PERSISTENCE DILIGENCE AND OBEDIENCE

Salvation is not just about believing  in Jesus  Christ, it is a journey. Jesus

invites everybody to follow Him and have eternal life,  but
very few stay with  Jesus and endure with Him until the
end. It requires PERSISTENCE and DILIGENCE to stay with
Jesus until the end. You will have to
use all your strength and you will have to hang on to Jesus
for dear life, because without Him you will not be able to make
it. Your journey with Jesus starts when you accept Him as you Lord and Master,

and from then onwards you have to submit to Him and obey
Him, every step of the way, until the end. Nobody can snatch you
out of His  hand, but if you decide to leave Him or
disobeying Him, He will not stop you. Jesus
will not accommodate your opinion, your preferences or
feelings. You either obey and follow  Him or you part ways with
Him, in which case, you are heading for destruction. You
cannot follow Jesus if you do not absolutely trust and obey
Him. 

First
you have to REPENT  and BE BAPTIZED. To repent  means to
TURN from SIN and from your previous way of living, going after your
selfish desires, ambitions and the pleasures of sin. You cannot
follow Jesus if you are still going after those things. You have to
give up your rights and privileges of self-determination. You have to
totally submit to Jesus and DIE to SELF so that you can LIVE FOR
Jesus and follow Him. Once you have REPENTED you have to be baptized
in water for the remission, the cancellation of debt, of
your past sins. You cannot follow Jesus, if you have not been
baptized for the remission of your sins. Then you have to
live holy and sin no more.

You have to live in obedience to the teachings and commandments of
Jesus, HIS WORDS, as they were also recorded in Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John. 

Jesus promised the baptism in the Holy Spirit to those who wish to
follow Him and have therefor obeyed Him, repented and been baptized.
The Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, will come and dwell IN THEM
and GUIDE them so that they can FOLLOW Jesus and DO what He requires
of them, the WORKS that He has prepared for them to do. You cannot
follow Jesus, if you have not received the Holy Spirit. “Those who
are being led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.”
Romans 8:14. 

If we wish to follow Jesus and have eternal life, WE have to
continuously SEEK Him in PRAYER. We have to seek the baptism in the
Holy Spirit so that we can experience the indwelling presence and
guidance of Jesus, through the Holy Spirit in us. We have to live
holy and reserve ourselves to Jesus. If we should sin and disobey
Him, we will GRIEVE the Holy Spirit and He might stop speaking to us.
We have to seek His guidance and obey Him. “Without faith it is
impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe
that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who
diligently seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6. 

Our faith will be tested. Our loyalty to Jesus will be tested. Our
obedience and perseverance will be tested. We have to be persistent
in all circumstances and never give up, no matter what our
circumstances are. We must be faithful in our devotion to Jesus,
praying, seeking Him, keep our mind on Him, expecting Him. Listening
to Him and staying tuned in to Him. He will fill us with His thoughts
as we desire and yearn for Him. He will not force Himself on us. We
have to diligently seek Him, trust in Him, expect Him, even though
things around us do not look favorable or do not work out as we hoped
or expected.. 

Jesus will always be with us. He will not leave us, even in sickness,
pain, misfortune, disappointment, heartbreak, sadness, Jesus is
there. If we stay focused on Him, we will recognize His hand and hear
His voice. He will teach and guide us in many ways. Often things will
not work out the way that we hoped or expected. Keep trusting Him. He
knows what He is doing, and He makes all things work together for
good, for those who love Him and seek Him, because they are called
for His purpose. He will give us understanding and wisdom, if we stay
with Him. He will give us the power to endure and pass every test so
that we can win the prize of eternal life in the end. 

We need to be persistent, diligent and obedient, never give up.
Endure until the end. There is a prize for over-comers. We have to
stay with Jesus until the end, because without Him, we cannot make
it.  Without Jesus, we can do nothing. 

Have you started the journey, following Jesus? Are you following and
obeying every day? Are you persistent and diligent, seeking and doing
His will? Do you still have the hope of eternal life? 

May Jesus bless you. 

Christian Survivors are Few

When you accept Jesus Christ and commit to follow Him, you enter a war zone. All the forces of evil will come against you to stop you from following Jesus. Jesus warned that

the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Many start following Jesus but very few endure with Jesus until the end. Without Jesus we can do nothing. If we do not stay with Jesus and endure with Him until the end, we will not suvive and enter into heaven.

Are we following Jesus on the straight and narrow road? Are we surviving?



May Jesus bless you.

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.

How far to go with Jesus?

The world has been deceived with the preaching of various versions of easy salvation, easy gospels, but those are not the truth. Those are not the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Many believe that they only have to believe in Jesus Christ for salvation. That is not what Jesus Christ preached. If we believe that Jesus Christ is indeed the Savior then we have to OBEY Him, OBEY His words, OBEY His teachings. We have to become DISCIPLES like those who followed Him. If we do not OBEY Jesus Christ and if we do not go with Him all the way then we will not have salvation, we will not have eternal life. Jesus Christ IS the WAY the TRUTH and the LIFE and He gives LIFE, ETERNAL LIFE to those who OBEY Him. It is not just a matter of believing in Him. We have to REPENT and TURN AWAY from sin. We have to turn away from living our lives to please ourselves. We have to DIE to self. We have to be born again of the Spirit of God but we have to DIE first TO ourselves so that we can live FOR Jesus. We have to live holy and righteous. We have to be baptized in water like Jesus Himself was baptized in water. We have to forsake ourselves, our own plans, our own ambitions, die to this world and the things of the world so that we can live for Christ. We have to endure with Him until the end. We have to go with Him ALL THE WAY until the very end.

The gospel of Jesus Christ  is plain and simple. It is clear. It is His teachings, the words that He spoke as they were also recorded in the gospels by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Those are the words of eternal life for those who OBEY them and just like the disciples OBEYED Him we will have to OBEY Him and endure with Him until the very end to have salvation. There is no easy salvation. Jesus warned:"Narrow is the door, straight is the gate, that leads to life and few there be that find it." He said:"SIN NO MORE." "Be PERFECT like your Father in heaven is perfect." "Every branch in Him that does not bear good fruit will get cut off and burned. Believers that do not obey Jesus and do not bear fruit of righteousness and holiness and obedience to Him will get cut off and burned. They will not be saved!

There is only one gospel that saves and that is the gospel of Jesus Christ. Go and read it for yourself in Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and see how you compare. Are you living up to the gospel of Jesus Christ? Did you repent? Have you been baptized in water? Have you died to self? Have you forsaken yourself? Are you living FOR Jesus Christ? Have you received the baptism in the Holy Spirit? Do you KNOW the Master's voice and are you following Him every day? Are you on the straight and narrow road or have you been deceived by the easy lying gospels that will take many people to hell?

There is only one way and that is OBEY JESUS CHRIST. Get to know Him for real. He will say to many believers in that day that they die:"Go away  I never knew you, you workers of wickedness." If you do not get to know Him now and do not follow Him until the very end  YOU WILL PERISH!

We have to live to please Jesus and serve Him as King, Lord and Master NOW already or else we will not have eternal life.

Are you following Jesus HIS WAY according to His words, His gospel? Will you endure with Jesus until the very end?

May Jesus bless you.

Starting is Easy

To start following Jesus Christ is easy but to endure with Jesus until the very end is very difficult and very few people do it. If we truly love Jesus Christ we will OBEY Him.

We will pay a price to follow Jesus Christ. It is not always easy. The further you go, the more difficult it becomes and most people drop out. They stop following Jesus Christ. Many become religious but very few stay focused on Jesus Christ. Very few go with Jesus all the way. Very few are willing to OBEY Him. Very few are willing to be baptized in water and even fewer want His guidance. They don't want His interference in their lives, they want to live their own lives.

If we want to have eternal life we have to follow Jesus Christ until the end. we have to deny ourselves, pick up our cross every day and follow Him through all circumstances. Jesus Christ is faithful. He will never leave us, He will never forsake us but if we turn away from Him and go our own way we then we will lose Him. Only those who endure with Jesus until the end, only those who are faithful until the very end, only they will have the prize of eternal life.

Are we running the race with endurance? Will we stay with Jesus Christ until the very end?

May Jesus bless you.

Have you learned the LESSON?

Those who follow and who obey Jesus Christ and who endure until the end will enter the Kingdom of Heaven through MUCH SUFFERING. Jesus teaches us through SUFFERING because we learn through that which we SUFFER. There is no other way to learn but to suffer and therefor those who follow Jesus Christ will be put through suffering, with good reason, so that we can be transformed and changed into His likeness.

If we are not willing to endure suffering and hardship then we will not follow Jesus Christ, we will not be willing to follow Him, we will turn away and we will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus OFTEN puts us through suffering to TEACH US A LESSON. He puts ALL of His children through suffering but some of them never learn the lesson. They suffer in vain and in the end they will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven.

When we experience suffering we have to PRAY and ASK Jesus and say:”Lord, what must I learn from this?“ Because it is through suffering that He teaches us, He molds us and He makes us into His likeness, He makes us useful for His Kingdom. Jesus Christ Himself, even though He was a son, LEARNED THROUGH THAT WHICH HE SUFFERED. If we are not willing to suffer for the Kingdom of God then we will not enter, we will not be worthy.

Many believers suffer in vain because they DO NOT LEARN, they do not gain understanding. Instead of humbling themselves before Jesus and learning from the experience they try to run away, they try to find their own ways and means to get out of the suffering. They run to the doctor, they run to other people, they look for other reasons, causes for the suffering instead of bowing before Jesus, asking HIM and GAINING UNDERSTANDING.

Once we have learned our lesson from the suffering then we overcome. Many people do not learn from their suffering, they reject and hate God. Have you learned from your suffering or are you suffering in vain?

May Jesus bless you.

More POWER

Those of us who follow Jesus Christ and have the HOPE of eternal life have to endure until the end, we have to overcome and we have to DO what Jesus requires of us. Many people say that they do not have the power to stop sinning, they do not have the power to resist temptation.

All POWER and all authority belongs to Jesus and all the power that we have comes from Jesus, and He GIVES POWER to those who ASK Him, who SEEK Him. We have to OVERCOME, it is only overcomers who will have the prize of eternal life. Jesus will give us the POWER to overcome if we ASK Him. We have to SUBMIT to Jesus, whatever our problem is and we must RESIST THE DEVIL, STAND in the Name of Jesus and when our power runs out then Jesus will give us the power to overcome.

We FIRST have to STAND with ALL the power that is in us and when it feels that we cannot endure any more then the POWER OF JESUS comes in and we overcome! We HAVE TO overcome. If we need more power we need to PRAY MORE and Jesus will give us the power to overcome.

May Jesus bless you.

THE MOST GRUELING CONTEST ON EARTH

The MOST GRUELING CONTEST in the whole world also carries the biggest possible prize and that is the PRIZE of ETERNAL LIFE. The contest is: FOLLOWING Jesus Christ. If we want eternal life we HAVE TO obey Jesus Christ and follow Him. If we want to win the prize we have to COMPLY WITH THE RULES. The rules are the words of Jesus Christ, the words that He spoke as they are also recorded in the gospels Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Very few people will win that prize because very few are willing to obey Jesus, to deny themselves every day, pick up their cross and GO AFTER HIM until the very very end. Many people believe that they ARE SAVED and they HAVE SALVATION, they ARE DECEIVED by the devil.

You cannot win the prize unless you complete the race, unless you complete the contest SUCCESSFULLY. There is only ONE WAY to win the prize, to have eternal life and that is to FOLLOW and OBEY Jesus Christ EVERY DAY. That is EXTREMELY DIFFICULT. Without Jesus you cannot do it and that is why so many Christians say it is impossible to STOP SINNING. You HAVE TO STOP SINNING, you HAVE TO obey the words of Jesus or else you WILL NOT win the prize, you WILL NOT have eternal life. You have to compete according to the rules, according to the words of Jesus.

Most Christians are not even in the contest, they have never entered, they DON'T KNOW JESUS! If you want eternal life you have to OBEY Jesus and WALK WITH HIM. REPENT and STOP SINNING, BE BAPTIZED IN WATER and OBEY Jesus, FOLLOW Him and He will REVEAL HIMSELF to you. He will give His Spirit, the HOLY SPIRIT to dwell in you, to GUIDE YOU every step of the way BUT if you do not follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit you WON'T MAKE IT! You will fail!

Most Christians don't know Jesus, most Christians are on their way to hell and they believe that they have salvation. They are deceived. Are you in the contest? Are you following Jesus Christ every day according to the rules? Are you OVERCOMING? Are you WITH JESUS every step of the way?

May Jesus bless you.

Driving Force

Jesus does not promise us a bed of roses or an easy ride if we follow Him. He said that:”Whoever wishes to come after Me must deny himself, pick up his cross every day and come here, follow Me.” when you decide to follow Jesus you embark on a steep and rough road but IF you endure until the end you will have the prize of eternal life.

What is it that motivates a child of God to keep on following Jesus every day? It is the prize of eternal life. It is the treasure that he is building up in heaven. If we look back and we long for the things of the world, the fleshpots of Egypt, the pleasures of sin then we are not worthy of the kingdom of God, we are not worthy of Jesus. Jesus said that whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of Me.

Are you on that rough and steep road? Do you deny yourself every day, pick up your cross and follow Jesus even though things are tough? Are you working on your treasure in heaven? Do you have an expectation or will you stand naked before Jesus on judgment day?

May Jesus bless you.