If you're a student, where do you go to be discipled in the same sort of way that Jesus poured into his disciples?
If you're a parent, what is your strategy for discipling your kids?
One place to look is the local church; usually you'll find someone there who really wants to help others follow Jesus. The trick is to somehow connect with them.
I'd be interested to know what you find at your local church when you dial up the church secretary and ask her if she can point you to someone who will disciple you as Jesus did. That'd be a good experiment [I hope a few of you will try that out and report back what you find].
Many churches seem to substitute programs and activities for the kind of process Jesus followed that was focused on waking up his disciples to supernatural reality.
Discipling is a process that usually is attended by pain and discomfort – things that we church leaders and parents work hard to protect our children from. We want to help young people get to greatness, but we're conflicted about exposing them to the uncomfortable, ambiguous situations that will get them there.
When my kids were in their teens, I realized that I couldn't delegate discipleship to anyone else – if I didn't do it, it wasn't going to happen. And so I made it a priority. We spent time trying to follow Jesus and his process.
It wasn't easy; at times it was stressful. If they were to wake up to life in the Spirit, they needed to experience the process of abandoning their lives of comfort and trusting God completely.
We were able to give that to them in spurts, but we needed the help of others to move them in the direction of making their faith their own.
I discovered there were no easy answers and no magic curriculum. Along the way, I did learn this, however: If we're to follow hard after Jesus, we need to be willing to be put in situations where we have to trust him in radical ways. And that begs a few questions.
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Have you been willing to put your comfortable life up for foreclosure?
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When was the last time you trusted God in radical ways?
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Have you been discipled as Jesus discpled others?
Right now in this very season of my life I am in a test. Many different things are happening at different times. A test that begs these questions:
1.What is God up to in your life through this issue?
2.How are you able to practice love through this issue?
3. Are you able to abide with joy in the midst of this issue?
4.Are you able to be at peace in the midst of this issue?
5. Does anything need to change before the answers to #3 & 4 are yes? If so, why?
Yes God I surrender to you everything. Then boom. Here comes tests from every angle. Shake my world Lord. I asked for this a year ago in a very specific way. SO yes He is answering in many specific ways. Please if these questions minister to your heart, write them down and ask God to remind you of them each time a new thing occurs that is trying your faith. I promise you if you ask, He won’t let you down!
May I share my blog with you Seth?
Dear Daddy Seth.
Greetings.
very inspering daddy in the 3rd GCI Training Khanewal I taught this subject.But through this article I learnt and blessed and I will share with in Fasilabad GCI Training which will be start next month.May God bless you.
Yes, Sandy – pls share your blog.
Emmanuel – glad to hear it will be of use to you.
http://sunsetstormx.blogspot.com/
There it is.
Too many questons I don’t want to answer lately. He must be at work…
Thanks Seth. There are some good insights here. As an aside I have found that “self appointed masters” ready to “disciple” often create more damage than help. The key is to ask God to help us to be led to the right person either as one to be discipled or the other way around.
Just a curious question….”Who discipled the Apostle Paul?”
Amen Seth. Appreciate the following comments specifically:
“…We want to help young people get to greatness, but we’re conflicted about exposing them to the uncomfortable, ambiguous situations that will get them there.”
“It wasn’t easy; at times it was stressful. If they were to wake up to life in the Spirit, they needed to experience the process of abandoning their lives of comfort and trusting God completely.”
“We were able to give that to them in spurts, but we needed the help of others to move them in the direction of making their faith their own.”
Arriving at a faith that is one’s own is not easy. And leading a child to his/her own faith is not simplistic. Each person has a unique path to carve in the Kingdom that belongs to them alone. There is no formula or “magic curriculum” for the faith, or gaining the courage, to do this. For a parent to trust God completely with the process they must have been discipled well themselves and take the time to know the child well. Similarly, a person who disciples must take time to know the one being discipled. The status of the western Church with regard to discipleship seems to be: cardiac arrest. Our God can resuscitate the heart of the Church in this matter. We should hope and pray it happens soon.