One of the goals we have as followers of Jesus is to be and to make disciples of Jesus. But what in the world does that mean?
Matthew 28:18-20 says,
18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
Going, baptizing, and teaching/learning to obey all of the commands of Jesus. That sounds like a pretty good definition. But how do we know if we have arrived? Will we ever arrive? Is that something that we can do?
A tool that I have used to help me to take inventory of what it looks like to be a disciple is the acronym F.A.T. It is a bit incomplete and calling people F.A.T. can be easily misunderstood. I was talking to someone recently that had added an R. component. Here are the 4 ideas that you, too, can use to take inventory of your own learning to obey everything that Jesus commanded of us:
Faith-Filled. Hebrews 11:6 says,
And without faith it is impossible to please God…
If you want to be a follower of Jesus and a disciple you must put your faith in the One whom God sent to save the world: Jesus. I am thankful that this piece of the inventory is incredibly binary; no gray scale here. Jesus said in Luke 17:6,
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can do miracles!” (my summary)
Do you have faith?
Available. In Genesis 12: 1 God told the man who is often called the first in the Family of God:
“Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you.”
Abraham was available for God to tell him where to go and god made of him a family through which the whole world was blessed! Our time is incredibly valuable to us, how much of it are you giving to God so that He can do with you what He wants?
Are you available?
Reliable. As the Psalmist talks about the blessed person in Psalm 1 he says,
3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yield its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither –
whatever they do prospers.
A reliable tree will produce fruit when it should. And that fruit will be helpful! The reliable person will show up (both physically and in that which they produce) when they say they will. When you are reliable God can teach you to follow Him.
Are you reliable?
Teachable. Paul said to his protege, Timothy,
All scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness…
2 Timothy 3:16
The word of God is written to point to the Word of God, Jesus. Our lives, when put in submission to God can at the same time also point to Jesus and can create the fullest life possible for us. If we ever harden our hearts to learning more about who God is and how He interacts with the world, we lose out on the chance for the infinite God to expand who He is in our vision daily.
Are you teachable?
I don’t know anyone who scores perfectly on the FART (or RAFT) spectrum. That doesn’t mean that we can’t strive to be better disciples each day. Where do you land? In what area do you most want to improve today? this week? this year?
How can Grafted help you in that?