📌 The Cup … Are you Able?
You know, the disciples once got into an argument about who would sit at Jesus’ right hand and who would sit at His left. They were thinking about position, honor, and visibility. But Jesus looked at them and gently said:
“You do not know what you ask. Are you able to drink the cup that I am about to drink?”
— Matthew 20:22, NKJV
What a question…
So many people today want to be raised up.
They want to be exalted, promoted, recognized…
but Jesus’ words still stand:
“Do you know what you’re asking for?”
Because elevation in the Kingdom is not about spotlight —
it’s about the cup.
It’s about surrender, suffering, obedience, and faithfulness.
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There are many who want the promotion, but they don’t always understand the process that comes before it. They see the glory, but not the story. They feel the desire for the seat, but they don’t recognize the path that leads there.
Jesus was essentially saying:
“The seat you’re asking for requires a life you haven’t walked yet.”
In the Kingdom, exaltation always follows humility.
Authority always follows surrender.
And the crown always follows the cup.
Some people want the platform but not the pressing.
They want influence without being refined.
They want visibility without the hidden years where God forms character, purifies motives, and anchors the soul.
The disciples didn’t yet understand that Jesus’ cup involved:
• betrayal
• misunderstanding
• rejection
• sacrifice
• obedience in suffering
• and the laying down of His own will
Every true promotion in the Kingdom carries a cost.
Not a cost of punishment —
a cost of preparation.
And Jesus’ question to them is still His question to us:
“Are you able to drink this cup?”
Not everyone is ready.
Not everyone is willing.
And not everyone understands that the cup is not a sign of failure…
but a sign of calling.
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The Hidden Truth About the Cup
The truth is, the cup is not something to fear.
It’s something to accept, because it is the very thing that shapes you into who God can trust with real authority.
The cup is where:
• your pride is broken
• your motives are purified
• your dependence deepens
• your roots go down
• your identity stabilizes
• and your obedience becomes costly, not casual
The cup is where God removes the desire to impress
and replaces it with the desire to obey.
It’s where you stop asking,
“Lord, promote me,”
and start praying,
“Lord, make me trustworthy.”
Everyone wants resurrection power,
but resurrection only comes after a garden, a cross, and a tomb.
Everyone wants to sit with Christ in glory,
but few want to walk with Him through the Gethsemane moments where the soul trembles and the will is surrendered.
This is why Jesus asked the disciples that piercing question:
“Are you able to drink the cup?”
Because leadership in the Kingdom is never seized —
it is entrusted.
Promotion is never demanded —
it is given.
And the cup is never punishment —
it is preparation.
It’s not about pain.
It’s about formation.
God is shaping someone He can use, someone He can send, someone who won’t fold under pressure or crumble under influence.
And here’s the part we often forget:
If God gives you a cup,
it means He sees something in you
that you can’t yet see in yourself.
Promotion is not proof of calling.
The cup is the proof of calling.
So when Jesus asks,
“Are you able to drink it?”
He’s not testing your strength —
He’s revealing your destiny.
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The Cup Leads to the Calling
And here is the mystery Jesus was pointing to:
the cup comes before the calling is revealed.
Before God seats you,
He shapes you.
Before He promotes you,
He prepares you.
Before He trusts you with influence,
He trains you in hiddenness.
The disciples thought the highest honor was the seat at His right hand.
But Jesus knew the honor was in the assignment,
and the assignment demanded a heart that had walked through the cup.
In the Kingdom:
• the ones who serve become the greatest
• the hidden become the most fruitful
• the surrendered become the strongest
• the obedient become the most trustworthy
And the ones who drink the cup become the ones God can send anywhere.
Many people want the moment,
but God is looking for people who have walked through the making.
Your cup may look like:
• a long season of waiting
• being misunderstood
• doing right with no recognition
• being faithful when no one sees
• praying for others while you’re still hurting
• walking in obedience even when it costs you
• keeping your heart clean when you’ve been wronged
And yet, every sip of that cup is forming something eternal in you.
The cup is not a sign God is against you.
It’s a sign God is for you —
building depth, weight, character, and authority.
Because once you drink the cup,
once you surrender the will,
once you let the Lord form you in the quiet places…
you become unstoppable.
Not because of strength,
but because of surrender.
Not because of position,
but because of obedience.
Not because of the seat you sit in,
but because of the cross you carried.
So when Jesus asks,
“Are you able to drink this cup?”
He is not trying to discourage you.
He is inviting you into a greatness the world cannot see —
a greatness Heaven recognizes.
And the moment you say,
“Lord, not my will, but Yours,”
everything in your story shifts.
That cup becomes the doorway to the calling.
The pressing becomes the anointing.
The surrender becomes the authority.
And what God forms in private,
He will one day reveal in power.
Drink the cup.
Trust the process.
The seat belongs to the ones who surrender the most.
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ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ
✿⊰ B e l i e v e ⊰✿
ღೋƸ̵̡Ӝ̵̨̄Ʒღೋ
Eagle’s Way Ministries 