4. The 5 Areas of Discipleship

Discipleship Area 1 - Faith

We need men and women who will be dedicated to grow in their faith.

1 Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. 2 This is what the ancients were commended for.

3 By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

4 By faith Abel brought God a better offering than Cain did. By faith he was commended as righteous, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith Abel still speaks, even though he is dead.

5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death: “He could not be found, because God had taken him away.”[a] For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

(Hebrews 11:1-6)

Hebrews 11 is worth reading at length. The writer of Hebrews stresses the importance of faith and how every person who pleased God did so by exercising faith.

Faith is the outworking of trust. When we sit on a chair we have faith that the chair will hold us and prevent us from falling on our bottom; our faith in the chair is an outworking our trust in the maker or the provider of the chair.

Everyone exercises faith all the time, we exercise faith when we put our trust in a process, person or possession. When we press “transfer now” we put our faith in the banking app. When we take the advice of the information desk at a holiday destination we are putting our faith in that person. When we make a purchase we are putting our faith in the product; that it will fulfill what it was advertised to do.

But in order to please God we must learn to exercise faith in God. Jesus demonstrated how lavish the reward was for faith in God. And we find throughout the Bible faith excercised by ordinary individuals and met with extraordinary miracles by God.

• There was a woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and wanted to be healed. Jesus comments to her, “your faith has made you well” (Luke 8:43-48) 

• There was the man born blind who wanted to see and desperately seeking Jesus, Jesus rewarded his faith and stated, “let it be according to your faith” (Matt. 9:29).

• There was the Samaritan woman who refused to be pushed back by Jesus and made the most witty comment of all the Bible… The witnesses comment that Jesus “marvelled at her faith and commented…”Truly, I tell you, with no one in Israel have I found such faith” (Matthew 8:10)

• There was the Centurion whom Jesus praised, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.” (Matthew 8:5-13)

Notice that the acts of faith were not limited to just the Israelites, Jesus rewarded the faith from anyone!

Faith can be learned; it can be borrowed, it can be imparted. The faith of others can become a catalyst to our faith as we start to believe that what has happened to others could happen to ourselves. This is why sharing testimonies is so important because it is so powerful. Faith can be freely given to others like a seed to grow in the hearts and minds of the one hearing the testimony.

Faith can be borrowed as we bear one another’s burdens and our faith can be carried by others. We see a good example of this when a few people had such faith that Jesus could heal their friend, they tore open a strangers (crowded) home so they could let their lame friend down using rope, right at the feet of Jesus. Jesus commented at “their faith.” Faith can be plural, faith can be exercised as a family, community, a church, a neighborhood, even as a nation. At times you may not have the faith to trust God in a certain situation but as community; together you may have enough to see that mountain move.

Discipleship Area 2 -  Family

We need men and women who will be dedicated to have healthy family life.

God designed the family. When God sent his son, Jesus lived and served his family for most of his life. Jesus had a great relationship with his parents and with his brothers and sisters. He loved his mum right up until the end (John 19:26-27) and his brother James (who grew up with him) would later be a leader of the church of Jerusalem and wrote the book of James (unlikely if James and Jesus didn’t get along). 

Family was in fact so important that Jesus needed to stress that “if anyone loves father mother more than me, they are not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37).” It would be an incorrect interpretation to think Jesus was saying family is not important; rather Jesus is stating that he is more important, even more than family. If there were a list of priorities that Jesus would give, it would be faith in him first then family. 

The creation of a new family through the union of marriage is very significant and warrants the festivities that go behind it. Marriage is so important that it requires both the man and wife to separate from their families (which as explained above is the most important thing) in order to form a new family. A high price is required to create something that is of worth. “Therefore a man shall leave his… and the two shall become one flesh” (Gen 2:24).

Family life needs to be modeled for others to model themselves. No family is perfect, therefore every family can have a positive influence on other families. We either think too lowly or too highly of our family life; we must do neither. Every family is being formed; we cannot be too quick to judge nor to be prideful, we must remain humble to continue to learn and also to impart. 

Honouring father and mother is still a valid command even after one gets married. At times there may be a tension between “leaving father and mother” (Gen 2:24) and “honouring father and mother” (Exodus 20:12) but one does not simply supersede the other; the person must learn to work within the tension with the wisdom the God gives them (James 1:5-8 ). 

Discipleship Area 3 -  Finances

We need men and women who will be dedicated to model a life free from the love of money

In the last days, many followers of Jesus will fall into wealth. This is only inevitable as the largest transfer of wealth will happen as baby boomers will slowly pass away with many transferring their wealth to the next generation.

The church of Laodica was the last church addressed in the book of Revelation and represents the last church of the end times. The church of Laodica was rich but Jesus counselled them stating that they were “wretched, pitiable, poor, blind and naked.” (Rev. 3:17). Money, riches, power and wealth of the world will cause the church of the end times to be poor in the kingdom, pathetic in power, blind to God and walking in shame. The only hope for Christians with money will be to not let money, riches, power or wealth to get in their way of following Jesus. If they can conquer with Jesus using their money, they will inherit true riches and rule with Jesus (Rev 3:21). 

We may not be the last church, but if we walk into any riches, any form of wealth and kind of power, we must learn to use these things as leverage to love the Lord and not be limited by our riches. The tragedy of the rich young ruler declining to follow the son of God at his invitation is a history that will repeat over and over unless men and women decide they will not let money rule them.

The lure of more money and the love of money is one of the biggest ways hot Christians turn lukewarm, and some even turn cold. The wave of Christians who are brought up in the faith then leave it upon entering the workforce is as common as waves crashing the shore; it happens every year, every year there are thousands of casualties. 

There needs to be a people who have overcome the love of money and have money serve them, not the other way around. Money is not not dirty nor is it bad, it is a simply a means of exchange. We can use money to exchange it for goods and services, we can be rewarded for our services with money and we can use money to bring about good to others.

Money is a simply and easy way to live out the great commandment to love one another; the trouble is Christians like the world do not easily part from it, or when they have in abundance, easily squander it. Mastering money needs to be modeled so that we and our children and our children’s children have a chance of having money be a blessing for them and not a curse.

Discipleship Area 4 -  Fitness

We need men and women who will dedicate their bodies as a temple for God towards multi-generational impact.

Every year after 33 is a privilege. Jesus was only afforded 33 years on this earth, who are we to expect any more. But should God give us more years than we deserve, we want to position our bodies to live it for his glory. To love God, we are commanded to love him with all our strength (Deuteronomy 6:4-9), so it would only make sense that we should grow our strength so we can increase how much we love.

If the best concert pianists focus on ensuring their bodies (especially their cardio) so they can be at the peak of their health so their playing is not hindered, then how much more should we focus on shaping our bodies so they are fit for the ministry that God has prepared for us. 

“Do you not know that your bodies are a temple of God?” We need to let this rebuke sink into the depths of our hearts. Yes, a lifestyle of fitness may still result in us getting some form of disease or debilitating injury or unforeseen accident but it is better when we are lying incapacitated with the knowledge that we have done everything to prevent such an event then it will go well for us. The guilt of lying in bed and having others care for you because of your own neglect is a guilt that can be avoided. 

Present your bodies as a living sacrifice. How are bodies that have self inflicted abuse be of acceptable sacrifice? One may try to argue that God loves us the way we are, but while this is true, He loves us too much to keep us where we are. Which loving father let’s their child remain an infant; no even evil fathers expect their child to grow and change to be increasingly better versions of themselves.

There is no joy in being cared for. We were not designed for a life where others serve us, so with every grace that has been given to us, if we have any health or ability left in us, we are to multiply it and strengthen it and present it back to the Lord. Health is not to be idolised rather it is to be utilised for the Lord. Use your strength to make more strength and Love God with “all your strength.”

Discipleship Area 5 -  Friendship

We need men and women who will know how to make friends. 

The disciples were not Jesus’ childhood friends, every disciple was first a stranger. After 3 years, Jesus called them for the very first time, his friends. “No longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you” (John 15:15).

Jesus didn’t call every disciple his friend. He stated this specifically to his twelve. Friendship is reserved for a few; we don’t need to be friends with everyone. It still means we need to be kind to everyone but we would have favour with a few and they would have favour with us. It’s actually import and healthy to have favourites; favourites you can depend on, grow with and even grow old with.

Friendships should be a goal in life. At the start of every year, people set fitness goals, financial goals but seldom do we hear people set friendship goals. Some friendships seem to come to us (two disciples of John the Baptist were sent by John to Jesus to become his disciples) and some friendships will be ones we need to call into existence (like many of the others were Jesus called them to follow him).

Friendship requires intentionality and effort. Friendships are hardly an accident and even if they started off as such they require a lot of work to sustain them. But friendships are a part of how we are to become more like Jesus. Far too often leaders are lonely; unlike Jesus, they did not keep their 3 close to them. Jesus is recorded as taking Peter, James and John (just the 3 of them to the exclusion of all others) up a mountain to share an experience with Mosesm, Elijah and God the Father.

Based on this model that Jesus set, a healthy person has about 3 people they would share mountain top experiences with. If the commonly held wisdom is true and that we are the average of our 5 friends, then 1) we best have some friends 2) we best choose wisely who we keep close. 

Everyone needs friends; even leaders; even elders, even fathers. It would be safe to say that unless one wants to die alone and have their funeral poorly attended then they best invest in friendships; relationships which go beyond finances, fitness, family; so that even if any of these things fall into hardship, we will have friends to help us navigate through it and love us regardless of whether we are well or not so well.

Friendships matter regardless of personality. Even an introvert gets energised by the right friend who they meet at the right time and even an extrovert needs the depth of one friend who is giving them undivided attention (rather than the crowd). Friendship is like a blanket when you sleep, you need it; especially for those times you don’t think you did. We must learn to create, sustain and cherish our friendships.