Page 38 - Discipleship Ministries Student E-Book

Spiritual Food and Water relate to The Word of God
Spiritual Air relates to Prayer
Spiritual Rest relates to Obedience and Fellowship with other Christians
Spiritual Exercise relates to Witnessing
Spiritual Shelter relates to the Holy Spirit

Without these, the spiritual Food and Water, Air, Rest, Exercise and Shelter…. spiritual babies might
wither and dry up. In the physical realm, parents take this type of nurturing of their babies very
seriously. This is because a baby is a baby and has no conscious ability to care for itself. It cannot walk,
talk, feed itself, etc. The parents must help care for it until it is able to care for itself. So, it is with the
spiritual babe in Christ.

It is so sad to ask a Christian “Have you grown in Christ over the last six months? Are you experiencing
the riches of life in Christ in a fuller way than you did last year? Do you know Jesus better today than
you did last month?” Sadly, many answer by saying they are not aware of any growth. (It must be noted
that babies and young children are not mature enough to reproduce themselves. So, it is with “babes
and youngsters in Christ.” Hence---the need for mature Christians to spend the time, energy, and
investments to help them grow into mature reproducing Christians!

God must feel a similar sadness and pain when His children get “stuck” at spiritual infancy, childhood, or
adolescence---when they never reach spiritual adulthood with all the privileges and responsibilities it
entails. Of course, God’s love remains constant and immeasurable regardless. But like a human parent,
God can also feel disappointment, pain, and loss. Certainly, some Christians remain in this kind of
disappointing spiritual infancy because, for one reason or another, they do not want to grow up.
However, plenty of folks get “stuck” because church leaders lack the knowledge, skills, and resources to
develop healthy, maturing followers of Christ. That’s the bad news. The good news is that church
leaders can become more deliberate about making disciples---mature Christians who practice their faith,
share it, and reproduce it in others!

Methods of Discipleship from Jesus and Paul
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Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul stand out clearly as the two greatest disciple makers in the Scripture.
In examining proper methods of discipleship, it would seem wise to look at the discipleship methods
that both Jesus and Paul used. The first thing that one could point to is that both Jesus and Paul
selected a few good men for the purpose of training. In regard to Jesus, Coleman well states, “men
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were his method.” Luke writes: “Now it was during this time that Jesus went out to the mountain to
pray, and he spent all night in prayer to God. When morning came, he called his disciples and chose
twelve of them, whom he also named apostles” (Luke 6:12-16). The fact that Jesus spent all night in
prayer showed the importance of what he was doing in selecting the disciples. He only chose 12. Beyond
that, he focused on three (Peter, James and John). The whole future of the church would rest in the
faithfulness of God working though only a few men.

In regard to Paul, his discipleship method is seen in 2 Timothy 2:2: “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

15 from Principles and Practice of Disciplemaking (https://bible.org/seriespage/lesson-11-principles-and-practice-
disciplemaking
16 Robert E. Coleman, The Master Plan of Evangelism (Grand Rapids: Baker, 1993), p. 27.

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