Jesus said, “If any man desires to follow Me, let him give up his own way, take up his cross, and follow Me”.Matt 16:24. This is a hard saying but there is no other way to follow Jesus. To deny oneself is to die to self. There is no resurrection but through death. Jesus had to die to rise in resurrection power. So also we must daily die to self to experience His resurrection power. We are to offer up ourselves as a living sacrifice. This means that we can get off the altar of sacrifice. A dead sacrifice is dead but a living sacrifice has life in it. We have to walk like a dead man. We are dead to self, the world, and the devil and alive to God.
Fire
The burning bush that Moses saw is a symbol of the fire that will engulf us as we die to ourselves. This fire burns up everything that is of self and the fire produces resurrection power. Without His resurrection power, all we do is operate in our own strength. We can imitate a lot of things of the Spirit in the flesh. This is what we see in most churches. We operate from our soul man and little from the spirit man. We have counterfeited what is of the Spirit. This is why Jesus had a severe word for the seven churches in the book of Revelation. We could easily apply those messages to those churches in our present day. We need to repent and turn from our wicked ways.
Self
Dying to self is to die to our own selfish thoughts, feelings, and will. These thoughts must be replaced by God’s thoughts or words. In this way, we get transformed into the likeness of Jesus. The Holy Spirit was sent for this very purpose. Jesus came to baptize us in the Holy Spirit and fire. Few of us desire to be baptized in the fire. There is no other way to be purified and to be the holy temple of God. The fire purifies and empowers. Let us today offer ourselves up as a living sacrifice and be changed for the glory of God.
