Disciple to FaithSample

Prayer

As Christians, we traditionally divide our Kingdom-building endeavours into evangelism (inviting unbelievers to put their faith in Jesus) and discipleship (walking alongside new converts to teach and encourage them as they grow in their faith). However, Jesus – the master discipler – didn’t have Christians to work with. He didn’t evangelise, and then disciple. He simply discipled people towards saving faith.

Jesus gives us just one command in the Great Commission, which thankfully keeps things simple: make disciples. (Note that Jesus didn’t instruct us to make converts.) And the methods Jesus gives us to make disciples are fairly simple too: going, baptising, and teaching. These present participles carry the idea that discipleship isn’t a once-off event but an ongoing journey we embark upon with a person we’re discipling. This kind of discipleship results in changed lives as we teach people not just to understand, but to obey.

Jesus’ discipleship method was rooted in prayer. Before calling His twelve disciples, He spent a night praying to His Father. Jesus was fully God. He knew everything! And yet He still prayed all night about picking His disciples. He was the greatest leader of all time, and yet He didn’t act on His own impulses and ideas. Rather, He took His cues from His Father. He lived with His radar up: watching for where His Father was at work and joining Him there. Jesus was both prayerful and practical, and we’re called to live like this too. Paul reminds us that staying tuned to the ways and works of God is a way of life accessible to all believers: if we’re children of God, His Spirit leads us. We get to be ‘prompt-able’ to the leading of God’s Spirit, listening for His still, small voice. Imagine what might change in the world around us if we prayerfully submitted to God in every circumstance and humbly relied on His guidance.

Jesus urged His disciples to wake up and look around, because the fields were ripe for harvest. He was making a universal point that’s unbound by time or geography. God is always at work in your world. You have a ‘field’ in this season of your life, and a ‘harvest’ you can be praying for. There are people in your world, today, who are desperate for the abundant life Jesus came to bring – whether or not they realise it. Take a moment to celebrate that you have the capacity to disciple them to faith because you can be prayerful, and you can be led by the Holy Spirit. May you watch expectantly to see where God is at work around you, and may you know the joy of joining Him.