There is a path that is available to every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, one that will perhaps draw you closer to Him than you could ever imagine, but it is one that very few choose to traverse. There is suffering involved, possible great pain and separation from the world is guaranteed, this and many more reasons are why so many Christians decide not to travel it.
“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;” (Phil. 3:8-10)
If you are prepared to lose everything, all that you have accumulated in this world, all the knowledge that you may have gained that is of no value to the kingdom of the Lord, and be able to look back on them as nothing, as a complete and total waste of your time, you may be prepared to walk this path. Every title you have earned, every subject that is not of the Scriptures will be of no value, all of your past knowledge will avail nothing on this path. Those that you hold dear that do not call Jesus Lord will need to be left behind, and if He so chooses, even those that do, no person, place or thing must have any grip upon you, all must be sacrificed for the service that He will call you to.
And not only this and more, but all must be left behind without any regret, without looking back in sorrow or loss, those that are of no value to what He may call you to will need to be treated the same by you, as dung, something that no one would desire to be a part of their lives. Friends, family, the place that you have called home for many years, even the loving spouse if He so calls, must be left at the alter of the Lord, left in His complete care and loving hands. The love for them that you have will in no way be diminished, but your close association with them will, for this is a separate path, and it is just one of the reasons that so few choose it.
But there is more, much more. You must be prepared to suffer. This is not a path I believe that the Lord places upon any who do not of their own free will choose to ask for it, for they are loved no matter the path that he places them on, and each has their place in the fellowship of the believers, in the body of Christ. This suffering does not include the loss of time or association with those in the world, those that are lost, for these are who they will be sent to, nor does it hinder their resolve when they are no longer in continuous contact with the loved ones they know who are of the children of God, all must be left behind at some point in the capable hands of the Lord. The things of the world, the accolades and trophies that we have accumulated, the knowledge of the world, must be counted as nothing, as dung, but those we love we have been left in more capable hands than we could ever hold out to them.
This suffering is what I believe holds back any followers of Christ from following Him on this path, for not only may it mean the suffering of the flesh, even unto death, but of the soul, because the one who has asked to be a part of the fellowship of His suffering in this way will know the extreme sorrow of watching as those that Christ gave His life for on the cross who do not accept Him, die in their sins. You must be able to accept the fact that not all will listen to the words of grace and mercy, knowing that they will spend eternity separated from His love in eternal torment, and still remain fervent in your desire to move forward on the path. There will be others as well, those who will seem as if they have heard, but will deny Him as soon as the world begins to call them again.
Others will follow though, some will understand and by the Holy Spirit of God, their lives will be forever changed, they will become the chosen of the Lord, but some of these also will cause suffering in your heart. Some will fall prey to religious organizations, preferring traditions over the Word of God, others will not adhere to the precepts of the Scriptures, picking and choosing verses that fit the occasion, and still others will fall into the trap of the church that believes, but not in full, the church that serves only those in it, and these will cause your heart to break. These are the spiritual pains that you must be prepared to suffer if the Lord allows you to live a life in the fellowship of His suffering, but that is still not the extent of that life of service to him.
You will be recognized by not only the lost who hate His Name, but the demons who have sought since Adam to quench the fire that lives inside of these warriors for Christ, and the pain and suffering of the flesh can be a very persuasive tool. Imprisonment and torture may be on the separate path, beatings and scars, the open rebuke of those who will have no part of the love that He offers them will be placed upon you, for they cannot reach Him. The messenger will be the pummeling stone, you will bear the pain, the suffering, the heartache, all that they wish the Lord Jesus to suffer, you will suffer for Him in Hs place, and you will count all of it joy. You will rejoice in the fact that you have lost everything, that many that you meet hate you, that the pain and the suffering of not only your flesh, but of your spirit will cause you to give God the glory in great thanksgiving.
You will notice that I have put very few Scripture verses in this letter to you, and there is a very good reason for that, if you desire to know about this life that you can live, if you choose, and if the Lord blesses you into it, I would direct your attention to every epistle that the man Paul wrote. There you will find not only almost every imaginable form of suffering for the Lord, but also the incredible joy that can be had by the man that He so desires and allows to partake in the fellowship of His suffering. Here then is the simple question, how much are you willing to give up for the Lord, to what would you say no to Him when He ask of you, how much are you willing to leave behind to gain that which is ahead.
The treasures of heaven await all those who have accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and serve Him, but there are even greater treasures for those that serve Him well, and with no thought to self. The one who has left all will find in the Lord Jesus Christ all that they could ever want, and more than they ever imagined.