Post by Les Brewer on Mar 24, 2013 20:49:56 GMT
MAKE DISCIPLES NOT CLONES
(19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations; baptize them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
(20) and teach them to obey every command which I have given you. And remember, I am with you always, day by day, until the Close of the Age." Matthew 28:19-20 WNT
So many Spiritual Leaders want to make carbon copies of themselves, because in their view they are living the model of Christ. Therefore they want to impose their exactness into the lives of others thereby making a spiritual clone instead of a true Christian Disciple.
I know from past experience this is a temptation not only did I do it early in my ministry, but I was involved with others who were doing the same thing. I didn’t realize it at the time, it was by revelation in prayer that God revealed my short fall concerning this. This issue is very important because the love of power or dominance is the birthing place of many heresies.
He showed me that every individual is unique, and that we each have preferences which are different. Some times those preferences align with the preferences of other and some times not. My individuality was foreknown and considered by God when he seen me in my mothers womb. The thing about preferences is that some are godly, some are carnal. Jesus spoke about the earthly kingdom of God ( the body of Christ ) in parabolic form in Matthew concerning the disbursement of responsibilities and potential of individual capacities.
(15) And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to each according to his particular ability, and immediately went away out of the country. Matthew 25:15 Darby
Having said that, we all grow up and develop our likes and dislikes, I love contemporary praise and worship music, its my preference, I love outdoors, I love to travel to foreign countries, I love certain types of food, and I love true history and science, I love new technology especially computers, and I like political science. These are the things that fascinate me as an individual and by the way none of them are a sin. God endows within each of the intellect, talents, and spiritual gifts which will actualize and then authenticate our particular calling, however it is up to us to develop them.
(11) But these results are all brought about by one and the same Spirit, who bestows His gifts upon each of us in accordance with His own will.
(12) For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with the Church of Christ. 1st Corinthians 12:11-12 WNT
Now to the point, if I try to make someone like or love all those things because I do, or I base my assumption on them being a Christian or not by that mandate, and then take it to the next level of spiritual preferences and base someone’s spiritual walk solely upon my assessment of spirituality, then I am trying to make a clone, not a disciple. As a spiritual leader when someone truly sins, according to the word of God I must point out error, but if they’re not practicing heresy, then I have learned in due season God will open their eyes to what is or is not pleasing Him in their lives. To impose my individual brand of following Christ is an affront to the growth of others, as I have found out; many things have to be experienced before God has the opportunity to minister to them through conviction.
We are agents of Spiritual Liberation; not Carnal Domination
(18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
(19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19 KJV
Myself, I disciple someone based upon the principles of the word, the precepts of the perfect law of liberty, and protocols of the instructive liturgical dynamics according to the word the God, because these are not only foundational but dogmatic truths that cannot be changed. These are infallible uncompromising proponents of God’s will scribed to parchment and now translated to our perspective languages. These are liberating not dominating, and we in the ministry should consider ourselves as liberators not dominators concerning the discipleship of those who sit under us.
(17) Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
(18) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 KJV
Basically when we becomes as Pharisees who made disciples through hypocritical dominance we are inadvertently trying to make clones of ourselves instead of real disciples who grow to love Christ more and more. Christianity is not suppose to be ridgid but righteous, not hard but harmonious, not detouring but alluring, not pompous but empowering.
Brethren Keep the Faith by becoming a Servant/Leader. Learn in the process of making a disciple of Christ the goal is for them to become like Christ. God does not take away our identity, he doesn’t take away the gifts he has given us, He inhabits them for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom. It is often those individual interests that advance us we freely give to God for his purposes, then those same gifts are divinely anointed and enhanced for the glory of God.
“ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: I have come that they may have Life, and may have it in abundance. John 10:10 WNT
Brethren Make Disciples not Clones and the Kingdom of God will be the better for it.
Shalom & Agape!
Ray ( Emissary of the Faith )
(19) Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations; baptize them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit;
(20) and teach them to obey every command which I have given you. And remember, I am with you always, day by day, until the Close of the Age." Matthew 28:19-20 WNT
So many Spiritual Leaders want to make carbon copies of themselves, because in their view they are living the model of Christ. Therefore they want to impose their exactness into the lives of others thereby making a spiritual clone instead of a true Christian Disciple.
I know from past experience this is a temptation not only did I do it early in my ministry, but I was involved with others who were doing the same thing. I didn’t realize it at the time, it was by revelation in prayer that God revealed my short fall concerning this. This issue is very important because the love of power or dominance is the birthing place of many heresies.
He showed me that every individual is unique, and that we each have preferences which are different. Some times those preferences align with the preferences of other and some times not. My individuality was foreknown and considered by God when he seen me in my mothers womb. The thing about preferences is that some are godly, some are carnal. Jesus spoke about the earthly kingdom of God ( the body of Christ ) in parabolic form in Matthew concerning the disbursement of responsibilities and potential of individual capacities.
(15) And to one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one; to each according to his particular ability, and immediately went away out of the country. Matthew 25:15 Darby
Having said that, we all grow up and develop our likes and dislikes, I love contemporary praise and worship music, its my preference, I love outdoors, I love to travel to foreign countries, I love certain types of food, and I love true history and science, I love new technology especially computers, and I like political science. These are the things that fascinate me as an individual and by the way none of them are a sin. God endows within each of the intellect, talents, and spiritual gifts which will actualize and then authenticate our particular calling, however it is up to us to develop them.
(11) But these results are all brought about by one and the same Spirit, who bestows His gifts upon each of us in accordance with His own will.
(12) For just as the human body is one and yet has many parts, and all its parts, many as they are, constitute but one body, so it is with the Church of Christ. 1st Corinthians 12:11-12 WNT
Now to the point, if I try to make someone like or love all those things because I do, or I base my assumption on them being a Christian or not by that mandate, and then take it to the next level of spiritual preferences and base someone’s spiritual walk solely upon my assessment of spirituality, then I am trying to make a clone, not a disciple. As a spiritual leader when someone truly sins, according to the word of God I must point out error, but if they’re not practicing heresy, then I have learned in due season God will open their eyes to what is or is not pleasing Him in their lives. To impose my individual brand of following Christ is an affront to the growth of others, as I have found out; many things have to be experienced before God has the opportunity to minister to them through conviction.
We are agents of Spiritual Liberation; not Carnal Domination
(18) The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
(19) To preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19 KJV
Myself, I disciple someone based upon the principles of the word, the precepts of the perfect law of liberty, and protocols of the instructive liturgical dynamics according to the word the God, because these are not only foundational but dogmatic truths that cannot be changed. These are infallible uncompromising proponents of God’s will scribed to parchment and now translated to our perspective languages. These are liberating not dominating, and we in the ministry should consider ourselves as liberators not dominators concerning the discipleship of those who sit under us.
(17) Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
(18) But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 2 Corinthians 3:17-18 KJV
Basically when we becomes as Pharisees who made disciples through hypocritical dominance we are inadvertently trying to make clones of ourselves instead of real disciples who grow to love Christ more and more. Christianity is not suppose to be ridgid but righteous, not hard but harmonious, not detouring but alluring, not pompous but empowering.
Brethren Keep the Faith by becoming a Servant/Leader. Learn in the process of making a disciple of Christ the goal is for them to become like Christ. God does not take away our identity, he doesn’t take away the gifts he has given us, He inhabits them for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom. It is often those individual interests that advance us we freely give to God for his purposes, then those same gifts are divinely anointed and enhanced for the glory of God.
“ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy: I have come that they may have Life, and may have it in abundance. John 10:10 WNT
Brethren Make Disciples not Clones and the Kingdom of God will be the better for it.
Shalom & Agape!
Ray ( Emissary of the Faith )
