Author	: Bill Kochman
Publish	: Dec. 4, 2025
Update	: Dec. 4, 2025
Parts	: 02

Synopsis:



Continuing our discussion from part one, my friends, that is the way that genuine faith is actually supposed to work. We are simply supposed to throw ourselves utterly on the Lord, and trust Him for our future, whatever it may bring. But as I have already explained to you, today, there exist certain Christians who want to do it a different way. They have in fact invented this modern deception so that they can try to get around living a true life of faith. What am I talking about? The mentality of which I speak basically says "If I work at a secular job for a number of years, and if I save up a lot of money, then I will be free to serve the Lord later on in my life without having to worry about my future needs."

Now if we are truly being honest here, do you see what they are actually saying and doing? If not, let me tell you. They are basically saying that they cannot trust God to provide for them in the future. Even though He created the entire Universe, He just can't see to their needs. It is apparently too hard for Him. Therefore, they must trust in THEMSELVES. They must slave away at a secular job in the worldly system for many years, so that maybe by the time they are old, they will have enough money to live well, and THEN finally, they will serve the Lord with whatever time they may have left.

In other words, my friends -- this may be hard for some of you to hear -- from my personal perspective, they are only willing to give the Lord peanuts. They do NOT want to give Him the very best years of their lives while they are still young, strong and healthy. They want to keep those years for themselves, so that they can live an easy, comfortable life. Stated another way, they are only willing to give the Lord the cold, leftover pizza in the pizza box. Maybe this very graphic example will strike home with some of you, and help you to understand how offensive such an attitude may be to the Lord.

My friends, the mentality I just described to you is TOTALLY CONTRARY to all the Bible verses we have already examined in this article. We have already clearly seen that the Lord in fact required that all of His followers forsake their worldly wealth, jobs and positions. Forsake them, my friends, and NOT hold onto them, as these modern deceived Christians seem to believe. Quite the opposite. Furthermore, I might as well add in the fact that Jesus' primary followers also had to abandon whatever worldly reputations they may have had at the time.

Speaking plainly, the Apostles were required to become of NO REPUTATION, exactly as Jesus himself had done for our sakes. Any personal pride and ego, and any personal notion of being somebody, had to be left at the door. There was simply no room for such nonsense in the new lives they would be living. They had to become meek and humble servants of all. If you doubt that this is so, then consider the following verses which clearly demonstrate that Jesus was like this, and the Apostles and Disciples who followed Him were like this as well:

"But MADE HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:"


"He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."


"And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him."


"Then he took unto him the twelve, and said unto them, Behold, we go up to Jerusalem, and all things that are written by the prophets concerning the Son of man shall be accomplished. For he shall be delivered unto the Gentiles, and shall be mocked, and spitefully entreated, and spitted on:"


"And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God."


"Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."


"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."


"We are fools for Christs sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised. Even unto this present hour we both hunger, and thirst, and are naked, and are buffeted, and have no certain dwellingplace; And labour, working with our own hands: being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: Being defamed, we intreat: we are made as the filth of the world, and are the offscouring of all things unto this day."


"Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution."


So again, contrary to this modern deception which has been erroneously embraced by some Christians which says "Work at your secular job your entire life, and then serve the Lord later on after you have saved up a lot of money", Jesus and the Apostles all taught that if we truly want to serve the Lord full-time and with all our hearts, then we simply need to forsake our jobs and strive to seek first God's Kingdom. Think about it. When Jesus called the Apostles to service, He wanted them right then and there in that moment. He most certainly did NOT want to wait for them to save up a stash of money so that they could join Him at some time later.

So, if we are willing to forsake all, if we are willing to launch out into the unknown by faith trusting that we will land in God's hands, if we are willing to give the Lord our time and our service immediately, right now and not at some point in the future, and if we have the faith to actually do it, then God promises to provide our every need in some way. I obviously cannot say how God will choose to do it in your particular life, but I do know, and I have no doubt, that He WILL do it, just as He has done it for me for many years now. Jesus promised it, and some of the Apostles wrote about it as well. Consider the following verses as proof of what I am saying here:

"But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof."


"But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus."


"And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him."


"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened . . . If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"


"And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."


"Are not five sparrows sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God? But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of more value than many sparrows . . . And he said unto his disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? And which of you with taking thought can add to his stature one cubit? If ye then be not able to do that thing which is least, why take ye thought for the rest? Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and to morrow is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you."


"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"


"Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."


"Behold, the LORD'S hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; neither his ear heavy, that it cannot hear:"


"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart . . . I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread."


"Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it."


My friends, those verses are God's promises of provision. He will abide by His promises, and He will fulfill His Word to you to the letter, if you do your part and step out by faith as He requires you to do, and you will be amazed. As both Jesus and the Apostle John both say in those verses, all we need to do is ask. God will do the rest as we seek first His Kingdom, because He does NOT lie, as we can plainly see by the following Bible verse:

"God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"


Some Christians claim that they are waiting on the Lord to reveal His Will to them. This is obviously a very noble and a very wise position to adopt, if it is true. In fact, I've written an article regarding this subject entitled "What Is God's Will for My Life?", which you will find listed below. However, at the same time, I do wonder if in some cases, due to our own lack of faith, God may actually be waiting on us. After all, He normally does not push us to work for Him. He in fact usually waits patiently for us to yield ourselves to His Will for our lives.

My friends, as has long been my personal custom, in writing this article, and in addressing these issues, I have pointed you straight to the Scriptures. Why? Because your faith needs to be in God's Word, and NOT just in what I say and teach. It may interest some of you to know that this article contains a total of about 162 Bible verses. Out of personal curiosity, I did in fact just count them all. As you have now seen, these verses plainly reveal exactly what God's thoughts are insofar as Christian discipleship, and the cost of discipleship, are concerned. The verses reveal God's requirements, as they were taught by Jesus and the Apostles. They are obviously NOT my words.

Now, the reason why I make this point, is because I already know that despite the many Bible verses I have shared here to explain the requirements for serving the Lord full-time, and the cost of serving the Lord full-time, nevertheless, there are still going to be those Christians who will try to buck the current, resist the powerful truths which these verses reveal, and try to find a way to justify in their own minds and hearts, their failure to fully dedicate themselves to the Lord's service, as He may possibly be calling them to do. In short, excuses for failure will be made by such people, even if it only remains in the privacy of their own hearts.

For any of my readers who may already be thinking in this fashion -- that is to say, fighting against what is written herein -- let me just say this. My primary job is to reveal the Scriptural truth to you as best as I can. I think all of the verses I have shared here speak for themselves. They do not require a private interpretation. Thus, if you have any problem with them, and if you find any of them difficult to accept, then the problem clearly lies with you, and not with me, and most certainly not with the Lord. If you're resisting the conviction of the Spirit, then you need to pray and find out why you are doing this.

In conclusion, my friends, I ask you to please ask yourself today if God is truly using you to your fullest potential. If that is not the case, then perhaps you need to find out why not. What is hindering you? What is holding you back from a life fully dedicated to the Lord's service? Is there possibly some unyielded area in your life? These are questions which only you can answer. Let me leave you with this final thought for your consideration: The only thing that limits God in how much He can use you is your own faith, and your own obedience to His Will, and nothing else. Think about it, my friends.

With these thoughts, I will bring this article to a close. It is my hope that you've found it informative and enlightening, and I pray that it has been a blessing in your life as well. If you have an account with Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr or with any other social network, I would really appreciate if you'd take the time to click or tap on the corresponding link that is found on this page. Thanks so much, and may God bless you abundantly!

For additional information and further study, you may want to refer to the list of reading resources below which were either mentioned in this article, or which contain topics which are related to this article. All of these articles are likewise located on the Bill's Bible Basics web server. To read these articles, simply click or tap on any link you see below.

Abundant Life Doctrine: Scripturally Exposed!

Are You a Burning Ember for the Lord?

Are You Crucified With Christ?

Are You Redeeming the Time?

Going Down the Highway of Life

Have You Sold Your Soul for a Pound of Flesh?

Money-Making Bible Hucksters and Mammon

One From Beyond: Hebrew of Hebrews

Seek Ye First the Kingdom of God"

The Parable of the Sower: Salvation and Service

What Is God's Will for My Life?

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Please avail yourself of other areas of the Bill's Bible Basics website. There are many treasures for you to discover.