fulfill this command.
WHO ARE WE FOLLOWING DAILY? – THE OBJECT OF OUR FOLLOWING.
This is a question that should naturally come when we are asked to follow. Our following will only be arbitrary if there is no object that is ahead and in sight i.e. not out of sight. I cannot ask for your followership, if I am not ahead of you. So who is our object? Who are we following? Who is the one that has gone ahead of us and has experienced the rain and the sun that dot the way? Is it one great man of God? Is it Elijah? Is it one great saint of old? It is my prayer that it shall be very clear to us whom we must follow in Jesus name. Amen.
It is important to note that if we must follow anybody, he must be such a person who has trod that same path before. The path which such a one bid us follow must be such that is marked by His footsteps (1 Peter 2:21). He must be someone with whom we can have personal communion with, who we can touch, feel and see (1 Jn 1:1-3). A following that is devoid of this is just arbitrary. That is why we have confusion in many religious circles, where the object which they claim to follow is not worthy of their followership-he is just a taskmaster demanding from them what he cannot do. But thank God our Jesus is not like that, in fact “we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are and yet without sin.” (Heb 4:15). He knows about the journey He is calling us into; He knows the how of following daily; Him that bid thee come is able to keep you from falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding Joy (Jude 24). See what is written in John 8:12, “then Jesus spoke to them saying, ‘I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”(NKJV) And it is also written in Hebrews 1:3 that “The Son (Christ) is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of His being, sustaining all things by His powerful word.”(NIV)
Therefore, Christ was sent in order to serve as our object of followership. Let us consider some additional scriptures that point to this fact.
In Matt 4:18-20 (cf Mk 1:16-20; Lk 5:1-11), Christ met Simon Peter and Andrew his brother in the middle of a very important business and asked them to follow Him in person. Note that He did not ask them to follow someone else before following Him. It was a personal encounter that Christ had with them and in the absence of such an encounter with Christ, following daily becomes impossible, in fact your submission to other forms of Christian leadership is a farce if you have not had a personal encounter with Christ. Do you know that the man of God that you claim you are following cannot access the vile thoughts, lust and covetousness that lie in the crevices of your heart? Yet you claim he is the mentor you are to follow. Listen to the voice of Jesus today if you must fulfill your purpose in life; if you must arrive at your eternal destination. Jesus says “follow me and I will make you” (Matt 4:19). Your making is in His hands and not with the man that is here today and gone tomorrow (1 Pet 1:24; Isa 40:6, 7). So why walk before man or why follow man whose breath is in his nostrils?
One would have thought that God would have asked Abram to walk/live habitually before his wife, his pastor, his friends or the public, but it was to be before Him, the Almighty God(Gen 17:1); who tries the intents of our hearts, the one who is in secret (Matt 6:6), who is Holy, True and Righteous(Rev. 4:8;16:7), the one who was, who is and is to come, before whom our times and days are not hidden(Job 24:1); He is there with you when you cheat your wife, when you steal from the coffers of the Church, when you gossip your friends, when you lust in your heart, when you disobey your parents, when you are negligent at duty, when you cheat in exams etc. It is before Him you must walk, it is Him you must follow daily if you must arrive your destination.
At this point I will like to ask if you have indeed made Him the object of your following, has He captured and captivated your heart? Know ye not that whosoever is born of God does not commit sin because His seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God (1 Jn.3:9). Are you born of God? Are you born again? Are you following Him daily? I hear Jesus crying out to you today “follow me and I will make you”. Why not bow your heart and cry to Him in penitence and total surrender. It is only at this point you can have access to this path which we are taking. In fact, Jesus said, He is the Door to the sheepfold (Jn 10:1, 2, 7). So enter through Christ your Saviour and Lord now if you must benefit from the rest of this study.
THE PATHWAY TO FOLLOW
Following daily encompasses the beginning, the pathway/journey and the destination. If there is no way to the destination or if there is no path to follow, then following daily becomes difficult. Therefore, it is pertinent for us to consult/ glean from the scripture to know the nature of this path.
In Matthew 7:13,14, two ways/paths are described but we will focus more on the narrow which has only been found by few. But if you are reading the lines of this study and you think it is enough for you to just enter in through the Door i.e. the strait gate which is Christ and continue in the broad way that accommodates all your worldliness and lust, then your destruction is imminent if you do not repent now.
Back to the path which we must follow if we will arrive at our destination. The Bible says it is narrow/difficult/vigorous/hard and few are they that find it. This path will not harbor the weights of worldliness, lusts, sinfulness and the flesh no matter how light they seem (Heb 12:1). It is a difficult way indeed such that many like Demas who started well left on the way because it did not accommodate their excesses (2Tim 4:10 cf. Col 4:14)
Beloved of God, maybe your eye used to be single, maybe heaven used to know you as their Ambassador and Pilgrim but now the love of money have made you to consciously or unconsciously enroll in the broad way that many are travelling through. Maybe you had a reputation that you were alive but you are dead (Rev 3:1); you have already sold your birthright for a pottage of worldliness. Repent and return now to the narrow way.
Though the road is narrow, there is grace for the journey. There is a crown to him that overcomes.
We shall now consider the pre-requisites for staying in this narrow path. Though described as being difficult, yet we have men who have gone ahead of us who are in the gallery of heaven as overcomers. Join me as we consider the pre-requisites/requirement for following daily to the end.
PRE-REQUISITES FOR FOLLOWING DAILY/THE COST OF FOLLOWING DAILY
First, I will like you to know that the foundation of God stands sure (2Tim 2:19), He does not change; His principles are the same both for them who have gone ahead and for us who are still running the race. Malachi 3:6 says “For I am the Lord, I change not: therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed” (cf. Heb 13:8). So God who bade our forebears follow Him is still the same God who is calling us with the same terms and conditions.
Beloved, “many walk, of whom I have told you before, and now telling you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: whose end is destruction, whose god is their belly, and whose glory is their shame, who mind earthly things”(Phil.3:18,19. KJV). Many who regard themselves as following Christ are just living for their belly/appetite i.e. what they will eat and what they think and glory about are entirely earthly things. So, if we will not be like these ones we must count the cost and fulfill the terms and conditions of following daily. We must not fail to realize that our citizenship is in heaven; from whence we look for the Saviour our Lord Jesus Christ (Phil 3:20).
Let us read the above scriptures i.e. Phil3:18, 19 from other versions before we consider the cost of following daily.
“For there are many, of whom I have often told you and now tell you with tears, who walk (live) as enemies of the cross of Christ (the Anointed One). They are doomed and their fate is eternal misery (perdition); their god is their stomach (their appetite, their sensuality) and they glory in their shame’ siding with earthly things and being of their party”. (Amplified)
“I have told you this many times before, and now I repeat it with tears: there are many whose lives make them enemies of Christ’s death on the cross. They are going to end up in hell, because their god is their bodily desires. They are proud of what they should be ashamed of, and they think of things that belong to this world”. (GN Bible)
If you are among them, you need to return to the cross for the crucifixion of your self life if you will not end in destruction. May God grant you understanding. Amen.
So what will our following daily cost us if we are not to end up like the many in the above scripture? Let us consider the following scriptures as we receive instructions from them.
“And He said to them all, if any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it”. (Lk 9:23, 24.KJV)
“And He said to all, if any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself (disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself) and take up his cross daily and follow Me (cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and if need be, in dying also). (Amplified)
“Then He told them what they could expect for themselves: ‘Anyone who intends to come with Me has to let Me lead. You’re not in the driver’s seat- I am. Don’t run from suffering; embrace it. Follow Me and I’ll show you how. Self help is not help at all. Self sacrifice is the way, to find yourself, your true self”. (Message)
Note the opening statement of Jesus in this passage-‘He said to all’. This shows us His all encompassing audience which includes you whether you are a pastor or a laity, whether you are a believer or an unbeliever, whatever is your category so far you are aiming to follow Jesus, He is speaking to you now in accents clear and still. The condition has been the same and will always be the same. It is the same for the young and the old and for men and women. It fits the category of whoever wills to follow Jesus.
Therefore whatever category you belong to Beloved, you must fulfill certain conditions of Christ whom we are following. Are you willing to follow Jesus all the days of your life then the following conditions are a must for you to fulfill; in fact you cannot follow Christ without fulfilling them. Maybe you think you’ve been following but you’ve now realized that your motive for following daily thus far has been earthly desires/attainment, I will implore you to join me as we consider this matter of utmost importance together.
The first matter for us to consider is “Let him deny himself”. Beloved this is the first issue to consider if you must follow daily. This literarily means that you should disown yourself i.e. you are no longer your own because Christ has bought you over. In 2 Corinthians 5:15, we realize that “Christ died for all, so that those who live should no longer live for themselves, but only for Him who died and was raised to life for their sake”.(GN Bible)
It is pertinent to note here that you do not belong to yourself, your family, the government or whosoever. In fact, Christ has bought you over completely.
Therefore you have to forget yourself, that is, lose sight of yourself and your own interests. Maybe before now all you’ve been existing for is only what you will eat, drink, wear etc, that is, your earthly desires. God is saying if you must follow Him, then you have to lose sight of them.
Beloved possibly because of the fear of losing your job you cannot even preach the gospel again; some are in relationships where in the bid to satisfy themselves they have lost sight of eternity. In fact, a man who cannot deny himself cannot actually live a holy life. Christ’s injunction to you is that if you must follow daily, then you must first lose sight of yourself and your interests. If you must see Christ clearly and know Him intimately, you must throw all about yourself into the trash can (Phil 3:4-8).
Your self will profit nothing because it is the Spirit that gives life. Remember Lot’s wife (Lk 17:32), how she refused to forget that part of her interest that was still in Sodom and she looked back only to become a monument. Remember how them that were bidden to that great feast were occupied with themselves and their positions at the feast (Lk 14:16-24). If you won’t also become a monument in this your lifetime and miss your place at the great feast of the Master then you must deny/forget about yourself. If before now what drives you/occupies your driver’s seat is the love for money, fame, comfort, ambition and all other selfish desires, they will only make you a monument on earth. If you must follow Christ into His eternal Kingdom, you must deny self; if you won’t fade away and be driven out of your own ’Garden of Eden’, you must deny self now, not tomorrow, not next year, now is the accepted time.
The second matter which we must consider/address before we can cleave steadfastly to Christ, conforming wholly to His example in living and, if need be, in dying also, is the matter of taking up our cross daily.
Our cross signifies our death. I am not talking about suicide here. I am talking about death to sin, self and the world. It is quite demanding, right? Yes it is, but there is grace for it. It is not by power nor by might but by the Spirit of God. There was a certain man, a scribe for that matter, who was well versed in the scriptures, and wanted to follow Jesus wherever He would go, in Matthew 8:19, 20. Christ had to tell him, ‘foxes have holes, and the birds of air have nests, but the son of man have not where to lay his head.’
Therefore you must carry your cross daily, the evidence that you have been crucified with Christ (Gal 2:20); that it is no longer about you and your desires. And this must be done daily if you must follow daily. You must die daily if you must follow daily. The cross you are taking up is not a penchant/necklace nor is it a hopeless situation; it is experiential in every aspect of your life because only Christ must be seen there. He does not share His glory with any man in whatever form. Many believers only pretend to carry their cross in the midst of other believers but when they are in their closet they indulge in all manner of worldliness and ungodly chatter. God cannot be mocked, beloved. If you must follow Christ daily, then you must carry your cross daily. You must be crucified to the world and the world to you, so that when He asks you to go to the warfront you will not look back only to realize you have jettisoned your daily cross along the way. May God grant you grace for this.
A man who is not carrying his cross daily can even seek spiritual gifts for self glorification using it to propagate his own kingdom on earth rather than God’s Kingdom. Repent and carry your cross daily and then you can follow Christ and become more like Him in your daily conversation/conduct. Brother Peter thought he could follow daily with his vain self confidence (Jn 13:37, 38) but he later denied Christ when he was tried. Vain is the help of man, so receive help from the Holy Spirit to carry your cross daily. Pause at this moment and pray about these issues. Let us pray!
THERE IS FOOD AND A REWARD FOR FOLLOWING DAILY
We shall conclude this study by considering the food and the reward for following daily.
A man especially when on a pilgrimage must have victuals for his journey. For us to follow daily we must be equipped with the necessary food for the journey. Many people will expect me to begin listing several things which are necessary for this journey if we must not faint and fade away. But I will just want to consider a singular matter which is all encompassing and it is the recommendation of Christ Himself.
Christ said unto them in John 6:35 “I am the Bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger: and he that believes on Me shall never thirst”.
Christ is the food for our journey and we must feed on Him if we will not faint on the way. Christ is the Word of God, He will teach us about prayer, humility, giving, the Holy Spirit… and everything that pertains to life and godliness. Everything written in the Bible is all about Christ. So feed on Him day and night for your journey in life. He alone can satisfy. He is the food that serves as the source of eternal strength to follow daily. I have not said you should not pray, fellowship with brethren or study the word of God but all I’m saying is that all these are just a fraction of Christ whom you must feed on daily and you shall be satisfied.
Let us consider the following scriptures as we conclude. “Then Peter began to say unto Him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. And Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”(Mk 10:28-30 cf. Lk 18:28-30)
Maybe you were saying like Peter that you have now left all in order to follow daily. Hear the words of Jesus Himself. He said, if really you have left your all in order to follow Him, there is reward for you. Not just an ordinary one but manifold rewards both in this life and in that which is to come as listed in the passage above. Beloved this is not a wasteful venture; you and I are witnesses to the fact that God fulfilled His eternal covenant with Abram after he walked/lived habitually before God as requested by Him in Genesis 17:1, 2.
As you forsake your all even your own life to follow Christ, great rewards including persecutions await you.
Join me as we sing the verses of this hymn written by William O. Cushing together.
Down in the valley with my Saviour I would go,
Where the flowers are blooming and the sweet waters flow;
Everywhere He leads me I would follow, follow on,
Walking in His footsteps till the crown be won.
Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus!
Anywhere, everywhere, I would follow on!
Follow! Follow! I would follow Jesus!
Everywhere He leads me I would follow on.
Down in the valley with my Saviour I would go,
Where the storms are sweeping and the dark waters flow;
With His hand to lead I will never, never fear,
Dangers cannot fright me if my Lord is near.
Down in the valley or upon the mountain steep,
Close beside my Saviour would my soul ever keep;
He would lead me safely in the path that He has trod,
Up to where they gather on the hills of God.
Grace to thee Beloved of God. Let us pray!
