If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.
For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?Lest haply, after he hath laid the foundation, and is not able to finish it, all that behold it begin to mock him,Saying, This man began to build, and was not able to finish.
Or what king, going to make war against another king, sitteth not down first, and consulteth whether he be able with ten thousand to meet him that cometh against him with twenty thousand?
Or else, while the other is yet a great way off, he sendeth an ambassage, and desireth conditions of peace.So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple. -Luke 14:25
Even if the word disciple would be simply defined as follower of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it has more meaning than just a follower and a believer.What is the difference between a disciple, a follower, a believer and a minister?I believe when we come to God by faith through repentance and believing what God has revealed his salvation through Christ, we become a follower or believer of our Lord Jesus Christ.
But I believe there is a big difference between a believer and a disciple of Jesus Christ.The disciple is the one who gave up his everything for the sake of the kingdom of God.He who forsakes all that he has for Christ is a disciple of Jesus Christ.
A disciple is the best candidate to be a minister to preach the gospel for nations. Only God affirms the carriers of His word and His message around the globe. One’s own zeal and desire can’t make a follower (and even a disciple) a minister of the Gospel.
Most of us think we are disciples but the truth is we are still in Level 0 (just a believer).And since we don’t want to go to the next level (disciple), devil is even tempting us to give up level 0 and to become unbeliever. Discipleship is not intended to be for only few members of God’s church. God wants the majority/all of Christians to be his disciples and prepare themselves for the ministry that God has prepared for them.
Discipleship is making baby Christians in to warriors of faith in Christ.
Matthew 28:19 (NIV) 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.
Only few are called from discipleship to be ministers like pastors, apostles, teachers and the likes. A Christian cannot directly go to ministry without being a disciple first. It is like for a soldier going to war with out passing through the necessary combat training.
If we see the life of the apostles, they were first under the ministry of Jesus Christ before He told them to go and preach the good news for the world. They were first disciples before being apostles.
This doesn’t mean they were not preaching the gospel when Jesus was around. Jesus was sending them in a way that they can see what it means to be called to ministry while they were still on training by Jesus. It is like practical training.
There were complaints against them to Jesus that they were not able to heal the sick or cast out demons, but Jesus defended them and taught them on the spot how things should be done. Moreover, Jesus ordered them before he resurrected to the Father to wait until they are filled with the Holy Ghost.
Only then they will have the power to preach the gospel with boldness and humility.
Discipleship educates and trains Christians to be ministe
s but only the Ho
y Spirit can empower and change people lives using disciples. Holy Spirit can use an ordinary person like you and me to spread the gospel but it will be much more effective if someone is converted in to disciple first before moving to ministry. I believe the issues that we see in the current church is due to sending unprepared ministers in to the world who take the work of the kingdom of God in their own hands and many for their own benefits.
Ministry comes in different flavors. We can minister the people of God with our possession, giving what he gave us back to him. With our knowledge in different discipline like nursing, doctors…. With our compassion and taking care of the needy. Defending the helpless. Providing to the poor. With our strength and youth in cleaning, caring, committed to help those spread the gospel.
We don’t have to be the preacher or the pastor in the church to be a minister. And we don’t have to be a disciple to do this kind of ministry. Part of ministry that involves healing the sick, fighting spiritual battles with the devil and evil principalities, teaching the word of God to many, prophesizing, speaking in tongues, doing miracles are all the gifts of the Holy Ghost given to those who have completely given up their life(everything) for the sake of the gospel and the kingdom of God. (Disciples).
One might say we need these gifts to minister the people of God before we give up anything to be disciple. But this is wrong. God is waiting for you to change your heart and become available for him to use you as He wishes and then He will give the gifts and not vice versa.
Gifts are given for disciples and not for ordinary Christians. Notice that the gifts of the Spirit were given to the apostles when they dedicated their life to preach the good news by living a Godly life for Christ.
If we are in the darkness of sin that we experience every day, there is no way we will receive these gifts. If we turn our face after being partakers of these gifts, Hebrew 6 says, there is no more to be done. It is amazing how most of us live our lives. We are so immature in our faith that we are so much in to the things of the world.
We watch movies that are unholy. We listen to musics that preach hate, arrogance and violence. We do not pray and read the Word of God diligently. We don’t share the gospel to our neighbors. We don’t help those in need. We are always self-centered and don’t care about others.
We are lukewarm Christians in a way that we are not a strong Christians who should be ready for the coming of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus Christ. We don’t forgive when our brothers and sisters offended us. We don’t love sincerely. We don’t treat others with respect at all times. We don’t faithfully obey God. We treat others badly with and without their faults. We even drag some of them to court. We are angry and bitter when others do wrong to us. As a result, we end up grieving the Holy Spirit by practicing these and many more.
I don’t know how we are going to please God without bearing any spiritual fruit. God wants us to grow in the Spirit and bear many spiritual fruits. If we don’t have fruits, we may end up in the wrong place that we don’t want to be which is hell.
Many may deceive christian by saying we don’t earn our salvation and no need to worry about bearing fruits of our faith. But the truth is we need to worry every day to live a life that glorifies God’s name in our generation and many more to come. As Christians, we need to stop drinking only milk and start to eat real food from the Word of God training ourselves in to the likeness of God in Christ.
We need to be compassionate for one another and forgive each other sins. We need to understand everyday the depth and breadth of the grace of God and how He forgives our huge debt that we cannot pay off and on
y eternal fire was the only thing we deserve to have.
We need to understand that if we don’t love others as God loves us, we are in danger of eternal fire. We need to know that after being forgiven by God if we treat others bad, God will take away his mercy and put us in great trouble. There is no guarantee that we are saved if we conform ourselves in to the likeness of the devil, who is evil and deceitful.
Even if we think we are not called in to the ministry, we still should prepare our selves to be a good disciple that loves Jesus more than anything we accumulate in life since we will all leave that here and go to our eternal home.
Paul said, nothing comes close to the love of God in Christ.
Romans 8:35: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
This life(Romans 8) is given for all who love and believe in Christ. It is a call to love Jesus like his disciples giving up everything we have for sake of Christ. Remember saying the words and living according to the words of Romans 8 are not the same. May God give his grace to have a great revelation of what it means to give up everything we have for God.
When the young rich person whom he claimed he is a good Christian was asked by Jesus to give up his wealth (his idol) and follow Jesus, he was sad and turn his back on Jesus and left. Are we like him today? Which ones of our possessions become our idols? Anything we love more than God is our idol and we suffer the consequence of losing it. Whether it is our spouse or kids, or house, or car or profession or hobby, it is a matter of time before we will be asked to choose between Jesus and our idol.
Choose wisely. Choose Jesus since he gave up everything for us and they crucified him on that cross almost naked. He also promised that whatever and whoever we give up for his name sake, he will give it back to us multiple folds.
Matthew 19:29: And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for the sake of My name will receive a hundredfold and will inherit eternal life.
Q&A
1.Can a follower of Jesus Christ who is not a disciple of Jesus Christ go directly to the strong form of ministry like Pastor?
2.What is the importance of being a disciple?
3.Can a believer inherit the kingdom of God without going through discipleship?
4.What does it mean when Jesus says, “You cannot be my disciple, if you don’t love me more than yourself and family?”
5. Is discipleship necessary to enter the kingdom of God?
6.What are the varies ways of serving the Lord (ministry)?
7.Can a Christian live without Holy Ghost?
8.Is it possible to inherit the kingdom of God with out the Holy Spirt living in us?
9.Whom shall the Lord give the gifts of the Holy Ghost? A new christian or disciple? (Wisdom, Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Working of miracles, Prophecy, Discerning of spirits, Divers kinds of tongues, Interpretation of tongues)