From the beginning, God has allowed man to choose who He will serve. According to psychological studies, making choices is a challenge about 80% of people do not want to face. They would rather be told what to do than to make a choice, even when it involves their own destiny. To walk with the Lord begins with the most difficult and important choice we will ever make, and no one can make it for us. How will the 80% who resist making choices make such a radical choice?
They must change. No one who makes the decision to follow Christ can come out of it the same way as when they went in. This choice will so transform us, it will be as if we are “born again,” and that is in fact what happens. Remaining who we were is not an option. We will be different. The whole world will look different. Nothing will be the same. It is like starting over. Frightening? It’s meant to be, but it also produces in us a faith that is greater than the fears which have bound us.
The Lord has been gracious enough to make clear the difference between these choices, yet forces no one to follow Him. He created us to be free, and even He will not violate our freedom by forcing us to follow Him. That is why He put the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the garden. This was not a trap but an opportunity to prove our devotion and obedience to Him. There can be no true obedience without freedom to disobey. The Lord warned Adam and Eve about the consequences of the wrong choice, but never forced them to make the right one.
The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil were both in the center of the garden, and they remain in the center of our lives. We, too, must each choose between these two trees, at least metaphorically. One leads to life and the other to death. The Scriptures record history’s battle between the fruit of these two trees and concludes with man being restored to the Tree of Life in Revelation. My first book, There Were Two Trees In The Garden, which many, including myself, claim is my most important book, is about this.
We must choose between these two trees every day. We must make clear and decisive choices every day to stay on the path of life. Our first response, to follow Jesus, is the most important choice we will ever make. This is intended to be a clear and decisive choice, so that all who make it become radically changed. One change we can expect is that our lives will become more difficult, but that is necessary to make our lives better.
When we choose to follow Christ, one great difficulty we will face is the constant choice between these two trees. It was easier when we didn’t have to choose because we were only eating from one tree, though it was killing us. In this life, the easy way is seldom the best. So, the more decisive we are in making the right choices, the more difficult the path, which is easier in the long run. Likewise, if we choose the easy road to start, our lives will become increasingly difficult.
As the call to follow Jesus is watered down to make it easier, Christians become weaker. Now studies reveal that the lives of those who consider themselves “born again” are no longer distinguishable from others in the most basic ways, like honesty, integrity, or morality. In the first century, Christians stood out so boldly that when just two of them limped into one of their great cities, officials of the most powerful empire in the world would shake, declaring, “Those who have turned the world upside down have now come here too” (see Acts 17:6 NKJV).
The true Christian life is so bold, decisive, and different from any other religion, philosophy, or culture, that it cannot be hidden, nor does it fail to challenge those who still live in darkness. To walk in such clarity requires our initial decision to follow the King to be equally bold, clear, and challenging to everything in us that is out of alignment with our decision.
If we came to the Lord through a weak call, this can be overcome. Many who have done so have later seen the depths of what they originally committed to when they first began pursuing Him. The life of a disciple, which Jesus defined, is no less challenging now and requires no less decisiveness today than it did when Jesus defined it. God never changes, nor does His call to those who would follow Him.
© 2023 Rick Joyner. All Rights Reserved.
