To take up our cross means to take up the cross of Jesus where He crucified the flesh in us. What we are to deny ourselves is the old man that has been destroyed by the precious cross of Christ. Declaring that the old man has been destroyed by the cross begins to create in us a life that the cross purchased for us. A life of liberty and access, where we can ask anything in His name. Our desires will become His desires and our obedience will be His obedience. He becomes what we could have never become in our Spirit man. We could never make the flesh obey or deny ourselves enough to measure up to Christ’s example, but through the cross our flesh is denied and our Spirit is amplified.