The Lord has individually called each and every one of us into mission. The moment we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and savior, it becomes our responsibility and our privilege to proclaim the Gospel. Discipling is not about teaching someone the rules and regulations about scriptures. Discipling is relational. The most powerful way you can teach someone who’s never known Jesus is to allow them to get close to you and to see for themselves what accepting Christ looks like in action, that action is in the way we choose to live. Being qualified to make disciples doesn’t have to mean a life time of being a Christian, years of seminary school, a full time missionary, or a full-time pastor. Being qualified means recognizing the same power, the same Holy Spirit, and the same God of the universe that lives and works through those people also lives and will work through you, if you allow him to.
It starts with the decision to say yes to the Father, inviting the Holy Spirit into your life, giving Him residency in your heart and becoming gospel living and gospel speaking people in every moment of our lives.
David Platt, an incredible author who wrote the book Radical, says “When we take responsibility for helping others grow in Christ, it automatically takes our own relationship with Christ to a new level.”
When we realize our actions are responsible for how people perceive Christ, we become much more attentive of how we can become more like Him, and a better representation of who He is, which then takes that relationship with the Father to a new level.
See people, pursue people, the way Jesus pursues us. It’s difficult to fathom the King of Kings is in pursuit of a relationship with us. We all have a desire to be seen and needed. Every single one of us, believers or not, it’s in our nature. Show someone, who doesn’t know the pursuit of Christ, the heart of the Father or the power of the Holy Spirit, what it feels like to be seen, heard, loved and served, the same way our Father pours himself out to us.
As disciples of Christ we are owned by Christ and in return we owe Christ to the World and we are in debt to the nations and it’s something to be taken seriously. It’s so easy for us to claim Matthew 11:28 over our lives, come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” Yes and Amen, I want that and the Lord gives us a safe place to rest, but when we continue to read and come to Matthew 28, the great commission, “therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,” We think, “no, that definitely doesn’t mean me, I’m not qualified to do those things.”
I’m here to tell you you’re wrong, and that’s a huge lie from the enemy that he is so effortlessly giving you and you’re taking it. I took it, I believed it, and I accepted it. Let me show you something profound…
2 Corinthians 3:4-6- “Such confidence as this is ours through Christ before God. Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.
Hebrews 13:20-21- “May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead of our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, any may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ , to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
If you’re feeling what I’m feeling after reading those verses, maybe you’ve pushed your computer aside and have begun packing for mission right now and haven’t even gotten this far in my blog. If you’re still with me… how pumped are you? I’m on mission right now and reading that still get’s my adrenaline going and amped to do any type of work for the Lord.
“Such confidence as this is ours…”
“Our competence comes from God…”
“He has made us competent…”
“Through the blood of the eternal covenant…the great Shepherd…equip you with everything….”
Claim these truths. Own these truths. This is for you. The God of this universe wants to work in and through us. Jesus wants to use the unprepared, the least likely, those seen as unqualified, or unfit for the job so He receives all of the glory and all of the praise.
Love all of you,
Jess
