 Jesus himself said that if you want to be his disciple you must deny yourself and pick up your cross in order to follow him. The cross represents self-denial. The cross represents pain. The cross represents discomfort and Christ has called us to fully embrace the cross. You know in this age people are running from sacrifice. They are running toward comfort. They are running toward pleasure. They are running toward whatever elevates self but Jesus has called us to the opposite. He said that if you want to follow him, I mean truly follow him, then there will be points in your life where you will have to sacrifice things. And I use that word sacrifice with reservation because really when it comes to giving things to God there is no such thing as sacrifice. For everything that I give to him he returns to me 100 fold. So though there is suffering, though there is pain, really the only one who ever made a sacrifice was Jesus. But he has called us nonetheless to embrace the cross, to embrace self-denial. The comfort, Christianity, the prosperity, Christianity, that has to be removed from your mind if you ever want the power of the Holy Spirit on your life. Let me tell you something. The reason there is no power in the church today is because the message of the cross has been removed. People seek the elevation of self. People seek the promotion of their dreams. People seek the celebration of ego when they should be seeking the cross, when they should be seeking the death of self. I want to talk to you today about something that is rarely discussed anymore and that is the cross of Jesus. You know, if you truly want to be his disciple, if you truly want to follow him, if you truly want to be counted as one whom God can use with power. I'm talking with real power. Then you have to come to the place where you say, Lord, whatever the price, whatever the cost, I'm willing to pay it. Crucify my flesh, Lord. Remove self from me and let my life be spent for your glory. I'm talking about the cross. Now, Stephen Mockezuma is here with me as usual. He's going to lead you in worship and then we're going to get right back into this message. I want to challenge you today. I want to challenge you where you are in your faith. I want to challenge you to do more for God. Here is Stephen Mockezuma. What does it really mean to be a disciple of Jesus? I mean truly be one who follows Jesus. Well, Jesus made it very clear, and we're going to read that in a moment, that in order to follow him and to be his disciple, you must embrace the cross. Now, the cross represents a place of pain. The cross represents suffering. The cross represents self-denial. The believer must commit to self-denial if the believer is to experience the fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit upon his life or her life. The truth is that many Christians sit comfortably in churches while the world goes to hell. I don't know about you, but when I stand before God at the end of my life, because the scripture says that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, when I stand before him and give an account for the life that I have lived, I want to be able to tell him that I did all that I could for the sake of the gospel. I want to be able to say that I gave all that I was for his name's sake. I want to say, Lord, I embrace the cross. I did your will. I did what you called me to do, but not every believer unfortunately will be able to say that. I pray that I am counted among those who are able to say that. The truth is that ministry, being anointed or living the true Christian life will at some points cost you. I'm not saying that God doesn't want to prosper you. I'm not saying that you need to live in misery because the scripture tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love and joy and peace and so forth. We are to live with a magnetic Christianity. We are to live with a magnetic spirituality. We must be life-giving. We must be refreshing. We must be filled with joy and filled with peace. We must have a heavenly atmosphere around us that people can sense. So I'm not talking about being miserable, but the truth is that if you are on the path of the call of God, that path has points of pain. If you have never given anything for the sake of the gospel, if you have never sacrificed a thing, if you have never embraced your cross, then the truth is you are not in the will of God. If you have never faced challenge, if you have never faced trouble, if you have never faced hardship, then you are not in the will of God. If you have never been mocked for your love for Jesus, if you have never been persecuted to some degree or another because of your preaching of the gospel, then you are not in the will of God. Look, I know this is not popular to teach this. I know that what you're hearing nowadays is mostly about the elevation of self, is mostly about the pursuit of your dreams, is mostly about how God wants to fulfill all that you want to do and you're going to be this accomplished individual here upon the earth and somehow that is going to save the souls of men. No, that is not the truth. The gospel is not about self-improvement. The gospel at the very center of it is about the abandonment of self. It's about the giving of self. It is about the cross. The scripture says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 verse 18, for the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us which are saved it is the power of God. It is called the preaching of the cross, not the preaching of comfort, not the preaching of success, not the preaching of accomplishing your dreams, not the preaching of being successful at ministry. It is the preaching of the cross of Christ. It is the preaching of self-denial. It is the preaching of the death and the crucifixion of the flesh. We have been crucified with Christ. Our old passions, our old desires have been nailed to that cross. We are to be ones who say, Lord, take all that I am and spend it for your glory. He has called us to embrace sacrifice. He has called us to embrace at some point or another pain. We do all that we can to avoid pain. We do all that we can to avoid challenge and discomfort. But if you are to be on the path of the call of God, if you are to be walking in the center of the will of God, then you will face hardship. Luke chapter 9 verses 18 through 26 say, And it came to pass as he was alone praying, his disciples were with him. And he asked them saying, Whom say the people that I am? They answering said, John the Baptist, but some say Elias and others say that one of the old prophets is risen again. He said unto them, But Whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, The Christ of God. And he straightly charged them and commanded them to tell no man that thing, saying, The Son of man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be slain and be raised the third day. 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. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, but whosoever will lose his life for my sake the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged if he gain the whole world and lose himself or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his own glory and in his fathers and of the holy angels. Jesus is saying that you must deny yourself daily. You must abandon yourself daily. The passions of the flesh must be crucified daily. Now, everyone that God ever calls, everyone that God will ever use must learn self abandonment. There is no more powerful message if you let me put it this way. If you want to be anointed by God, if you want the power of the Holy Spirit upon your life, I mean in a genuine way, not an emotional expression, not in hype. I'm talking about the true power of God to where the presence of God rests on your life to where you can lay hands on the sick and see them recover to where you can drive out demonic beings. If you want to see the power of God on your life and you want the manifestation of his glory because a lot of believers, they can perform the miracles like in Matthew chapter seven verse 21, but they don't have the glory, the manifested glory resting on their lives. We have classes that teach people online. Here's how to heal the sick. Here's how to pray in the prophetic or here is how to give a word of knowledge, a specific word of knowledge. We have all of these classes on the gifts, but very few people ever step into the glory. And the reason for that is because very few people like the idea that we must embrace the cross. And I'm not even saying I necessarily like the idea, but we must embrace the cross if we are to walk in true power. We must embrace the cross if we are to truly be used of God. Anyone that God will ever truly use, anyone that God will ever truly anoint is one who has lived through the cross is one who has lived through the season of the cross. We will call it. And when I say the season of the cross, I'm talking about those moments in your life, those times in your life where you feel like quitting, those times in your life where people reject you because of the name of Jesus that you proclaim where people will hate you because you're preaching truth when nobody else is those times where you have to give up maybe a career or a dream or a passion or a hobby or a relationship because it got in the way of the call of God. If you are one who wants to be used by God, then you have to get used to giving things up for his namesake. You know, there are passions and dreams that I never pursued because God called me to the ministry and I wanted to do those things. I remember when I was around 18 years old and many of my friends were starting in college and they were going to community colleges and some were getting into universities and they were starting to plan their lives and they were starting to take off into their careers and they were looking at all of the career paths they could take. And I remember seeing my friends one by one begin to go to college, begin to start studying. They went to go study trades and they began to start their lives. And I knew what I wanted to do. I wanted to go to college. I wanted to either learn something in the political realm. I wanted to possibly maybe get into television production, which in a way, in a funny way, I am to this day into television production. But there were other things that I wanted to do. I possibly wanted to start a business. I wanted to maybe study philosophy. And there were so many areas of life as far as academic school that I wanted to study or experience. And I remember just feeling like I was less than because I never went to college or I never got a degree. You know, some people need that. I'm not someone who needs that. But the truth is that I felt left out. I felt rejected. I felt as though I was giving up something that I could never be repaid for. But the truth is, looking back now, it was something so small and insignificant that I was asked to give compared to all that God has given me. Now, if he were to just give me his presence, it would be worth it. We often even compare. We'll say, well, what I have to sacrifice is nothing compared to what the martyrs had to give. And even preachers will rebuke people for this. They'll say they're being crucified. They're being murdered. They're being slain in other parts of the world. And you're over here comfortable in your Christianity. And I understand that preaching. But the truth is, as long as you're doing what God called you to do, you have no need to look at what others are sacrificing. The question is not what others are sacrificing because if you get into comparison, there will always be somebody sacrificing less and there will always be somebody sacrificing more. The question is not should you sacrifice more or less than the person next to you? The question of the matter is whether or not you are truly sacrificing what God has told you to put on the cross. What has God told you to place on the cross that you are still allowing to walk around living? What has God told you to crucify that you instead have resurrected? What has God told you to abandon? What has God told you to give that you have embraced? Think about this. You know, I was at dinner with one of our ministry team members. His name is Ruben Vargas and sometimes he'll come down to my condo in Long Beach and we'll go drive and maybe go somewhere to eat. But I was taking him to dinner and we're driving around in Southern California and we're driving in my car, which is a fairly nice car and we're driving down Ocean Boulevard, which is right on the beach and there are lots of nice houses there and it was a very nice day. The weather was fine. The everything about that moment was just it was it was really enjoyable. And I was looking around and I said, you know, Ruben, I'm looking at all of this. We're driving in a nice car. We're heading to a restaurant. We don't have to worry about money in that sense. We're here in Southern California where there's no real heavy persecution for preaching the gospel. And this is when the thought entered my mind. I said, I sure hope that when I stand before the Lord, I got it right. I know God has called me. I know what God spoke to me to do. But in that moment, I had this, you can call it a moment of clarity where I realized that some of us are so comfortable. We are so settled that where we are in life requires no cross. Now, I seek the Lord daily because the scripture says deny yourself daily. And I thought about this. I said, Lord, are you sure you you're you're communicating with me clearly? Are you sure I'm listening to you clearly because I want to make sure I get this right. I want to make sure I don't miss this. I want to make sure that I don't miss my destiny and my call. I want to make sure that this is truly what you've called me to do in the manner that I'm doing it. And so the Lord convicted me in that moment. Because in that season, it was about a three-month season, there was real no there was really no challenge that I was facing. And the Lord spoke to my heart in that moment and he showed me the importance of daily denial. Now, I'm not saying that if you're walking in the blessing of God that you're not in the will of God. In fact, if you're walking in the will of God, you will walk in the blessing of God. It doesn't matter if you drive a nice car. It doesn't matter if you have the amenities of comfort. Those things come and go. Paul says, I've learned how to abase and to abound. He did both. He lived with much and lived with little and the seasons where it goes up and down. But if those things become what we pursue in our Christianity, if comfort is the end goal, you've missed it. If all you are telling yourself is, I can't wait to get to the day to I'll have this and be this and acquire that. If all you're thinking about is making more money, if all you're thinking about is reaching the place where you never have to worry, then you got this all wrong. I'm sorry. Let me tell you straightforward. If you're just looking forward to the day where you have no challenge in your life, you got this thing wrong. Because the truth is that faith, the life of faith, is always lived where there is challenge. When you live the life of faith, there will always be something that comes against you. Now again, I'm not saying God doesn't want you blessed. I'm not saying that you're not to walk in joy. I'm not saying that you're not to have peace. And there are those seasons where there will be this calm that comes over your life. But if the entirety of your life, if the motive of your heart is all about comfort, you've missed it. So going back to that moment where I was sitting in the car with my friend, I just begin to ask him, what do you think the cross is that we're bearing now? That's where this question came from. I had to ask myself, what is my cross in this season of my life? Because he said daily, daily I have to pick up my cross. And again, this is not about comparing our suffering to the suffering of our brothers and sisters around the world. This is simply about what are you doing to deny yourself? For some of you, the denial of yourself is just keeping your mouth shut. Not posting something on Facebook, even though you didn't put the person's name in it, you sort of just put it out there and hope that they would see it and know it was about them. You know what the denial of self is sometimes? It's just keeping your mouth shut. Sometimes I want to say things because of my ego. Sometimes pastors who are jealous of what God is doing in my ministry will jab with their words and they'll pick at me and everything within me wants to rise and bite back but the denial of self is put your ego in check. Keep your mouth shut. Some of you picking up your cross is forgiving someone. Some of you picking up your cross is giving up a relationship that you know is toxic to your spirituality. Some of you picking up your cross is you need to start giving to the gospel. Look at if you're not giving to the gospel that is a test of your heart. Jesus said where your treasure is there will your heart be also. You know why people get so mad when preachers talk about money? It's not because they're trying to defend everybody and they don't and they think it's morally abhorrent because why is it morally abhorrent for me to get up here and talk about money sometimes when it's all about the funding of the gospel. No you know why people don't want people talking about money because they're convicted and you can be broke and still be greedy. Perhaps the Lord is speaking to you that you need to start giving to the gospel and you won't pick up that cross. Picking up the cross can be stepping out of the way. Maybe there's something that you feel you should be allowed to do and you're trying to push yourself into a position that God never called you to fulfill and the denial of self the picking up the cross is humbly stepping down and saying Lord I'm leaving it in your hands because the scripture says that he who exalts himself will be humbled but he who humbles himself will be exalted. Galatians chapter 6 verse 14 says as for me may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ because of that cross my interest in this world has been crucified and the world's interest in me has also died. Now Jesus is our leader Jesus is our Lord he is the model of Christianity he is who we aim to emulate in the scripture says this about him Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 11 you must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to instead he gave up his divine privileges he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being when he appeared in human form he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal's death on a cross therefore God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father he humbled himself and died a criminal's death upon a cross if Jesus was willing to humble himself how much more should we be willing to humble ourselves so going back now to that story and again that was a moment of clarity for me I'm not saying I was living in disobedience in that moment I'm not saying I wasn't living by faith but in that moment in that car with my friend having that discussion I made a point in my mind to ask myself daily what is my cross today I pray Lord if the day ever came that you required my literal life my blood I pray that I would have the grace to give my life Lord if the day ever came that you literally required everything from me as you did from the rich young ruler in mark chapter 10 I pray that you would give me the grace to give all but most importantly Lord I pray that just today today right now this moment you helped me embrace my cross my god we need to get back to preaching the cross it's the power of the gospel we need to get back to the place of embracing the cross listen there is a world dying and going to hell we cannot be so consumed with our comforts that we forget about those who are lost we must embrace the cross we must embrace sacrifice we must say here am I Lord send me you know the thing about the rich young ruler as he came to the Lord and he said Lord I've done all these things I've kept all these commands and Jesus said you did well but what I require of you is that you give up all your riches sell everything give it to the poor and then come and follow me now is it a sin to be wealthy of course not we know that Jesus had a disciple who was wealthy we know that Solomon was wealthy we know that many of the patriarchs had wealth but the point I'm trying to make is that with the rich young ruler Jesus required of him what was for him that one thing that one thing to which we so tightly cling in fear and in the flesh we say Lord I'm not giving this up that's the one thing he wants that one thing is what gives us trouble no more Jesus cannot be one of many things Jesus has to be the only thing he cannot just be the most precious thing he must be the only thing he gave his life for us the cross is a place of exchange on the cross there was an exchanging that took place between heaven and earth on the cross let me say that again on the cross there was a great exchange on the cross there was an exchanging between heaven and earth God took man's sin and gave him Christ's righteousness he took our pain and he gave us healing he took our sin our darkness our hatred and he replaced it with his love he took our emptiness and filled it with his spirit he took our sadness and our sorrow and he filled it and in its stead gave us joy he took our depression and he gave us the joy he took our heaviness and he gave us the joy the joy of the Lord yes on that cross there was a great exchange between heaven and earth he took all that troubled us in our mind and filled us with his peace the gospel is simple Jesus will give you his eternal life in exchange for your temporary one and we will give our lives and say here i am Lord take all that i am he will give of himself and he will give us all that he is he is our reward so let's pray now that we would be people who embrace the cross that we would be people who would say lord i want all that you have for me i want all that you have for me and i will give you all that i am come on let's pray father in Jesus name i pray for that one receiving this prayer right now and i pray lord that they would have the grace to crucify the passions of the flesh upon the cross lord give us the grace by the Holy Spirit to die daily to embrace our cross that we might embrace you i just heard the Holy Spirit speak to me he said when you embrace the cross you embrace Jesus Lord let us be those who embrace Jesus father forgive us for our stubbornness and our pride Lord thank you thank you for breaking us we turn Lord from our stubbornness we turn from our comfort we turn from our pleasure and we say Lord take it all you be the pleasure you be the joy you be the peace we pray this now Lord by your Holy Spirit seal this and cause us to be those who by the grace embrace the cross in Jesus name we pray i want you to say if you mean it say amen i want to welcome now the new members of spirit church there you are up on the screen we love you we are praying for you i always say that because i always mean it now if you'd like information on how you could join the spirit family then go ahead and go to davidhernanisministries.com slash spirit church sign up today you'll get a weekly email with those teachings in them i want to get to your comments now but stick around until the end i want to talk to you after the comments so these comments are from the video overcoming fear and anxiety and i really felt the anointing on that one many people were set free from the spirit of fear and i'm so glad to be reading about these testimonies and some of the comments from the video so here we have the first commenter writes this video has such an anointing on it it's crazy how god works sometimes i had been struggling with fear anxiety paranoia etc for over a year now just this last week i was desperate for the holy spirit to move because i felt trapped inside myself and just before i was about to go to bed i found this video and had a total revelation god keeps showing me more and more of his goodness i am excited to walk in freedom god bless this ministry revival story josh writes i received david's book as a new e tv partner and thank you for partnering with the ministry it was on spiritual warfare and demons and i love it i learned so much from it already i enjoy how david uses unbiased exegesis and wisdom from the spirit to teach you guys are on god's path he has for you much love from west michigan i look forward to many more mercies and blessings from encounter tv well thank you for being my partner and i'm glad you enjoyed that book 25 truths about demons and spiritual warfare that book is available at barnes and nobles amazon and also our ministry website our next commenter writes i'm free from fear thank you holy spirit for giving peace that comes from god may god continue using you david the next commenter writes the timing of this video is so perfect it is exactly what i am experiencing at the moment especially in the new job i have been blessed with thank you so much for sharing this message i am very grateful god is good another commenter writes life changing words thank you john writes i thank god that he led me to your youtube channel i always fill the presence and anointing of god in all your videos i was watching one of your videos when i was deeply convicted by the holy spirit to start a church plant in our area and god has allowed me to have a deeper understanding of his word through your videos god bless your ministry and your family brother david kylee writes thank you brother david your prayer broke by anxiety and worry god bless your family and your ministry your humility stands out and the final commenter writes thank you so much for this program i learn new things about the gospel every day i am so blessed to this channel how i wish i can attend your services in person and we would love to see you in person in fact you can attend our events in person just go to our website david hernandezministries.com slash events now here's the thing we get invites from south africa from the middle east from the uk from canada from all of the states from the philippine islands from fiji you name it we get invites from there and while we get many invites the truth is we can't always say yes in fact we have the most of the times because of the budget say no it takes money to fly places it takes money to stay places it takes money to eat places and travel places going from church or venue to venue now this is where i need your help because i want to begin to do more events in more places more often i want to be able to say yes to all of those invites that come into us we want to hold miracle services all around the world we right now are in the middle of a ministry expansion campaign here's what we are in the campaign as you can see we are more than halfway there which is very exciting and i'm so thankful for those of you who have responded thank you thank you thank you for partnering with this ministry and helping me to take the gospel all around the world now with that ministry expansion not only comes more traveling more events what actually is added to that is also our new facility now here's why the new facility is important because many of you also write to us and say boy i would love to attend one of the tapings in person but the truth is as we're set up here this is not really the ideal place to bring in people as a studio audience so in our new facility we'll be able to accommodate a studio audience we'll be able to do live broadcast we'll be able to hold regular sunday night meetings we'll be able to even have a 24-7 prayer room as we've discussed so there are a lot of things we're adding to the ministry with this expansion but most importantly we're basically taking the gospel all around the world you watch this ministry is growing god has anointed it and you can be a part of what god is doing help us reach the loss help us win souls we want to win millions to Jesus it's time to start thinking big so what we need from you now is for you to sign up to become a thirty dollar a month partner don't wait don't say somebody else look if you receive from this ministry if you're blessed by this ministry i challenge you to give back into it partner with me this is going to be the start of something great i i will be like your ambassador to the nations and we together will represent christ and i'll go all over the world telling people about jesus and preaching with the power of the holy spirit you know you don't hear messages like this anymore you just heard about the cross when is the last time you heard anybody preach about the cross when is the last time you heard anybody talk about the power of the holy spirit or talk about the blood of jesus or talk about healing or talk about spiritual warfare these things are so rare nowadays and you can be a part of putting this message onto the forefront because there is power in this preaching because it is from the word of god so help me do that don't wait at the end of this video as soon as i'm done talking there's going to be a link that appears sign up to become a 30-dollar month partner if you can't sign up to become a 30-dollar month partner consider another monthly amount or perhaps even a one-time gift and help us finish this campaign we need less than 400 new 30-dollar month partners and that means more events more expansion and more souls being saved in jesus name and if you agree say amen well that is it for this edition of spirit church until next time remember nothing is impossible with god