The Five Discipleship Essential
Welcome back, awesome Bezzies!
In my previous blog, I dealt with how to deal with giant situations. It is worth mentioning that, before you can win over giant situations, you must have been a disciple of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, in this blog, I want to present to you the five things you need as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Life essentials are basically things we cannot live without: food, water, shelter, etc. These five essentials are needed by every disciple of Jesus. Let’s get started!
Three dimensional fold of salvation
Salvation is in three folds: instant salvation, continuous salvation and future salvation. Second Corinthians 1:10 reads, “He who rescued us from so deadly a peril will continue to rescue us; on Him, we have set our hope that He will rescue us again.” This implies that after the new believer has taken the decision to accept Christ as his/her personal Saviour, that is the first stage of salvation, but it does not end there. Such a person needs to be nurtured and guided into maturity in Christ. Greg Ogden presents five disciples’ essentials; five necessary things the new believer must be introduced to, in order for him/her to grow spiritually [1].
Five Discipleship Essentials at a glance
For successfully functional discipleship, the inevitable practical markers include spiritually the Word of God: spiritual food that we eat; Prayer: spiritual air that we breathe; Fellowship: the spiritual good environment in which we stay to develop; Witness: spiritual exercise that we do; and lastly, Worship: spiritual spring of living water. These are necessary requirements if new believers are going to reach maturity in Christ. It is therefore the responsibility of the Church to ensure that the new convert is exposed to all these essentials. Since discipleship is cyclical, the new convert as well begins to nurture others when he/she reaches an appreciable level of maturity.
1. The Word of God
The first element, according to Greg Ogden, is the unchanging truth of God’s Word. The Word of God is the spiritual food that believers eat. “It is the traveller’s map, the pilgrim’s staff, the pilot’s compass, the soldier’s sword, and the Christian’s charter. Here too, Heaven is opened and the gates of hell disclosed [2] .” The believer must set some time aside in the course of the day to read the Word of God and meditate on it. This is not just scanning the Word of God, but careful studying and meditating on it. A daily quiet time typically consists of at least three elements. Reading the Word of God, meditating on what we have read so the Biblical truth begins to saturate our minds, emotions and will.
The word brings hope and faith
The process that brings growth in the Word of God has to do with reading, meditating and reflecting on the Word, memorising, and applying. Joshua 1:8 says, “This book of the law shall not depart out of your mouth; you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to act in accordance with all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall be successful.” Going about the day conscious of the Word of God and His promises brings hope and increases our faith. In the midst of poverty, sicknesses, natural disasters, the only thing that can keep the hope of Christians alive is when we cling to the Word of God and say with David, “I lift up my eyes to the hills— from where will my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121:1-2 (NRSV).
2. Prayer
Another vital discipleship essential suggested by Greg Ogden is prayer. Prayer is the spiritual air that believers breathe. It is a transparent dialogue with God. It is a conversation with God in which we address Him and, in quietness, are addressed by Him. Scripture says, “The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous person avails much” James 5:16, NKJV (Emphasis added). This is a heartfelt prayer said from a place of openness and great transparency with the Lord. Not a religious pretence and facade to gain people’s approval and commendation. Matthew 5:6 asserts
And when you pray, you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But you, when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you.
Praying the right way
In prayer, believers must first offer adoration unto God as Jesus taught us in what has become known as “the Lord’s prayer”. Jesus said, “Pray then in this way: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.” The first thing Jesus taught us to do in the model prayer is to adore and praise God. The next thing after adoration and praise is to confess our sins. 1 John 1;8-9 says, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he who is faithful and just will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” We must be true to ourselves and also be cognisant of the fact that God knows us inside-out more than we know ourselves. Therefore, we should be transparent with him in confessing our sins, so that we may truly be forgiven.
Follow up with thanksgiving
We can then follow up with thanksgiving, thanking God for the things He has done, the things He is doing, and more so the things He will do. Thanksgiving is a seed for more. We can then proceed by putting our requests before God, believing that we shall receive those things we ask for in prayer. Lastly, we may end our prayer with intercessory prayer. Praying for anyone the Holy Spirit may lay on our hearts. We need to also pray for those in authority. 1 Timothy 2:1-2 reads, “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity.”
3. Fellowship
Fellowship is one important discipleship essential put forward by Greg Ogden. Fellowship, according to Greg Ogden, is “an intentional relationship in which we walk alongside other disciples in order to encourage, equip and challenge one another in love to grow toward maturity in Christ. This includes equipping the disciple to teach others as well [3].” Fellowship is the spiritual good environment that believers stay in to develop. The Church is the ecclesia–an assembly of believers as the Body of Christ. In this fellowship, which is our good environment, we need each other. It is important for believers “not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another…” (Hebrews 10:25). Psalm 133:1-3 says,
How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity! It is like the precious oil on the head, running down upon the beard, on the beard of Aaron, running down over the collar of his robes. It is like the dew of Hermon, which falls on the mountains of Zion. For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.
Working together
It is imperative to encourage new converts to get involved in the activities of the church. And stay close to other believers. They may get encouragement and corrections from them, which will invariably expedite their growth. In Mathematics, there is a concept known as synergy, derived from the Greek word synergos, meaning,“working together”. This is the concept that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts [4]. This is in agreement with the Word of God in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12:
Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up the other; but woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help. Again, if two lie together, they keep warm; but how can one keep warm alone? And though one might prevail against another, two will withstand one. A threefold cord is not quickly broken.
Iron sharpens iron
We cannot overemphasize the importance of fellowship. Proverbs 27:17 says, “Iron sharpens iron, and one person sharpens the wits of another”. Together we stand, divided we fall. One great importance of staying together is that we can discharge our spiritual gifts to the edification of the entire assembly. We shouldn’t, however, enter the pitfall of exalting one gift over the other. Our church today is sick in part because we have exalted some aspects of the gifts of God in our fellowship. Some time ago, preaching was more exalted. Today, however, healing and deliverance and prophecy are so exalted that no other gifts can match that “level of importance”.
4. Witness
The last discipleship essential suggested by Greg Ogden which is worth mentioning is witness. Witnessing is a spiritual exercise for believers. The church of Christ is the only institution on earth mandated to recruit people into the Kingdom of God. The only way other people may come to the saving knowledge of Christ is when believers witness to them. Romans 10:13-15 reads,
For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But how are they to call on one in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in one of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone to proclaim him? And how are they to proclaim him unless they are sent? As it is written, “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”
Believers, thus, have been sent to witness to the lost world about Jesus Christ, who Has entrusted to His followers the message of the Gospel, which contains the power of God unto salvation.
The witness of our testimony
A witness is someone who declares on the basis of personal experience what he/she knows to be true about Christ. The best message we can ever preach to someone is the testimony of our own lives. If we tell people what Christ has done for us and practically live that new life, they can as well come to know Jesus. The Great Commission of witness, also known as the missionary mandate, is a mandate Jesus gave to all believers, to make disciples of Him. Believers ought to have a continuous and endless flow of witnessing. This is represented by the diagram below. Here, believers go out to proclaim about Jesus, new converts are nurtured and discipled till they develop into maturity. They in turn go out to proclaim, and the cycle continues.
5. Worship
As disciples of Jesus Christ, we need to approach God with the attitude of worship. John 4:24 says, “God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.” Oftentimes, believers misconstrue worship to mean slow rhythmic songs. So in our churches, there is usually a time apportioned for “worship”. During this time, you hear the church say “now it is time for worship”, and then suddenly they change the style of the songs to sing slow rhythmic songs. As much as such songs may contribute to our worship of God, true worship goes beyond that. We need to worship God with our lives. Worship must begin from the house, throughout the week as we go by our weekly activities. The things we do and the decisions we make must please God and by doing so, we worship Him with our lives. Thus, we must be conscious of the love of God as we experience His love throughout the week.
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References
[1] Greg Ogden, “Discipleship Essentials: A guide to building your life in Christ”, (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 2007), 9.
[2] The Gideon International, “An Inspiring Introduction To The Holy Book”, accessed on February 26, 2022, http://blog.gideons.org/2010/12/the-bible-contains-the-mind-of-god
[3] Greg Ogden, “Discipleship Essentials: A guide to building your life in Christ”,18.
[4] Jessica Seamster, “Metaphoric Math,” accessed on February 26, 2022, https://metaphoricmath.com/synergy-arithmetic.
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