Deadset discipleship will never do

Discipleship approaches seem to have waned or at least changed markedly in the past decade or so.  I come to this via an obvious personal crisis, not of faith, but of discipleship, and if we’re honest, us ministers, we arrive or remain at this point when we arrive at or remain in our professionalism.  God’s calling us back.

“If we are to be disciples of Jesus, we must be made disciples supernaturally; as long as we have the deadset purpose of being disciples we may be sure we are not.”
—Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, September 25.

We have all arrived at this point on countless occasions, frustrated by a ‘faith’ that seeks to do what only God can do by the “super-natural grace of God.”  In other words, by our ‘works’ of trying hard to be disciples, we get it wrong ever time. 

In the simplest arrangement of thought, it is faith done by works.

It never works, and it always leads to frustration.  “But I’m trying so hard, Lord, can’t you see the effort I’m putting in, I’m doing everything I can, and still nothing!”

Chambers further clarifies this thought: “God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally...”

God is calling us at every instant to come back to peace, to that neutral place where divine grace can work from; where the divine grace can ‘task’ the individual.

“God does not ask us to do the things that are easy to us naturally; He only asks us to do the things we are perfectly fitted to do by His grace, and the cross will come along that line always.”
—The Fuller Chambers Quote

Frustration ought to be the clue and the cue to stop.

Frustration ought to be the point at which we say, “I’m departing from discipleship here, aren’t I, Lord?”  We may discern a very quiet, “Yes, my son/daughter.   Yes, you are.  Come back to the cross.”

We’re of no use to God unless we walk humbly with our Lord.

Not just Creator God, not just Saviour and King God, but LORD God, our Master, who instructs us and demands our obedience IF we are to be IN the divine.

The simplistic faith thwarts the proud, and it rewards the humble, because God’s power can only work through the latter.

The less we bring to God, the more God will say, ‘Yes, now I’m ready to use you.”

The less of our own abilities, achievements, and altruism (virtue signalling) we bring to the altar, the more God will elevate the truer spiritual gifts that are abundant in each of us for divine glory.

This is a crushing blow to our egos, and God won’t hesitate to meet us every time around the mountain with a self-generated annoyance.  This circumambulation akin to the Israelites circling the desert 40 years is a phenomenon so many of us know all too well.

First decouple from the self, and simply ‘BE’ before your Lord.  THEN God may, at divine convenience (as it should be), from the supernatural, use you powerfully.