Being Willing to Take up our Cross and Bear it for the Building up of the Church

As believers in Christ, we need to learn to exercise the keys of the kingdom to lock up the gates of Hades and release the building up of the church; we need to learn to deny the self, take up our cross, and lose our soul life.

If we do not exercise daily to deny the self, take up our own cross, lose the soul life and follow the Lord, we will not live in the reality of the kingdom of God in the church life.

When the Lord mentioned the church, it was in the context of the kingdom, for when the church is brought in and built up, the kingdom of God comes into being in practicality on earth.

Where can we see the kingdom of God on earth today? It is in the church life. How can we live the kingdom life today on earth? It is by exercising the keys of the kingdom which the Lord has given to us all, so that we may lock up the gates of Hades (which are always there whenever the church is being built up) and release the building up of the church.

Christ came as the kingdom of God, and He lived in the reality of the kingdom of God; wherever He was, the kingdom was there, and when He spoke, He sowed the seed of the kingdom into men.

Through death and resurrection the Lord became a life-giving Spirit to be dispensed into all those who believe into Him. Today we believe into the Lord, and we have the seed of the kingdom growing in us to develop into a realm over which God can rule in the divine life; on one hand the kingdom grows inwardly by our growth in the divine life, and on the other hand, there has to be a manifestation of the kingdom in us, an expression of the kingdom.

The expression of the kingdom in us and through us is by our exercising the keys of the kingdom of the heavens: denying the self, losing the soul-life, and taking up our own cross to follow the Lord.

The biggest enemy of the Body is the self; even though we may have the revelation of Christ and the church, we may still express the opinions, feelings, and thoughts of the self, thus opening the gates of Hades for death to come into the church.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may see how our self is such a frustration and hindrance to the building up of the church, and may we choose to deny the self to shut and lock up this gate of Hades. Today we want to see how to exercise the second key, which is to take up our cross, the will of God.

Being Willing to Take up our Cross and Follow the Lord for the Building up of the Church

The Lord said that if anyone is willing to follow Him, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Him (Matt. 16:24). The only way for us to follow the Lord is by taking up our own cross and following Him.

The cross is not a matter of suffering but of termination. Crucifixion was a method used by the Roman government to execute criminals; no doubt, the criminal on the cross suffered as he was being crucified, for he didn’t choose to be crucified but was forced to be crucified.

The Lord Jesus, however, was not forced to be crucified; He chose the cross, He chose to be crucified. The Lord Jesus was not compelled to go to the cross; rather, He was willing to do so because His cross was God’s will.

He did pray to the Father that, if possible, the cup will pass from Him, but He concluded by saying, Yet not as I will, but as You will (Matt. 26:39).

The Lord’s crucifixion was for the fulfillment of God’s purpose; He wasn’t crucified to die like a criminal but rather, He was willing to be crucified so that through death His life might be released to produce the church.

The Lord Jesus had the joy set before Him in His mind when He chose the Father’s will, which is the cross.

What is the cross? It is the will of God. When the Lord was on the cross, He suffered greatly; however, that suffering was not forced upon Him, but He took it willingly.

We need to be those who are willing to take up our cross and follow the Lord for the building up of the church.

The Lord doesn’t say, He who follows me let him deny himself and be crucified; rather, He says, If anyone wants to follow Me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me. In other words, we as believers in Christ need to be willing to take up our own cross and follow the Lord.

The cross is God’s will, and the will of God is the cross. The will of God is the building up of the church as the Body of Christ; for this purpose, we need to be willing to take up our cross and follow the Lord.

Some married brothers may say, The Lord gave me my dear wife, and I have been crucified many times by her. The sisters also may say something similar, that their husband crucify them and are a cross to them.

Saying such a thing shows us that we did not willingly take up our cross and followed the Lord but rather, we are being “executed as criminals” by our spouse.

Are we a happy cross-bearer like the Lord Jesus, or are we criminals who are being executed? Today most Christians shun suffering and death, and they are like criminals being executed whenever the cross comes; very few are cross bearers.

We need to open to the Lord concerning this and ask Him to shine on us and show us what is the cross, why do we need the cross, and what is the purpose of the cross.

If we see that the cross is to operate in us to terminate us so that Christ may be wrought into us and make us a building and built-up member of the church, which is His Body, we will be willing to take up our cross and follow the Lord.

Are we a criminal being executed or are we cross-bearers? Are we willing to take up our cross and follow the Lord for the building up of the church, or do we consider the cross as being a suffering for us, and we consider those around us as being a cross for our suffering?

Lord Jesus, save us from being like “criminals being executed” as we bear the cross; may we be those who are willing to take up our cross and follow the Lord for the building up of the church! Amen, Lord, we are not criminals – we are those willing to bear the cross! We are not being crucified against our will; rather, we are those who choose to take up our cross and bear it, so that the church may be built up! We want to follow You, Lord, by taking God’s will, the cross, and bear it willingly, so that the church may be built up!

We need to Take our Cross and Bear it for our Old Man to be Terminated and the Church be Built up

The Lord doesn’t force us to take our cross and follow Him; rather, this is optional, and we must be willing to take up our cross and follow Him.

We must be willing to take up our cross and bear it. Our husband, our wife, and our children are God’s will, and therefore they are our cross.

We shouldn’t tell our spouse that they are our cross but rather, have the attitude before the Lord that your spouse is the cross, they are God’s will.

The one church is God’s will, and every brother and sister in the church is God’s will. For us to bear the cross is to bear the church and to bear all the saints so that we would have the genuine oneness (see John 17:21-23; Eph. 4:3, 13; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2).

We need not only to take up our cross but also carry our cross, that is, we need to remain on the cross, so that our old man would be kept under the termination of the cross day by day (Luke 14:27; Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20; Phil. 3:10; 1 Cor. 15:31).

The Lord Jesus lived in this way – He lived under the shadow of the cross from the manger to the cross, and He was terminated on that cross.

For us, it is the other way around: we are first terminated, for we were crucified with Christ, and now for the rest of our life we need to walk the same walk as the Lord and live as He did, under the shadow of the cross day by day.

We have received the divine life through the Lord’s crucifixion, and now, for us to be built up in this life, we need to willingly and happily take up the cross.

We shouldn’t care for our taste, for our feeling, and for our consciousness; rather, we should care only for God’s will, which is that we would have the genuine oneness (see John 17:21-23; Eph. 4:3, 13; 1 Cor. 1:10; Phil. 2:2).

Our spouse is our cross, for they are God’s will for us; the church is our cross, and so are all the believers in Christ, for they are God’s will for us. We need to be willing to take up our cross and bear it for the Lord to build up His church.

The Lord has allotted us our spouse, our children, the church, and the saints, and we have no choice; we need to be willing and even happy to bear the cross. If we do this, the Lord’s presence will be with us, and we will enjoy the riches of the divine life.

If we don’t have such an attitude, we will suffer, we will gnash our teeth, and we will become bitter. If we exercise our preference in who we want to fellowship with and who to talk to, we will open the gate for Satan to come in.

So we must exercise the second key to lock the gates of Hades – taking up our cross. Our preferences and tastes constantly fluctuate; today we may feel positive toward someone and like them, while tomorrow we may feel negative toward them and dislike them.

In the church life and in the family life our feelings fluctuate, but we should exercise to take up our cross and bear it, and we will be kept stable and steadfast by bearing the cross.

Lord Jesus, we exercise our spirit with our will to choose to take up our cross and bear it. It is Your will that we have the spouse, the children, the church, and the saints that we have, so we say Amen, and we take up our cross and bear it. We deny ourselves, Lord, with our fluctuating feelings and wandering mind, and we take Your will. Lord, may the cross operate in us to terminate our old man day by day, so that our inner man may be renewed and the church may be built up. Hallelujah for the church, the will of God!

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References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Minoru Chen for this week, and portions from, Collected Works of Witness Lee, 1978, vol. 1, “The Exercise of the Kingdom for the Building of the Church,” ch. 5, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 5, The Exercise of the Kingdom for the Building Up of the Church.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Enter the veil, behold the glorious Christ, / Go out the camp to Jesus, let Him lead; / If throne and crown my spirit here enthrall, / Manger and cross cannot my steps impede. (Hymns #549)
  # The cross’s final goal, that God’s will be fulfilled; / His will’s arch enemy is but the self of man. / If self be done away and all the soul-life killed, / God’s will shall then prevail and prospered be His plan. (Hymns #622)
  # The cross is not a suffering. / The cross is our release. / Deny the self, enjoy the Lord, / And live by life and peace. / The Christ we know is crucified — experience of the cross / Allows us to enjoy His life and count ourselves but loss; / The sense of life and death within us functions as a gauge, / Equipping us to live Christ in the Body in this age. (Song on, The Cross is Not a Suffering)