Discipleship - Simplified & Personalized

Imagine hiking an area of the northern Rockies known for its grizzly bear population. Your guide is carrying several bear deterrents including bear spray and a large caliber handgun. You’re armed with a camera, a hiking pole, a water bottle, and a backpack. As your guide points to multiple signs of recent grizzly activity, your thoughts surge toward a potential bear attack and various survival tactics –

·      Which way would I run?

·      Is there a tree to climb?

·      Should I hide?

·      Perhaps swim?

Then you remember a few grizzly statistics that you read before leaving the lodge:

·      Usian Bolt ran 28 mph on his best day. The average grizzly can run 35 mph.

·      The average grizzly is a much better and faster climber than you.

·      To find prey, grizzlies rely on their sense of smell, which is 2100 times better than a human’s and 7 times better than a bloodhound’s.

·      Humans generally swim 2-3 mph. The average grizzly can swim 6 mph.

At some point, you conclude that your best survival tactics, apart from your guide, are no match for a grizzly. Your best strategy for surviving a grizzly encounter on this hike is to be near your guide. At that point, every tactic is determined by the strategy of staying near the guide, avoiding unintentional distance from him, and trusting him to protect you.

And so, it is with spiritual warfare and discipleship.

The Bible says that we have an enemy who comes to steal, kill, and destroy. He roams around like a lion (or perhaps a grizzly) looking for prey. No human is any match for him or even the slightest of his minions. Alone, we are easy prey. When we stray from Jesus, we are woefully outmatched and vulnerable.

Yet, when we abide in Jesus, and he abides in us, our enemies are woefully outmatched. Read Revelation 19. Jesus, and only Jesus, will defeat the Antichrist, his armies, and Satan – without breaking a sweat! He is the only one capable of protecting us within spiritual warfare.

Romans 8:37 says,

“In all things we are more than conquerors THROUGH HIM WHO LOVES US.”

Sun Tzu, an undefeated Chinese General for 40 years (a couple hundred years B.C.), said,

“Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.”

Sun Tzu also said,

“If you know the enemy, and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.”

Perhaps the American church has made us vulnerable and weak with our continual emphasis on tactics without clear strategy. We encourage everyone to read Scripture every morning, pray every night, read the Bible in a year, attend Bible study or small group, worship… (to engage in solid tactics) without a clear overarching strategy or any real consideration of how a specific individual may struggle or get distracted from such a strategy.

“Abide in me, and I in you.

As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine,

neither can you, unless you abide in me.

I am the vine; you are the branches.

Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit,

for apart from me you can do nothing.”

John 15:4-5

As followers of Christ, our strategy should always be rooted in staying close to Jesus. Discipleship, therefore, should be a process of continually repositioning ourselves physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually to be close enough to hear God speak to us, then to discern that what we are hearing or sensing is God speaking to us, to trust him, to act on his word, and to trust him to be with us as we do. That’s our strategy.

The spiritual disciplines are the tactics that we use to stay connected to the vine (Jesus). They include, but are not limited to –

·       Rest & sleep

·       Solitude

·       Worship

·       Prayer

·       Scripture

·       Fellowship

·       Giving

·       Fasting

·       Serving

·       Testifying

·       Confessing

·       Caregiving

·       Simplicity

·       Moving / Exercise

·       Collaborating

Now, we know that our enemy can never drag us away from Jesus. In fact, he knows that and does not even try. But James 1 says that he lures each of us away through our own desires.

If that’s the case, doesn’t it make sense that we need to choose to focus on the specific spiritual disciplines (tactics) that offset our own specific desires that distract us and potentially cause us to stray from an awareness of our Lord’s presence?

If we’re not honest with ourselves about our personal spiritual vulnerabilities and then fail to adopt the specific spiritual disciplines that offset those vulnerabilities, do we not risk simply strengthening our strengths and leaving our weaknesses overlooked and exposed by embracing only generalized spiritual disciplines without considering more specific needs?

Have you never met a person who faithfully read his Bible, but still allowed busyness, fatigue, materialism, or pride to cause him to consistently stray from his Lord in thoughts, words, or deeds?

Perhaps it’s time to simplify and personalize the process of discipleship, making disciples by teaching them to be insightful enough to identify the specific threats to one’s own abiding in Christ (like the list below) on any given day, week, or season; and teaching them to match offsetting spiritual disciplines with those threats to keep them from drifting or straying away from the presence of Christ.

·       Busyness

·       Fatigue

·       Cravings

·       Materialism

·       Pride

·       Fear

·       Negative emotions -anger, anxiety…

·       Selfishness

·       Feeling flat/numb

·       Imposter Syndrome

·       Lust

·       Deceit

The word “disciple” is never a verb in Scripture. We do not “disciple others.” We are called to “make disciples.” Perhaps that’s not just semantics. Perhaps the process of making disciples is the process of teaching people to think on their feet, to see their own unique combinations of current distractions from Jesus, and then to choose for themselves which combinations of spiritual disciplines best offset those specific distractions and help them to refocus on abiding in Jesus in the moment.  

What are your most common reasons for straying from Jesus in your thoughts, words, or deeds?

What was your reason for straying yesterday?

Two days ago?

Today?

Have you considered specific spiritual disciplines that would help you overcome such distractions?

If your distraction from Jesus was an illness, would you take a random medication or one that addressed your specific illness?

Thanks for reading,

John Crosby, © 2024

I’m considering developing this into a book. Let me know what you think.