Lena's Discipleship Journalin' to John Chapter 1

Think about this; Is there anything in the universe accomplished without some sort of communication? Everything made, every relationship had, every discovery sought out, everything created involves words and actions that come from communicated words. Words have forever framed our world. The one before us, during us and after us. The words of our world must be governed to come in alignment with God’s words if we want to be united with true purpose.
God is Supreme. We can go so many directions in life, yet every inward and outward need we have will always be pointing us to God Most High, Our Creator, lover, friend, Every empty feeling, every mistake, every offense, every tragedy etc, will lead us to Him, if we are in tune, that’s what we’ll see and know.
So who is John? John is an example of every Born Again Believer Evangel. Every messenger who has submitted their life’s work to the purposes of God. John means, “Jehovah is Gracious”. He prepared the way for others to expect to see the Lord!
Seeing is imperative. You might say, aren’t we supposed to believe in what we do not see? Yes we are, but we have to have eternal spiritual vision in what we do not see, that we may apply our faith solidly, concretely.
How does God come and work in earth? He is embodied in people. Emmanuel, God is with us. Christ is in us. God was in Jesus, a man, who came to earth so you and I could be born again and filled with His Holy Spirit, so He’d be alive in so many places at once and able to do His works among us, using us as He did John to prepare the way of the coming of the same Lord to anyone else who would believe all over the earth.
How many people each day do you tell about the Light that is coming to them? The scripture says, Arise shine for thy light has come and the glory of the Lord has risen on you. Gross darkness will cover the earth, but is us a Light shines in that darkness! You are a Light for God in the earth. Light dispels the hidden workings of darkness. Light brings life to what would otherwise be dead. Light brings opportunity for truth to be revealed and accepted.
Is your lifestyle pointing the way to God, or the way of worldly success, or to a you centered universe, where what is most apparent are your problems and maladies? When people see you, who do they see you representing?
Are you humble? Willing to represent another? Willingness shows up when one is willing to change to better represent an important one. Value and importance is evidence in what we are willing to change for. God loves us if we do not ever change, but we are not inside of close fellowship and service with Him, nor would we be His representatives, for those who represent Him are like Him, squelching out any traces of independent rebellion in self.
Who are you? Are people asking who you are? Who you serve? Are they asking because of the light they see? Can they follow your life and get somewhere with God as their Father?
Do you recognize the Lord when you see Him?
Some say, I know the Lord. How well do you know Him? Do you know what He likes, what He desires, what He plans for you, for others, for the world? Do you have His thoughts going in and out of your head? Do you act as He would act in situations? Are you One with Him or on the journey of Oneness with Him? Are you in hot and heavy pursuit of His will and the execution of His plans? We’re not speaking of casual, whenever I get to it seeking. We’re speaking of a love that drives you for more. Knowing is an intimate term, I become Him, as He overcomes me.
To say, “Oh yeah, I know Jesus”, is not truth, if you know of Him in a very superficial and casual way. We’re pointing the way to an intimate covenantally committed relationship with God Most High.
Whenever one truly sees the Lord, they are compelled by the drawing of the Holy Spirit towards their human spirit to follow Him, to follow His. To forsake the old for the new, to lay down old lifestyles for new lifestyles, as a living sacrifice, to leave the past behind, to count the high cost and pay for it with life long service and relationship that does not end.
“Come be my disciple”... When asked, are you a disciple? How do you respond? Do you automatically answer yes? Is the answer based on intention or wishful thinking or a reality of the new life practices of your day to day living?
Do you understand clearly and are you wiling to hear the Biblical definition and measure your actions to it? What is a disciple? The root of the word is discipline. Ew boy, no one likes that word. Yet if we don’t learn to love that word we’ll never make it in a life of committed discipleship. There’s another tricky word, “commitment”, discipleship takes commitment. That means for life. God does not make commitments as we do, He is covenantal, He makes life long covenants. If He made the kinds of commitments we do with a back door way out after a certain trial time occurs, we’d be standing on rocky ground. He made covenant with man. He laid His life down for behaviors He did not agree with. He died for people who outright rejected Him! His love endures forever. Disciples embrace a lifelong love relationship that operates like this. No one deserves what is given, yet it is given anyways, because of a great love for the one who is working His work through us and in us.
The day of a disciple includes actions like this…
~ Prayer, which is communication with God. In order to more effectively communicate with God, we must learn how He likes to communicate, what He thinks about things, we get to know His will.
Due to our human training, we probably won’t be able to know that by prayer alone. We must get to know Him through His word.
~So we study His words daily. Thus we are spiritually fed and are staying nourished and kept alive unto God spiritually speaking, plus we are understanding how He thinks, hoe He creates, what He requires, who He loves etc.
There is more than the mere reading of His words to know who He is though. One must dig into the word like one searching for a treasure. This takes time, because the treasure is well worth the finding. Many stop or pause or never go beyond this point, for time is used in the hands of our enemy. If we don’t purpose to give it to God first, we’ll never seem to have enough to even give Him any leftovers. He does not want leftovers; though many think He’ll take whatever He can get. To a point He may at the first part of building a relationship with us, but for the most part I don’t believe an improper half-given offering would be appropriate to give an ever living Most God who is Creator of the Universe. I think the enemy would like us to believe we can serve him and then ourselves and believe that God is so gracious to be fine with being last on our list, if He even makes it on our daily lists. I believe this to be a deception we must be on guard of. That’s like telling God He can have a ride, but He gets the rumble seat way out in the back!
~Worship time is how we get inside of the very heart of God. How can one who is intimately involved with Him skip over this part of fellowship with Him? Time, that’d be why. Yet worship is the lot of the disciple. It’s not an option.
~Fellowship is another. Commitment to people, such as family, people in the workplace, the church, and the outer community and world are areas that daily discipleship can influence and is what He made disciples to be influencers in.
Regular is the word. Intermittent stinks with God. It is not incense in His nostrils. Commitment means it takes a top priority spot on our lists of daily activities. We cannot only use words to say it is important, we show it is by the actions we play out. Believe me, when you decide to show it is your new order of living, you’ll have every opportunity from heaven, earth and under the earth, to be tested on it.
Is time with and for God more important than watching a special TV show? Is it more important than scheduling other things first rather than in His place?
I remember thinking that if I wasn’t doing anything else I’d be more involved in extra church functions. I already lived in such a way as to not be doing anything else on Sunday’s and Wednesdays, but when I became more involved I realized it took commitment and reprioritization. It was not hard really, it just took an adjusted mind change, one I alone had to make. I’ve found in walking deeper on the road of discipleship that certain tings in life had no place with all God was asking of me. As I look back I’m so thankful that He’s been able to be filled fuller in me than the things the world was wanting to fill my life full of. I’d said I was a disciple, but of course did not fully understand a disciple will purposely discipline the arrangement of their life to fit God’s vision for them.
God does not want to be fit into our lives. He wants to be our life. What other purpose can we live for? We do so many things accomplishing very little of any real value. Eternity is the most valuable investment one can make. Both yours and others. There’s truly nothing else to rearrange and live for.
God knows you. Now it’s your move to come towards Him and fill in the space to pursue knowing Him more. Only in knowing Him can He truly be Lord. If we are not doing what He says, then He is not Lord and we are not disciples. Don’t be deceived. The alarms are sounding, time to awaken, time to get up and shine, shine, shine.
This is where heaven and earth will come together, in honest evaluation and adjustment of position in relationship to Him.