Matthew 12:13 “Then saith he to the man, Stretch forth thine hand. And he stretched it forth; and it was restored whole, like as the other.”
From my experience as a missionary, pastor and follower of Jesus, I have noticed that Jesus never has called me to do something I want to do, that I feel comfortable doing, that I find easy to do, nor even what I am equipped to do. Jesus call me to do the last thing I would choose to do on my own. Jesus doesn’t call me to love Winnie and our two children because I do that on my own, Jesus doesn’t call me to provide for them, I LOVE providing for them. Jesus calls me to do things I wouldn’t do on my own.
When I first went to the mission field, I really wanted to just find a pastor to sit under, that would have time to disciple me. My ‘new believer course’ in the states was a horrible disaster. I got asked to leave it 3 times (ask Susan Westfal and the Shropshire couple). I was told that I asked too many questions. I drove down to Nicaragua the week after it ended. Turns out I turned a six week course into an eighteen week course. I’m not proud of it, it’s embarrassing. I say all that to say, I was still learning, and wanted a teacher. I still had tons of questions. Had? I still have tons of questions.
So, as I was looking for someone to teach me more, pastors Malcom Wild and Howard Davies came down and said, there are no pastors down here to learn from, why don’t you become a pastor? I fumbled around saying, I’m not a counselor. Malcolm said, neither am I, that’s why God gave me Linda Wolf! So they made me a Calvary Chapel Pastor. I didn’t want to be a pastor. I wasn’t trained to be a pastor. I’m not wired to be a pastor. I soon found that this is the Jesus Style as my dear friend Gayle D Erwin would say. Do the most inconvenient thing. Mi hermano Phil Aguilar calls it the ‘spirit of inconvenience’. If you feel like you are being led to do something completely inconvenient, it’s probably the Lord’s urging.
Jesus, through Pastor Malcolm, called me to be a pastor. Remember, I botched the new believers course. I wasn’t ‘pastor material’. I didn’t know the Bible very well. But, after I said yes (like the man did as he stretched forth his withered hand) Jesus made it possible for me to become a pastor, to want to be a pastor, and to have everything I needed to be a pastor, just like Jesus did with the withered hand
after the action of extending it happened. I first had to obey Jesus and say yes to Jesus’ before He equipped me. Jesus even equipped me to play guitar and to lead praise and worship for a season to establish the first Calvary Chapel in Nicaragua (Calvary Chapel Managua), growing it into a large and healthy congregation. (Jesus is still equipping me. It’s been a very long and painful process.)
My answering the call to pastor was just like the man with the withered hand, Jesus said ‘stretch forth your hand’ and the withered hand guy was like ‘wwwhhhhhhhhaaaatttttt? I don’t think he liked the idea because handicapped people are usually ashamed of their defects. I didn’t have a clue how to be a pastor, I knew I was going to get humiliated. Like with Malcom asking me to start a church in Nicaragua, here was Jesus asking them to stick his defect out there for everyone to see!! Was Jesus making fun of a cripple? Was Jesus some loco and everyone would laugh at him for believing a crazy guy. All he did was say yes by obeying Jesus. He (like me) believed that Jesus was going to do something but he didn’t know what. He trusted Jesus enough to put himself out there. He probably was extremely hesitant but he risked it all and it paid off.
We have to be careful to learn how to recognize Jesus’ callings. We often get confused between ‘good’ and ‘God’. When you add anything to God, in this case an extra ‘o’ (GO‘o’D=good) , it leads to confusion. God cannot give you confusion because you can’t give what you don’t have and God doesn’t have confusion in Him. Satan can’t give you peace because doesn’t have it. So, Jesus will never lead you through confusion, only peace. It won’t make sense probably but you won’t be confused, you’ll have peace.
Many people feel they are called to ‘save’ people. They show on Facebook how many people they led to Christ. But God does not call us to save people. That’s the Holy Spirit’s job. We are called to be light, (by being a good testimony), to plant seeds (witnessing about what Jesus did for us), and water (sharing scripture) but not to ‘save’. That’s someone else’s job, the Holy Ghost’s! We are called to Shine, Sow, and Share nothing more. We are never called to save. Nor are we called to weed.
Matthew 13:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.
Jesus does call us to ‘Go and make disciples’
NKJV Matthew 28:19 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
Jesus called me to go and make disciples. I have resisted that for some reason. It sounded like formal structure, meeting, schooling, discipline (disciples implies discipline) and head counts. I am extremely leery of that concept. I don’t manage formal meals, funerals, formal meetings very well. If it’s formal, I don’t like it. I don’t really like basic things like school, family sit down meals, reunions, etc. But Jesus told me personally (through a lot of wise counsel) that it’s my calling, as a pastor. One board member insisted that I build disciples because I am not going to live forever. Boards want to see legacy. It was recommended that I leave for a while and see how they handled it alone, without me. And I said a feeble ‘yes but how and when’? I resisted so POW, I get cancer. And I see by how my team took over and are doing a better job than I can ever do. I made disciples (well Jesus made these disciples) the moment I realized that this call was for me, and I said yes! My team of disciples in Nicaragua have impressed everyone! Making disciples is teaching them. You teach them by your example.
So, exactly HOW do you go and make disciples? By being a disciple of Jesus. Do what He shows you to do, How He shows you to do it, When He shows you to do it and where He shows you to do it. By doing this you are teaching others, making them disciples of Jesus.
KJV Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
LOVE
DEAN AND WINNIE PETERS