Disciples

Disciples

“Then I said, ‘Behold, I have come—in the volume of the book it is written of Me—to do Your will, O God.’” Heb. 10:7.

This is how Jesus came to His Father. If we are to be Jesus’ disciples, then we, too, must come to Jesus in the same way.

The usual thing is that people come to Jesus in their need to receive help. Their sin has brought them into need, and they require help to get out of it. Essentially, this is just seeking their own. If someone who is an alcoholic seeks help—salvation from sin—it is only to his own advantage.

God is sufficiently rich for everyone who calls on Him. He saves people who are in need; He does not reject them. Then they taste that God is good. However, we are wrong if we believe that that is Christianity. Being a Christian means following Christ, being His disciple.

The commission the apostles received was to make disciples of all nations. Therefore we must not stop working with people during a revival when they awaken to the fact that Jesus is a Savior from all the need into which sin has brought them, and as a result they come to be helped and taste that God is good. Then we must do like Jesus did after many people had come to faith in Him—make disciples of them. John 8:30-36. We must lead them to the point of surrender, that they forsake everything and say, “Here am I, Jesus, to do Your will.” Then they will experience real salvation and transformation in their lives.

There are many kinds of revival, just as there is a difference in the depths of the various revivals. Therefore we cannot always rejoice over revival. The question is: By which gospel have they been born? Matt. 23:15; Jas. 1:18.

Apostasy is not such an uncommon occurrence after a revival; it even happens that everyone falls away. Preachers like to have revival, using all their soul power and all the tricks they can think of to get a revival going. Five years after a revival not many people ask what has become of those who were converted.

A beggar can come to a rich man and receive gifts and be helped out of a momentary difficulty, but the beggar remains the same person. If he is to be helped, he has to be transformed. He is not helped with just gifts. This also applies to those who seek God in their need. They don’t receive real help as long as they come to God just to be helped and receive gifts. They receive real help only after they give up their own will and come not to receive blessings and gifts, but to do God’s will. Then they will experience God’s glory in their life. Such people rarely fall away.

A revival to discipleship is rarely a great revival, but then again it is uncommon for such people to fall away. It is a work of God that lasts. If we follow Jesus’ Great Commission we will not be put to shame in our work.