MARCH 2020
ISSUE 25
K I NGFI S H E R FAMILY Called to be Great Commission Disciples January 26th saw the launch of VISION 2020… our strategic look ahead to what Jesus Christ is calling us to in this coming year and beyond. Not a random new direction, but building on the clear and steady message He has been challenging us with over the past three years. Three years ago, the challenge He gave us was outlined in that year’s vision talk: What if God says: the pillar of cloud by day and fire by night is moving? Well…what if? What would you do if God said specifically to you, ‘The status quo in your life - what you have settled for and perhaps just put up with, is no longer good enough? What if He were to say to you, ‘I want you to expect more, believe bigger, aim higher?’ What if He said, ‘I’m calling you to trust more, to act in faith more’?
enough wisdom or knowledge to answer people’s objections.
this year - we just need to give Him the opportunity to fill us with His Spirit and
Our challenge is to take these four instructions and allow them to shape our approach to living the Christian life:
• to be willing to step out into
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• to be willing to go public about our
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• •
Step out of your comfort zone and try something new. Decide you are going to live a life that is going to encourage people to wonder, to reassess, to want to try it for themselves. Take your faith into the public realm - don’t just be a secret disciple. Go public. Get equipped with more knowledge, not so that you’ve got more knowledge, but so that “…if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it”. (1 Peter 3:15, NLT)
something new and challenging,
• to be willing to live out what we say we believe, faith and
• to be willing to get equipped, to learn more that we then live by.
‘Dust of your Rabbi’ disciples In the Talmud, it is written: “…let the dust of the feet of the Sages, as they walk, cover you (i.e., follow them closely), or (alternatively), sit in the dust (on the ground) at their feet whilst they teach.
The picture that is being painted here is of the disciples of a particular Rabbi following either as the Rabbi is walking, What would you do? What step of faith or sitting at the feet of a Rabbi who is These are the marks of a Great would you take? Because I believe that seated, whilst that Rabbi is teaching. The Commission Disciple, and for them to God is saying that. I believe that this followers of the Rabbi are so close to be a reality in our lives, we need to coming year He is looking for a response him that the dust that is kicked up by experience what those first disciples to these What If? questions. Back in the that Rabbi’s feet covers his disciples. experienced: they were filled with the first century, the What If? question was, They were so physically close to him in Spirit and they were ‘Dust of your ‘What if you were to take this Great order to not miss anything that was rabbi’ disciples. Commission seriously? What then?’ being said. They were literally ‘dust of Filled with the Spirit your Rabbi’ disciples. That was the We were being challenged to become experience of those first disciples. So Great Commission Disciples. The Great Jesus told His first disciples, “And now I close to Him that the dust from His Commission is as follows: will send the Holy Spirit, just as my Father feet would cover them. So close to Him promised. But stay here in the city until the that their gaze was fixed on Him, their “All authority in heaven and on earth has Holy Spirit comes and fills you with power concentration was consumed by Him. been given to me. Therefore go and make from heaven.” (Luke 24:49, NLT) Disciples don’t follow their Rabbi at a disciples of all nations, baptizing them in distance. They followed close up, in the name of the Father and of the Son and What God is calling us to do is way of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to beyond what we are going to be able to step, getting covered by the dust of his obey everything I have commanded you. achieve if all we’re relying on is what we heals. And so when they were given the Great Commission, the crucial words And surely I am with you always, to the can bring to the table. But that’s what were: ‘And I will be with you’. Just follow very end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20, we tend to slip into. We’ve got this me. Do what I do. Say what I say. Stay NIV) much time, these many people, this close enough so that the dust from my much money…so this is what we can feet falls on you. And you will find that I There are four instructions that come achieve. How about changing that will lead you and empower you to go, out of this - the four instructions that mentality to this: We’ve got this much make, baptise and teach.You will find identify a Great Commission Disciple: time, these many people, this much yourself stepping out of your comfort Go; make; baptise; teach. Go money - and it’s not enough. We need means stepping out of the known. the game-changer that is the Holy Spirit zone; living the life; going public; getting equipped. Make means showing people the alive and active within us, giving us gospel by example, by the way we live. boldness to dare, so that our little There it is: that’s the challenge. Bear in Baptise means going public with our becomes His much; our willingness mind, it’s the Great Commission, not new life, which we may not be able to becomes the opportunity He’s looking live up to. Teach means knowing stuff for to do something amazing. We don’t the Great Suggestion, and “…choose today whom you will serve. But as for me and running the risk of not having need to know how He is going to do and my family, we will serve the the amazing things He’s got planned for Lord.” (Joshua 24:15, NLT)