Category: Disciple Making

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Church Life Disciple Making Glory Holy Spirit Kingdom of God Worship

Simon Xing on Worship

Worship – aliane-schwartzhaupt-raeSgX3u3ZA-unsplash

I once asked a good friend, Simon Xing, who lives in China, about worship. He’s a fine worship leader, with wonderful experience to share. What follows is an edited version (for readability) of our conversation.

D: Simon – I have a question…I can use your help. How might you describe different levels of worship?

S: Thanks for your questions. Personally, I would divide it into four levels.

D: Tell me!

S: The first is surface level. Just singing.

D: Makes sense. Please go on.

S: The second is when you are infected by another person’s spirit to worship.

D: Good. Go on….

S: The third is when you can worship anytime in any place.

D: Tell me more about this.

S: Just feel like God is on your side.

(D: That sounds so simple; it’s useful and profound.)

D: Wow! Tell me more.

S: The fourth, also the deepest, for me, I think is when you are the performer standing in front of God. (D: This is what your attention is full of. Nothing else.)

D: Please go on. More!

S: And angels are your audience. They are listening, and maybe even join in.

D: Ahh…I love this!

S: This is a moment of holiness. You don’t care about anything but God. You may cry. You may dance. You may sing in tongues.

D: Ahh….

S: Nothing but holiness.

D: Wonderful!

S: You will not care, in such moments, about timing. No concern or worry. Your focus is single and complete.

D: I never thought of that….

S: You just want to continue and go on – in that environment. This is just my experience.

D: Your experience in such things as this – is valuable.

S: I experienced four levels. Maybe there is a fifth. It may take time….

D: Go on…think out loud.

S: Now I don’t know…. I just hope there would be a fifth one. (D: Simon is getting ready to speak and put into words a deep intuition of his understanding, so far. Holy Spirit whispering to his spirit.)

S: Which may be that God only wants me to worship.

S: He cares about my worship most at such a moment.

D: Go on….

S: And I can feel his holy touch.

S: Not by saints, but by him.

S: (Simon spoke briefly of some Internet difficulties.) He blessed me, sent his deep love.

We said goodbye for now.

D: (This was a fascinating and lovely conversation, with thoughts from an experienced worship leader.)

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Disciple Making Evangelize Gospel Healing Hearing God Holy Spirit Jesus Key Article Kingdom of God Ministry Miracles Success

Disciple-Making on Steroids

Miracle of Jesus Healing a Blind Man

Discipling someone, or several people, can can succeed a lot faster than most of us are used to. I call this “Disciple-Making on Steroids” because this approach is so powerful and fast.

Here’s an example to learn from, that, with variations – depending on your situation, can be done more easily and more quickly than perhaps we have ever seen.

On the street or in a supermarket or other store, or maybe a shopping mall, you see someone who obviously needs healing. Their injury or disability or pain is obvious to you.

So you walk up to them and say, “Hello. My name is ____; it looks to me like you have some” pain, difficulty, injury, disability – whatever it is. Make it easy for them to talk to you about it. Make sure you discover what it is that they cannot do or cannot easily do, because of that particular need of healing.

Ask them if it’s okay for you to pray for them. Most people will be glad for such prayer, if by then you are in rapport. If they are not willing, thank them and let them be.

You can pray for them at a distance if you like.

Keep doing this until you discover someone who is willing to be prayed for.

Pray for them, praying to Jesus, maybe something like, “Dear Jesus, help this person with ____” whatever is needed. They expected you to pray for them, and it’s easy for them to say yes to such a request. Then be sure to quietly but with authority – like when you are talking to a child or a pet and you really mean it – tell that need for healing to be healed. Be sensitive to Holy Spirit and do as seems best.

Ask them to test, to do what they could not easily do or could not do. When they succeed, give thanks to Jesus!

When that does not go well, you can be like Jesus healing the blind man who could see a bit more at first, but needed more healing and said something like, “I see men walking, but they are like trees walking”. So, like Jesus, you pray (and command with authority), healing again.

If you want to do it like Jesus did, and was so successful at healing so often (always), you can do it like this:

Keep testing the healing until it is done. Persist.

Now comes the cool part, disciple making on steroids:

Now that they have been healed, ask them something like, “Would you like to give your life to Jesus and have him as your Lord?” When they say yes, lead them in such a prayer. When they say no, just continue as if they had. Because of what happens next, they probably will.

Take the person who has now been healed and who now has Jesus (or not) in them, and go with them. Find someone else who has an obvious need of healing. Instruct them to pray for and command healing, just as they experienced. Have them heal the person in need. Pray for them and their ministry, and their good success while that do that. Help them out loud as called for and needed.

Now you have someone with you who has been healed, who has come to Jesus (or not, yet). If not yet come to Jesus, ask them if they want to make it official now, and help them accept Jesus as Lord. If not, get their contact information, pray for them, and follow up and give them encouragement and help as you are led with Holy Spirit. Just do the best you can and ask for help through Holy Spirit.

I like to ask for more of Holy Spirit before I pray for someone or minister. My prayer and ministry is more effective when I do this, and I hear God better, too.

.

I believe that this is how Jesus wants us to minister in these times. In these days. The time is short: make disciples, with Holy Spirit, on steroids!

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Conversation with God Disciple Making Discipleship Evangelize Faith Friendship Getting Help Gospel Jesus Joy Kingdom of God Ministry Prayer

There are Multiple Biblical Ways to Salvation

John Benitez – Unsplash

Those of us who use even a somewhat Evangelical approach to salvation have a few prayers that we encourage so that someone can experience salvation.

The Bible takes a different approach. So much so that the most frequent method to attain salvation in the bible is one I’ve never seen or heard of being used with a potential convert. By hindsight, this is a bit astounding.

Yet in real life, it makes perfect sense. And the usual prayers are used for several good reasons.

It really is wise and good that we get to know more consciously about Jesus, and Jesus as our Lord. And that this be expressed clearly in our prayer.

So what is this most frequently mentioned method of achieving salvation in scriptures that is so unused for making converts? It’s actually a method frequently used by the rest of us.

A very common prayer, used by many of us when we need help, when we need and want to be saved. Just seldom used to help someone become a convert to Christianity.

What is this frequently used approach for getting help when most needed, but seldom if ever used to help someone become a convert?

It’s simply this: call on the name of the Lord and you will be saved.

Biblical theology is probably wider and more inclusive than our theologies. God is certainly more broad minded than we are.

And this illustrates very well how some things are taught about to us and for us in scripture from many angles, in many ways. And we tend to focus on one way, sometimes proof-texting, yet even so, we tend to focus on one very good way. But God and scriptures offers more options than we often think about and sometimes more options than we even normally trust or believe in.

Thank you, Lord, for being so broad minded, for thinking differently than we do, for being more loving and generous than we yet are able to grasp.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for giving us eternity to continue to get to know you and your love. We need you. And we need eternity to explore and learn about your love and your depth. Thank you, Lord!

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Disciple Making Evangelize Faith Jesus Preaching Kingdom of God Ministry

Jesus Never Said that He Came to Save You

In him was Life, and Life is the Light of men. (See John 1:4.)

Sometimes the assumptions built into our local traditions help us get things wrong.

Jesus repeatedly said that he came to give us Life. The Life of God (in New Testament Greek: Zoe). Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus say his purpose was to come to get you into heaven.

He repeatedly said that he came to bring you Life, Zoe: the Life of God. Heaven is included.

He came to get Life into you: the Life of God. (Something the first Adam lost.) Relationship restored!

Jesus never said to make converts; he said to make disciples. (Converts are included in making disciples.)

He came so you can start helping to bring heaven to earth – now. Wow! You get to help bring heaven to earth.

Salvation is included, and you will go to heaven. And later in our New Heaven and New Earth, God will literally be our Light that we see by, in the Temple.

Help bring Heaven to earth: preach the Good News of the Kingdom. Heal the sick. Free the bound. Make disciples of all nations, all people groups.

Also, you get to pray for heaven on earth:

8 “Therefore do not be like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him. 9 In this manner, therefore, pray:

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.
10 Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6: 8-10, NKJV

So…my thesis here is that Jesus did not say he came here to get us into heaven, even though he does get us into heaven when we respond with faith. What he repeatedly said was that he came here to give us Life. The Life of God, in us, does result in heaven. And later, into the New Heaven and New Earth.

It’s like that he did not say we were to make converts. He said to make disciples – this should be our focus when evangelizing. Which will result in stronger and more effective Christians than by focusing on making converts. Let’s follow Jesus and do what Jesus said.

Let’s do and minister as Jesus showed, taught, and as he still says to us today in Scripture, with Holy Spirit. Doing as Jesus teaches is better than following local traditions.