For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
Galatians 5:14 NASB2020
God tells us what is good. God tells us what to avoid. Not because we’re going to be judged on the balance sheet of our deeds, but because He loves us, He teaches us what is best for ourselves and everyone else. The commandments of God are His way of being a loving Father who shepherds His children into full maturity in the Spirit.
I like to say that the easiest way to be a disciple is to trust, listen and obey. Trust God wholeheartedly. He is infallible. He is perfectly righteous and holy and He does all things well. If you struggle with doubt and unbelief, ask God to increase your faith. He will answer that prayer!
Listen to God. The Scriptures record what God has said to and through humans in ages past. God doesn’t change, that’s not in His nature. Listen to the voice of God. Train your spiritual ears to discern what the Holy Spirit is saying. This is where you need to be in fellowship with other believers that hear God’s voice. Then, you can share what each of you is hearing and if it lines up with God’s heart and the written Word and you are in agreement, then you know that you are hearing accurately.
Just yesterday, I was on a call with other disciple makers in my region. One of them was a pastor of a church who was leading his congregation into the patterns of disciple making movements. I heard a word for him. The word was replant. He confirmed that in prayer meetings with his church that word had come up twice recently. God always confirms what He says with two or more witnesses. Trust God, listen to His voice and obey.
Obeying God when He speaks to you is the act of faith that pleases God and enables God’s will to be done on Earth as it is in Heaven. We are the ones who determine whether or not God’s will is done on Earth. We each have an individual responsibility to be led by the Spirit and walk in obedience.
The past few months, the Lord has been speaking to me about starting a group. We use small groups to train up disciplemakers. There are people in my life who God is speaking to currently about going all in with following Jesus. I’ve met with them individually. They are all people I know and love. Today, we start by gathering together in a home with the express purpose of growing to full maturity in Christ.
How do we do that?
We start with love. We start with the first commandment and we put it into practice. We will continue practicing this commandment to love, and I’m trusting that the Holy Spirit will guide us the rest of the way.
I encourage you to build up the people in your sphere of influence. If we each do our own special work, the Spirit will lead us into the fullness of Christ.
Lord, open our eyes and our hearts to the people that You want us to walk in unity of the Spirit with and give us words of encouragement for each other. In Your Name we pray. Amen.
Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.
Ephesians 4:11-13 NLT