WHO IS A DISCIPLE?

CHARACTERISTICS OF A DISCIPLE

1. A DISCIPLE OBEYS THE MASTER

“If you abide in My word, you are my disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:31-32). Naturally, disciples must be obedient to their Master, otherwise they are not true disciples. When the Lord called Peter, John and the other fishermen, they immediately left their boats full of fish, and followed Him (Luke 5:4-11). When He ordered them to go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth as His witnesses, they obeyed, even unto death. To qualify as true disciples, we, too, must obey the Master’s command to go make the followers of other faiths into followers of Yeshua. This is true discipleship. 

2. A DISCIPLE MAKES DISCIPLES

It matters little how religious you are, how good your worship service is, or how wonderful your church programs are, for if there is no fruit, then you are not glorifying God nor His disciples. Being a member of a church does not translate into being His disciple, for churches make members, but only disciples multiply disciples. “My Father is glorified when you bear abundant fruit; then you will be My disciples” (John 15:8).

3. A DISCIPLE WHO MAKES DISCIPLES IS A CHRISTIAN

It was the disciples in Antioch who were first called “Christians.” True Christians love Him and imitate Him, obediently going and destroy the works of the devil, and rescue the perishing. He said, “If you love me, you will obey my commands” (John 14:15). They loved their Master so much that they willingly sacrificed everything for His sake, even carried their cross daily. No wonder, their heavenly bank account was loaded with saved souls. (1John 3:8; Luke 9:23; Matt. 7:20; Phil. 4:17)

4. A DISCIPLE IS WILLING TO MAKE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers, and sisters, and yes, his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Hating here means prioritizing something other than the Lord, such as your family, job, hobby or money (Luke 14:26-27; 16:13; Matt. 6:24).

5. LOVING RELATIONSHIPS ARE THE PROOF OF DISCIPLESHIP

“By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” It is important to be of one heart and mind. Lack of love among believers is a great obstacle for people of other faiths. Try and get Pentecostals, Charismatics, Lutherans, Baptists and Catholics together and see how much love there is? Loving and caring relationships are only possible in a Household of God (John 13:34-35; 1 John 4:20-21; Matt. 5:21-24).

Yeshua sent the seventy brand new disciples with the following instructions, “Whatever house you enter, begin by saying, ‘Peace to this house.’ If a man of peace is there, your peace will rest on him; if not, it will return to you. Stay at the same house, eating and drinking whatever you are offered. For the worker is worthy of his wages. Do not go from house to house.” (Luke 10:5-7). He used the word Oikos (Household) five times. The first priority is not preaching the gospel but building relationship demonstrated by eating together. He told them not to go from house to house, as that would be the responsibility of the Oikos Eirene or Beit Shalom or House of Peace. Sadly, we mean well when we ask new believers to break their relationships with their oikos, to protect them, but Yeshua showed that that is the best place for them to mature and become instant fruit bearers. That is why an Insider movement is crucial for the spread of the Gospel.

6. BRING AN OFFERING OF DISCIPLES AND ENTER HIS GATES 

On the Day of Judgment, many will say, “Did we not cast out demons and do many wonderful things in Your name?” But He will declare them wicked and say, “I do not know you!” This is because they failed to make disciples of those who were healed and delivered. Many popular evangelists who “heal, deliver and disappear” fall into this category. Yeshua did not command us to go do healing and deliverance ministries; he commanded us to make disciples (Matt. 7:21-24; Psalm 96:8; Matt. 28:19).

7. DISCIPLES MUST MATURE INTO SAINTS

The Greek word mathates for a disciple means a learner. He must learn to practice all that Yeshua commanded, like love the Lord your God will all your heart, soul and strength; love your needy neighbor, love yourself (do not despise your body parts, gender, race, colour etc. because you are made in the image of God) (Luke 10:27), love each other (John 13:34,35) and love your enemies (Matt. 5:42). When you learn to practice all these then you mature into saints. 

All the disciples in the gospels matured into saints in the Epistles. They are no longer just followers of Yeshua but have graduated into fishers of men (Matt. 4:19). Sorry, but the Pope has no authority to “beatify” anybody as saint and send them on to heaven. According to Scriptures, all believers are called saints, holy, separated, set apart by God to save souls by being workplace ministers, so that the Ekklesia is edified. Saints make a covenant with God to become a blessing to all the families of the earth by offering up sacrifices of broken and contrite hearts (Eph. 4:12; Psa. 50:5). These are they who will inherit the Kingdom (Daniel 7:18).

CORONA PANDEMIC HAS CHANGED MANY THINGS BUT NOT

• Man’s need for salvation - For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God – and wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Yeshua our Lord (Rom. 3:23; 6:23).
• To pray and prepare laborers -to reap all the ripe and ready harvest before rapture takes place, who will enter the millennial kingdom of our Lord (Luke 10:2; John 4:35).
• The obligation to fulfil the Great Commission – Go as His witnesses to the ends of the earth and make disciples of all nations (Acts 1:8; Matt. 24:14; 28:19,20).
• Our works of charity to give the Gospel credibility. All the needy of world are our neighbors – (Mat 25:31-46).
• Yeshua to build His global Ekklesia with all nations, tongues and ethnicity regardless of any prevailing situation (Matt. 16:18; Rev. 7:9,10; Matt. 8:11). 
• End times prophecies to be fulfilled regarding the appearance of the Anti-Christ, false prophets, rapture, tribulation and the final battle at Armageddon etc. (Matt. Chap 24; 2Thess. 2:1-4)
• Yeshua’s return to establish His millennial kingdom, the final judgment, create new heaven and new earth and tabernacle with men as Lord of lords (Heb. 9:27; Rev. 20:15-20; 21:1-3). 

The greatest sin of the church is complacency. The Corona pandemic, the greatest humanitarian crisis in human history is ushering the greatest openness to the gospel, around the globe.

Thank God that Covid-19 has locked down the doors of the nonperforming complacent churches (2% Christianity in 200 years in India) and opening new wineskins in the homes of the people. 

One mission found that out of the 100 pastors they had trained in the DMM, only two changed course, the rest agreed that the training was biblical but did not change. They were afraid that they would lose control over the congregation with loss of income, proving that churches have become income generating enterprises. 

It is wiser to mold the new generation, where the return on investment is much higher, than try to remold the chosen and frozen generation.

Significantly, Paul stopped going to the Synagogues after chapter 19 of the Book of Acts because of the hardness of the Jews (Acts 19:8-10). 

Many Christians are crying out loud for their ‘containment zones’ (churches) to reopen so they can get back to their comfort zones. They are fasting and praying, but God is not listening to them. Nor will he listen to them because he has clearly said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you. And I ordained you to go and bear fruit—fruit that reproduces—then whatever you ask the Father in My name, He will give you” (John 15:16). Our judgment depends on our fruitfulness, “A man shall be known by his fruit” (Matt. 7:20). No fruit-no paradise. 

“If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face, then from heaven I will hear their prayer and forgive their sins and heal their nation” is a much used and abused prayer. God spoke these words to King Solomon, only after He had clearly told him, “My house shall be called beth zebach (house of slaughter)” and Solomon offered 120 thousand sheep and 22 thousand oxen as sacrifice” (2Chron. 7:5.12,14). 

David asked for a census to find out how many sword wielding men he had, to inflate his ego. God sent a pandemic which wiped out 70 thousand men. David then repented, went and bought the threshing floor of Araunah, built an altar and offered sacrifice and the pestilence stopped. We know that a vaccine is not the answer for Corona for the seven billion people of the world. We need to repent, offer lost souls as living sacrifice and then God will answer our prayers (2Sam. 24:18-25).  

Yeshua said in the parable of the widow to “pray without ceasing.” God said, “Call on Me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.” And how do we glorify God? “And this is how God is glorified when you bring abundant fruit (souls saved). Then you shall be my disciple” (Luke 18:1; Psalm 50:15; John 15:8)

Wesley Duewel’s prayer to double the number of Christians, churches and Bible schools has long been answered, several times over. The world is already going through explosive paradigm shift towards Messiah that the complacent Christians, dysfunctional churches and knowledge-based Bible schools that train pulpiteers, have become irrelevant.  It is the disciple multiplying skills based new wine, trained in the harvest field, that is changing the spiritual tapestry of the globe.

GEMS:

• Only sheep can reproduce sheep. And only a disciple can make disciples (John 15:8).
• Disciple-making is an ongoing process that will continue until panta ta ethné (all nations) are discipled (Matt. 28:18-20).
• The battle for the souls of men will be won based on the quality and quantity of disciples. Sadly, many churches have no battle plans.
• The Ekklesia is the army of God, which cannot be made battleworthy to fight against the demonic forces by singing victory songs and listening to pep talks once a week. The Ekklesia must get out of the barracks for daily exercise to be battle ready. (2 Tim. 2:2, 4, 15, 19).
• The Gospels and the Book of Acts are full of mathetes (disciples, learners). No disciples are mentioned in the Epistles, for they have all graduated into Saints. Saints are those who are equipped for ministry so that the Ekklesia grows and multiplies (Eph. 4:12).
• The Lord Yeshua said, “You go make disciples… I will build my Ekklesia” (Matt. 16:18; 28:19). The word disciple must be important, for it occurs 268 times in the NT. 
• God has pressed the reset button and old things have passed the point of no return. Asking him to return to status quo without first fulfilling His precondition of bringing forth abundant reproducing fruit, is an exercise in futility. 
• Hebrew word Tafillah for prayer means ‘self-evaluation.’
• Those who repent and recalibrate will inherit the Kingdom. 

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Victor Choudhrie

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