The Narrow Gate Means Ego Death
“Pick up your cross and follow me” - Jesus
“Deny yourself and follow me” - Jesus
“The first is last and the last is first” - Jesus
“No one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” Jesus
And all the Beatitudes.
The Bible is asking you to release all your material attachments and see them for what they are - chains. The world of illusions which is authored by the enemy, Satan, is your ego. Your ego is the father of all lies. Your ego is the deceiver. Your ego is the one who tells you to fear while Jesus champions you to believe all things are possible and to never worry. Think about the Lily in the field or the sparrows - how can you worry when you have God inside you?
Can you understand why that path is narrow? Saying you follow Jesus is pretty easy but crucifying all your earthly attachments to things, power, knowledge, control, and all the stories you tell yourself is HARD.
““Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.
“Watch out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ferocious wolves. By their fruit you will recognize them. Do people pick grapes from thornbushes, or figs from thistles?
Likewise, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus, by their fruit you will recognize them.”
Matthew 7:13-20 NIV
There are false prophets that are other people and there are false prophets INSIDE YOUR HEAD. They whisper false lies to you about yourself. I call them thought demons and they are all the worst ways you speak to yourself. Have you experienced this?
This is where we remind ourselves what the good fruit is and how we can recognize it.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV
Your ego wants the opposite of those things and the Bible calls those opposites the desires of the flesh. The ego believes that all you are is your body on this material plane and will lie to you incessantly to protect that identification. Jesus is telling your the Kingdom is inside you and you must be born again of Spirit to LIVE. You will be different. You will have peace that no one understands when you crucify your ego in the example of Christ and understand that you are born into The Holy Spirit. This is a promise of the now not only the afterlife.
The gate is narrow. Jesus opened the gate to us. Jesus told us how to find the gate. Jesus is a living example of how to walk through it. Jesus was crucified because the Religious and the Government couldn’t see past their own ego and created violence from fear of losing power over people.
Walk through this gate. You have to choose it. You have to crucify your ego and be born again into who you were born to be before the world turned you into someone you can’t understand.
If you made it this far - I’m curious if this resonates or if you felt a pull in your heart as you read it.