Someone who stands up for Jesus must also carry His cross as a covenant, or promise, that demonstrates your relationship, or loyalty, to the One who died for your sins. Have you dropped your cross? Have you left it at a familiar place, but have gone to a strange place? Have you rejected your cross for a different kind of lifestyle? Stop everything right now and go back and get it. Be fast about it. Jesus is coming soon!
The Cross Covenant requires mature born-again Christians to help new born-again Christians to acknowledge the wages of the war against those who reject the Cross.
“And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life [in the world without Christ] will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it.” (Matthew 10:38-39).
You may be asking yourself, “Why must I take up my cross?” Your cross, as was Jesus’ cross, is that which symbolizes tribulation, persecution, and denial of self (Matthew 16:24). The cross reminded Jesus how He was to die a death under the greatest guilt and the deepest curse by taking in all the sins of humanity though He was without sin, a sacrifice to pay humanity’s debt and to free all who believe in Him from the bondage of sin. Your cross and mine are to remind us that we are not above our Teacher, nor better off than our Master (Matthew 10:24-25). As Jesus bore His cross, if we call ourselves His followers, so too must you and I bear our own cross.
A covenant is a binding agreement made between two participants. The Cross Covenant is assurance that, though we have sinned, once confessed and repented, we are forgiven completely. That's Jesus' part of the Cross Covenant. The forgiven soul is then to carry the cross as a testimony (or testament) that he or she promises to follow the ways of Christian living in obedience to Christ. That's your part of the Cross Covenant.
To overcome the war waged against the soul by Satan and his dark angels, the born-again must lead others to the new birth in Christ. The Children and Teens' Church at Amazing Grace Sanctuary, Assemblies of God Church at Sakyikrom-Nsawam in the Eastern Region demonstrate the Steps to Salvation as part of their graduation ceremony of the "Real Talk" Steps to Salvation Series.
“What is my cross to bear?” For every disciple of Jesus Christ, there is a specific “cross” to bear to remind us that, as our Lord and Saviour was unfairly tried, persecuted, mocked, shamed, and crucified, so too must we go through the same “shock” to receive our crown. Though man may try to dishonor you, your clinging to your cross propels the Lord to deliver you and honor you in the sight of those very workers of wickedness (Psalm 91:14-15; Psalm 23:5; Psalm 124).
Your cross could be the daily affliction (deep pain) you receive by not born-again family members and “friends” because you confess Christ Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and vigilantly live with reverent fear [divine love and respect] of God, trembling against yielding or falling to pleasures of sin, and obeying God’s perfect will embedded in His Word, the Holy Bible.
My tears have been my food day and night, while they continually say to me, “Where is your God?” (Read how King David bore his cross in Psalm 42 by praying to the “God of my life.”)
Your cross could be your giving more power to your flesh to control your thoughts and actions than to empowering your new spirit—the Holy Spirit—to take control over a bad habit, and you just can’t seem to stop: gossiping, masturbating, lying, losing control of your cool and insulting in fiery anger. And you tearfully ask the Lord, “Why, if I am a Christian now, don’t these attitudes and behaviours in me that I hate so much keep coming out? I thought when I became a Christian all this would go away?”
For the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I practice. Now if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me (that is, in my flesh) (Romans 7:19-20).
Your walk with such a cross will seem unbearable at first, but as you allow the Holy Spirit to work in you, day by day, it will get lighter until it’s exchanged for your crown. Take control of that cross and silence the devil by glorifying the goodness of the Lord, thereby crushing gossiping; closing your eyes to pornography and opening your mind (your soul) to singing praises to the Lord, thereby mutilating masturbating; untwisting your tongue to rather laughing with it in the harmony of telling the Truth about Jesus (and about everything else), thereby lacerating every kind of lying; and blasting that anger in you with the fire of the Holy Spirit, rejoicing as He changes your anguish into His loving kindness.
Your cross could be the never-ending cycle of mockery by unbelievers at the workplace because you won’t go out and drink with them after work, or party with them at nightclubs, or engage in foul language, worldly dressing or evil schemes they earnestly plan against other workers and even the boss.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven. (Matthew 5:10-12a).
Your cross could be those terrible memories of what you did in your past that you are still too ashamed to think or to speak about. Yet these painful pictures are there to remind you how to stay focused on Christ and win other souls that may be in that same situation you once were in.
For example: If alcoholism once ruled over you and you did unscrupulous things when intoxicated, now that you are a born-again Christian, any time you see alcohol or someone else behaving as you once did, your “cross” is to go out and win that inebriated soul to Christ. If that devilish spirit of teasing, mocking, and lying about others to make yourself look good ruled over you, being born-again will make you search for what is good in each person and judge not but rather focus on how to draw that person to Christ, and let God take care of his or her “inner man”. The cross is a symbol of self-denial, requiring you to pour your selfishness out so that God’s Holy Spirit can fill you up into being like Christ Jesus.
Your past experiences should propel you (without hesitation) to right those wrongs by helping others to be free in Christ. If you refuse to try to win that lost soul, then ask yourself, “Am I worthy of being in Christ, who gave up His life to save me?” Emphatically, No. You must pick up your cross, deny yourself, and follow Jesus.
Apostle Paul testified, “ . . . a thorn in the flesh was given to me lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake.” (Read 2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Do you suffer from an infirmity, that sickness has been with you for so long, and it torments you all the time? Carry that cross with dignity, dear Christian. That cross is there to keep you humble, otherwise, you would walk as someone so proud and arrogant that you’d refuse to see the suffering of others. Your infirmity is to produce compassion for all other souls who are locked up, imprisoned and yearning for Christ’s compassion through you. Please embrace this terrific truth: Our time here on earth is very short compared to eternity in heaven in which you will wear a brand new glorified and gorgeous body free of every kind of sickness, so you can dance forever in the arms of Jesus!
Are you bearing your cross? Are you currently experiencing any infirmities, reproaches, persecutions, distresses, or have been denied of what makes your flesh (and ego) happy and instead are shedding countless tears throughout countless number of days and nights, all for confessing Christ Jesus as your Lord and Saviour to the world around you?
If your answer is, “Yes”, may the Lord give you more grace to carry on with it. If your answer is, “No”, then be very cautious when men praise you and say, ‘You are good.’ For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:43). Therefore, hellfire is creeping at your door.
Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before my Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:32). But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven. (Matthew 10:33).
Your cross covenant is your public confession and weapon against all the powers of darkness to be used to minister to this dying world. Your cross appears like weakness to the world, but the longer you walk with your cross, the devil knows you will become the strongest of Christ’s warriors in the battle for winning souls to Christ: For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10b). Dear Christian, carry on!
HELP ME TO BEAR MY CROSS, O LORD. IN JESUS’ NAME I PRAY. AMEN.
Victory in this war for your soul is won in applying the whole Amor of God. Diligently study Ephesians 6:10-18 this month. The "Real Talk" Teaching Tracts for the Armor of God Series is available for the Children's and Teens' Church.
And for those on the one-year Bible reading plan, we continue with March Bible Reading.
© 2024 by Patience Osei-Anyamesem. All rights reserved. Published by The Light In Me Enterprise. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews or other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Unless otherwise stated, all scripture quotations are from The New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
The artwork depicted in the blog article is carefully selected to draw out the points made for healing of the soul, and by no means promote any ideologies from the various artists unless they are found in the center of God's perfect will.