WBS.204
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
DISCIPLESHIP 101
Part 1 - The Heart of a Disciple
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and
learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your
souls.
Four year ago, I began this blog to pass down
to the next generation of believers the knowledge and experience that I had
acquired from 40+ years of walking in the Spirit and experiencing the dealings
of Elohim in my life. My introductory
post was intended to call out the “2%” of the congregation in churches throughout
the world who sit in a pew every Sunday morning knowing that the contemporary congregational
church experience could not possibly be why Messiah came and died.
Many years ago, I was one of those
2-percenters. The Holy Spirit had
injected my mind and heart with John 14:12.
As a young Christian, I knew that this verse had to be true, but I could
not see its outworking anywhere in the church.
It was true but unreachable. That
simply was not acceptable to me; so I sat in church waiting to find the way to
the expression of this truth in my life.
Where most believers never see what is possible, who never find that
door to a larger reality of life in Messiah, the Holy Spirit has always showed
me someone who was walking in something that I did not have in my own
experience. Once I saw it was active in someone’s life, I knew it was possible
for me to have it; and I pursued it until it was in my own experience. Through
the years, this has been the Father’s way with me. He always shows me operating in someone else’s
life something I have not yet possessed. I believe this has been a chain of experience
that has worked its way throughout the entire history of the church. One person’s light shines to bring light to
another person’s life, which then brings light to another person’s life. This
is one of the operations of discipleship. All of us should be shining to our
brothers and sisters as a constant source of encouragement to walk in
righteousness and obedience to the will of IAUE and to our Master, Yahushua
Messiah.
We have come around full circle to the
beginning: Discipleship 101, the Basics
of Discipleship.
Luke 8:5 A sower
went out to sow his seed…
Anyone who has been a believer for any length
of time should be familiar with the parable of the sower. This blog dedicated a lengthy in-depth study
of the parable. Many ministers have
preached on the subject and have written books on the subject; and they ALL (including
me) have focused on the four grounds upon which the seed was sown: The wayside, the stony ground, the thorny ground,
and the good ground. Most of that
teaching has been good and profitable; but this morning, I awoke to the voice
of the Holy Spirit saying “They have all missed the point of the parable.”
What is this parable called? The Parable of the Sower.
What is the one feature totally ignored by
every teaching on this parable? The
Sower.
This passage of Scripture begins with this
comment:
Luke 8:1 And it came to pass afterward,
that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and shewing the glad
tidings of the kingdom of Elohim: and the twelve were with him,
Messiah was always teaching the good news of
the Kingdom of Elohim. Everything he
taught focused on this singular subject.
When he presented the parable of the sower, he was teaching on the Kingdom
of Elohim.
“The sower went
out to sow.” What did he sow?
He sowed the word of the Kingdom, the good news, the gospel. The sower was not sowing the word of
prosperity or the word of the gifts of the Spirit, or the word of order in the
church, etc. Where did he sow? It
says that he went OUT to sow. This was not something that happened in church on
Sunday mornings. Now the most important
question: Who is the sower? The sower is every single disciple.
Mark 16:15 And he said unto them, Go
ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Luke 24:46 And
said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Messiah to suffer, and
to rise from the dead the third day:
47 And that repentance and remission of sins should be
preached in his name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.
Matthew 28:18 And Yahushua came and spake unto
them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
19 Go ye
therefore, and teach all nations
Now, the last question: What are the four
different kinds of grounds? They are
the different kinds of hearts found in the lost of this world. When the sower (you and I) goes out to preach
repentance and remission of sins in the name of Yahushua, healing the sick and
casting out demons, and setting the captives free, we are going to find four
different kinds of reception from the people we meet. One type will simply not listen to you. One will be interested, even excited, but
they have no real commitment to the gospel, so it will be there one day and
gone the next. One type will respond
pretty much like contemporary Christians respond. They will recognize the truth of the gospel
and “accept it,” but they will not lose their life to the gospel. They will never love Messiah more than they
love themselves. Only one ground will
become disciples; and disciples are what we are commanded to make of all
nations.
The object of this parable is that the
disciple of Yahushua, in going “out” to share the good news of repentance and
remission of sins, must not waste his time on those with the first three kinds
of heart condition. Even when Messiah
sent out his apostles to preach the good news and heal the sick throughout the
region, he instructed them to shake the dust off their feet from those who would
not receive the good news.
Contemporary Christianity wastes its time and
energy and finances on people of the first three types of ground, and they
ignore the fourth type. Current
Christian ministry focuses almost entirely on people who have not forsaken
their own lives for the gospel. Why is
this? It is because they are in constant
need of care. Why is this? It is because
they are incapable of discipleship.
In May 2013, this blog introduced the subject
of The First Lesson in Discipleship with this verse:
Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek
and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.
Discipleship does not begin until we choose to
be yoked. Once yoked, we are no longer
in control. One yoked, we cannot go to
the left when the plow is going straight.
We cannot opt to take the yoke off and go to the movies, or cater to our
personal whims, or pursue a financially successful career path for our life. We
cannot hear the Master say “Do this,” or “Don’t do that,” and choose to
disobey. We are resigned to be used to do the work of the Kingdom of Elohim;
and in meekness and lowliness of heart, we gladly embrace whatever kind of life
the Master brings to us. We are in a yoke.
Where else are we going to go but where we are steered? What else are we going to do but pull the
plow? The Master tells us, however, that
his burden is light, and within his yoke we shall find rest for our souls.
The yoke harnesses us to the work of the
Kingdom. If this isn’t what you signed
up for, your heart condition is ground #1, ground #2 or ground #3.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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