Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name drive out demons and perform many miracles?’ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’

Matthew 7:21-23

The Way is not power, it is faithfulness.  The path is not promotion, it is servant-hood.  The gift is not yours, it is theirs (2 Corinthians 1:6).  The road is not wide, it is narrow.

Jesus said plainly, unless you hate father, mother, sister, brother, children, spouse, even your own life, you cannot be His disciple (Luke 14:26).  He said quite distinctly that if you love someone else more than Him, you are not worthy of Him (Matthew 10:37).

What is the way to to preserve your life, according to Jesus?  To lose it.  What have we seen demonstrated time and again by too many public ministers to mention?  The opposite.

When your apostleship begins to look like Paul’s did, I think you are on to something.

 For I think that God hath set forth us the apostles last, as it were appointed to death: for we are made a spectacle unto the world, and to angels, and to men.

1 Corinthians 4:9

Let’s set the record straight here.  Who set forth the apostles last, as it were?  Who did this?  “God hath”.  God did.  If for no other reason, than what was revealed to Paul, “[M]y strength is made perfect in weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9, portion).  Or, as Jesus put it, “Most Happy are the Poor in Spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  (Matthew 5:3).

And, for all of this, we come back down to one of the most simply understood scriptures of them all.

Matthew 13:44

The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again; and from joy over it he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.

This scripture is one least fraught with controversy in this chapter, and yet proves all of the rest.  If people would simply believe what they say they believe when they say that “hate” in Luke 14:26 (above) means ONLY the same as, love no one more than Jesus.  For, if they did the latter (love no one greater), eventually, they would be FORCED to the do the former (hate), guaranteed.  Yet, why, at the end of the day, would anyone want to be an apostle, if it was such a miserable life as a human being?  Paul never complained.  He knew how to be content.  Yet, more than that, he endured as one seeing Him who is unseen (Hebrews 11:27).  He endured, knowing the joys set before him.  He lost it all to follow Jesus, as the other apostles before him (Luke 18:28).  But, like the treasure in the field, he KNEW it was WORTH it.  He was not left empty, but was filled with the Holy Ghost more than most of us.

Little earthly possessions outside of the clothes on the back.  You can’t keep any of it.  Life does not consist in the abundance of possessions (Luke 12:15).  Little in the way of security.  The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.  (Psalm 23:1).  Never knowing where food or clothing or shelter would come for.  But seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.  (Matthew 6:33).  Being shipwrecked, cast aside, put in prison, stone, beaten, left for dead.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. (2 Corinthians 4:16).

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, so that the surpassing greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves; we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us, but life in you.

2 Corinthians 4:7-12

Why could Paul boast in his sufferings?  Surely, it wasn’t pride.  It wasn’t an arrogance, or a self-righteousness for having suffered.

He was a dead man.  Crucified with Christ, living only by the faith in the gospel.  Why could Paul, one of the most profoundly grateful men in the world, to have persecuted the church as he did, and yet to have found such incredible grace and mercy at the cross, a murder, yet redeemed, boast in suffering?  Because it wasn’t his lot, and yet, so long as he stayed there, the Kingdom came forth.

Jesus, in His righteousness, had taken all of Paul’s sin, as He has for all who believe.  As Paul followed after Christ, the blessings denied to Jesus Himself were Paul’s, through Christ’s righteousness.  And such, as they were denied for Paul, a righteous man in the eyes of the Father through the self-same blood, God’s righteous justice meted out an even greater mercy upon those Paul served.  The comfort Paul himself deserved became another’s, and the only comfort Paul knew, in this life, was a life with a Spirit called Holy, and a communion with a God called Divine.

And, as Jesus said of Mary in Luke 10:42, Paul had chosen the better part, and it would not be taken away.  Paul, although perhaps one of the most miserable lives a human could live without God, lived it with joy, humility, and grace.  Paul, in the embrace of love, knew freedom, the likes of which few have ever known.  What he “lost” here on this Earth was but a passing shadow.  The anointing he had could have made him millions of dollars, but he chose to regard disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt, because he was looking ahead to his reward (Hebrews 11:26).  Why settle for today, when you can have forever, even if it’s with a little pain.

Paul was never sorry for his “business deal”, in selling all he had for the treasure that apprehended him on the road to Damascus.  Paul never looked back like Lot’s wife, at complete burning and destruction of his past life.  He never looked back.

The road home, into Eternity, into the greater work, is the path of death.  Until you hate this life, you will always live it.  Until you hate the things that manipulate your life, they will always guide you.  Until you are willing to die, the enemy will always control you, until you look him in the eye, and say, no more.  Not today.  Until you shout in the Name of the Lord and say, you have defied the armies of the living God, and He will deliver you into my hands.  And, if you die, you die in Faith, but that is a martyr’s crown.  Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints (Psalm 116:15).

And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.

Revelation 12:11

A walk that stops short of the last part of this verse falls short of the fullness.

The way is paved with love, it infused with servant-hood.  It is marked with sacrifice, and it is undergirded with His Spirit.

If you find a walk you can walk without Him, it is not His.  The way is impossible without the Spirit, and yet, chosen in Him, it is worth more than any life of the flesh and the pleasure of this world could ever be.  To never be alone, to never be cold or dead inside, to always have your needs fulfilled, and the desires of your heart given (Psalm 37:4).  To be pure, and holy, and clean.  Human, yet more so (2 Corinthians 5:17).