Discipleship: An Inward Walk

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John 1:1 -  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same way that Christ was with God and a part of God, so were we. He knew us before he even created us on this earth.

Jeremiah 1:5 - Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.

He created us with a purpose and destiny to live out here on earth. If we seek Him first He will show us how to activate the blessings and joys of kingdom living now. We are sons and daughters of the King and have access to all that He has. 

As a potter sits down to create a masterpiece, I believe he first contemplates what he will create. Does he sit down to create something then decide what it could be used for? Or does he knowingly sit down with a predetermined notion that in order to make a cup he knows every step and angle he must take in order for the clay to be molded into a useful vessel in from which he could drink.

If you try to use a cup as a plate you may be able to force it to work for some instances, but everything will be all jumbled together. You may not even be able to tell the contents apart once they have been mushed together, most likely creating a mess and ruining the meal. If you try to use a cup as a vase you may be able to make it work for some flowers. Most likely, you have to settle for very small flowers and cut them short as to not turn over the cup, still making it work as a “vase” even though you could never put fully bloomed large beautiful flowers in it like you could a vase. So the cup could work, it would just be very inadequate and never live up to what a vase could do, but if a cup is used to hold a liquid for drinking, its purpose is fulfilled. The liquid will flow in and out perfectly. There is no friction, no need to force it because the cup was made for that very purpose alone. It gets to fully embrace what it was created to do.

You often hear you must seek “out” what God has in store for your life and what purpose He has created for you. In that instance we hear the word out, our carnal understanding of the word will automatically go to looking outward. We will look at those closest to us first, then on to anyone and everything our flesh hopes to be. Am I supposed to be a preacher? A teacher? A missionary? We see all over TV of crusades and revivals or hear of new churches being formed or reformation of old. How about something even more worldly powerful, a celebrity, a sports star, a governor, a senator, or even the president of the “free” world? As long as the enemy can convince us to keep looking outward, we will never discover our true purpose or destiny and often never realize all of the blessings God has in store for us. Instead, we tend to stay in a constant state of condemnation by never being able to live up to what our flesh sees others doing. (Their purpose and destiny is not your purpose and destiny.)

Just like the cup, our potter made us for a purpose and destiny to live out here on this earth. He knew us before He even made us. His plan is to prosper us and richly bless us so we can follow out His plan in our lives. Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the LORD, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.

During the days of the disciples, they had Jesus with them for 3 years and each of them had to look outward to learn from him. Once you come to know that Jesus died on the cross, rose again on the third day and took ALL of our transgression upon Him on that cross so that we may have LIFE not only more abundantly but eternally as well, you have the guidance the disciples had, only it’s a constant dwelling inside of you. When we come to fully believe that statement, we are born again and become a new creature, not new in the way of creation but we get a new mind and new nature, one that can hear the father's plan and how that plan coincides with our dreams, aspirations, and the things that give us the most joy. We think that for some reason if we just never make that confession or fully surrender our life, we may still be able to hold onto those dreams we have, or that “fun” person we think that God doesn't see or know. Sometimes the hardest part to realize is that he made those dreams inside you, he made you with that personality, he made you with that skill-set, and he made you purposefully to use all of those traits in order to walk out His plan for your life. The reason we struggle without Him is we have all of the tools already created inside us to walk out our destiny, but he has the blueprint. An architect can't build your dream house with tools alone, he must first have your pre-planned blueprint on what you want it to be.... when the tools and plan come together. 

When we realize that he sent us the holy spirit to dwell on the inside to truly disciple us, we can take our focus off of man, and focus on a relationship with a three part God, that each, individually, will disciple us and unlock our purpose and destiny as we walk in that inward relationship. Proverbs 20:5 - The purposes of a person’s heart are deep waters, but one who has insight draws them out. If you can grasp that, you no longer need to get mad, upset, or discouraged if a pastor, preacher, or person of longtime faith doesn’t come alongside you to pour into or disciple you. Just the same, you don’t have to rely on someone to establish that relationship for you. You don’t have someone every Wednesday and Sunday teaching you about your family and friends; you know them each through a personal relationship. Once you have made the confession of faith that Christ is who He says He is and done what He says He done, start looking inward to him for that development, let the renewal of your mind connect with the spirit to lead you to unlock your destiny and purpose as you start a beautiful ever growing relationship with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

- Scott Robinson (contact Scott @ scott.robinson@arccenters.com)