INTRODUCTION
Christ
called twelve disciple to walk with him, and to be his inner circle. They
accepted
his call, and began to walk with him. He taught them
in several different ways, so that
they would grow and mature, and be able to carry on
“making disciples of all men” after he had
gone to be with the Father. He used stories,
hyperbole, questions, repetition, illustrations, and he
practiced what he taught them, and sent them out to
live it too. Eleven of them grew and
matured, but one did not. Judas received the same
instruction, and heard and saw the same things
as the others. He was among them and was trusted. He
lived among them appearing to be of one
heart and mind with them, but he never believed in
the mission. It was all head without heart,
and he betrayed the Lord for thirty pieces of
silver. It is not the years spent in the church
or under spirit filled teachers. What is important
is their response to these things.
.Christ
wants us to be Disciple makers, and to do this requires three parties working
together. “In reality the responsibility for
spiritual growth never rests on the disciple maker
alone. We often tell people that there are three
parts to the discipleship process. There is my part
(the disciple maker), their part, and the Lord’s
part.”
We
will discuss the five stages and the five spheres of discipleship. The
scripture says
that we will know children of God by the fruits they
produce (Matt. 7:20). “But the fruit of the
spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Against such there is no law” (Gal.22-23). He tells
us to walk in the spirit so we do not fulfil the
lusts of the flesh (Gal.5:16). We must abide in
Christ to be able to have continual growth. By
creating the stages and spheres we have a way to
identify where the person is spiritually, and
where growth is needed. This is a guide for the
disciple maker. “An intentional disciple maker
must also be able to create an environment in which
those under his or her care are developed as
believers.”
FIVE
STAGES OF DISCIPLESHIP
We
can use these five stages to help us not only identify where we are, but where
the
people we are working with are. It is possible to go
back and forth in these stages if we do not
maintain a consistent prayer life and Bible reading.
If you have met someone, but only see them
a few minutes once a month your relationship will
never grow and flourish. It is the same way
with Christ if we just wave at him as we rush
through our day our relationship will never have
the depth and richness that could have been ours.
Let’s look at the five stages that are used by the
Real Life Ministries:
STAGE
ONE: SPIRITUALLY DEAD
At this stage the person has not
accepted Christ as their Savior. They may feel that being
a
good person will be enough. They may have many excuses for remaining as they
are. They
may
claim not to believe in God or hell. One that I have heard many times is that
the Bible is just
a
philosophical book with good ideas for living.
STAGE
TWO: INFANT
At this
stage they are born again desiring the pure milk of the word that they may grow
(I Peter2:2). The fact is that some Christians have never
moved beyond this point. “Jesus led His
protégés through three distinct stages: (1)
investigation leading to repentance and faith in Jesus
(declaration); immersion, abandonment, and
apprenticeship into ministry (development) and; (3)
intentional global commissioning (deployment).”
An infant requires lots of care and guidance.
They have to learn so many things, and so they can
be time consuming.
STAGE
THREE: CHILD
This
is a stage of self-centeredness instead of Christ centeredness. Instead of
asking if
they can be of use to the church they want the
church to meet there needs. They want to be in
groups with their friends, Everything needs to flow
around them. They still have not formed the
habit of daily prayer and communion with God, and
staying in the word. They still need to learn
who they are in Christ, and that they need to
surrender to his will.
STAGE
FOUR: YOUNG ADULT
Young
Adults have begun to have a personal devotion time, and are asking questions.
They are beginning to have a servant’s heart
reaching out to others. They are beginning to move
beyond their circle reaching out to the community
and the world. The Young Adult has become
conscience of their own actions and words. They have
begun to disciple others, sending them
out.
STAGE
FIVE: PARENT
The
Parent is a disciple maker, and they are able to not only explain the disciple
making
process, but they are making disciples. They are
releasing them to begin their ministry with back
up from the parent. They also are able to let go and
let them being to go into the field on their
own. God gives spiritual life, but he uses the
spiritually mature to act as parents to the new
Christians. New Christians need reliable people to
depend on for guidance. They need examples
to follow like the mature Christian. In all of this
I have not mentioned the importance of prayer at
every stage. Prayer and the word are the backbone of
spiritual growth.
THE
FOUR SPHERES
The
four spheres are relational. They are: the person’s relationship with God,
their church
family, their home life, and with the world around
them which includes work place. In all these
areas we must follow Christ and be like Christ. We
want to further His Kingdom here on earth.
Christ must be the center of our life, and all
things should flow from that center. It is surrender to
Him that allows Him to move through us to witness in
all the other areas of life. When people
look at you and see your actions and hear your words
they should immediately see the
difference. They will see Christ in you, and desire
him. Soul winner, Disciple maker.
STAGE
OF DISCIPLESHIP
I
have studied the different stages of discipleship, and belief I am in the
mature stage. I
have walked with Christ for many years, and have
found him always sufficient. There have been
times in my life when I have not walked as close as
I should have, and have allowed myself to
fall back a stage here and there. I would like to
say I had always moved forward, but there were
times of standing still spiritually. God is so good,
and so patient. He has allowed me to not only
lead my children to him, but also my grandchildren,
and time will tell if I also get to lead my
great grandchildren to service for him, but even if
he does not see fit to allow me that privilege I
know they will all be in the hands of Godly parents.
“Healthy families pass the baton of faith on
to the next generation…God’s word makes it clear
that parents are Gods plan for the process of
passing the baton of faith (Duet. 6:4-7).
God has given me the privilege
of being able to lead other children to Christ through
Child Evangelism. I ministered through them for
several years and saw many children come to
Christ. It was so beautiful to be able to assist
them in their spiritual growth, and to know that
they are going forward in his name winning more
souls for the Kingdom (Matt.19:14).
SPHERE
OF DISCIPLESHIP
I believe that I
could improve in all four spheres. The Christian life is a journey, and I
doubt if in this life that I will ever reach a point
where there will not be room for growth.
“Harold Bullock summarized much theology and human
behavior in two of his principles for
ministry: (1) God does whatever he wants in the
manner he thinks best, and (2) people do what
makes since to them.” I
love that, because I think in all four areas I need to be in such
submission to Christ that I can move beyond what
makes since to me into complete surrender to
God’s higher intelligent. I am sure that would make
me more effective in all four areas of life.
SUBMISSION
TO CHRIST
If
we were to look at the quintessence of submission we would find it to be giving
first
place to Christ in our life. If we look at Luke
14:26-33 we find Christ teaching on this subject.
He says, “If anyone comes to Me and does not hate
his father and mother, wife and children, yes
and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple” (verse
26). Christ must have first place. He
must come before all the other things in your life.
Verse 26 may be rhetorical, but it gets the
point across. You must desire Christ more than the
other relationships. He calls us to walk in his
path which was the way of rejection and persecution,
and even to death. Living in the U.S. we
cannot fully appreciate this, but there are people
suffering and dying daily in other countries for
the cause of Christ. They have taken up their cross
to follow him, and we need to be in prayer
constantly for them.
He
instructs us to count the cost. Verse 28 says, “For which of you intending to
build a
tower, does not sit down first and count the cost,
whether he has enough to finish it-lest, after he
has laid the foundation, and is not able to finish,
all who see it began to mock him.” We do not
follow Christ for a probationary period. We must be
ready to make a decisive commitment to
Him. Jesus urged people to think about the cost, and
be sure they were ready to make that
commitment.
Christ
must be the center of a Christian’s life. It must be a total and complete
commitment including the willingness to die for his
name and cause. We are basically soldiers in
his army, and what happens to a soldier who turns
back. He becomes a deserter. “But Jesus said
to him, “No man having put his hand to the plow, and
looking back, is fit for the kingdom of
God.” Following Christ is a serious commitment. “Discipleship
is being bound to the suffering of
Christ. That is why Christian suffering is not
disconcerting. Instead, it is nothing, but grace and
joy.”
Conclusion
James 4:7 says, “Submit
yourself therefore to God, Resist the devil, and he will flee from
you.” We must abandon self, and be obedient to God’s
will. Satan may tempt us, but we have on
the full armor of God (Eph. 6:11-18). He will flee
as we resist him in the name of Jesus.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. Discipleship. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003.
Earley, Dave and Rod Dempsey. Disciple Making Is… Nashville, Tenn: B&H Academic, 2013.
Earley, Dave and David Wheeler. Evangelism is… Nashville, Tenn: B&H Academic, 2010.
McRaney, Will JR. The Art of Personal Evangelism. Nashville, Tenn: B&H Academic,
2003.
Pipes, Dr. Jerry and Victor Lee. Family To Family. GA: Jerry Pipes
Productions, 1999.
Putman,
Jim, Bobby Harrington and Robert E. Coleman. Disciple Shift. Grand Rapids,
Michigan: Zondervan, 2013.
