Obedience-based Discipleship

  

        Hello everybody, my name is Dean Davis, and this is “Multiply,” the podcast that provides a word of encouragement for Village Church Planters.  

Once a person receives Christ as Lord and Savior, when a person has been born again and, by God’s grace, becomes a child of God, he or she has some questions: “What is next?  What is coming?  What is this new life in Christ going to be like? Sometimes new believers find very good answers to these questions.  Sometimes they do not.  

Do you remember asking questions like these? Many new Christians don’t ask God to answer their questions. They don’t even ask their Christian friends, “What is next for me now that I have met Christ?” They ask themselves these questions, and often the best answer they come up with is “I don’t know.”  The sad thing is that if new believers don’t find out what God wants their new life to be like, they will often go back to their old way of living. 

But the word of God has answers for the new believer’s questions. The next step for a new believer is to learn to obey Jesus’ commandments. 

Jesus said in John 14:15, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Our Lord emphasizes this teaching a few verses later, saying, “Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them. Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.” As a disciple maker, teach new believers to obey Jesus and experience the love of the Father. 

The new believer shows his love for Jesus by obeying his commandments. The act of obeying Jesus’ commands solidifies the love that new believers have for God.  When we intentionally obey Jesus, we experience the love, joy, and warmth of God’s presence. This is powerful and liberating. Experiencing the presence of God by obeying his commandments brings joy and peace. Obeying Jesus brings blessing to the obedient one and to his or her family and friends. 

But new believes do not know this. They need to be taught to obey all that Jesus commanded.  This was our Lord’s final instruction to his disciples. He told us to go to all nations and make disciples “teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” We are to make disciples by teaching people to obey Jesus. This way of making disciples is called “obedience-based discipleship.”  Discipleship is not primarily about knowing new ideas or even about having spiritual experiences. Being a disciple of Jesus is first and foremost about obeying him. It is through that obedience that we honor God with our love, and we experience his presence in new and meaningful ways as he makes his home with us. 

This has been “Multiply,” and I’m Dean Davis asking, “Who will you share this encouraging word with today? 

#EncouragementForVillageChurchPlanters #Obedience-basedDiscipleship