"If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me" (Luke 9:23)
To enter into the deeper life, seekers must be ready to accept without question the New Testament as the one final authority on spiritual matters. They must be willing to make Christ the one supreme Lord and ruler in their lives. They must surrender their whole being to the destructive power of the Cross, to die not only to their sins but to their righteousness as well as to everything in which they formerly prided themselves.
If this should seem like a heavy sacrifice for anyone to make, let it be remembered that Christ is Lord and can make any demands upon us that He chooses, even to the point of requiring that we deny ourselves and bear the cross daily.
The mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit that follows will restore to the soul infinitely more than has been taken away. It is a hard way, but a glorious one. Those who have known the sweetness of it will never complain about what they have lost. They will be too well-pleased with what they have gained.
The one misery of man is self-will, the one secret of blessedness is the conquest over our own wills. To yield it up to God is rest and peace.
~A. W. Tozer~
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