Extreme Endurance - Few Survivors

Following Jesus is never easy because God puts you on the spot. God will test you. God will try you. So if you want to follow Jesus, my friend, don't expect any shortcuts. Don't expect Him to go it easy on you ether because God Himself never went easy on His Son, Jesus Christ. God will never take you the short road, He won't take you the easy way. He won't give things to you easily. He won't spoil you. God is not like earthly fathers who spoil their kids and then they grow up rotten, because God knows what is inside of us. He forces us to do it the difficult way, to do it the proper way, not to take shortcuts. In that way He works character in us. God does not tolerate laziness. Revelation always brings blood, sweat and tears because God will reveal things to you that are maybe wrong in your life. He will reveal to you things that stand between you and Him and you might have to go and do correction, you have got to go back on your tracks, go and ask people for forgiveness.
My friend, God will never make it easy on you . People who say that they live in revelation from God, they live in pain. They live in suffering. Jesus Christ, who is the Son of God learned through what He suffered, even though He was perfect. God made it extremely difficult on Him but that is the way that God will treat all those whom He loves. If anybody tells you that God will play it soft on you and make it easy on you they don't know God. They just don't know God because God knows man. God knows the wickedness in us and He knows if He makes it easy on us then we will start becoming smart, we will become hypocrites, we will think it is ME, I did this, I am the smart guy. That is why God took Israel through the desert to the promised land and they didn't make it because they could not take the chastisement of God. They could not take getting to know His ways and they whined and they complained and they longed to go back to the flesh pots of Egypt. The majority of Christians won't make it. They will long for their TV and their programs and their idols and their creature comforts and their lusts, they won't make it. They won't make the test.
My friend, when you walk with God, God will make it tough on you because you will have to prove your mettle, you will have to be proven as a worthy son of God. It's for free to enroll, my friend, but then the hard work starts. God won't make it easy on you. He hasn't made it easy on anybody. Why should He? It is the biggest prize, eternal life in Christ Jesus and if we want to go through that narrow door we will suffer.
It will not be easy. It is a narrow door. It is a lonely road. It is a road that you traverse alone with God, not with many friends. Not many people want to go along with you. They say you are crazy. But God will prove you, my friend. He will prove that you are a son of God, that you have endured until the end, that you have guts, that you have determination, that you truly love Him. You have got to obey God under the worst of circumstances. It's easy to be a fair weather Christian. There are many of them but the moment that things go wrong they go back to the world, they turn their back on God. It's not easy, my friend. God will not make it easy on anybody.
God will give you revelations but that revelation will tax you. It will make you work hard. It will bring you pain, it will bring you suffering. It will bring you discomfort. It will take you out of your comfort zone so that you can learn to trust God and not in in your own means, not in your own resources. He will take you where you know nobody, where you have got no resources, where you have no crutches and then you will know God is GOD, He is REAL. He will never let you down, my friend. God will never ever let you down but if we put our hand to the plow and we look back we are not worthy of the kingdom of God and then God will have no pleasure in us, my friend.
Most Christians have never even started walking the walk. They are not following Jesus. they think they are saved but they are not following Him.
My friend if you have got an easy time you are not following Jesus because He will tax you. Every step of the way will be tough. Many days you will not know which way to go, it will be pure darkness around you . You will need God. You will cry out to Him, you will say "LORD HELP ME" and He will say:"I AM HERE, I WILL HELP YOU." He will not take you the easy way, my friend. God will take you the difficult road so that you can learn to trust Him. He knows our wicked nature. He knows that we trust in the flesh. He will give us things to do that are too difficult and really impossible for our own resources. He will tell you to do it. He told Moses to speak to the rock, to produce water. Since when do you speak to a rock to produce water? But God told him to do it. He said to Peter:"Come walk on the water." Since when does a man walk on water? But he obeyed Jesus. You have got to learn to trust God and to obey Him, my friend, and if you are not willing to trust God and obey Him you cannot follow Him. That is the narrow road. That is the road of discipleship. That is the road of obedience, my friend. and that is why Jesus said that very few, very few will find that narrow door. Very few, my friend. It's not just about believing in Jesus. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you? Well, then follow Him. Prove that you trust Him. Prove that you trust Jesus. Just follow Him wherever He tells you to go and He knows whether He sent you or whether you just withdraw and say:"I am not going there. I am not doing that! testifying ? Talk about Jesus in front of my boss? You have got to be crazy. I will lose my job." You lost out, my friend. You denied Christ. You did not pass the test. Ask the Lord to give you another opportunity to prove that you truly love Him.
My friend, you will be tested. You will be tried and you will have to pass those tests and don't think they are going to get easier. They are going to get more and more difficult the further you go. the road will get narrower and steeper and the company will become less because not many are on that road. They are very few, my friend but there is One who will never leave you and that is Jesus Christ. are you willing to walk with Him? He is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE, my friend, there is only ONE WAY, Jesus Christ.
May Jesus bless you.