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.
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