Last night, by
candlelight, Kyle shared a word from the Lord that was so powerful the hair on
my arms stood up!!
Throughout these
past two weeks, as you know, our team has been warfaring against witchcraft.
But, we have ALSO been warfaring against the religious spirit that resides in
this city and in the majority of Uganda and to say the least, Africa.
I have been to
Zimbabwe, Zambia, South Africa, Kenya and now Uganda in the past 5 years of my
life. A general statement I could attest to is that most pastors in Africa care
more about getting souls saved than making disciples of the ones that are saved
so that they can go out and disciple others.
The church we
are ministering with was falling into the same trap – worrying more about the
quantity of people saved rather than the quality.
Our team
Shiloh has felt God impressing on our hearts that this was going to be a really
unique and powerful month. It definitely has been. God is giving us the
opportunity to learn more about discipleship and to help a young church learn
how to disciple their members.
Kyle has started
up a New Believers class for this church group as well. Last night, in his
message, he felt the Lord wanted him to bring a bold message about
discipleship. He challenged the church to do so and called them out of darkness
and into light.
As he delivered
the courageous, straightforward message about how Jesus said “Go and make
disciples of all nations”. That doesn’t
mean get them saved and then move to the next person. When a person gives their
life to the Lord is a huge life decision. If we walk them through a prayer and
then leave them they will have no idea how to pursue God further.
He gave the
example of sheep and their shepherd. If
the shepherd took his flock of sheep and told them, “Here is your water to the
left, to the right is your food and off in the distance are dangerous snakes
which you must not go toward” then left them, they would surely die. If their
shepherd left them, they probably wouldn’t find their food or water and would
wander into the snake pit and be killed. They NEED their shepherd.
This is the same
with discipleship. If we, or this church, walks someone through the sinners
prayer, directs them to the Bible and to the church, they probably (and we have
seen it happen) won’t ever end up coming to the church or reading the Bible.
Why? Because they don’t know how!!! They need someone to walk through it with
them!
All in all, as
Kyle was delivering this message from the Lord, the pastors couldn’t stop
applauding throughout the sermon. Shouts of “AMEN” and “HALLELUJAH” were
echoing throughout the 20 people in the building. The Pastor that was translating was nearly falling over with
excitement as Kyle continued to preach.
At the end of
all, the Senior Pastor, Alex, stood at the pulpit nearly speechless. The next
words that came out of his mouth will truly change history. He said, “We are
going to start a discipleship program!!! I no longer care about the
numbers!!!!
AMEN!!!! I
couldn’t help but laugh with joy and clap my heart out.
DO YOU
REALIZE HOW HUGE THIS IS?!?!?! Most
African churches never realize the importance of discipleship. There are so
many souls that need to be saved they get consumed by the souls that are lost
rather than focusing on the few that are saved and investing in them first,
raising them up to make disciples and continuing.
It’s not that
they are turning away from walking people through the sinners prayer. But, now
their eyes have been opened. If they make disciples and teach their disciples how to disciple others it will be a domino effect based on QUALITY and
DEPTH rather than quantity and vastness. It will empower the body of Christ to BE THE BODY!!!!!
Discipleship.
Discipleship. Discipleship.
There is a
reason Jesus chose 12 people to be his disciples. He knew the importance of
“teaching people how to fish rather than giving them fish.” Christ called us to
GO AND DO THE SAME!
What is stopping
us?!?! He didn’t say “GO AND HAVE ALL THE ANSWERS TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT
ME!” or “GO AND CONVERT ALL THE
NATIONS.” No, it is the Lords purpose that prevails. His purpose was to come to
earth to disciple and teach people about who God is. We are just his vessel. We
are called to do the same.
My challenge
to you:
“Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the
name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely
I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” – Matthew 28: 19, 20
