Congratulations!
You have completed the New Life 365 Devotional Series! You have gone through 365 days of God’s Word and his teaching!
Discipleship
The moment you believed in Jesus as your Savior and Lord, you began your spiritual journey with Jesus. He is your Master, and you are trying to follow Him faithfully. He is your Teacher and you are His student. You are learning from Him and becoming more like Him. This is discipleship.
Continue to practice what God has shown you, and remain with Jesus and in His love. Discipleship, or following Jesus as your Master and Teacher, is a life-long journey.
You will experience the fullness of your new identity and the power of your new life in Christ as you obey his words more faithfully and make his commandments your new habits.
Already, as you have been reading the Bible and going through this New Life 365 series, God has given you much.
So, what’s next?
We read in Luke 12:48: “From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.” This is where disciple making comes in!
Disciple Making
If you are not already actively involved in disciple-making, now is the time to do it. (Review Day 352, Go and Make Disciples! if necessary.)
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” —Matthew 28:19–20
It is never too soon or too early to make disciples of Jesus (disciple-making) as long as you are learning and growing with Jesus. It is the commandment of Jesus for all Christians. The Apostle Paul defines disciple-making in this way:
“Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” —1 Corinthians 11:1
Disciple-making is simply helping others follow and learn from Jesus so that they too become and live more like Jesus. We can learn disciple-making from our Jesus.
Life with God
First and foremost, Jesus walked very closely with the Father. His oneness with the Father in the fullness of the Holy Spirit was his life.
We need to walk closely with Jesus. Make it your lifestyle. Order your life around Jesus. Make the presence of God your center just as the people of Israel learned to camp around the tabernacle in the wilderness after they had left Egypt.
Learn to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to walk in the Spirit moment by moment. The fullness of the Spirit should be as natural as breathing.
Life on Life
Jesus spent time with people one-on-one; individuals like Nicodemus and the Samaritan woman at the well. We have opportunities each and every day to live like Jesus and invite others to do the same. If you are intentional, God will use you to show them who God is and what he does.
Life in Community
To love God is to love one another in the body of Christ. We experience God’s love and learn to love God in our believing community when we learn to love one another just as Christ loves us.
Jesus gathered his disciples and others. Sometimes, he chose a smaller group of three (Peter, John, James). We learn from each other. We teach one another. We see Jesus and experience his love and grace when we are with others.
“No one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God resides in us, and his love is perfected in us.” —1 John 4:12
Life on Mission
Jesus was teaching in public and performing miracles while his disciples were with him. He then sent them out to do the same. Discipleship is complete when we are on God’s mission, doing God’s assignments together.
Spiritual Multiplication
“And what you heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful people who will be competent to teach others as well.” —2 Timothy 2:2
The Apostle Paul encountered the risen and glorified Jesus. Paul discipled Timothy in his faith. Now he instructs Timothy to disciple others who will be competent to disciple others.
This is known as “spiritual multiplication”: from Paul to Timothy to “faithful people” to “others,” showing and encouraging them to followers of Christ.
Imagine, if you help just two others follow and grow in Jesus and those two each help two more do the same. There will be an exponential growth of the number of Jesus-followers in a relatively short time!
Ask God to show you who you can disciple and then trust the Holy Spirit to guide and direct you in that endeavor!