Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Matthew 7:13-14
What many think of as “life” is not life at all. Jesus said He was the way, the truth, and the life, and no one came to the Father but by Him (John 14:6). Jesus is The Life, and there is no other.
When we consider the many things in this world, from the eyes of Christ, we must conclude that since it is not contained within Him, it is not life at all. This is, in fact the truth, because without Christ, all are dead in their trespasses and sin. Theologically, we may even agree with this fact, but the truth remains that it is as true as salvation itself. What walks around before us are literally tombs filled with dead men’s bones.
Jesus replied, “The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.
John 12:23-26
The road forward to the Kingdom, or more of the Kingdom, is always the choice before us. It is not always an easy road, but it is always before us. The problem with our failing to keep the road is always our humanity, it is never the Great Holy Ghost.
As we look towards the road, we must realize that it is never to be something we can accomplish on our own. Without an ever increasing faith and knowledge of Christ, we would be forced to look at the insurmountable challenges ahead and consider it a foolish endeavor, even if noble.
But, we know that the way we are to go is the uphill climb. It is not the highway, but it is the high way, the narrow way, and the labor-some way. Just as, standing before the throne, are creatures whose faces are four-fold, of a lion, eagle, ox, and a man, so too, not only was Jesus called to be the chief King, but the chief Prophet, the chief servant, and the chief burden bearer, as each of these four represent. So too, in our journey of love, we will find we will have lost our way if our path does not in some way reflect all four of these aspects of what God has put before us.
But, like with every step of the journey, it is through faith. Like the treasure hidden in the field, you can stand “on the edge of a great expanse” all the days of your life, and never seem to enter into your promised land. But, it is the definitive action, the course of need, desire, and love that leads, guides, and drives us at times into where He knows. It is when you sell all you have, step over by faith and abandon what once was, and never look back, that you find yourself where you had always longed and dreams, where others have always talked about, but you find you are already there, even if you don’t know how. All because of the step of faith.
The worst thing you can do is “nothing”. It is right to pray, it is right to wait patiently for the Lord, but it is right to listen, hear, and obey. To follow where He leads. And, as we learn to trust Him more and more, we see greater and greater secrets of the Kingdom. We believe what we see, and we act on it, and we enter into greater and greater obedience. In this way, what starts off as merely a seed grows into the largest of all garden plants. This simple faith.
As we look continually into the glorious law of grace, we see this pattern. We need not fear the road ahead, we need merely apply ourselves to the Word, to prayer, and to continually listening, abiding, hearing, and obeying by simple faith. In this way, we reap a harvest of righteousness of the righteous acts that God has in advanced prepared for us, and we see the Kingdom brought forth before our eyes, even as Jesus said,
Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.
John 5:19b
