What is the Point?: Discovering Life's Deeper Meaning and Purpose (15 page)

Yes, it is shocking. He wants us to be in, all the way, without an escape hatch and without looking back. There is no other human relationship that can be used to demonstrate this kind of abandonment. You do not leave everything for your father or your brother, but you do for marriage. It has nothing to do with being male or female. It has to do with proximity to His heart and oneness with Him, like David, John the Beloved, and the apostle Paul, who left all to cling to Him.

There are times in our lives where He asks us to do extravagant things that even seem risky at first, but we were made for the exhilaration of this kind of wholeheartedness. He wants you to trust Him with everything, and that is why the lifestyle of the cross is so powerful. It is the lifestyle of leaning upon the invisible one. Men and women who do this wholeheartedly, holding nothing back, are like beacons in the night of the world. These men and women stand out in history as burning and shining lamps. These are the kind of people who touch the heart of Jesus and change the world.

S
ELF
-D
ENIAL

If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.

—L
UKE
9:23

These are the words of Jesus, the Bridegroom Himself. In our Western culture, to deny oneself seems almost sacrilegious. It is often the “sacred cow” that people will never touch. Often people in the church and outside of the church think of denying yourself as horrifying and even wrong. Yet Jesus, as Creator and Bridegroom, is telling us that self-denial is the way to follow Him. He says we must take up a cross and deny ourselves. Remember, this is Love Himself talking, and this self-denial is based on our desire to be with Him. He knows the way our hearts work the best, and He knows the way to bring us forth in love.

We were made to live for someone bigger, someone greater, and something outside of ourselves. We want a purpose that exceeds our lives. We applaud noble men in movies who sacrifice their comfort for a cause. We cry over stories about people who fought to the death in order to gain victory or freedom for their countries. We love the romances of people who gave all for love. We clamor to stories of heroic virtue and mesmerizing sacrifice, but when it comes time to be what we admire, it’s a whole different story.

It is the lifestyle of self-denial and wholehearted abandonment that is the lifestyle of love. Love cannot be defined any other way. Today loving God is often defined by what He can do for us or how comfortable He can make us. It is selfish, feel good, and centered around “me.” God does many things for us, but we are most satisfied in satisfying Him. So when we give Him wholeheartedness, we are blessed, and it is good.

All of His blessings are good. We should love them! But we should want to be caught up in the one thing that we can give Him—our love expressed in a life poured out. We are His inheritance (Ps. 2:8), and we need to get caught up in being His. We are the prize that was before Him, and we want a walk that is worthy of this calling (2 Thess. 1:11).

P
AUL

Paul said that he was crucified with Christ. He said, “I die daily” (1 Cor. 15:31). Paul lived the most selfless life, and this is what the Father was looking for in Psalm 45:10–11. This is what Jesus is drawn to and these are the people He calls friend. Paul said he was first in authority and last in privilege (1 Cor. 4:9; 12:28). He was a slave. He said he was a slave of Christ (Gal. 1:10). He saw himself bound to Jesus. All of His accomplishments, he thought of as rubbish (Phil. 3:8); he didn’t even want to boast of them. Instead he boasted like this:

I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeys often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils of my own countrymen, in perils of the Gentiles, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren; in weariness and toil, in sleeplessness often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.

—2 C
ORINTHIANS
11:23–27

He endured persecution for Jesus because of His love and abandonment to Him. Persecution and trial are not the only way to show abandonment to Jesus, but they are one way that many of His friends have laid down their lives for Him. For those of us who are not being persecuted, we have a different challenge. We have to find ways to express love through obedience, and it often involves denying aspects of our comfort and ease, even in the midst of great excess.

T
HE
L
IFESTYLE OF
F
ASTING

How do we live a life of self-denial and love in a modern world? How we do this? Mike Bickle calls it “the fasted lifestyle” and has written a book titled
The Rewards of Fasting
, which explores some of the ways we can take up our cross here in the West.

Today in America and in most Western civilizations we live in a wealth of distractions with much ease and an abundance of wealth, food, pleasure, and comfort. Many of us have little comprehension what true sacrifice means. We struggle to give 10 percent in a tithe, and we live in fear of losing small comforts, but the Lord is going to challenge us in this, because it is an issue of trust, which is an aspect of love. To love Him, we trust Him. We want to voluntarily transfer our trust from our wealth and strength to His in order to encounter His mighty hand. Our pennies for His limitless resource; our tiny strength for His endless might—it’s a beautiful exchange.

V
OLUNTARY
W
EAKNESS

There are many ways that we live a lifestyle of fasting. We fast with the intention to express love while putting ourselves in position for the grace of God to receive an increased capacity for love. It’s like we are increasing the space in our hearts and lives for God. Fasting includes fasting food and the areas of time, word, energy, money, and influence. So many dynamics happen psychologically, physically, emotionally, and relationally when we fast in these areas. The issue of fasting is nonnegotiable for all who want to grow spiritually in a dynamic way. God knows that there are human dynamics that happen in us, and if we don’t fast, those dynamics won’t happen. The great psychologist calls us to fast because He understands the human spirit. His command to fast in these areas is a statement about how the human heart works, not a statement about God trying to get us to be tough.

Some talk about fasting as if God is a stern master warning us to pay the price and “get with it or else.” No, the Lord is calling us to fast as the Creator and architect of the human spirit. He knows how we function, and He knows the dynamics that happen when we deny ourselves in these arenas. Many people don’t buy into this, and they have very little spiritual maturity even after decades of walking with Jesus.

Jesus tells us that fasting is directly related to experiencing His presence (Matt. 9:15). It is about love. If we give ourselves to Him in this way, we can have a greater grace to love Him. We are going to heaven, but I want the anointing to love Him in this age to the full degree that God will give me. He says, “With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given” (Mark 4:24).

Jesus said to Paul, “My strength is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Cor. 12:9). How would you like to walk in perfected strength? He says, “You want it? Embrace weakness. Lay your strength aside, and you will experience more of My perfected strength in this age.”

What Jesus is not saying is, “My strength is made perfect in your moral failure.” He is not talking about sin. He is talking about the lifestyle of fasting. The weakness that Paul was embracing was preaching the gospel in a hostile area. The Lord was saying, “Paul, I am going to give you perfected strength, because you are laying down your strength in order to trust Me. I will return the strength to you.” Paul said, “I boast in my weakness so that the power of God would increase in my experience.” (See 2 Corinthians 12:9.) He is saying, “When I fast more and embrace voluntary weakness, I experience more power in this age.”

When we live in a lifestyle of fasting, we experience God in power and in love to a far greater measure. There is no significant way forward without a lifestyle of fasting. I want more than the introductions of the faith; I want the deep things.

The greatest men of God all lived in a lifestyle of fasting—Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist, Paul the apostle, just to name a few. If you had seen them and didn’t know they would soon be in the Bible, they wouldn’t have looked important in the eyes of men. But these are the ones God called “great.” John the Baptist was the greatest man ever born of a woman (Matt. 11:11), and he spent years in a lifestyle of fasting for a very short ministry. If he was in ministry today, he would be written off as a failure, but Jesus esteemed him highly.

Forget what everyone else is telling you. The standard of Scripture is the only standard to live by. Burn all of the bridges and look for ways to deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow Jesus. Go all the way.

I can’t love God and deny myself, gritting my teeth the whole time. I need help, and the Spirit will help me in whatever measure I want. Instead of asking how much I can get away with and still go to heaven, I am asking the Holy Spirit, “How far will You let me go? How abandoned will You let me be?” I want to go all the way. I cry out for grace and supernatural help, and He gives it.

W
HAT
W
OULD A
M
AN
G
IVE FOR
L
OVE
?

Paul the apostle counted it all as loss for the upward call of knowing Christ: “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ . . . for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ . . . ” (Phil. 3:8). He didn’t want people to applaud him for his past accomplishments or even for His radical obedience to Jesus. He didn’t see it as noble or lofty. It is what people who are filled with love do. It is what people who have seen the worth of Jesus do. Once you catch a glimpse of Jesus, your faith grows to where you actually believe the things you are saying, and your entire life is changed. Paul spoke of this love that will pay any price. He laid down his open doors of opportunity, he served in a rigorous way, he was persecuted for it, and he lost his comfort, but he didn’t even think twice because he had seen the worth of Jesus.

In the same passage that speaks about putting Jesus like a seal on our hearts, the writer goes on to speak of love like this: “If a man would give for love all the wealth of his house, it would be utterly despised” (Song of Sol. 8:7). A man who loves would give all of the wealth of his house for the sake of love, and he would utterly despise the recognition as though he did something noble. Think about it. If a man had a child who was dying and there was a cure for that child’s illness, but it would cost the father all of his savings, all of his property, and every financial security that man had, and he would have to move across the world in order to get a hold of this cure, he would do it, and we would applaud him. But he wouldn’t feel noble. He would despise the recognition and say, “What? Noble? I love my child. To give up my wealth is nothing compared to being able to save my child.”

This is how people in love live. What would we not give up in order to follow Jesus? There is nothing that compares to being with Him and pleasing Him. There is nothing that compares. It is about desire not nobility when a man or a woman gives up all to follow Him. Only people who cannot see the worth of Jesus cannot understand why a person would give everything to follow Him.

I need to see Him more clearly in order to be more abandoned. My lack of wholeheartedness is because of my lack of sight. I cry out for sight, so that I can see the beauty and worth of Jesus and then respond in extravagance. Jesus literally wants everything. The truth is, this is what you want too. The books and movies are filled with stories of people who have gone to extremes to express love. It is a story that is written on our hearts, and when we really live it, we feel most alive. The reward of love is found in possessing the ability to love. This is our primary created purpose, and when we have the capacity to love, as the Creator defines love, we are most satisfied and most fully alive. The highest reward of true love is found in possessing the love itself. The anointing to love God is our greatest reward. Those who are wealthy in love do not look at price tags. No sacrifice is comparable to what He gives us in His love.

“ . . .
OF
W
HOM THE
W
ORLD
I
S
N
OT
W
ORTHY
” (H
EB
. 11:38)

Men or women who have this kind of faith and are convinced that Jesus is watching them make it their life aim to please Him and become radical in their desire and dedication. We live as strangers in this world (Heb. 11:13). We are pilgrims, not of this world, but going through it as ambassadors of another age. We are missionaries on a mission as “friends of the Bridegroom” to prepare the bride for the wedding. We are not here to build our castles in the sand or to make a name for ourselves. We are in constant motion, moving toward something that is yet to come. Life today is of extreme value, and much of what we do has continuity to the age to come. That is why life is powerful, but we are those who are anchored with a hope and a future not shaken by the rise and fall of what the world has to offer.

The economic crisis, coming persecution, chaos between social classes, godless politics, or corrupt governments of the world are not the end of the story. We want to impact these things in order to bring more people to their primary hope, which is yet in the future. We walk as pilgrims unattached to things of this world, not disinterested or uninvolved, but at the heart level we are free from the entanglement and snare of the fear of these things, because we know where we are going. The world is not worthy of men and women who live in this kind of faith (Heb. 11:38).