A - Loha everyone! Welcome to my blog!
Before you read the article below, Id encourage you to read at a mediocre pace so you can meditate and allow the words to come alive in your heart.
Enjoy!
Rhetorical Question of the day
Do you often find yourself doing something for God (i.e serving in church) without [knowing] the God you're doing stuff for? Or do you say you [know] God yet have a problem following & obeying him?
Well i hope this post meets you well, i pray you learn something new.
Who is a Disciple?
Greek word a "Mathetes" - A learner ; pupil , student , follower
- A disciple refers to a person who is committed to following a great leader, emulating his life and passing on his teaching (bible.org)
- A person called to be with & follow his teacher - Mark 3:14
- A disciple is one who believes and follows the teachings of another, and desires to learn more of his masters will (ehow)
- One who imitates his teacher
Here are some Interesting Facts on the 12 disciples
- They were ignorant
- They were unskilled
- They were ordinary
- They were recognized as men who had been with Jesus - Acts 4:13
- Theologians argue that The 12 Disciples were teenagers except Peter (Matthew 17:24-27), why? because you had to be over 20 to pay taxes
- "Jewish children began intensive study of the scriptures at young ages, but concluded by age 15. For those bright (or wealthy) enough, higher education consisted of studying under a local rabbi, and if they were distinguished, they could begin teaching at the age of 30. If they didn't find a rabbi that accepted them as a student (much like college entrance application), then they entered workforce by their midterms. The disciples, already must have been rejected by formal education by other rabbis when Jesus hand-picked them for further education as his disciples"
- God used 12 messed up, ordinary boys to turn the world upside down - Acts 17:6
- "Perhaps the transformation of the disciples of Jesus is the greatest evidence of all for the resurrection" - John R. W. Stott
Two Responsibilities
Before God appointed the disciples to do what He called them to do He gave them two responsibilities;
- Be with Him (know Him)
- Follow Him
Before you can effectively live out the purpose God has for you
& be an powerful disciple of Jesus Christ you have both of those responsibilities to act upon.
Be With Him
Matthew 10:1 - Jesus Called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness
Mark 3:14 -He climbed a mountain and invited those he wanted with him. They climbed together. He settled on twelve, and designated them apostles. The plan was that they would be with him (MSG)
Mark 3:14 - And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach ( KJV)
Quick Fact : This word "with"'is a preposition and the job of a preposition is to link nouns,pronouns & phrases to other words in a sentence . The preposition precedes a noun/pronoun to show the noun/pronouns relationship to another word in the sentence (let that sink in)
So now the word "with" comes before the word "him" to link , connect or show the the relationship between "him" and the disciples
With means - alongside of, next to or in the company of
And the relationship between Jesus and the disciples is targeted towards them being " with him"
God has called us to be with Him and enjoy him; I believe most times we Christians are very bent on following Gods "big" commands that we forget to enjoy his initial command -- to be with him.
Be with Me = Intimacy
1 Corinthians 1: 9 - God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord
- Fellowship in Greek means - koinonia - means communion, joint participation, intimacy
- The bible verse doesn't indicate the fellowship of his church, or the fellowship of your brothers & sisters in Christ but he called us into the fellowship of his son .
What is Intimacy ?
- a close, familiar and affectionate personal relationship
- a close association with deep or understanding of a place, person , subject etc
- An act or expression service as a token of familiarity or affection
- A feeling of belonging together
- Closeness, familiarity, understanding, confidentiality, friendship
- In- To - Me - You - See : allowing someone to look inside you and also, to know the real you
- taking the risk to be close to someone and allowing that someone to step inside your personal boundaries
- Connecting with someone on every level; physical, emotional & spiritual
To be intimate with God means to know God
to be familiar with him, to belong to him, to allow him to look inside of you and know the real you etc
Follow Him
In order to effectively follow God you have to be with him. You can't follow God without being with him, because it is only when you're with him that you can truly follow him. Also , you can't be with God without following him; you develop a true desire to follow God by being with Him.
The disciples were able to fully follow God because they were intimate with him
Follow means;
to come or go after , proceed behind , to go in the direction of; be guided by.
I believe Jeremiah 2:5 depicts what it looks like to follow.
Jeremiah 2:5 :
Thus saith The Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me, that they are gone far from me, and have walked after vanity, and are become vain?" (KJV)
"This is what The Lord says: what fault did your ancestors find in me, that they strayed so far from me?They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves (NIT)
"Hear Gods message, house of Jacob! Yes, You- House of Israel! Gods Message : "What did your ancestors find fault in me that they drifted so far from me, Took up with Sir Windbag and turned into windbags themselves?" (MSG)
After reading this bible verse its evident that there's something that happens when you follow.
- when you follow something/someone - you start to behave like that thing /person.
- what you follow you become.
- What you go after - you become
- When you follow in someone's footsteps you become like that person
- Even our thought patterns displaying an act of following, Proverbs 23:7 states "as a man thinketh in his heart, so he is". There is a thought process that you have & follow and the more you follow that thought pattern the more you become those thoughts
- You are a product of what you follow
God knows the power of a follow, no wonder he wanted it to become our 2nd responsibility
First responsibility: get to know him , be intimate with him , fellowship with him. Then the second responsibility comes in : follow him so you can be a product of him.
Bible verses on "follow me"
Luke 9: 23 -" Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and carry their cross daily and follow me"
- We always quote the "Carry your cross" part and leave out the second commandment.
- "Carry your cross and follow me", funny thing is...you won't be able to carry your cross without following God.
Whatever your cross is God says "carry it", but he doesn't leave you there, he says "carry it and follow me". Why?, because there's power behind a follow. As you begin to follow God with that cross on your back you begin to see how God handles the cross and you start to walk in his footsteps.Your thought process becomes transformed and you begin to see the joy behind that cross, so you're furthermore encouraged to carry that cross and endure that cross and the end product is becoming like Jesus... as you're carrying your cross.
Follow God and Find Purpose
John 15 :1-5 states that we are the branches. The purpose of a branch is to hold out the leafs to collect water and sunlight.
In relation to this, we the disciples are the branches & the purpose of is to be naturally effective, what does this look like? Picture making disciples & teaching them to obey Jesus (Matthew 28:16-20)
God is so creative to the point that there is no specific surrounding to make a disciple (let that sink it)
Peter
Peter is an example of a disciple who was with God & followed Him in spite of the mistakes he made, and through that avenue he was able to live out the life God had for him.
No matter how many times peter failed his tests, no matter how many times he messed up; he still followed & remained in God .
Peters purpose was to become the rock in which the disciples and the rest of the disciples were gonna make & build the church on.
If peter stopped fellow-shipping with God, if he stopped following God, if he stopped remaining in God, he would have not been able to produce fruit and live up to the meaning of his name
Take care of your 2 responsibilities
- Be with God
- Follow God
Selah...
Love you all!
- Nicole
