What does discipling look like?

Lately there has been a lot of talk about discipling and what it should look like.
I am here to tell you that if you're looking for answers from me then your on the wrong blog.
You see discipling can look different and be different between each believer. God doesn't have a one size fits all way of discipling another. That is something unique. Given to each believer as he or she has need. Each of us has been given certain gifts in order to serve the body. We are all different parts of the body.
In how the Lord has worked through me all I can say is I don't see all the people I had the chance to minister to that often anymore. If not at all.
I want to present how the Lord used me in my walk.
Back in 1997 when I owned a Fitness Center in Texas the Lord brought in a new believer. He was just starting college and wanting to exercise. So he joined me in exercising everyday. We worked out for bodybuilding and strength training sessions. During those times I just kept encouraging him to lift more weight and showed him the right way to workout.
We both helped each other as he spotted for me when I was lifting and I would do the same. We shared the burden of helping one another. Also during the many months I worked out with him I
would share with him what I was learning about the Lord. We both went to different churches. I didn't try to talk him into coming to where I was going. I just talked with him about Jesus and His work.
After about 6 months or so this young man just stopped coming in the gym. He never came to let me know he was going to quit. Then one day I saw his truck at my competitions place. Anyway I just learned to let it go as I knew there was nothing I did.
In 2000 I sold the gym. When I did that I stopped working out. Then in 2001 I went back to the gym and started working out with a young man I was working with. One morning around 5 A.M. when we walked into the gym, there was the young man who years earlier I helped out. I didn't say anything and just went to workout. Then the young man came to me and spoke.
The words that he said was, " Steve how is going?, I just want to let you know how much I appreciated you taking the time to talk with me about the Lord. I've been wanting to tell you that I remember everything you told me and that I never forgot it. It helped grow so much. Thank you!"
Man that floored me. In a good way. I haven't seen this young man in years and always wondered what had happened and then the Lord brought him back into my life long enough to let me know that all was well.
What did I do during those times spent with him? Discipleship 101! No, books, no curriculim just talking about Christ.
Now another story will continue with the other young man I was working with and going to the gym with. He was not a believer. Yet he still listened to every word I spoke to him about Jesus.
I told him about the Lord inside and out. Yet he never became a convert. Because God wasn't ready for him. Years later after I had quit my job I seen him at where I used to live. He had since divorced his wife and was living with an ex-coworker of ours. So what happened during the time I worked with him? Discipleship by planting a word. Though I may never know if that word took, I still had the opportunity to present the gospel to him everyday we worked out together. He listened and never got mad.
There were countless other believers and non believers who lived in our neighborhood who would just come by our house for prayer and to talk. Because they knew about our walk with Christ. I have since found some of whom are now believers.
What happened during those times? Discipleship 101.
As recently as last year I had the opportunity to minister to a family at the local mobile home park. We would meet at their home every Thursday. Sometimes they would be drunk. They would be smoking cigarettes and cussing. Yet I didn't let that deter me. We held bible studies in the home. In November they moved. They moved over two hours away. Yet they still call me and when they are in town they come by my house to visit. What happened during my time of being with them? Discipleship 101.
Also in August of last year there was a gentleman who came to the mobile home park. He was trying to get away from the drug scene. In time he found an apartment. I and some others were able to help get him furnishings for his home. I and one other would go to his place on Thursdays and present the word. A few months ago he went back into the life he left and we have lost contact with him. But again what happened during the time we did spend with him? Discipleship 101.
Where I am going with this is though we may never see the fruit, in the end God will get the glory. You may have someone in your life for along time or it may be for a short time.
So discipling may be long term or it may be short term. It may be by serving, praying or teaching.
It takes on different forms for each task. The point is as long as Jesus is being proclaimed while you are with whomever it may be you are discipling.
My friend over at www.christgloryalone.blogspot.com has a wonderful ministry continuing at the mobile home park I mentioned above. He is discipling while evangelizing.
Checkout his wife's blog www.womanonthevine.blogspot.com to see some of the things going on.
Again in that type of atmosphere you may only have as little as one day to make an impact in someones life.
The idea is to take advantage of what the Lord is giving. He may have you ministering for along time to many or one. Or He may take them out of your life quickly.
The fruit will produce if the seed is planted.
You may never see the produce of your discipling. Then again the Lord may give you an opportunity to see the fruit later. The key is to not lose heart and do not get stuck thinking there is only one way to disciple people.
They will know if you show the love of the Father to them!

Do we still pray in our meetings and at home?

The Lord is continuing to bring me back to the place of being still and waiting. During this time He has reminded me of the importance of constant prayer and communication with HIM.
In my walk through the years I was taught that prayer is more than us talking about our problems to God. Or more than us doing all the talking and then just walking away as if we don't care about what God wants to say.
The last two weeks have been some of the best times I have had with the Lord as He is continuing to place His peace in my heart. I have been spending more time praying and listening.
The morning times is some of the best times I have, knowing I will be able to be with the Lord without distractions. I am always the first one up in my family. So I try to spend that time with God in praise and prayer.
The other day I was watching a Christian show and they were talking about prayer. They used the scripture out of James as one of their examples.
"The effective, fervant prayer of a righteous man avails much." James 5:16b.
The definition of fervant is ; extremely hot glowing, emotion or zeal.
You see in Titus it says we are to be zealous for the work of God. And here in James the word is saying we are to be zealous in our prayer life also.
How many of us spend our time in prayer giving God the "oh wo is me" type of prayers?
Man how would you like to be the one hearing everyones negative down troddened issues all the time?
We need to be effectively fervant in our prayers. Thanking God and praising Him. Then when we pray focus on what He wants from us. He knows what we need before we ask. In Phillipians it says to be anxious for nothing. So why do we think we should be begging God for something?
We need to be giving Him our best. Are you sick ? Than seek Him and ask Him for healing. Have faith to know He is hearing your prayers. Have faith that He is willing to heal.
Don't doubt.
What if you don't know what to pray? Well in Romans 8:26 the word says that the spirit intercedes for us with groanings for we know not what to pray in our weakness. So you see again He provides a way for our prayers to be presented even when we don't know what to say.
Has He put something on your heart to pray about? Then pray right then. Don't wait to ask someone to pray with you. We have an advocate in heaven we don't need others to help us pray all the time. Granted there are times when we are to pray with others, but don't hesitate to pray immediately if God puts something on your heart. You may be the one who He wants to use.
What if an ambulance is called out of the station for an emergency and the driver says well I'll wait until tomorrow when the other workers are here and they can help too? That won't happen and it shouldn't happen in our time of praying for one another.
Jesus says we are not to "lose heart" when we pray. Luke 18:1. That goes back to that oh wo is me again. Don't get down and feel like you have already lost the battle before you give it to the Lord.
Man if we could just get it through our thick flesh that all things are possible through God and if we had faith like a mustard seed. What could happen?
God also doesn't need us to make up excuses why He hasn't answered a prayer. Oh well it is appointed once for man to die and then the judgement. Yes it is, but He can still heal. He can still provide. He can still do all things.
We are to pray without ceasing. 1 Thessolonians 5:17. If you have something on your heart don't stop praying until you feel the burden lifted.
I can't tell you how many times I have had to pray until I felt a peace about something.
Please when you have your time of meeting with one another don't miss the opportunity to pray in a group setting. Our meetings need to be prayer meetings just as much or more than teaching meetings. Acts 1:14
Praying to the Lord is a command. Jesus said, when you pray! Not if you pray.
We must be about the work of the Lord. This includes praying for the saints. The saints are all who walk this earth and are believers.
The saints are not dead people. We don't pray to dead people. Jesus is alive!
We must pray for one another daily.
Please take the time to listen to God when you are praying. He may give you an answer immediately or it may be in time. Yet do we really take time to listen? Remember Jesus said to not lose heart. So if you don't get an answer in your timing don't give up!
If we spent all of our days talking and never listening to those we interact with how far would we get in life?
God still speaks today. He may use scripture, a billboard, or other people etc.
Be ready to listen. Then test the word with scripture.
More to come!

A word re-revealed to me.

This morning my wife and I were speaking about something she dreamt about. It was a dream she feels from God. I agreed as the scripture the Lord spoke to her was one the Lord has given me a lot in my life.
"Be still and know I am God" Psalm 46:10
This goes along way with me. Especially as of late. I have been really trying to stay focused on what the Lord has for me and my family. A lot has changed in the last year and has really changed in the last 6 months.
So much so that I am not ministering where I once was a few months ago. All because the Lord has different plans for me. He allowed me to work with some wonderful men and women of God in the past few years and now it is time to move on again.
As I stated in earlier post this move doesn't mean me leaving my city and going to live somewhere else. No it all has to do with stopping everything in a sense and waiting on Him again.
Sometimes we can get all caught up in a work that was started by the Lord and then throughout the days He is no longer in it. Then it just becomes another situation where nothing seems to be going right. Or if it is still going the joy is not there anymore.
That is a time when we need to be still and listen. God has done this to me many many times in my life. I am no exception when it comes to walking with God. I just know how He deals with me.
My life is not my own and I don't ever want to live it as if it is again.
I have posted many things on this blog in the last six months. Especially the way the church meets and how the leadership structure is wrong in the modern church.
That has not changed. I am although going into a different direction. As I feel inadequate to blog about those topics and I have fellow Christian family who are better equipped for those subjects.
So I again would recommend any number of the blogs I have listed on the side of this blog if you want to learn more on the ecclesia.
My heart has always been toward the working of the Holy Spirit, prayer and the ministering of the word.
In recent months I have done some, but not all. I also have gotten side tracked and ran with things I wasn't ordained by God to do.
I also have been very critical in the way I view how the modern preachers all hang their teeth on what other modern preachers are saying.
Again not to say we shouldn't be listening or learning off one another. Though with that being said, we should also not take everything that is being said by others as the spoken word of God.
So if you ask or have asked what is wrong with reading and learning from other authors?
I shall say nothing is wrong with it at all. Except when people try to use it as the very word of God and ignore the written word.
That is where I am coming from in all saying these things.
Also it has been asked what is wrong with some pastors/teachers giving the sheep study questions to take home and work on during the week with the family members.
Which I shall say nothing is wrong as it sounds like a good thing. Though I never clarified it that way before. The area where I see a problem is that "can" make someone lazy. In some cases to where the thing that is meant to help can turn into a hinderance.
There comes a time when a child has to take the training wheels off the bike in order to learn how to balance and ride it on their own.
You see we have good intentions, but sometimes those good intentions can get in the way of what God is doing in someones life.
So please forgive me as I know I have come off pretty hard on this blog in the past few months.
I only do so to stir things up.
I have tried to do write things with clarity and concern along with trying to do it without sounding harsh. Yet my words I type don't match up with how I am feeling.
I have a passionate heart for the things of God and it shows in how I deal with people.
For too long there has been a passive movement in the body which in turn makes most people think you aren't using enough grace. When bringing up issues.
I would hate to think of how people would handle Paul or Jesus if they were to walk into some of our meetings today. Could tables be turned over? Would Paul rebuke us as he did Peter?
You see for the sake of getting our heads out of the sand there sometimes needs to be a little reality check.
In saying all of this I have so much love for the body of Christ.
It has been and always will be my mission to try and exhort, stir and build up people in anyway possible. We have to be sargents at times as well as privates.
This walk we are in can cost lives. We can be the best teacher and yet never get the truth to become reality. We can be the best servant and yet fail to see that we are doing too much.
Now I suppose the conclusion of this.
I have been running this race for along time. Not as long as some, but still along time. It started when I was 5 years old and I am now approaching 42.
I am still learning also. I suppose the day I stop learning is the day the Lord shows up at my doorstep to take me home.
The bottomline is we are all in this together and we all must be willing to put up with one another.
How many of us who had brothers and sisters always got along with our siblings?
Yet the main thing was no matter how often we ruffled each others feathers we still end up loving one another.
Our walk is not about being a Catholic, Baptist, Church of Christ you name it.
No our walk is about seeking God while He may be found. Being the one that when the end comes we can hear "Well done good and faithful servant."
So can I hear an amen?
As I am going to be doing things different again. I got off track in some areas and the Lord is pushing back into the middle ground.
I have not heard the words "Be still and know I am God" in a while.
So I am going to do just that.
Waiting on Him while being still.