A heart for discipleship

Having been at a YWAM base being discipled for 2 years, I feel I can speak with some credibility on what I believe we need to adopt in the coming years.

I asked God "Give me wisdom for discipleship!"

In a matter of moments two things came to mind, which I would like to share with you

We have an insatiable desire to have our needs met in our hearts. This i call "the heart problem" or "the heart solution" what we need is to be whole-hearted. Where is the only one who guarantees security in our hearts and who will receive all that we have? These are just two of many needs of our hearts. However when I realised the whole point is to be whole-hearted. Woosh! This must be God's grace to hear from Him relating to very important things.

The soon expectation of judgment. Judgment is our friend, when we see things through God's eyes, we see clearly, we have freedom. God hates sin, God is jealous over idols, God's wrath is kindled against the wicked every day. What makes us think that we can indulge in pornography, murder our closest friends in anger, become jealous over what others have, desire anything other than God and expect to get off the hook?

Discipleship starts and ends with death.  If the person who disciples you has not told you this, they have lied to you.

We have a passage in Matthew 23 which I want to quote: (the whole thing ought to be quoted)

Then Jesus spoke to the multitudes and to His disciples,
saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses' seat.

"Therefore whatever they tell you to observe,
[that] observe and do,  but do not do according to their works;
for they say, and do not do.

"For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear,
and lay [them] on men's shoulders;
but they [themselves] will not move them with one of their fingers.

"But all their works they do to be seen by men.
They make their phylacteries broad and enlarge the borders of their garments.

"They love the best places at feasts, the best seats in the synagogues,
"greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called by men, 'Rabbi, Rabbi.'

"But you, do not be called 'Rabbi'; for One is your Teacher,
the Christ, and you are all brethren.

"Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father,
He who is in heaven.

"And do not be called teachers; for One is your Teacher,
the Christ.

"But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant.

"And whoever exalts himself will be humbled,
and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

"But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men;
for you neither go in [yourselves],
nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

What is happening here is this, in the culture of the day, Rabbi's were seen as the actors and celebrities of the day, they got all the applause, did all the things for show, loved what people would say about them. There was a kind of doctrine that entered the church during the first century, which is called "Nicolaism" which means "Power over the people" it put into hierarchy what ought to have been flat-panelled.

The Lord Jesus pulled no punches when he said "I hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans"

I think what has happened is quite controversial. From my own experience, discipleship has been framed like this:

If you are a young christian, you need some older and wiser than you to disciple you, who has experience to teach and guide you in the path

But I'm going to be radical and say, this is not what the bible preaches. How do you think we will be known to be loved of one another? How do you think the world will know that Christ has sent us? Is it by waiting 30 years before we are asked to disciple? Is this what it says? Actually, all I can find is the opposite, Christ slammed the leaders of the day for not understanding, and making it all about them. He slammed the nicolaitans in the church.

Actually, what is taught is this: Everyone disciples one another. Being in YWAM, I have really benefited from this system. We live in community, live alongside one another, eat bread together, pray through faults, allow God to speak to the individual, and love on one another through pains and hurts (we all have them)

That is when Christ's love will radiate from within us, when the Spirit will be poured out through us, we will be able to hear from Him to goto Saudi Arabia and love those who destroy us.

Christ makes no apologies for what he says in regard to what the Rabbi's were doing wrong. He said "YOU are applauded, When it is Christ who is your Teacher!" They were taking his position. They were taking his place!

I think that's the way it was supposed to happen, though I am still learning, Yeshua ha Meshiach has called me to teach, is this right? is he asking me to teach straight away? Is he asking me to be discipled? Is he asking me to die?

When we take Christ off the highest point, away from the only one who will give us heart-felt joy, we become fascinated by peoples struggles and actually fall down, people were never meant to be the ones we turned to, gave our hearts to, it is always supposed to be Jesus.

In all of this, I have to say, I am in the same boat as you! I'm looking forward to the outpouring that will come in obedience to this commandment.

Christ is the highest point of my discipleship. He alone is the one who motivates me. I am not supposed to go about discipleship with some sort of army mentality, it has and always will be a family affair. We are isolated, we are paralyzed, broken, hurt, and ineffective to witness. We will not go unless God pours out His love in our hearts.

In ephesians chapter 4 it says that the body will be matured and come into the fullness of the knowledge of the Son of God. we are all to teach, evangelize, pastor, prophecy and set up churches. But God has anointed and set apart certain ones and called them "Apostles, Prophets, Teachers, Evangelists, Pastors" for the equipping of the Saints. This equipping is more than just having confidence in your talents and abilities, it is Counting the Cost, saying "You are worth it Jesus" I will go because you have commanded me.

My joy is to equip the Saints, I do not need to apologize for that. Our love for Jesus is to be so strong that we count having our heads split open for Him a reward for his love - o Lord, give us mercy as you gave to David!