The Discipleship PathwayNäide

Pathway Step Five: Deploy

Why doesn’t Jesus take us straight to heaven after we become His disciples?

Once we have DISCOVERED the love of God, been DELIVERED from our life BC and born again, become DEVOTED to the Word, worship, and one another, and DEVELOPED as disciples by imitating our Savior more and more each day . . . what’s left to do?

The answer is found in the instructions Jesus gave His followers after the resurrection proved once and for all that He was who He said He was—the Son of God. Jesus gathered his remaining disciples. At this point, that was eleven men. And he told them to “go and make disciples.”

The final step on the Discipleship Pathway is to be DEPLOYED—to go and make disciples.

Jesus didn’t say, “go and build a bunch of churches,” or, “go and attend church every Sunday.” Because if you build churches, you may or may not end up with disciples. But if you make disciples, you will always end up with gatherings in His name—gatherings that will continue to grow as they “go and make disciples.”

It’s what happened in the early church. What started with eleven men—barely enough to make a soccer team—has grown exponentially because those eleven men followed Jesus’ instructions to go and multiply!

Being a Jesus follower is not a spectator sport. We are meant to pull on our jerseys and get in the game. The growth of His church is not finished. In fact, as we read in Luke 10:2, “the harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.”

Are you willing to be a worker?

If you are, would you set an alarm for 10:02 a.m. tomorrow? There is a global movement of prayer by people who are committed to remembering that verse and being God’s harvest workers. When your alarm goes off, look around at where you are and who you’re with. That is your field! Go to work!

Take the final step in the Discipleship Pathway. Be DEPLOYED as a disciple who makes disciples! Invite others to walk the Discipleship Pathway with you—to DISCOVER the love of God, to be DELIVERED from sin, to become DEVOTED followers, to DEVELOP over time, and to be DEPLOYED to their own harvest fields.

Now . . . go! “Go and make disciples.”

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