FUNDAMENTALS
OF DISCIPLESHIP
Luke 9:24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose
it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.
25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.
25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.
Last
week’s post ended with this comment:
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Let’s look at some illustrations, today.
- Elizabeth is having lunch with her boss. As they sit at the table and their meal is being placed before them, the Holy Spirit reminds Elizabeth to give thanks to IAUE for her food. She looks across the table at her boss who already has begun eating, so Elizabeth proceeds to eat without giving thanks.
- Robert hears his Master’s voice instructing him to hold a weekend luncheon for his neighbors to provide an opportunity to share his testimony with them. Robert is a student of the Scriptures and has always been focused on teaching believers. He knows his neighbor Steve is very evangelistic, so he shares the idea with Steve to see if he will hold the luncheon, instead.
- Frank has been a disciple for many years, and has learned much about the Scripture. He is lead by the Spirit to start a Bible Study in his fellowship; which is also confirmed by his pastor who has asked him to start a Bible Study. Frank has always been timid and uncomfortable speaking in front of others, so he turns down his pastor’s invitation.
- Linda has been involved in ministry for years. She is highly respected and in much demand as a speaker in conferences around the country. Linda also has a secret life in which she accommodates certain sins. No one knows about this; and Linda feels that the good that she does compensates for these lapses in obedience.
Elizabeth may have decided she didn’t want to
embarrass her boss by making him/her appear not to be grateful to IAUE; or she
may not have wanted her boss to think she was a religious fanatic. It didn’t matter to Elizabeth what IAUE
wanted in that moment. In her mind, His
will did not consider the ramifications of all the facts at that time.
Robert remained within his comfort zone and
attempted to pass on to Steve the opportunity to do what IAUE had requested; only
IAUE had not requested it of Steve.
Frank’s need to protect his insecurity proved to be
more important to him than doing what IAUE had asked him to do.
Linda actually believed her secret life did not
contaminate her public life; and that her obedience in one area of her life
afforded her the luxury of disobedience in another area of her life.
As you can see from these examples, there are
literally hundreds of different ways in which we may shun the will of
IAUE. We rationalize our disobedience by
supposing we know a better way of accomplishing His will, or of discrediting
His will. At the root of all such
disobedience is pride. It is always “self”
that is important at that moment of disobedience. Our thinking is so corrupted as to pass
judgment on the will of IAUE as though he were somehow lacking in wisdom and
insight into each situation and circumstance.
Have you ever considered anything like this:
Ø Father, if I do what you are asking me to do, I might lose my job.
Ø Father, if I say that to her, she is going to get really upset with me.
Ø I need my sleep. I can’t afford to
rise early to spend time with You.
Ø If I stand up in front of all these people and say what You are asking me
to say, I will be terribly embarrassed.
Ø Father, I can’t help with that project, today. This is the only time in
the week that I have to just relax.
Ø I can’t confess my sin to my Bible study group. They will never listen to me teach again.
Disobedience to the will of IAUE is so common and
habitual in the lives of most believers, they don’t even recognize it as
disobedience. It is seen as wisdom;
because it is perceived through the lens of our own selfish value system. Safeguarding that to which we give value is
esteemed as wisdom. The problem is…we
value the wrong things. Until we come to
value the will of IAUE as the preeminent treasure in the entire universe, we
are going to compare His will with our will; and our obedience to Him will be
based upon our own judgment instead of His.
The very act of comparing other options with doing
the will of IAUE is sin. If we choose to
do His will after we have considered other options, our response will no longer
be one of obedience. Instead, it will be
an act borne of the decision of a corrupt human will, for we will have reduced
the will of IAUE to become nothing more than one of several options available
to us. Our will, then, has the mastery
over the resulting choice. It is no
longer obedience to the Father. It has
become our idea and our choice…an exercise that demonstrates we have retained
the mastery over our life and have refused to recognize IAUE’s right to rule our
lives completely.
Luke 9:24
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his
life for my sake, the same shall save it.
It is an unnatural act for one to lay down his/her
life. The Master Yahushua understands this;
yet this is exactly what he expects of us.
He did it. We are to follow in
his example.
25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away?
The contemporary “magic prayer” gospel would
ignore this verse. It would make you
think that if you pray to accept what Messiah has done for you, that your
eternity is secured and determined, making any and all such obedience to his
will and the will of IAUE irrelevant.
I listened on television, today, to a portion
of the Sunday message being given by an internationally known pastor. He provided a brilliant illustration of how
we have allowed our thinking to be conformed to bad examples in our childhood;
but his solution was to instruct us to reprogram our thinking to think of
higher goals for our lives, of excellence in all aspects of our life rather
than accepting mediocrity, of success rather than just barely surviving. In essence, he was teaching that we should
look to gain the whole world, rather than lose ourselves to the will of IAUE,
and allow the direction of His will to bring to us or make of us what He
chooses.
26 For
whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man
be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of
the holy angels.
This word is not to be ignored. The will of IAUE is not an option to be
considered. This can serve as a litmus
test for the growth and development of our discipleship. When we hear the Spirit tell us what to say
or do, do we say or do it precisely as instructed and at the time we are told
to do it? Or do we contemplate the
consequences of such words or actions before deciding to do His will? The answer, if we are honest with ourselves,
will tell us much about who we really are, and to whom we really belong.
Kingdom
heart: a heart
that offers no resistance to the performance of the will of IAUE.
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