GO MAKE DISCIPLES OR GO

LIVE A NICE CHRISTIAN LIFE?

No the life He called us to was to

extend His kingdom and make
disciples. And as we look at Jesus’
life, discipleship meant: he g
athered His disciples to Him. He
taught them both the Word and in
practical Godly life skills, He lived
with them – was a part of their
lives, He poured His life into them
as they followed Him ~ this is the
Way * I am the Way * follow Me;
not do this/do that ~ simply do
what I do.
And what did Jesus get from
discipling His 12?
Frustration
Lacking in faith
 Betrayal
Heartache
Failings
The Cross

And that’s what He calls us to:

“Follow Me” do what I did. Disciple
the nations. Yet I see so many
Christians happy for salvation,
happy for healing and deliverance,
but there’s no way they want to
face the cross.

Just like the Israelites in Egypt.

Most loved the deliverance and the
“hands-up” from God, but they
didn’t want the cost of entering
the Promised Land – it meant
trust, it meant dependence on
God, it meant circumcision.
 Their eyes were on the cost:
It’s too hard
The giants are too big
God bought us out to kill
us/no trust
There’s no water
There’s not enough food
The leadership are just
flesh and blood
THEY HAD NO VISION

And that’s the word I feel God

wants me to bring today, He
wants us to have vision, His
vision; and His vision always
elevates.

Abraham – look up
Genesis 15 - childless ->
father of multitudes

Oh but the cost! The price!

It meant leaving his
homeland
It meant leaving his family
It meant departure from a
soulish relationship
It meant cutting off a
fleshly relationship
It meant sacrificing his
greatest love and dream his
only son
It meant total dependence
on God.

Oh the cost, the cost!

You see God’s vision cost Jesus
His life, it meant the cross.

It is the same for us – to carry

God’s vision it will cost our life,
it means the cross.

Yet so many retreat from God’s

vision BUT how did Jesus handle
it, lets look at how He handled
it, in fact the bible says to look
at His example: Heb 12:2 LBV

Is 53 tells us what that joy was,

what the prize was:

He set His sight on the joy to

come from carrying God’s vision -
> fruitfulness, satisfaction, many
saved, many right-standing with
God, and He would divide His
spoil with the strong.
THAT WAS THE JOY SET
BEFORE HIM, HE DIDN’T
FOCUS ON THE CROSS, THE
PRICE, BUT HE SET HIS EYES
ON THE PRIZE – YOU AND ME!

And that’s what drives me – I

know there are other young girls
out there, discarded, struggling,
defeated. I’ve even had a vision
of men in torment, striving, in
anguish, angry and my heart has
cried out.

You see we have all been given

intercession, I know Tara is
weighed down by ones who are
comfortable and just add religion
on as a tag. I hear the anguish
in her spirit for their souls –
intercession.

The Lord told me late last year

to set my face like flint and I
am. Nothing will take my eye off
the prize to see souls saved and
made righteous, and the cost
that comes:
The pouring out of my life
The teaching of the Word
The teaching of the
practical Godly lifeskills
The heartache
The frustrations
The cross
Is not what I set my eyes on at
all!
With God’s vision comes
elevation, but to come from here
to there, like Abraham who was
beyond childbearing, childless to
becoming a father of multitudes
took being stretched. First
stretched in his vision, look up;
then stretched in his personal
life and stretched in his faith.
And those in the wilderness
rejected the stretch, they
avoided it at all costs and even
blamed “the church” “the
leadership” for their own failings,
for their own “shrinking back.”

But church God wants us to

embrace being stretched, He
wants us to carry His vision and
look beyond the Cross, the cost
to the joy, the prize.

None of us were called out to

become nice Christian citizens of
the world. We’ve been always
called out to be citizens of the
kingdom on this earth, advancing
His purposes and taking authority
over all the power of the enemy.
Don’t shrink back from the call:
Heb 10:38-39. Don’t shrink
back.

And finally, really to carry God’s

vision means to say really “not
my will, but Your will be done.”
Or another way to say that is it
means yielding, bowing down.
Did you know the first place the
word worship is found in the
bible is when Abraham is about
to sacrifice Isaac as a burnt
offering to the Lord. And the
Hebrew meaning of worship is “to
bow down.”

Sticking on a worship tape,

singing to God and getting warm
fuzzies isn’t worship. That is
spending time in God’s presence
and out of that should come true
worship, a yielding a bowing
down. I know multitudes who
worship, cry, have warm fuzzies
and are scattered in the
wilderness. Do not be deceived,
true worship is to bow down and
it’s interesting the first place
worship is mentioned in the bible
is around sacrifice, around the
first picture of the cross – the
father offering up his only
begotten son.

To finish: Isaiah 50:7 LBV:

BECAUSE THE LORD HELPS ME,
I WILL NOT BE DISMAYED;
THEREFORE, I HAVE SET MY
FACE LIKE FLINT TO DO HIS
WILL, AND I KNOW THAT I
WILL TRIUMPH.