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DISCIPLES SHOULD BE TAUGHT AND TRUSTED TO HEAR GOD AND OBEY HIM ON THEIR OWN DAILY
This article’s topic can stand alone, however it is a continuing thought following the Where Does Discipleship Process Begin series.
To catch up on the stories in those few articles START HERE
Learning to hear the voice of God
For about a two year time period I focused on hearing God’s voice daily. This prepared me for the opportunity to help Vida follow Jesus. In scripture, we see that Jesus would consistently go off and spend time with His Father in prayer. So much so, that the only thing we ever read of the disciples requesting directly from Jesus was for him to teach them to pray. There is a Kingdom key here for sure. My wife and I say to each other often that if we could leave the people here with just one thing it would be the ability to hear God for themselves!
I would like to share a specific place in the gospels that led me for an extended period of time. I believe that I was sent back to this place so that I would have a model in place of what to do next with the young man Vida.
First, let me share a small side story. Jesus led me to take over a prison ministry a colleague of mine started but was no longer involved in. Along with that, God showed me a blue‐print for a simple Bible school, of sorts, I was to begin with a pastor out in a remote village roughly, 15 miles from our base. When we first moved to Mozambique, we built a relationship with Antonio who would become our language teacher for roughly a year.
Antonio grew up knowing Jesus and displayed a hunger to go deeper. He already attended some Bible schools and moved in a unique anointing to preach the Gospel. God spoke to him often in dreams and visions. He had a deep desire to go out and evangelize. We quickly became friends and partners in ministry. Without even knowing it, God was already having me walk through the “come follow me process.”
Antonio would eventually take over the prison ministry. It was simple–go and visit them and share the Love of Jesus with them through music and scripture teaching. The Bible school, on the other hand, took months of prayer and a much different strategy than they originally intended. The Lord showed me that I needed to create a three-year program with the intended purpose of teaching the local people of that church along with its leaders to hear the God’s voice for themselves. This Bible school literally taught students how to hear from God and obey Him daily.
Most of the curriculum during the first year is all about practicing listening to God and responding to His voice. The second and third year is more practical as we would go out together, apply what we have practiced during the first year, and would also train others to do the same. The class was mixed with men and women of all ages, newly saved or church elders, married or single. All in the same boat! It was very much outside the cultural box but bore a lot of fruit!
Want to know if it’s God speaking to you? Here is a video that might encourage you!
The Bible school also gave me some context for what I saw God was doing with my family when the event with Vida happened at our house. The Lord had me reading some passages of scripture over and over again, specifically from the books of Matthew and Luke. Let’s have a look at a few of them here:
And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them,
“Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart. And wherever they do not receive you, when you leave that town shake off the dust from your feet as a testimony against them.”-LUKE 9:1-6)
And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.
By the time Vida returned, filled with the Holy Spirit and hungry to learn more, I had already been processing these scriptures:
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them on ahead of him, two by two, into every town and place where he himself was about to go. And he said to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.
Go your way; behold, I am sending you out as lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no moneybag, no knapsack, no sandals, and greet no one on the road. Whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house!’
And if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him. But if not, it will return to you. And remain in the same house, eating and drinking what they provide, for the laborer deserves his wages. Do not go from house to house. Whenever you enter a town and they receive you, eat what is set before you. Heal the sick in it and say to them,
‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your town that clings to our feet we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near.”— LUKE 10:1-11
Vida was a man of peace. His mom’s house was a house of peace. His part of the village was yet to be determined. I knew what I needed to do. A few days later I asked Vida if he was ready to follow Jesus. I want to emphasize something specific here; I did not just ask him to follow Jesus and leave him alone.
I immediately set up a time that week to meet at his house to read the Word together. Antonio came to observe the process. The goal was to stay with Vida as he grew, help him practice hearing God’s voice, and then send him out to find another person, house, or town of peace.
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