For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. Luke 9:24
Jesus Christ is speaking a great truth here. The maxims of the Bible are contrary to the maxims of the world. If anyone wants to be exalted he must humble himself. If anyone wants to be filled with grace and power, he must first die. If anyone wants to be wise, he must first become a fool.
The Sermon on the Mount is the natural outcome of a regenerate life, developed fully. It is simply wonderful how Jesus states things that are going to be your experience. Unfortunately, we do not take God at His Word. Hence, we do not see the fruit. If people do not believe in humbling themselves and confessing their sins, how can they see such fruit? But if we are truly born of the Spirit, we will find that all that are God’s are ours and all ours are God’s. God will be in you and you in God.
How happy you will feel when all your children belong to God! Why do people hesitate to give their children to God? They do not accept the fact that their children belong to God anyway and not to themselves and they have no claim on them more than God.
“What? Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?” (I Cor.6:19) We are not our own. Do you know that your body is not yours? Then you will know how to adorn it, when you go to worship God. Your face is not yours. Is your face acceptable before God? When you wash your heart with the Word of God, heavenly beauty will come into your face.
I saw a woman whose face was shining because her heart was changed. You are not your own. It is a great step in spiritual life to know you are not your own. If you have not come to that level you must weep. Many mothers are to blame for the illness and the sufferings of their children. It is because they do not come to the place of knowing that they are not their own. The time is coming when you are going to throw away your body and your clothes.
You are not your own. You think that house is yours. No it is not. To the extent you use it for God’s glory it is yours. You have built a house, but you will not occupy it for long because you think it is your own. Saul thought the throne was his own. He lost it. “Now, therefore, let it please thee to bless the house of thy servant, LORD, and it shall be blessed forever.” (I Chronicles17:27) David wanted God to bless Solomon. He asked Solomon not to depend on anything except seeking God with a perfect heart. Hence, the kingdom was retained by David.
He that loses his life, he that loses his property, he that loses his bigness shall gain them. Your wife is not your own. She is the gift of God. Do you keep her so and treat her so? If not, you are losing the riches of His glory referred to in John17:10, “And all mine are thine, and thine are mine: and I am glorified in them” and in John 17:21, “That they all may be one; as thou Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”
How glorious it is when we give up our all to God! What a great confidence you will have in God when you feel all those that are in your house and all the things in your house belong to God! I know a man who prayed for his son who was dying. God gave him back his son. That father is now bringing him up for the world. Ungrateful man! Abraham gave his son to God and God gave him back to Abraham. He brought up Isaac for God. Isaac then became a blessing to the whole world.