Picture of Discipleship

Matthew 28:18-20 "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen'"

Jesus is the perfect embodiment of the plan of the Father.  He not only came as the substitute and sacrifice for the sins of humanity, but He also came to establish the identity of the believer. As He sets the framework for identity, He also gives the church its missional mindset.  The body of Christ is meant to be a living organism and a mobile force, not a passive form without produce.  We, the believer, are called "The Body of Christ" which indicates all that is in Jesus is available to us today. 

What Jesus brought in the form of identity to the believing church can be activated by the seed and harvest concept of discipleship.  Jesus said, "Go and make disciples of all nations," which indicates that He has equipped us to do exactly that - make disciples.  God will never call you to something He won't equip you.  He is not only giving identity but He has partnered a mandate to come from that identity.  He has equipped us with every spiritual blessing to see Heaven create a partnership on the earth by planting Jesus as the seed for the harvest in humanity.  Our mandate is to take the identity that He has given us and multiply it in the earth.  Jesus said in John 4:35, "Open your eyes and look at the fields, they are ripe for harvest".  Recognizing our times from a heavenly perspective will initiate our hearts to see the harvest of souls that Jesus said was in front of us. Matthew 9:37-38 "Then He said to His disciples, 'The harvest is truly plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.'" We must accept both the identity and mandate of the harvest to understand biblical discipleship.  

The principle of discipleship has been lost in our modern, cultural view of today. I used to picture discipleship as simply making a duplication of the original, which doesn't sound so bad when you recognize our model is Jesus.  I though that if we were doing discipleship correctly, we would have raised a generation that looks and sounds like the model lived before them.  Obviously scripture tells us that an element of discipleship is to "imitate me, as I imitate Christ", but that's where most of us get off course thinking that the imitation is of me and not Christ.  If you imitate me, you will find an incomplete, sometimes off target effort from humanity that is based on human limitations. But if your imitation is that of what you see in Jesus through me, then you will find a strength to accomplish, beyond human limitations. What you see in me, you see in a fruit form.  This means you see it in it's full manifestation and not it's seed form.  I see my fruit in a seed form, meaning that I know the beginning stages and the power of the planted seed to produce fruit in your life.    

In Matthew 10, Jesus gave the disciples power. This power was to effectively change the condition of anything they came in contact with on earth.  If they encountered a demonically possessed person, they now had authority to cast it out.  If they encountered someone sick, they could release power to raise them out of their disease.  This is an amazing idea - that Jesus would give His authority to His disciples.  Many people say that we don't have that authority to do such things anymore, but if that were to be true, then the very heart of the kingdom would be missing.  John 14:12 "most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and GREATER works than these he will do, because I go to My Father." This is a radical Kingdom indicator for us from the Lord.  He said in Matthew 13:31, "that the Kingdom is like a seed." This means the Kingdom was never meant to be DUPLICATED but rather MULTIPLIED each time it's planted.  A seed goes into the ground and produces much more than a seed when it grows forth from the ground at harvest time.  It releases a multiplied reality because of the harvest held within the seed.  Jesus uses this seed and harvest reality to mirror the Kingdom reality.  The activating force in the seed of the Kingdom is The Holy Spirit.  The Holy Spirit filled the church in the upper room and gave life to everything Jesus deposited for the three and a half years that He walked the earth.  The Holy Spirit gave life to the believer and gave POWER to change the environment.  

The upper room will activate what discipleship initiates.  

Here is one quick illustration;

Mark 1 highlights an encounter that happened at Simon's house following an appearance in the synagogue.  Jesus comes to Simon's house where his mother-in-law was sick with fever.  Instead of it being business as usual, Jesus was told about her condition and decided it.  In verse 31 it says, "He came and took her by the hand and lifted her up, and immediately the fever left her."  Most people pass by this simple encounter and mark it as "another good thing" Jesus has done, but this Peter's story lays the a very distinct framework for discipleship. If you fast forward all the way through the earthly ministry of Jesus to the upper room, you see the conclusion to the Peter's story and the finished framework of biblical discipleship.  

Acts 3 gives a narrative of Peter and John on their way to prayer when they come across a lame man at the gate of the city.  The story says that the man looked upon them expecting to receive something.  Peter would go on to tell the man, "silver and gold have I not, but such as I HAVE, I GIVE TO YOU, in the Name of Jesus rise and walk". This is such a powerful statement because nothing in scripture is wasted, especially our experiences with Jesus.  This is the first recreative miracle mentioned following the upper room encounter. Acts 2 activated what Mark 1 initiated in Simon Peter.  The fruit is Acts 3, which is a perfect picture of discipleship.  That which Simon Peter received in his house with his mother-in-law, He was now positioned to give at the gate to the lame man.  Peter saw  Jesus reach down to lay hold of her, and therefore did the same to touch the man in need.  The first miracle that Peter walked in was the same kind of miracle that Jesus did in his own life. He saw the touch of Jesus effectively change the condition of someone in need,  and therefore, followed the Master is action at the gate of the city and received the same power from above with the same result - healing!

True discipleship is multiplying the seed that has been planted, not just being a duplicate of the seed.  What one generation invests in, the next is destined to multiply.  Jesus desired that we understand the price He paid on Calvary and the freedom that is truly in Him.  He has so much more to give to His believing church than a pass to Heaven.  He has power, authority and identity to release through us on the earth.  Focus today on being a living testimony of what God has done in your life to change both the environment and the people around you.

Let the upper room activate what discipleship has initiated. 

BLESSED ARE

In the eyes of God you are much more than you realize.  

This statement has never been more true than in Matthew 5 as Jesus speaks one the most powerful, identity defining messages of His earthly ministry - The Beatitudes.  I once heard Lou Engle tell an audience that every believer should read Matthew 5 at least once a week to allow the identity of the reader to be measured by what Jesus says.  Once I heard those words spoken, I began to spend time meditating on the truth that was in this message.  The way that The Holy Spirit illuminated this passage to me really began to shape the way I pursued God every day.  Matthew 5 is what I call the "Blessed Are" chapter of the Bible.  It's a little open ended in it's "title" because I see it having a partnership from us in it's message to cause it to have a fullness in our lifestyle.  Blessed are...tells me that there is certainly more to follow and I must constantly examine myself to find out who I am in Christ.  Many times as believers we are more BLESSED than what we see in our lives.  We are often too afraid of the examination process that is necessary by Heaven to see the release of that blessing in our everyday lives on earth.  My goal is to show you how the The Holy Spirit opened the BLESSED ARE... to my life.  

When you want to understand any chapter in Scripture it's important that you don't just read that one Scripture; we must understand the frame work going on around that text.  For example in Matthew 5 we could easily conclude that it stands by itself, but the truth is, everything Jesus does connects to the whole subject of the Kingdom and doesn't stand by itself. He is Alpha and Omega (and everything in the middle), which allows us to understand that from the beginning to the end, HE IS! 

It's important that we understand that in order to see the whole of the Scripture in Matthew 5, we must look at the earlier chapters for the set-up.  In Matthew 3 there was an earthly ministry transfer that was going on in the Earth.  Up to this point, John the Baptist was the "Voice" that people sought for direction. Jesus arrives and is baptized for righteousness sake.  He who is 100% God is also 100% Man and chose to walk in oder, because glory was getting ready to be released.  God's Word is eternal and His principles unlock the glory in every area of our lives. In the Old Testament the temple had to be set in "order" before the presence of God would reside there.  It's important here to embrace a vital Kingdom dynamic - Order precedes Glory!  So when Jesus stepped into the baptism with John, the TRANSFER OF HEAVEN'S VOICE was complete. 

In Matthew 4 Jesus steps into the next position of walking in the fullness of His purpose on the Earth.  He was LED BY THE SPIRIT INTO THE WILDERNESS!  We would love to skip over this chapter if we would ever assume that we would have to follow the steps of Jesus.  In today's society we have somehow come to the conclusion that we won't have any measure of wilderness if we say, "YES" to Jesus.  But the truth is, when we say, "YES" to Jesus, we say YES to being led by the same Spirit, that sometimes will walk you through a wilderness, to see what we truly stand upon.  Jesus in Matthew 4 does what Adam did not do, He defeated the temptation of the adversary by putting His position of righteousness and His dependency of the Word toward every accusation of the enemy.  When Jesus defeats Satan in the place of the wilderness, it was a battle that was necessary to win as the Son of Man, because it would pave the road of victory for all who will choose to follow.  The remarkable thing is that when Jesus comes out of the wilderness He is clearly walking in a highly recognizable authority.  Matthew 4:23-24 says that He preached, healed, and delivered all who were oppressed from various demonic attacks. As if that wasn't enough to get excited about, Jesus goes one step further in Matthew 5 by showing us that He never desires to give us "enough", but He truly wants us to know He is the God of MORE THAN ENOUGH.  Especially when it comes to the IDENTITY of His Children. 

In Matthew 5 He blows the defeated door of our identity wide open. You have to imagine that up to this point, the identity of Israel had nearly been lost as a "chosen people".  Jesus takes his followers the mountainside in order to speak into them all they would need in order for them to understand what it means to be His.  He opens up by saying, "BLESSED ARE the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of Heaven."  It doesn't sound so impressive or prosperous when you just read it from a Western culture perspective, but here is what this verse is saying.  First of all He opens by declaring BLESSING!  This word "blessed" is a greek word, "makarios" which indicates that it is something, LARGE in it's quantity and LONG in its duration.  It's a word indicating that a "congratulation and applause is in order".  WOW!  What God is saying to the hearer, is I don't have anything small or weak to give to My people.  I have something to give them that will last!  The second part is the qualification, "poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven". Poor in spirit is a statement of humility.  The Father requires humility to receive the Kingdom of Heaven. The proud and the "know- it-all" attitude cannot receive what is of the Kingdom of Heaven.  It's important that the BLESSING of Heaven requires our hearts and lives to be in the right position to receive the fullness.  One thing I want to reiterate is that ODER ALWAYS PRECEDES GLORY.  

Here is how this subject fits into the life of a believer;  One of the greatest questions, statement or situation in the life of most believer is, "What am I called to do or be?"  It's an important question to ask, but we have to understand that the same principle within Matthew 3, 4, and 5 apply to our purpose and identity within the Kingdom today.  God will not always lay it all in front of you to understand at the beginning.  He will have you stand in righteousness and walk through a wilderness to ultimately release a powerful IDENTITY on your life!  

God is more concerned with your POSITION BEFORE HIM than what you try to ACCOMPLISH FOR HIM.  He will always demand POSITION BEFORE DIRECTION.  If you are struggling in the area of direction for your life, family or ministry, I encourage you to go into Matthew 5 and see yourself from the context of this passage. The Father has nothing but good for you!  Position your heart and life before Him in humility and watch Him release a greater identity upon you than you could ever imagine.  This understanding is what gave the identity that we are a "CITY ON A HILL THAT CAN NOT BE HIDDEN".  What God desires to do for you and through you isn't small or even enough, but He wants to reveal Himself to you and through you as the God of MORE THAN ENOUGH!  

The Lion and Bear

Every young person who has ever attended one Sunday School class has heard the story of David confronting the Philistine Goliath.  I would say that even a vast majority of secular society has some concept of the story.  You hear the analogy used in sports every time a "nobody" is taking on a perennial favorite.  The story line is always the same.  The underdog  who doesn't have much of a chance at all is going up against the one who is most likely going to crush them.  We see the illustration in terms of a miracle, against all odds, cinderella type of story that creates an imagination of "what if".  What if the underdog can actually pull this off?  What are the chances they can actually stand a chance?  

The illustration that we've learned in Sunday School about David and Goliath is a powerful example of what happens when God is for you!  Nothing is impossible!  It's a very true perspective.  But I believe there is another perspective of this story that needs to be told, even more than the story of David and Goliath.  I believe the real story that needs to be told isn't the one where David is valiantly taking on the enemy in the valley between the two nations at battle.  I believe the real story of David and Goliath is seen in a narrative much earlier that is told in 1 Samuel 17:32-37.  

David arrives after to the battle field to bring relief to his brothers after being anointed by the prophet Samuel.  David was anointed by Samuel to be the next king of Israel, but David's heart remained faithful in the simple things.  It's important to note that David didn't change his assignment, even though he had been anointed by the prophet.  Being faithful is one of the greatest characteristics of any true leader.  Samuel arrives to see the giant Goliath attempting and succeeding in intimating the children of God.  He saw Goliath parade himself in front of them, knowing they wouldn't send anyone to confront him.  His size and reputation was enough to keep them at bay.  But in 1 Samuel 17: David volunteers his services to go and confront this giant who defied the God of Israel.  David recognized that someone was going to have to do something for this to change for the people.  Intimidation, fear and anxiety is no way for a people who had covenant to live.  David presents himself to Saul saying that he would confront Goliath.  When looking at this from the natural perspective, Saul looks at this as laughable.  How could a young boy ever be able to contend with the champion giant?  David qualifies his position, not by pleading his skills in combat, but in what he's done in private when he was tending to his father's sheep.  David says, as if it was a normal thing, that when a lion or a bear came to take a lamb out of the flock, that he would strike them down.  As if killing a lion or a bear isn't impressive enough, David goes into a little more detail by saying that he would "grab it by it's beard" and would kill it!  Take a minute to contemplate what he just said.  He said, he would physically grab a lion or a bear and strike it!  That takes major courage or a supernatural measure of love to place yourself in between sheep and certain destruction.  It was all for the sake of saving the sheep of his father, who treated him as if he was the forgotten child on the hillside. From this narrative I've asked the Lord many questions, but one of them would change my depth in viewing David. 

I asked the Lord, "Why would someone stand between lions and bears, just to save some smelly sheep?"  Very gently, He would speak back to me, "BECAUSE I WOULD". 

Looking at it from that vantage point, it revealed to me, what it means when it says, "David was a man after God's own heart"  

When asking people, "What does it mean to be a man after God's own heart" when it pertains to David, most people have a different conclusion.  Most people will reference the fall of David when it comes to illustrate his heart for the Father.  They would say that his heart was so sensitive to right and wrong, that he was quick to repent.  But it took Nathan the prophet to bring to light the issue within him that caused him to fall into sin with Bathsheba.  So in that we see the humanity come alive when he ignored personal responsibility.  He should have been out to battle with the other kings, but instead he stayed at home.  This became an open door to the enemy. If the enemy can have an open door, he can blind us even from the things that matter the most to us.

I would say that the better illustrating why David was called "a man after God's own heart" is better seen in the story of the lion and bear.  At the core of David's heart was a desire to do what was right, no matter what it was going to cost him in his own life.  When it came to protecting what was his father's he was willing to stand between the sheep and destruction. You can't help but see the certain parallel to Jesus!  How great was His love for the Father and His sheep that He would endure the cross to save us from certain destruction!  That was always at the heart of salvation!  

Looking back to the story of David and Goliath;  
David didn't try to strategize a battle plan against Goliath.  He simply knew what side of victory he stood on!  He knew that God had used him before with the lion and the bear and would use him again against the giant. The key for each of us from this story is this.  Before you are ever qualified to go against a Goliath, you must first kill the lion and the bear.  It's easy for us to think that we will have a moment where God will use us to slay some giant for all the people to recognize and sing our praises.  We all want to be used to deliver a nation from oppression.  But are we all willing to fight the fight that qualifies us for that battle?  Are we willing to fight the real fight, when no one is watching?  The fight with the lion and bear is much more personal for us than we realize.  I asked the Father, "What does the lion and bear represent to all of us "Davids" who want to be used to defeat Goliath?  He said, there are two enemies you must defeat to ever be used like that. 

Lion's typically travel in "prides" and bears are synonymous with the concept of hibernation or sleeping extended periods of time.  He spoke to my heart and said to me that we are no different.  Each of us will have to fight against PRIDE and COMPLACENCY before we are ever qualified to slay the giants in the land. Pride tells us, that it's about us.  Complacency will cause us to not do anything to change our condition.  



What fear would you have of an oversized human, when your background is in defeating vicious animals with your bare hands when there was no one to witness your struggle?  To someone who has grabbed the beard of an animal, seen it's teeth and even felt it's powerful breath, what is a man that you would fear him?  The real story isn't David and Goliath, the real story is the lion and the bear.  David understood that, so he didn't have any fear concerning Goliath.  

I want to encourage you, the reader to focus on the "lions and bears" in your life.  What areas of your life have you let pride keep you back or complacency keep you passive?  If we are ever going to see a nation delivered and living in freedom as David did, we must have the courage to confront the wilderness.  We must be willing to win the battles in private before we can ever win the ones in public.  When David won against the lion and bear, no one was watching, but when he defeated Goliath, a nation was set free!  

I say, do it again Lord.  Bring the David's off the hillside who have killed the lion and bear and willing to bring down any enemy that stands against God's people! The time is now when a nation needs set free!  DAVID COME OFF THE HILLSIDE!

Grace and Holiness

So much of identifying who we are as believers is framed by two different truths;

1. What we experience 

2. What we receive from Scripture

One of the great attacks on the body of Christ is a lack of identity which has a direct result on fulfilling the call of God on our lives. Many people in the world today struggle with their identity and don't even realize it.  The two truths I gave as the frame work of the believer are powerful independently, but they are radically transformational when they are combined.  This is the duality of the kingdom - each part working together to shape identity. 

I used to have an issue with the word, "balance" when talked about in the life of the believer.  I always said, "the last thing we need is balance", and that was because I was looking at the issue from the wrong vantage point.  At that point in my life and ministry I saw balance in a "one or the other" lens.  In other words I saw the word balance as a compromise of the fire of the Holy Ghost.  As if someone was saying that balance meant less of the Holy Ghost and more of a watered down approach to the gospel.  Although that is a very real scenario played out in the modern mentality of the church as a whole, it doesn't speak of the true meaning of the word balance.

A true understanding of the word balance isn't the meaning "one or the other", but rather one WITH the other.  It is working in equal parts and not diminishing one for the other.  One easy illustration is our understanding of the Fruit of the Spirit or the Gifts of the Spirit.  Many would debate on their importance in the believers life, but I would rather demand that it's critical for BOTH to give proper impact. Balance is two walking in unison versus walking in a greater or lesser area.  Instead of looking at balance as a horizontal line working as a seesaw, look at balance as two vertical supports working as legs.  They must each carry their weight in order to support the structure.

We see this conversation arise when members of the body begin discussing the subject of Grace and Holiness, as if one can stand without the other. Each view comes with it's own stigma or level of isolation that creates an automatic disconnect from the other side. It is critical in light of the scripture and our experiences that we see the mandate for the understanding of both of these in our daily lives.  The conversation must stop being, "Grace or Holiness".  It must be GRACE FOR HOLINESS.  

GRACE is truly amazing! Grace is the unmerited, unfathomable, and undeserved favor in our lives.  There is a freedom in understanding that it's not earned nor distributed by our human ability.  Knowing the grace of God is knowing that today we have an opportunity to experience the heart of the Father without barriers through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.  Grace isn't up for debate or argument.  Grace is how we live, we move and have our being. To know the scripture, "while we were in our sin, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8) is enough to see the great depths our Father's love.  Jesus doesn't equate our salvation as something we are good enough for, but instead something He gives freely without thought of return.  This is truly amazing grace!

HOLINESS in the same manner is without question critical for the believer to embrace.  Not holiness as a strict set of "dos and don'ts", but as a heart that is completely surrendered to the love of Jesus.  Many people see holiness as something that restricts you instead of realizing that holiness is a beautiful marriage to the heart of the Father. We have been given this special unity with the Lord as an earthly concept to gain identity in the idea of holiness.  In the most basic of definitions, holiness is embracing one without giving yourself away to any other. The idea that holiness is a restriction is the same struggle as someone saying that marriage to their spouse is a drag. It should not be difficult to be in a relationship with the ONE who has vowed to love you.  Perspective doesn't see the term of holiness as a restriction, but a position of surrender and relationship.  In the same way that it shouldn't shock you that a spouse should be faithful to one wife/husband in a marriage, instead of entertaining various relationships; our relationship with Jesus should be seen through the same eyes, monogamous and not distracted in any way.  After all, He is our first love!   

The shift in our thinking has to be like the women with the alabaster box (Matthew 26:6-13).  When she felt the wonderful weight of Jesus' grace and mercy, it didn't excuse her to go away just feeling better.  She responded to His grace with holiness.  She brought to Him her very best and most expensive offering.  She brought back to Him something that would cost her everything.  She was willing to waste it all on Him.  Everyone around her couldn't comprehend that kind of waste, but Jesus recognized it as her worship.  

Our view has to move from grace OR holiness, to GRACE FOR HOLINESS!  

To realize that the ONLY appropriate response of the redeemed heart is the alabaster box.  Today, I challenge you to recognize the unmerited and undeserved Grace of God and respond with a heart surrendered to Him.  Don't leave anything outside of His touch.  Be willing to live separated FROM the world and its cares and yet at the same time separated TO Jesus and His Holiness.