Dr. Lester Sumrall stated, “Faith must be reborn every day!” He was saying that faith is a lifestyle. Faith is not just “moments” in a person’s life, but it’s the way we are to live every day.
Hebrews 10:38 tells us, “Now the just shall LIVE by faith….” Releasing our faith, exercising our authority, resisting the devil, and calling in our blessings is to be a DAILY LIFESTYLE! Faith involves the way we think, the way we speak, and the way we respond to and act on the Word daily! Faith is the way we are to live! We are to have a lifestyle of faith!
Fellowshipping with God, exercising our faith and authority, and walking in God’s power is to be a daily situation. Healing power, miracle power, prosperity, victory – these are to be flows that we practice daily – not just at random moments. Practice these flows daily, for faith in the Word of God is to govern our everyday situations.
The Cross That Lifts
In our life of faith, Jesus tells us that we are to take up our cross daily. Luke 9:23 records that Jesus stated, “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross DAILY, and follow me.”
The Living Bible translation reads, “Then he said to all, ‘Anyone who wants to follow me must put aside his own desires and conveniences and carry his cross with him every day and keep close to me!”
The AMPC translation reads, “And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross DAILY and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].”
Jesus is describing a daily decision of surrender and obedience.
I love the testimony of one pastor. During a time of great growth in his church, he was telling the Lord how much he felt the burden of ministry. He suddenly had a vision. In the vision, he was walking up a hill toward three crosses that he saw at the top of the hill. He knew that one of those crosses was his to “take up.” As he walked toward that cross, he was anticipating the weight and burden of it. But when he got to the foot of that cross and reached down to lift it up, instead of him lifting it up, it lifted him! He realized how he had thought wrong about what it meant to “take up his cross daily.” He thought it to be a heaviness and something he had to endure. But he realized that the cross was a lifting place – lifting him into the higher flow of God’s life and power working through him.
As one minister wrote, “In Luke 9:23, Jesus stated, ‘Let him deny himself.’ To deny yourself does not mean that you have no value or that you must reject every enjoyable thing. It means saying ‘no’ to self when ‘self’ conflicts with God.”
Paul stated, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me…” (Gal. 2:20). The surrendered believer is saying, “My life no longer belongs to me; it belongs to Christ.”
Why did Jesus say “daily?” It isn’t merely one great act of surrender when we first come to Christ. It becomes a daily posture.
What does “take up his cross” mean? Every day I choose His will over my will, His Word over my feelings, His plan over my preference, obedience over convenience, choosing faith instead of fear, and love over offense. The cross must be taken up daily. Yesterday’s surrender doesn’t automatically make today’s choices for us.
The cross is something Jesus says we “take up” – it is voluntary. It represents choosing the will of God even when doing so costs us something. We cannot fully follow Jesus while continually insisting that He follow OUR plans. Jesus is not teaching Christians to live gloomy, miserable, defeated lives. Surrendering to Christ is the pathway into His life and power. Paul writes: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body” (2 Cor. 4:10). There is both a death and a life principle: death to self-rule makes room for the life of Christ to be manifested.
Luke 9:23 could be stated this way: Every day, I surrender the right to govern my own life independently of Christ. I choose God’s will above my own, regardless of the cost, and I continue following Jesus wherever He leads.
This is about consecration, obedience, and yieldedness to God.
“Taking up our cross daily” is not about a life of suffering, hardship, and ongoing difficulties. It is a joyous flow that is part of “living the good life” that God authored for us (Eph. 2:10, AMPC). As we “take up our cross daily,” we lay down that self-will that would rob us of the highest flow that belongs to God’s children – a place of total and utter dependence on the life and power of God that is to flow unhindered through us daily.