*Lose your LIFE for the right cause = You shall find it!*
`“For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”Mathew 16:25`
Consider the picture of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. Millions of people were in the city under the government of Nebuchadnezzar. Of course Nebuchadnezzar is self. Nebuchadnezzar symbolizes your lust, your fleshly desires, your pride, your secrets. Nebuchadnezzar is that particular fleshly thing that doesn’t want you to be unique and to stand out from the crowd. These men stood out from the midst of millions of people that had bowed down to the graven image of the king. There were hundreds of thousands of people who bowed down to the graven image. But they stood out. They said; _“O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”Daniel 3:16-18_
They said, “we will not, we are not going to, we certainly will never bow to another God made by hands. Our worship is unto God, we will not bow at your threats, we will die for what we believe in.” In that very moment, they denied themselves. They renounced themselves. They disowned themselves. They took on the cross; the cross of tribulations, the cross of public execution, the cross of public humiliation, the cross to be cast into a burning fire. The day you stand for Jesus is the day you qualify to take on the cross. How then will you step into the journey to eternity if you do not deny the worship of the King of Nebuchadnezzar? If you do not renounce the worship of the systems of this world? Until we are willing to come out of the system of this world, until we cease to conform to the systems of this world, how then shall we transform?
These men were threatened with death. They were told that if they did not bow to the graven image of the king they would be killed. And now, in the New Testament; Jesus also says the same thing. That the moment you deny yourself, the moment you renounce yourself, the moment you disown yourself, the moment you cut yourself off from the seduction of Jezebel, from the seducing spirits of the systems of the world, then you will take up your cross. And when you take up your cross, you will lose your life. You will destroy your flesh. You will annihilate your flesh.
Your brother in Christ,
Apostle Ashok Martin