taking hold of Christ

notes from "Hungry for more of Jesus" by David Wilkerson:

A pastor once wrote me: "You speak out about the failures of shepherds, but you don't tell us where we are failing. I ask in love that you back it with truth."
The failure lies in this: We ministers of the Gospel are not holding fast to our purpose of pressing upon believers the true cost of discipleship. Jesus made stern, uncompromising demands on those who chose to follow Him and confess His holy name.
(p.75)

Much Gospel preaching today contains no mention of the cross, no doctrine of suffering, no reproof, no repentance, no hatred for sin, no demand for separation or purity, no call for unconditional surrender to the Lordship of Christ, no daily death to self, no crucifixion of the fleshly lusts, no self-denial, no rejection of the self-life, no warnings of coming persecution and imminent judgment. And, most tragic of all, many Christians now prefer to hear about their rights in Christ--and ignore His claims on us!
(p. 77)

Multitudes followed Jesus, yet He knew only a few would hold fast to Him and become true disciples...
"No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:24). Jesus exposes here the paradox of a divided heart...We dare not miss our Lord's pointed warning: Unforsaken sin will lead into the worst hypocrisy possible.
(p. 77)

To such hypocrites Jesus said, "These people draw near to Me with their mouth, and honor Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me...In vain they worship Me" (Matthew 15:8-9)...

He calls His followers to love Him so passionately that all other affections appear as hatred in comparison.
"In anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple." (Luke 14:26)
(p.78)

Think about it: Do we know what it is like to come into His sweet presence and ask nothing? To reach out to Him only because we are grateful that He loves us so completely?
We have become selfish and  self-centered in our prayers: "Give us...meet us...help us...bless us...use us...protect us." All this may be scriptural, but the focus remains on us. We go to His Word for answers to our problems, for guidance and comfort, and this also is right and commendable. But where is the love-motivated soul who searches the Scriptures diligently, who wants only to discover more and more about his beloved Lord?
Even our work for the Lord has become selfish.  We want Him to bless our service to Him, so we can know our faith is genuine. We want to be considered diligent, capable and successful as a sign of His blessing upon us...You see, our Lord is more interested in what we are becoming in Him than in what we are doing for Him.
Someone reading this may be hurting because doors of ministry have closed. He or she may feel "put on the shelf." Someone else may think he would be more useful to the Lord on some needy mission field. But I say we cannot be more useful to the Lord than when we minister love to Him in the secret closet of prayer. When we seek the Lord, when we search His Word endlessly to know Him, then we are at the peak of our usefulness. We do more to bless and satisfy God by being shut up with Him in loving communication than by doing anything else. Whatever work He might open up for us to do, at home or abroad, will flow effortlessly out of our communion with Him. He is more interested in winning our whole hearts than in our winning the world for Him.
(p. 79)