DISCIPLESHIP

I remember sitting in the OB/GYN waiting room when I was pregnant with Natalie, our eldest daughter. I held the bookmark they gave me with this poem on it in my hand, reading it over and over and pondering the great responsibility that lay ahead. In my heart, I wanted to do everything right, to give the very best for our baby that God had entrusted to us. I could feel the weight of this responsibility pressing on my soul as I read this poem. I knew our lives weren’t perfect and this little baby would follow our example. As life continued, we tried fiercely to do everything that we were taught in church. Though we grew much in Christ, life’s challenges gradually exposed all of our weaknesses, our flaws, our fears and our human nature. We soared high in some areas; we failed miserably in others. Our children saw it all and were affected by both the good and the bad from our example.

Jesus’ final words were a command, not a request, nor an option for believers. “Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations...” (Matthew 28:19, NIV). If this is His final word to us, it bears a tremendous weight, if not the greatest weight. What is discipleship? What does the end result look like? How is it obtained? What does it require? 

Discipleship is established on the premise that we reproduce who and what we are. As a teacher, you can teach anything, but you merely impact the mind and hopefully inspire the heart to try to do what you have taught. As a parent, you also teach; but, how you live your life day in and day out will either support what you teach your children or completely undermine what you teach. Children watch you, mimic your every move and aspire to be like you. As a parent, you are in relationship with your children, training them in the ways of life through what you model and how you live your life. What you teach should bring both clarity and encouragement to what they see lived out in your life. I believe that making disciples is based upon the same principles as parenting and bears the same weight and responsibility as parenting. 

Making disciples for Christ is based first and foremost upon an intimate and personal relationship with Christ, (a vertical relationship) in order to have healthy relationships (horizontally), that are both transparent and accountable. It is not enough to just know the Word. It requires that we both know the Word and live it out transparently in real-life situations before those we lead. People need real and living examples to not only see the path but also to follow. 

We cannot be discipled or disciple others successfully alone or in isolation. God puts people in families for a reason. It requires many people to raise a child from birth to manhood or womanhood. Even after adulthood, God continues to use family members and the Body of Christ to develop us. I still gain strength, counsel, correction and encouragement today from our leaders and co-laborers at GTN; and, I love being able to walk with those that God has put in our lives, encouraging them, coaching them, allowing them room to make mistakes and helping them grow through their mistakes. It takes time to develop a disciple; but it also takes time to raise a child to adulthood. We need family in our lives to grow in Christ and to enjoy life with!

The original Greek word for disciple (mathetes), means ‘learner or pupil’. It reflects an ancient culture in which higher education meant leaving everything behind and following a teacher. This teacher or philosopher would use life as his classroom and communicate truth by living it around his “disciples”. His disciples would often take a role of servitude towards the teacher. At the teacher’s death, the disciples would become the teachers and communicate the teachings to a new group of disciples. Similarly today a disciple of Jesus is one who chooses to be a lifetime learner or pupil of Jesus Christ. “A true disciple of Jesus will begin to take on the character of Jesus and desire for others to be similarly transformed” (Willis, 37).

This explanation is inspiring and always challenges me to dive in deeper; however, I have found that the pruning process of the Holy Spirit is as critical in becoming a disciple of Christ as my conscious efforts to become like Christ. As a young Christian, I didn’t realize how this pruning took place. I now know that He uses the people and the trials in my life to help with the pruning process. 

Let us look at John 15:1-8:

“I am the true grapevine, and my Father is the gardener. ² He cuts off every branch of mine that doesn’t produce fruit, and he prunes the branches that do bear fruit so they will produce even more. ³ You have already been pruned and purified by the message I have given you. ⁴ Remain in me, and I will remain in you. For a branch cannot produce fruit if it is severed from the vine, and you cannot be fruitful unless you remain in me. ⁵ Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ Anyone who does not remain in me is thrown away like a useless branch and withers. Such branches are gathered into a pile to be burned. ⁷ But if you remain in me and my words remain in you, you may ask for anything you want, and it will be granted! ⁸ When you produce much fruit, you are my true disciples. This brings great glory to my Father” (NLT).

Our youngest daughter Liza, and her husband lived in Virginia for many years where there are many beautiful vineyards. We have visited in the winter when the vines are cut back so severely that you would never believe that they could survive the cold harsh winters. Yet, come spring, they are filled with lush green leaves and groves of grape clusters. The master of the vineyard knows intuitively just which branches to cut and how far back to cut them in order for them to produce much fruit in the next season. John 15:8 says, “When you produce much fruit, you are His true disciples.”  Much fruit never comes without being preceded by pruning.

I am convinced you cannot grow and become all that Christ has for you without relationships in your life, nor can you disciple people without relationships. Relationships can get messy; and if they are relatives, it is easy to just keep moving on instead of growing through the trials in your relationships. We have found that you cannot have relationship without all of these components:

• Discipleship requires relationship. 
• You can’t have relationship without accountability.
• Accountability only works if both parties are transparent. 
• Transparency requires vulnerability which is in essence trust. If former relationships have abused your trust, it makes it really difficult to trust again. 

Our Father masterfully puts people in our lives that have the exact weaknesses needed to push our buttons and in turn expose our weaknesses. Why does He do this? He loves us enough to do whatever it takes to get us set free. We need people that will push our buttons or those weaknesses will forever remain our blind spots. He also loves us enough to put spiritual fathers and mothers in our lives that have the exact strengths, knowledge and anointing we need deposited in our lives or who have overcome the exact areas with which we need help. In essence, our greatest challenges with people are God’s gift to us to make us like Him.

If we embrace the people and face the challenges with humility, servanthood, and an open mind and heart, practicing true biblical conflict resolution from Matthew 18:15-17 in order to preserve the relationship rather than be ‘right’, and if we prefer others over ourselves, our fears and our weaknesses, we will always win and the relationships we have in our lives will win too. I believe herein lie spiritual truths to being and making true disciples, true team, and true church. 

The most difficult times in my walk with the Lord have been times of conflict with others, when there was mistrust in relationships, times of feeling undermined and times of great trials. However, each of those times revealed a lack in my faith, my character and my humility. Through brokenness, or pruning, I drew closer to Christ, allowing Him to carefully and mercifully take the scalpel and remove things from my system of beliefs that were based out of hurt and replace it with His truth, His perspective, His way, making me His disciple and taking on His nature and character. I successfully made it through those battles because of the presence of spiritual fathers and mothers that encouraged me and coached me through.

Today, I glean from those trials. The victory and wisdom gained in those experiences not only grant me peace and faith in today’s trials, but also benefit those that walk with me. I can look back over the past 30 years and identify each leader and co-laborer that God put in our lives to pour into Tim and me– leaders who both modeled and taught truths that have become pillars in our faith and the foundations that we stand on today. The key is recognizing who God has put in your life for that season and what you are to glean from them. I didn’t always recognize them, nor honor them at the time, something from which I have repented. God, as the architect and builder of our faith, is schooling us and building us into the saints He has destined us to be for His glory. Today, I carry truth in the fiber of who I am as a disciple and discipler from each of the leaders that poured into me throughout my life. 

Let us recognize what God is doing and work with Him, not against Him by judging or rejecting the people or circumstances that God has put in our lives for our good. We are to live and breathe and have our being with God in the context of family. Ask God to help you identify whom He has put in your life for His divine purposes. Ask God for a new set of eyes to see them and ask him to teach you how to fulfill His purpose in these relationships.

Questions for Consideration: Discipleship

1. Reflect on important relationships in your life. What are some of the valuable things that you learned from others’ lives lived out before you? How did their example, good or bad, influence you today?
2. Using John 15:1-8, describe how the Holy Spirit uses the people, the trials and the disappointments in our lives to prune us. How does the principle of pruning help us in becoming a disciple of Christ?
3. Describe the need for relationship, accountability, transparency and vulnerability to make a disciple? Do you have relationships where all four of these are evident? Why is trust so important to making a disciple?
4. If you feel like you are not being discipled or are not able to disciple someone effectively, pray and ask God what is hindering you. Look inside and go deep for answers, refusing to be denied. Then, talk to a leader or an accountability partner and covenant before God to change.