Go and make disciples

A short time ago my wife Anne had a vision of fields ripe for harvest. Beyond the fields she could see the sun rising in the morning sky. As she prayed her sense was that the Lord might be saying that He was shining His glory on the landscape and opening our eyes to see the many that are waiting and ready to hear and receive the gospel of Jesus Christ. The call to go and make disciples is the mandate for the church. From the great commission in Matthew 28 onwards, our calling is to make disciples of all nations. What a mandate!

When Jesus stands by the lake and calls His first disciples, they leave everything to follow Him (Mark 1:16– 20): their nets, their families, the people they are working with. There is something about this man Jesus that calls for their total abandonment to Him. Being true disciples and making true disciples starts here, with an encounter and call to run after Jesus and know Him and prioritise His call over and above everything and everyone else. 

Interestingly, as Philip encounters Jesus, he goes at once to Nathanael to bring him to the Messiah (John 1:45). Philip’s passion is for others to meet the Messiah; his heart like the Samaritan woman at the well burns to introduce others to Christ (John 4). There is so much urgency and love in them that they have to respond by involving, inviting and including others. This is so challenging – do we realise how incredible it is to come to the one who has the words of eternal life? What a privilege it is to be part of a family of believers. There should be no such thing as solitary Christianity.

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Part of our discipleship is learning to bring the little we have to Jesus. Consider Andrew bringing the boy’s five small barley loaves and two small fish in John 6:8 – 9; it is nothing in human terms, but when it is put into the hands of God, it feeds thousands. I love the fact that Jesus uses the disciples to distribute the food – He partners with us to bring forth plenty from our hands. You may not feel that you have much, but offer it to the king and watch Him, by His Spirit, move powerfully.

The call is for true disciples to emerge, not those with lukewarm faith but those who hunger and thirst for Him above everything. The eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him (2 Chronicles 16:9). Do we long for people to know Him and have their lives transformed by His death and resurrection? We pray, ​“Lord, let your love and urgency burn in our hearts by the power of your Spirit.” It’s a hard call to surrender everything and to trust Him to use us with what we have in our hands. However, imagine if we began to step out and see the greatest harvest we have seen. Let’s not be those who back down, lie down or get watered down but those who take a stand for Jesus and follow Him wherever He calls us to go.