Boarding the Discipleship Ship

Discipleship: What does it mean?

Devoted , dedicated, disciplined, delivered, dominion-minded
Informed ,
Sold-out , separated,, saints, shaped, soldier
Co-labourer , covered, converted, carrier of God’s presence, created anew
Intimate,
Peace-maker, productive, passed from death to life, processed.
Learner (life-long),
Empowered, endowed, enduring
Servant, sacrifice, saved sinner
Happy (blessed),
Indwelled by the Holy Spirit
Purposeful



Devoted, dedicated, disciplined, delivered, dominion-minded
Devoted
This is the ship of the devoted: those who have made their lives a living sacrifice to their King, Lord and Saviour. It is not for the half-hearted or faint-hearted. He has to be Lord of all of He is to be Lord at all. Discipline also has to be a watchword. They have to model the life of the Master, follow His footsteps; learn His routines, imitate Him, walk as He walked. Their dedication cannot be in doubt.
1 John 2:6
New King James Version (NKJV)
6 He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Mary gives us a picture of devotion and affection.
1 Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was that Mary who anointed the Lord with fragrant oil and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 Therefore the sisters sent to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.”

InformedSold-out, separated, saved sinner, saints, shaped, soldier
How can you be a disciple to who you know little about? Yes you may not know the Master fully as knowledge is in degrees, but you must know the Master. The more you spend time with the Master, the more you will come to know Him better.
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
The Father Revealed
7 “If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also; and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.” John14:7
And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent. John17:3
New King James Version (NKJV)
41 And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. 42 But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” Luke 10:41-42

Mary was wise as she chose to say at is feet t soak up His word.
The test of knowing Him is will come and we pass or fail depending on whether we obey Him.
‘Now by this we know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments’. 1John2:3

Sold-out

When you are sold-out to someone, nothing comes in the way of your relationship with that person. This demands self-sacrifice- presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to Him and dying daily, not crawling off the alter, living ‘ Not my will but Yours be done.’
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. Luke9:62


Co-labourer,Costly, covered, converted, carrier of God’s presence, created anew; costly

He came to saved that which was lost, to set the captives free and His disciples – those created anew, carriers of His presence, converted-were His co-labourers. That was why He told them ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Matthew28:18-20, ‘Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.Matt10:8
Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few.Matt9:37

Their business was a life or death business, a costly business. That was why Jesus counselled that whoever is building needs to sit down and count the cost before starting the building.

For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first and count the cost, whether he has enough to finish it Luke14:28

The life of a disciple is one of self sacrifice, self-denial.
Take Up the Cross and Follow Him. Then He said to them all, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me..

Intimate
Intimacy takes time and effort. Intimacy cements, makes power, provision, protection available in any relationship. Jesus wants our intimacy with Him to increase by the day in leaps and bounds so that people will have no doubt that we are His disciples. Jesus wants His disciples to know Him more and more and that comes from a desire to know more of Him like Paul: ‘that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, Phil3:10
1 As the deer pants for the water brooks,
So pants my soul for You, O God.
2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God? Ps42:1-2

Peace-Makers
The disciples are peacemakers as they join in the ministry of reconciliation, making friends of God those who were once his enemies.
18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 New King James Version (NKJV)
9 Blessed are the peacemakers,
For they shall be called sons of God.Matt5:9


Learner, life-long
The Life of a disciple is one of life-long learning. This is a mark of a disciple. The moment you stop learning, you start dying. The moment you think you have arrived, you become vulnerable as a prey to the enemy of your soul –the devil who prowls about seeking whom to devour.
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 1Pet5:8
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; 2Pet3:17
Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.1Cor10:12


Empowered
And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Matt10:9
And you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:8
Just as God’…anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, …. ‘so He wants to anoint all His disciples so that they can also go about doing good and healing all who are oppressed of the devil. Acts 10:38

Servant, sacrifice, saved sinners
Jesus cam to serve and not to be served and so should his disciples.
But not so among you; on the contrary, he who is greatest among you, let him be as the younger, and he who governs as he who serves.Luke22:26

Saved Sinner
Disciples are not perfect. They are work-in progress, saved sinners, silver in the furnace being refined to reflect the image of the Jesus, their Master.
Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”Matt9:10,11

Happy (blessed)
The disciple is Happy (Blessed). Why? Because he was once dead but now raised together with Jesus and seated with Him in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers. He is blessed with every spiritual blessing in heaven place. He is a partaker of the divine nature, endowed with the exceeding great and precious promises; .purchased with a great price- the blood of Jesus.

Indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
Whereas in the Old Testament the Holy Spirit cam e upon servants of God for specific service. the disciples in the New Testament are privileged to have the Holy spirit come to reside in them..

Coming of the Holy Spirit
1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord[a] in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.Acts2:1-4
Rom8:9
9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. Romans 8:9 New King James Version (NKJV)

7 Nevertheless I tell you the truth. It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you John16:7
15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments. 16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you John14:15-18

Purposeful

Every creation of God has a purpose, even more so His children and the disciples. That purpose is revealed by how he has wired you to function. The disciple needs to discover his/her gifts, develop it or them and deploy them to finish their reason for being.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. Rom8:28
I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: 2Tim4:7