Matthew 28:19
New International Version
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations,
Jesus told us to go make disciples. He didn’t tell us to go ‘save people’, because only Jesus can do that. Discipleship is different from salvation. In 1 Cor 11:1, Paul urged believers to follow him as he followed Christ.
As we are actively making disciples, some of them will have a personal relationship with God and really get it. Others won’t. He asked us to make people interested in Him, enough to study about Him, accept Him and then tell others about Him. We do that by genuinely caring for and loving other people. Also we need to teach them, to have patience and to take the amount of time necessary.
How do we make disciples? By becoming a disciple of Jesus ourselves.
1. Study Jesus ourselves. Get to know Him. Hang around people that LoveHim. Decide to follow Him and to Love Him with all your heart soul and mind.
2. Be transformed ourselves. “Discipleship” and “following Christ” are used synonymously. The canonical Gospels, Acts, and Epistles urge disciples to be imitators of Jesus Christ or of God himself. Being imitators requires obedience exemplified by moral behavior. However that is an end result. We all blow it. The secret is spending time with Christ, alone, in reading and in prayer. Themore you hang with Jesus, the more you will smell like Him
2 Corinthians 2:15
New International Version
For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing.
I believe that those who are being saved are disciples of Him, or soon to be.
There is no smell in this world compared to the smell of fruit. Jesus told us that we will know His disciples by their fruit. I used to think fruit was sheer numbers. But I know now that Jesus was referring to the fruit of the Spirit. You only get the Fruit of the Spirit smell about you if you spend a lot of time with God, seeking a deeper relationship with Him.
Galatians 5:22
New International Version
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,
3. Be obedient to Jesus. Jesus made Himself of no reputation, but He changed the world. Be in the NOW! Jesus is the I Am. Present tense. Not past, not future. When you are with someone who Jesus sent you, BE ALL THERE. Don’t be wavering. Acts 2 said the disciples, the followers of Jesus were not moved. More people I believe become believers when they see us unmovable in the face of tribulation. That’s how the early church grew 2000 years ago.
Understand that when we claim to know the creator of the universe, people may scoff, but they are really hoping to see something different. You are being watched!
We can not make a disciple of Jesus if we are not ourselves convinced of Jesus, and transformed by Him.
Dean