Following the King

And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.”

Then another of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” (Matthew 8:18-22)

As Jesus passed on from there, He saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax office. And He said to him “Follow Me.” So he arose and followed Him. (Matthew 9:9)

What does it mean to follow the King? Matthew gives us three vignettes. The first is about a scribe, a teacher of the law quite taken with Jesus and His message. He said, “Teacher, I will follow You wherever you go.” There is no reason to doubt that he meant it, as least as much as he understood it. But did he really know what he was asking? Jesus laid it out for him: “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head.” He was not speaking of a life of poverty, but a life lived on a different basis. Follow Jesus and there is no telling where you might end up. Where He was heading, there was also a lot of persecution for Him and his disciples to endure (see Matthew 10:16-26). To follow Jesus is to step away from the security offered by the world and live in full dependence on Him.

The second brief story is about “another of His disciples,” which seems to indicate that the scribe of the first story really was also a disciple of Jesus, at least at some level. This second disciple wanted to follow Jesus, but first desired to go and bury his father. If he was the oldest son, it would have been his responsibility to do so. Since he was out in public, he was no longer in the private mourning period, which indicates that his father’s body had already been placed in the tomb. But it was the custom of Jews back then to go back a year later and gather up the bones and place them in a special box called an ossuary. That is likely what this man is referring to.

However, in practical terms, “Let me bury my father,” meant, “Lord, I can’t follow you this year. Let me wait until next year.” Jesus answered, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.” He was not speaking against the burial custom or the young man’s sense of responsibility to honor his father. He was directing the man to the proper perspective. Had not the young man heard Him preach earlier, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you”? That set the priority concerning everything, even family matters. “Follow Me,” Jesus said, and everything else that is needed will be properly tended. “Let the dead bury their own dead.” The man’s father would be reburied by those who stayed behind. It was a secondary matter, as are all things when the King has come. The main thing is to follow the King.

A little later in his Gospel, Matthew tells of another call to follow Jesus — his own. Matthew was a tax collector, probably a customs agent, working for the Herodian system that was much despised by the Jewish people. He was sitting at his booth one day when Jesus came and said, “Follow Me.” We do not know how the first two men responded, whether or not they followed Jesus with a deeper understanding and commitment, be we do know about Matthew: “So he arose and followed Him.” We do not know the issues of his heart which brought him to his decision, but he decided to leave behind the security of his position, which was lucrative, and make the kingdom of God his priority.

Matthew then threw a party for Jesus and His disciples (Luke 5:29 tells us this was at Matthew’s house), and many of own his friends and fellow tax collectors came, too. The Pharisees were once again offended. “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Though they were neither brave enough nor polite enough to ask Him directly, Jesus heard their remarks and said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (Matthew 9:12-13).

The kingdom of Heaven on Earth is not for those who deem themselves righteous but for those who recognize their need of repentance. The repentance required is not only about turning away from the works of darkness, but also about turning from the dead works of religion (sacrifice without mercy) to the “physician” of souls.

To who follow the King we must recognize our need of Him, give up the security of the world and depend on Him alone, and make His kingdom our priority. Those who do will see His kingdom, Heaven of Earth.

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The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Spiritual Disciplines and Intense Desire

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” (Luke 10:41-42)

Christian discipleship is about learning. It means that one is in training. As you can probably tell, the word “discipleship” is related to the word “discipline.” To be in training, following a discipline (a practice, a habit, a rule) means that one is learning to do what has not yet become natural to them. Thankfully, there comes a point when one moves from doing things as a matter of discipline and training and becomes “second nature.” One moves from doing things merely because he ought to do so, to doing them simply because it is the desire of his heart.

Yes, we should all have an intense desire to fellowship with Christ. We should be loaded with desire, as Brother Lawrence of the Resurrection discovered, to do all things for His sake. Brother Lawrence, however, called this “the practice of the presence of God.” He had a desire to be full of desire for God, and he practiced that desire to be full of desire until he truly was full of desire for God — and God filled it.

So it is good to have some practical spiritual disciplines that help us focus on the things that we ought to be focused on. Many times, I do experience an intense desire for fellowship with Christ; other times not so much. I know what it is like to be like Mary, focused on the one thing, the good part; but I also know what it is to be like Martha, worried and troubled about many things. The value of practical spiritual disciplines is that they can help us make room to hear the voice of the Lord; and hearing His voice, faith comes and desire awakens.

We have been much discipled by the world and/or a church that has been much infected with the faithless way the world thinks. So we not only have to be delivered from the ways and thoughts of the world, we need to be discipled, trained in the ways and thoughts of God.

Spiritual disciplines and practices can be good “tools” toward that end. They do not change God; they change us, preparing us to receive what God has already graciously promised and provided. To suppose that they change God would be nothing more than magical thinking. Our relationship with God is not a mechanical one, but a personal one, and the disciplines, when properly approached, help us empty out and make room for that relationship. Brother Lawrence had a wonderful relationship with God, experiencing his presence just as much in the kitchen as in the chapel — but notice that he described it as “practicing the presence of God.” The discipline he adopted helped him enter into that place of relationship.

The disciplines can be very good servants, but terrible masters. Apart from dependence upon the grace of God, they can quickly become a cage. But when approached with faith in God and His promises, they can provide a good framework for exploring our new life in Christ, helping us become more aware of Him. They help us do what we sing at Christmastime: “Let every heart prepare Him room.”

There may be thousands of ways that a Christian can practically implement a truth from God's Word. If one particular method doesn’t work for you, there is another one that will. When Brother Lawrence first joined the Carmelite monks, he considered a number of practical suggestions and spiritual practices, but he found none that fit. That was when he decided he would simply practice the presence of God (you can read how he went about this in his little book The Practice of the Presence of God).

A good spiritual discipline or practice can help you empty out the many distracting things so that you may have an intense desire for the one thing, the good part — fellowship with the Lord Jesus. He will fill it, and He will never take it away.

To learn more about spiritual disciplines and how they might be of help to you, read The Spirit of the Disciplines, by Dallas Willard.

Discipleship: The Stunning Revelation of Jesus Christ

Then He arose and rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Peace, be still!” And the wind ceased and there was a great calm. But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have not faith?” And they feared exceedingly, and said to one another, “Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” (Mark 4:39-41)

The disciples had been fearful enough about the storm that raged against them out on the sea; they thought they were about to perish. But they were even more afraid when Jesus calmed the wind and the waves by the power of His words. The Bible says they “feared exceedingly.”

“Who can this be, that even the wind and the sea obey Him!” Though they had already been with Jesus for some time, being instructed by Him and observing the many wonderful miracles He performed, this was a new revelation about Jesus for which they were completely unprepared.

The goodness, the greatness, and the grace of God in Jesus Christ is so stunning because our own experiences are so limited, our thoughts so restricted, and our faith so weak. There is also the awareness of the greatness of the distance between us and God, that He is so holy — so completely unlike anything else in the world, and that we are so unholy, so unlike Him.

Isaiah experienced this in his vision of the LORD in His holy temple: “I am a man of unclean lips, and I come from a people of unclean lips” (Isaiah 6:5).

Peter experienced this when Jesus instructed him to cast the net on the other side, and Peter hauled in an amazingly and totally unexpectedly prosperous catch of fish. He fell before the Lord Jesus and said, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man” (Luke 5:8).

The revelation of Jesus Christ always generates controversy:

• No, God isn't really like that.
• No, He doesn't do that today.
• No, His grace is not that free.
• No, Jesus didn't really mean that.

It's too much for us. Even the Lord Jesus recognized that He couldn't unload all this revelation at one time on His disciples. He told them, “I have many things to say to you, but you are not able to bear them now.” That's why He sent the Holy Spirit, to lead us into all truth. And we are still unpacking what that all means (John 16:12-13).

That is what our discipleship is about: processing the revelations of Jesus Christ. Each step stretches us past our limit, and a lot of times we don't want to go any further. Our job is to keep going further and further with Him, continually being stunned.

Repentance is a Wonderful Thing

“Come now, and let us reason together,” says the LORD.

(Isaiah 1:18)

Repentance is a wonderful thing. Most people associate it with “sorrow for sin.” Now, sorrow for sin may lead to repentance, or it may even result from it. But that is not what repentance itself is. The Greek word behind it is metanoia and literally means to “change your mind.” In the Bible, it is an exchange of our thoughts and ways for God’s.

“For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
   Nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD.
“For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
   So are My ways higher than our ways,
   And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

(Isaiah 55:8-9)

God’s thoughts and ways are much higher than ours, but that does not mean we cannot know them. In fact, God invites us to come and know His thoughts. That is what He means when He says, “Come now, and let us reason together.” In other words, come and learn God’s ways, come and know His thoughts, come and get His wisdom. Proverbs 3:5-6 puts it this way:

Trust in the LORD with all your heart,
   And lean not on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
   And He shall direct your paths.

Many people believe that we cannot know God’s ways and thoughts. They often quote 1 Corinthians 2:9, where Paul says, “But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’” Most of them don’t go on to quote or even read the very next verse: “But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:10).

So we do not have to be stuck with our own thoughts and ways. We can know God’s thoughts and walk in His ways. My ways are feeble and my thoughts limited, and I am more than ready to get rid of them and receive God’s thoughts and ways.

Thank God for repentance! Now I can wake up everyday and go the Father to learn what new thing He has for me. It is a joy when He shows me where my ways have been ineffective and my thinking has been off. Because then I get to repent, to change my mind and start thinking God’s thoughts about whatever issue I am facing. I look forward to repenting because I know that I am about to receive an upgrade in my life. My own understanding will always ultimately fail, but God’s thoughts and ways will always bring success.

Repentance is a wonderful thing, and a good way to begin every year, every month, every week, even every day. Have you repented today and experienced the delight of changing your thoughts for God’s? His thoughts are found in the Scriptures, and if you ask, the Holy Spirit will open them up to you.

Rethinking Basic Discipleship

Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature … And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means harm them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. (Mark 16:15-18)

The Lord Jesus gave this commission to His disciples, and it is all part and parcel of preaching the Gospel — the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Notice first that there signs which will follow those who believe. Notice also that these signs will not merely follow the disciples, but will actually be performed by the disciples in the name of Jesus.

Jesus said, In My name they (those who believe) will:

• Cast out demons.
• Speak with new tongues.
• Experience divine protection.*
• Lay hands on the sick, and the sick will recover.

[*The bit about taking up serpents and drinking anything deadly is not a command to perform, but a promise of protection in case those things should happen. On the island of Malta, while Paul was collecting wood for the fire, he was accidentally bitten by a deadly snake. He should have immediately fallen ill and died — but he didn’t, and this increased his credibility with the islanders (Acts 28:3-6). Early Church history records the incident of a Christian leader who was deliberately poisoned but was not harmed by it.]

If these things are to follow those who believe the Gospel, how is it that so often they do not. We can trace the history of when and how these things began to fall away from the mainstream Church (Francis MacNutt does a good job of this in The Healing Reawakening: Reclaiming Our Lost Inheritance).

A lot of it was given up when the church developed the clergy/laity distinction (readily found in tradition, but not in the Bible). Only a special class of Christian was considered fit to pursue these ministries, and they pursued the less and less. When pride set in, they were not able to perform them even when they tried.

So there was a drought of these signs, but not a complete absence. They still turned up in many times and places in the history of the church. The attitudes of the institutionalized Church carried over into the Reformed and Evangelical Church and the signs were absent in these churches as well, not altogether, but to a significant degree.

Another reason for the lack is that the Gospel has often been limited, in modern Reformed and Evangelical churches, to salvation from sin. But Jesus never did this. Everywhere He went, He was always teaching and preaching the kingdom of God, casting out demons and healing all kinds of sickness and disease. Even His death on the cross was not limited to forgiveness of sin. The meaning of “salvation” in Scripture is much broader than that. The Greek and Hebrew words refer to deliverance, healing, wholeness, prosperity, and being rescued from whatever you need to be rescued from. And the name of Jesus in Hebrew, Yeshua, is actually the Hebrew word for salvation, so even His name includes healing and deliverance.

Is it any wonder then that whenever the Gospel is preached and believed, we should see people healed and delivered from demonic affliction? No, what we really ought to wonder about is when we don’t see those things.

Because of many of the traditions of the Church and the limiting of the Gospel to nothing more than the forgiveness of sins, many Christians have not been taught to expect these signs to follow. In fact, they have been taught to NOT expect them, even to reject the idea that they should happen at all.

Consequently, there is a big hole in their discipleship. For if these things — casting out demons, speaking in tongues, experiencing divine protection, and healing through the laying on of hands — are supposed to follow those who believe, then out not the basic instruction of new believers include how to minister and walk in these things?

Let that percolate a while (or if you prefer — Selah).

The need for these things has not disappeared. The Church has just largely forgotten how to minister them. Isn’t it time to rethink basic discipleship?

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Miracles and Manifestations of the Holy Spirit
in the History of the Church
by Jeff Doles

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Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

The Journey of Spiritual Fatherhood

I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for His name’s sake.

I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one.

I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father.

I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning.

I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the Word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the world.

(1 John 2:12-14)

The apostle John is a contemplative sort, and there is often a lyrical quality to his writing. This passage is, perhaps, a song — a hymn about how one grows in the Lord from new-born babe, to mature faith, and on to fatherhood in the Spirit. He considers four stages of enlargement:

Little children. The Greek word is teknion. John is addressing recent converts, newly born from above through faith in Jesus Christ. Their sin’s are forgiven because of Jesus, and they are now in the family of the Lord, being reconciled to the Father.

Little children. A different Greek word, paidion, is used in the second instance. This refers to those who are receiving instruction in the Lord. They are new disciples, in training, novices weaning away from the ways of the world. Having known the Lord as God-Who-Forgives (El Nasa, Psalm 99:8), they are now leaning into the heart of their Father and learning from Him. Their Father has now become their Teacher.

Young men. These are men and women who are well into their discipleship. They are vigorous and bold in their faith. They have entered into service, been tested and tried, and their devotion is sound and effective. The Word of God is strong in them and so they are strong in their walk with the Lord. Jesus promised His disciples, “If you abide in Me, and My Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you” (John 15:7). The Word is established and at home in them and these “young men” know how to appropriate the promises of God to get things done. They are now powerful overcomers—they have overcome the wicked one. Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1 John 3:8), and these “young men” know how to walk in that authority and enforce His victory upon the enemy.

Fathers. These are those who were once new-borns in the Lord. They began their instruction in the “School of the Father’s Heart” and grew up into a strong, vibrant faith. This did not happen overnight, but came about through a continual focus of the heart upon God and His Word, a “long obedience in the same direction” (to quote Eugene Peterson).

John addresses them twice, but he says the exact same thing both times: “You have known Him who is from the beginning.” That is, they have come into a deep and pervasive experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. They have taken His yoke upon themselves and learned of Him, and have found rest for their souls. They have learned to know Him, not only in the power of His resurrection, but also in the fellowship of His sufferings.

And now they are fathers. They are passing the inheritance they have received in the Lord on to the next generation. They are bringing forth sons and daughters into the kingdom of God and releasing them into their divine destiny. By their manner of life they teach us that there is no higher calling than to come into intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. This relationship only gets richer and deeper, far beyond the ability of human words to describe.

Where do you find yourself in this hymn? Have you received forgiveness through faith in Jesus Christ? Have you come to know God as your Father and to learn of Him? Is the Word of God so established and at home in your heart that you know how to walk in the victory the Jesus has won over the world, the flesh and the devil? Have you come to that place in your faith life where all you want is to know Him more and more, and to bring others to that same place because you realize that there is no greater joy, no higher calling?

All Authority in Heaven and Earth — In Our Midst!

Where two or three are gathered in My name, I am there in the midst of them. (Matthew 18:20)

Whenever we come together in the name of Jesus, to act as He would act and ask as He would ask, we can be assured that Jesus is present with us. This is not the general omnipresence of God, but His special manifest presence. It is a revelation of Jesus.

As I was thinking about this the other day, the Holy Spirit reminded me of what Jesus promised the disciples in the Great Commission:

All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth… And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. (Matthew 28:19-20)

So here are two promises of Jesus manifest presence with us.

1. As we come together in His name.
2. As we go out to fulfill the Great Commission.
   

Now, let me ask you: When Jesus comes and makes His presence known, does He show up with His authority, or does He leave it behind?

That’s a silly question, isn’t it? Of course Jesus comes with all His authority, and He comes ready to exercise it.

So when we come together or go out in His name, Jesus is with us, and all the authority He possesses — the authority of heaven and earth — is with us also.

Think of it. Whenever we gather to worship, to love, serve, give or fellowship in the name of Jesus, all the authority of heaven and earth is present in our midst, ready to be exercised. Whenever we go out to minister in the name of Jesus, all the authority of heaven and earth goes with us, ready to do the works of Jesus.

Hmmmmm. Since that is so, what ought our discipleship to look like?

Study the works of Jesus in the Gospels. See what He did with His authority and how He exercised it. Then when two or three of you gather in His name, or go out to minister in His name, begin learning how to exercise His authority to do the works of Jesus in the name of Jesus.

Rooted and Established

He shall be like a tree
  Planted by the rivers of water,
  That brings forth its fruit in its season
Whose leaf also shall not wither
  And whatever he does shall prosper

(Psalm 1:3)

This is talking about the man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, stand in the path of sinners, or sit in the seat of the scornful. Instead, he delights in the Word of God, and he is always meditating on it, pondering it by speaking it to himself over and over.

To be planted, in this Hebrew context, is to be rooted and established. It is not enough to simply dig a hole and drop a tree into it. A tree is not really planted until it begins to extend its roots downward and outward to tap into the moisture of the river. It becomes integrated with the soil so that it cannot be easily blown over or uprooted.

It is only when a tree is rooted and established that it can begin to produce fruit, to be fresh and green, and to prosper. And it can only be rooted and established by staying in one place.

There are many Christians who jump from church to church, from group to group, never staying long enough to become a part of any congregation or fellowship. So they never get rooted or well-grounded. Consequently, they do not bear good fruit, they do not prosper, and they do not stay fresh and green. They begin to wither because they have no stability.

Stability is an important part of discipleship. That is why for centuries monks and monasteries have always had a “vow of stability,” committing themselves to stay in one place and work out whatever differences they might have with their brothers or leaders.

This is a strong feature of Benedictine communities. In The Rule of Benedict, written about the sixth century, Benedict of Nursia featured stability prominently. He noted that there were many monks who went about from place to place, soaking up the benefits of each place, but never becoming a productive member. They went about everywhere, but never became a part of anywhere. He called them gyrovagues. They were pointless wanderers. They had no purpose. They added nothing to the prosperity of a house, spiritually or otherwise, and were really nothing more than parasites.

But those who delight in the Word of God must learn to be a true part of God’s people. For God is love, and love cannot flow in isolation. We must be part of a community of faith in Jesus Christ. That is we will find stability. Then we will begin to see the blessing and power of God’s love manifest in life-changing, world-changing ways. That is where we will find fruitfulness and prosperity, and where we will remain fresh and green.

Those who are planted in the house of the LORD
  Shall flourish in the courts of our God.
They shall still bear fruit in old age;
  They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the LORD is upright;
  He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him

(Psalm 92:13-15)