It Will Cost You
Then the king said to Araunah, “No, but I will surely buy it from you for a price; nor will I offer burnt offerings to the LORD my God with that which costs me nothing.” So David bought the threshing floor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2 Samuel 24:24)
There is one truth that has been pivotal to my walk with the Lord over the years, that keeps coming back into focus every time I seek to advance in His will for my life. This truth is simply this: everyone who intends go to further in God’s plan must be willing to pay the cost.
As I write this message to you, Huntsville & Toronto, Ontario are preparing to host the G8 & G20 summits with the cost for security presently over $1 billion. The debate rages on about the validity of this and is it worth paying that alone just for the security and infrastructure to host this event.
Life costs and if we as believers are going to advance in God’s plan for our lives, then we must be willing to pay the price. I know some of you believe that Christ paid it all for you and that everything in your life should be easy - just bind the devil, give your tithe and and call forth the blessing of the Lord. I wish it was always that easy. But King David knew that if we are going to deal with our sins and win victory in our lives, then we must have the mind to do whatever it takes.
In the above passage, King David knew he had sins and wanted to offer sacrifices to the Lord at the place where grace and mercy were extended to him and his people. Araunah, an honorable man, was willing to give David the land for free. But if King David had accepted it, then the sacrifice would have been Araunah’s not David’s.
Beloved, you have got to catch this principle in your life right now. I believe many of God’s people are in places where God is dealing with them as a Father with His children. He desires for us to advance in His plan for our lives. But are we willing to pay the cost.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it— lest, after he has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish’?(Luke 14:28-30)
We cannot become Christ’s disciples without walking the way of the cross and embracing the price for our own call. Jesus had a way of separating His followers from His disciples – by telling them the cost. He said they would have to eat His flesh and drink His blood. Right there He would have lost most of North Americans Christians. He knew that most people were out to see what they could get.
I am hearing too much of broken marriages, split churches, and suicides among our youth. We think we are full, but we are empty. Someone said that never in history has a generation received so much and given so little.
I believe it’s time for us to seek the Lord and look seriously at the cost of walking with the Lord. I believe it’s worth it. I believe walking away from Him will cost me more than walking with Him. Let’s rise up and ask the Lord for His strength to give everything for what lies ahead in our lives.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but [this] one thing [I do], forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. (Philippians 3:13-16)
My prayer for you during this season is that the Lord will begin impress upon your heart His treasures that are yours in Christ Jesus, that your appetite for the things of the kingdom will increase and His desires will become yours as you reach towards His plan for your life in Christ’s name. Amen. - Apostle Anthony Nelson