Arrogance

Sometime ago (I suppose it's over ten years), I listened to a preacher on TV, as he said that God has everything and can do everything for Himself, but there is one thing He cannot do for Himself, that He cannot worship Himself, that He needs us to worship Him. That God created us to worship Him because He cannot worship Himself.

That ☝ sounds inspirational, doesn't it? But, do you see how those children are laughing in this photo? That is how the devil laughs when man makes such statement, because he knows it is foolery.

God does not need anybody to worship Him. God can NEVER be in need. God is self-sufficient. Christians have lost sight of what it really means to worship God. When you really understand what it means to worship God, you will know that only God can worship God. And only God worships God.

God is eternally worshipping Himself. With creation in the picture, it is God's will to worship Himself through creation (everything He created). If you are available as He wants you to be, He will use you to worship Himself. But if you are not available, He will go on worshipping Himself, all alone by Himself, as He was doing before creation came in existence.

Man presumes too much; he presumes he is what he is not; he ascribes values he does not really have to himself. That is why he negotiates and bargains with God. "God, if you do this for me, I will do that for You." "God, since I have done this, You have not done that." "God, if you are truly my God, do this for me." "God, show them that I am serving you."

Arrogance!

How I wish people will understand the reality that man is worthless before God. That the SEEMING value man has is because God PRETENDS that he has it. God said through Isaiah [40:17] that He (God) regards ALL human beings (from Adam to the last child), put together, as worthless and less than nothing.

Until you come to terms with this reality that you are worthless before God, you will never really know your place before God; that before God, what you want is absolutely insignificant. Your will, desires, ambitions, aspirations, dreams, preferences, plans and goals are devoid of importance. They are utterly meaningless. They are refuse (rubbish) that must be thrown away.

And so, Jesus said, "If anyone want to be my disciple, he MUST (it is not optional) DENY himself and take up his cross DAILY and follow me." [Luke 9:23]

Self-denial is an indispensable condition for discipleship. Ironically, the understanding of what it really means is lacking. Kumuyi, Adeboye, Oyedepo, Pope Francis, Archbishop Justin Welby and whatnot do not understand it. At least, they don't teach it. Until Christians understand the meaning of self-denial (as Jesus demands it) and actually deny themselves, they will continue making fools of themselves in the name of Christianity. And oh, they will continue regarding men, who in fact are enemies of Jesus, as "God's generals."

Anybody who does not teach self-denial, as Jesus demands it, is not leading men to Jesus. Being morally upright is not coming to Jesus. Obeying the letter of the Bible or the doctrine of any church is not coming to Jesus. To come to Jesus means to deny yourself. To deny yourself means to throw away those rubbishes you call, your will, desires, ambitions, aspirations, dreams, preferences, plans and goals, by allowing God to be the one that decides EVERYTHING (not some things) you do, when you do them and how you do them.

It is when God is deciding what you do (and only then) that you have taken up your cross. The cross is the will of God, God's decisions in your life, God's directions. To carry your cross is to follow God's directions. This means that God must be talking to you, directing you, telling what you should do and what you should not do.

To deny yourself means to be dead to self. A dead man does not have will. A dead man does not have desires, ambitions, aspirations, dreams. A dead man does not have preferences, plans and goals. So, if you have these things, you are not dead to self, and that actually means you have not denied yourself. And you cannot truly follow Jesus until you actually deny yourself. Following Jesus, which is following God's directions, is always done in self-denial.

By death to self, we mean the death that ensues from waiting on God to tell you what you should do before you do anything and doing only what God tells you to do. That is the death we must die to become real Christians: forgetting what we want. Having no will. Desiring nothing. Doing nothing that originated from our minds. Giving up our minds. Allowing God to decide what we do, when we do it and how we do it. Self emptying. Self negation. Self immolation. Becoming nothing. Become nobody. God being everything in us.