Disciples Of Jesus Christ - What It Takes To Be One

A disciple is one who is willing to follow and learn from Jesus Christ; one who is ready to learn his physical attributes and aspire to be endued with his spiritual qualities as well.
Discipleship is about learning from him and transmitting that which you have learnt from him to those you are going to raise.

Christianity would be incomplete if the early disciples like Simon Peter, Andrew, James the son of Zebedee, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Thomas, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus and Thaddeus did not follow Christ religiously and carry out ‘The Great Commission’.

They stayed with and learned from the master: they imbibed his teachings and transmitted all he taught them to the next generations of believers to ensure there was continuity.

In order for one to be a good disciple, one needs to have the following qualities:
1. Willingness to learn: One must be willing to learn from Christ himself or from those who have been disciples themselves. One must be prepared to study the word of God at all times and put on the qualities of the master as written down therein.

2. Obedience: he must be ready to be obedient to the authority of God, Christ and the leaders of the church. Anyone who is not ready to obey established authorities is not ready to be a disciple.

3. Persecution: he should be ready to face persecution as well because the master made it clear that his followers must be ready to face persecution just as he did since a servant cannot be greater than his master.

4. Patience: Such a person must be patient because Christ demonstrated his strength by being patient.

5. Love: One great attribute of Jesus was his love and compassion for humanity and the dying soul. He’s always moved to compassion at the suffering of man and is always ready to do something to alleviate human suffering and pain.

6. Faith: A disciple must have faith in his master; he must believe in the master’s ability to meet his needs, take care of him and protect him. He must believe that no matter the circumstances the master is always there to answer him whenever he called.

7. Zeal: Such a person must also have the zeal and hunger to be like his master. Peter was one such example who kept striving to be like Jesus Christ; he even asked Christ to invite him to walk on the water like himself.

8. Raise others: Christ instructed Peter to take care of the sheep. He also told the disciples to teach all nations in his name. His followers should therefore be willing not only to teach others, but to also to support them in the Lord.

As one who wants to be a disciple of the Lord, are you ready to carry the cross that he carried? Are you ready to learn from him and carry out the great commission? Think about what it takes to be one and make up your mind to follow the master to the end.

6 Steps To Christian Growth

Giving one’s life to Jesus Christ is the best thing that could happen to anybody especially in this world which is polluted with sin, failure, diseases, human imperfections, sorrow, etc. It is expected that having given one’s life to Christ one should think of how to grow as Christian life is progressive.

The steps to follow as one desires to grow in Christ include:
1. Believe: This is the first step you should take if you desire a lasting relationship with Christ and you also wish to keep growing. You have to first believe in Jesus Christ and the work of salvation he accomplished on the cross of Calvary. Believe he is able to forgive your sins and reconcile you to God Almighty (John 1:12, Romans 10:9-11).

2. Accept Jesus: The next stage of your growth is to accept Jesus Christ as your personal saviour and Lord. Invite him with your own mouth to come and take lordship over your life (say this invitation either loudly or silently). Wilfully surrender to him the permission to take full authority over your life.

3. Confess your sins: Sincerely tell him the kind of person you have been and the type of life you have lived. He knows you very well, so tell him the truth about yourself and your sinful life and ask him to totally forgive your sins. He loves you and actually came to this earth because of you. So if you open up to him and don’t try to deceive him (he want to know how sincere you are) he will come into your life, cleanse you from your sins and make you a better person.

4. Be baptized: Jesus left an example for us by being baptized in water himself. He expects every of his true follower to also be baptized as a way of symbolizing their publicly identifying with him, as well as a way of showing that one has died to sin and resurrected with Jesus. Apart from being baptized in water one should also seek to be baptized in the Holy Ghost as this is a way of being empowered for God’s work (Matt.28:19, Mark 16:16, Acts 1:8).

5. Go closer: You need to go closer to the Lord by building your prayer life (learn how to pray), study your bible daily and apply it to your life, and learn to worship the Lord and praise his name regularly. This helps to increase your fellowship with him.

6. Give yourself: Finally, try and give much of yourself into God’s work; invest your time, talent, money, energy, intellect, etc into his work to ensure that God’s work moves forward. Take time to tell someone else about the love of Jesus and his redemptive work on Calvary. This brings joy to God as you help win souls into his kingdom and save men from the danger of hell fire. It also gives you joy as you see yourself being used of God to save others.

God’s hands are open to receive you and he appreciates every little effort you make in order to establish a lasting relationship with him. He is also ready to bless you and multiply every resource you invest into his kingdom – He is such a loving, faithful and appreciative God.
If you are not yet born again and you wish to have Jesus take control of your life, why not