I'll Go

 Author - César Muñoz

"So I'll go anywhere you take me. 'Cause I know your love will sustain me."

Hello friends! I am super excited to be closing out our five weeks of "A disciple" prompts. For week five, the prompt is "a disciple finds & teaches new disciples to follow Jesus."

Assuming you read the last post where we talked about submission in a discipleship relationship, we will be talking about the next step, and that is multiplication. Let's reference 2 Timothy 2:2, which says, the things which you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to faithful men who will be able to teach others also. This reciprocal cycle of disciple-making does not work if you don't make your intention as a mentor/teacher clear. What I mean by that is the idea we see in Matthew 28:19-20. Suppose we are to make disciples of all nations. In that case, we need an abundance of reproduction, and the only way that is going to work is if we entrust faithful men and women and equip them to walk alongside us in this disciple-making journey and lifestyle.

Discipleship can be broken down into three not-so-simple steps. The first is "come and see." In this stage, you are inviting your disciples to watch you as you teach them how you follow Jesus in your personal life. In a way, you are allowing them to observe your spiritual walk. During this time, you are trying to teach how you abide in the Word and lean in with God, community, and the scriptures in your day-to-day life.

After "come and see" comes the stage of "follow me." This is similar to "come and see," but during this period, you are inviting your disciple to come alongside you in your walk. However, you may choose to do that, whether it be to serve and/or spread the gospel. This could also look like inviting them to a Bible study you might be involved in, serving your community, or loving your neighbors well—this isn't to say that these are the only ways to do this. There are a number of ways you could carry this period out!

Once you've walked through the first two parts of a discipleship-mentor relationship, comes the scariest and most exciting part of the whole thing. This third period could be called a number of things, but I will refer to it as "go and do." When you come to this point in your discipleship, it is time to encourage your disciples to do as you have done with them. We see Paul when he is speaking to the church in Corinth. If we reference 1 Corinthians 11:1, it says, Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. Not only is he encouraging them to imitate him, but he is telling them to imitate Christ even more so. Even before that, we see Jesus in John 13:15 say, For I gave you an example that you also should do as I did for you. He (Jesus) says this after He has washed the feet of the disciples, and I believe that He is not just referring to the washing of feet but what He had done for them during this entire discipleship process. And, as we referenced earlier, the great commission. Jesus says to GO! He says, Go therefore and make disciples of ALL the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age. So how can we, as Christ's followers, afford not to make disciples who make disciples? If we are to follow the ultimate example that is Jesus Christ, then we all need to be a part of this discipleship cycle to equip disciples who can equip disciples in this reciprocal cycle. It doesn't work if YOU don't disciple people.

Now, I'm not saying we have to meet with someone every single day and disciple them for three years, but what I am saying is we should want to share the knowledge that God shares with us with others who will go do the same thing.

Thank you so much for reading my blog and following along with these 5 prompts of "A Disciple." I pray it brought you some joy and encouragement on the idea of discipleship. I'm so thankful for the opportunity to write on this topic and I pray you have a blessed week.

The song for this post is I'll Go by Isla Vista Worship.