Discipleship and People that God uses!
Introduction
One of the things that make God who He is can be seen in the way He turns nobody into somebody. It is only God that can use fishermen to start a church and spread the message to the entire world. He is the creator and everything is at His disposal.
God can use anybody who is available and willing to serve, as God will not force a man to go outside his will. But as many as are willing to serve Him, the only qualification God requires is that you love the Lord with all your heart and your willingness to obey His word.
Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, then it's God First above all other things? This is very important for today's disciples and all others who want to serve the Lord to know that God is not served on our own terms...NO!. God is to be honoured by all that chose to come close to Him.
Thus to reach the world, God uses people whom He has given to His son, who know and obey Him, and whom He keeps while they’re in this world. These people are first trained by Jesus Christ as the old, tested and found faithful and then they are filled by the Holy Ghost afresh and sent forth.
Their sending forth is still chaotic, as it was in the early church when there was a crisis, tension, hunger and all kinds of issues with sharing the gospel, so it is today. There will always be a 'shaking' in the church, that moved those trained disciples to relocate to different towns, cities or countries. They will leave their places of comfort and go to diverse places and there their work will begin in Ernest.
As God did not use the 'son of perdition Judas in the bible because of greed, so it is today. All the modern-day Judas who are looking for money, by all means, will also miss the move of the Spirit. God does not reach the world through people like Judas, who never was given to Jesus, who didn’t know and obey the Father, and who wasn’t kept in holiness.
Deny yourself
You need to forsake your position on earth, for instance, those people who are presently leading their people at the level of say - a Governor. If you will join the Evangelism group as Governor, with the attitude of a Governor, with your security aides and those your protocol guys, can you effectively speak to people about Jesus?
It will also be difficult for you to be an intercessor in that situation and thus, your serving the Lord while retaining your worldly status could hinder your spiritual growth and effectiveness. When people are still hailing you, calling you Governor and so on. The humility to pray for long hours will be hard for you, because of your former baggage of being a Governor.
A lot of people find it difficult to forget their past and move forward in life. God knows that and that's why He gave us the instruction...to conclude our past, sell off the baggage, give the proceeds to the Motherless, become empty and then, we can follow Him.
God First
Jesus made another statement in the same direction, saying "He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me is not worthy of me.
He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
What Christ is saying is simply... PUT GOD FIRST!
You don't think you are trying to do your best, No. You are expected to serve God according to knowledge. You know what God expects from His servants, sons, and daughters, then you humble yourself and serve Him accordingly.
Make Christ Lord and Saviour
There are many who have surrendered their hearts to Jesus as Saviour, but He is not the Lord of their lives. There are many who do not know what it means for Jesus to be Lord over their lives. He is not yet their Master and they do not even understand the difference and the benefit of Christ being their Master. They are His children, but not His disciples.
Such a believer is still in charge of his own life as there is really nothing like Christ being in charge of an aspect of a person's life, while the person holds on to those aspects of his life that he loves so much. The believer that is in charge of some aspects of his own life is still under the active control of the devil.
This is just like an unbeliever paying tithe of a huge amount when he has not given his life to Christ. That may be fine, but it would be better after accepting Christ as Lord and Saviour.
The tithe covenant did not say it is when you are born again, but the Lord wants you first before your money or services. If you become His own, you will be more committed to paying the tithe in the months and years to come.
For believers, Jesus should come first in all things we do. We are to be Word loaded and prayerful at all times. This is a positive attitude that believers must cultivate gradually and practice until it becomes part of their lifestyle. I know that due to the pressures of life and all the challenges to make ends meet, Business, career, and relationship have taken the place of God in the life of many believers, but for disciples, it cannot be so.
People go to work in the morning and are not back till late in the night, others go from work to a friend's house and by the time they return home, even a word of prayer becomes very difficult for them to say before retiring to bed.
But, serving God is a higher calling than any job or relationship. The reason is that jobs, businesses or careers, and even relationships will all end here on earth, but the relationship with the Lord Jesus is eternal. It starts here and continues to eternity. So, there is a need to balance the equation. Serving the Lord is a privilege because you get to know God's ways, other than His acts. This is what makes you a commander on earth. Your access to God gives you power that you cannot get elsewhere and you need the power to do exploit in the kingdom and on earth.
A disciple of Christ is a man of power, just as we see the earlier disciples do. Jesus has released power and authority to all His disciples to enable them to bear fruit in their worldly assignment. In addition to power, you are sure of divine protection at home and in the field. So, the disciple may suffer lack, but he can pray favour into people's lives.
Discipleship training and activities are becoming scarce today because of the diminishing love for God. Love has been transferred to work, family, and colleagues, instead of God. Money is good, and family and loved ones are all important, but they will all come secondary, after God.
A disciple of Christ is a man of power, just as we see the earlier disciples do. Jesus has released power and authority to all His disciples to enable them to bear fruit in their worldly assignment. In addition to power, you are sure of divine protection at home and in the field. So, the disciple may suffer lack, but he can pray favour into people's lives.
Discipleship training and activities are becoming scarce today because of the diminishing love for God. Love has been transferred to work, family, and colleagues, instead of God. Money is good, and family and loved ones are all important, but they will all come secondary, after God.
Disciples of Christ must:
1. Make Him their priority and God first
2. Deny themselves of their earthly position, glory, and fame
3. Serve Him with their challenges and problems, inadequacies
4. Crucify their flesh and put it to death.
5. Focus on Christ and eternity and not what the devil is doing.
For many people, it is their self that comes first before God. The alcohol, wine and other things and pleasure they enjoy cannot be abandoned for the service of God. This is why you still see a born-again believer still smoking and drinking. In reality, such a believer is suffering from the demon of addiction and what he need is deliverance.
The Flesh contending us
If you have such a problem that you love the Lord, and yet you cannot stop any kind of addiction, go for deliverance without delay. There is a demon in charge of that urge you feel. If you are a strong prayer person, you just command the demand in charge of that addiction to go, quoting relevant scriptures and destroying everything that triggers the feeling around you.
Brethren, until God is First in your life and Christ is in charge of every aspect of your life, you are not yet a disciple of Jesus Christ and certainly, you have not started walking with Him. He says, let that man deny himself, carry his pains, troubles, and difficulties (Cross), and follow Him.
Meanwhile, the goal of every discipline is to know Him deeper and the power of His Resurrection, which may never be possible until you surrender all, and focus on Him, carrying your cross and following Him.
Just how does a believer overcome the devil, except by surrendering all things to Christ, and making Him Lord over your life. How does a Christian overcome his flesh, if not by surrendering his body unto the Lord to direct and control, to feed his spirit man with the word of God daily, so he can receive daily enlightenment from the Word of God and become transformed by the Word he is studying and obeying.
Overcoming the Flesh, and Addictions
How does a body not surrendered to Christ serve the Lord? It is very difficult. When the flesh is in control of the body, your choice of word would be full of flesh, jokes and conversation, and will all be full of fleshly desires and lust.
When you declare a fast to wait upon the Lord for something, your body will say he is not ready to fast a whole day, and before you know it by 12pm, you have broken the fast. If you decide to wait upon the Lord in a night vigil, again, Mr flesh will revolt against you and the spiritual exercise you are planning to do.
If you try to study the wording in the evening, you are still joking. That's the time sleep will come and within a twinkle of an eye, you are fast asleep. This thing I am talking about happens to people even in the day, when they are under the heavy influence of the flesh.
Word of God
When a person is controlled by the flesh, the word of God is absent in such a life. It also means that such a person cannot be disciplined as a believer, he will be enjoyment and pleasure-driven. Those hard disciplines that believers exhibit will be absent and there is no doing of exploit for such a life.
Believers who want to be disciples of Jesus must be disciplined and focused on Christ and on the Spirit. You must overcome the flesh, which wars with the spirit and is very unruly. You have no business being focused on what the devil is doing...NO!
Ignore the devil and focus on what Jesus Christ is doing, which is always good news. Call on Jesus all the time and you will see Him and His power, but if a believer will always talks of what the devil is doing against him etc, this is heavy confusion. It is so because, when you call the devil more often, you will see him and his evil works around you more often also.
1. To reach the world, the Father uses people who know and obey Him through His Son (John 17:6-8). He uses disciples that Christ has trained and manifested unto to reach the world.
Jesus said "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” To reach this lost world, God uses people who know Him through Jesus Christ and who keep His Word.
2. To reach the world God uses people whom He keeps in holiness - John 17:11-12. Jesus prayed and said in John 17:11-12: “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”
To keep us in holiness is both God’s job and ours. God keeps us from stumbling and will make us stand blameless in His presence according to Jude 24; but we are commanded to “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” according to 2 Cor. 7:1.
In 2 Cor. 6:13-18, the bible charged the Corinthians not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, rather they were to come out of their old behaviours and culture and have nothing to do with darkness, so the promise of God to be their Father would be fulfilled.
Then in 2 Cor. 7:1, Peter challenged them to consider the great promises of God and cleanse themselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit, so they can be acceptable to God.
What to do
People that God Uses:
Jesus said "I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word. Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You; for the words which You gave Me I have given to them, and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.” To reach this lost world, God uses people who know Him through Jesus Christ and who keep His Word.
2. To reach the world God uses people whom He keeps in holiness - John 17:11-12. Jesus prayed and said in John 17:11-12: “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition so that the Scripture would be fulfilled.”
To keep us in holiness is both God’s job and ours. God keeps us from stumbling and will make us stand blameless in His presence according to Jude 24; but we are commanded to “cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God” according to 2 Cor. 7:1.
In 2 Cor. 6:13-18, the bible charged the Corinthians not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, rather they were to come out of their old behaviours and culture and have nothing to do with darkness, so the promise of God to be their Father would be fulfilled.
Then in 2 Cor. 7:1, Peter challenged them to consider the great promises of God and cleanse themselves of all defilement of flesh and spirit, so they can be acceptable to God.
What to do
If you want God to use you in His plan this End-time, you will have to be a disciple, known and trained by the Master Himself. You may not need to have impressive qualifications for God to use you. Rather, truly believe in Jesus as your Savior and Lord and a heart of obedience, 'panting' after the Word of God always will be enough.
You will have to acquire the nature of Christ. You must love righteousness and hate sin. All the disciples of Christ had His nature, which was why it was easy for them to drink from the same cup of affliction He drank from.
FIRE...
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