Discipleship: It's Out of this World

Discipleship is a funny business as I found God never does things out of the box. Of course, he is out of this world. Take for example the following out-of-this-world things Jesus does.

To pay for his taxes Jesus tells his disciples, go take the first fish you recover from the lake and in its mouth, you will find a coin to pay for the taxes.  Let’s be serious, who would come up with such an outlandish notion?  Can you image the pastor instructing us to go down to the river and you’ll find the money to pay for the mortgage? Ridiculous!

God instructs Moses to strike a rock with a stick to release a river of water.   I don’t know about you, but we use drills to dig wells and not strike rocks with a stick.  From the worldly point of view, God does things in silly ways, and I found  this truth hard to swallow.  Yet, that’s what he does with his disciples with amazing results.

Now let’s really try the patience of a mature educated adult. Jesus tells his disciples to feed 5,000 people with no resources.  Isn’t that like Jesus, asking us to do the impossible.  Naturally, his disciples use their natural minds and senses which results in a no solution. There goes that limited thinking and unbelief the disciples often had.  Yet, a small boy not limited by the adult mind offers a few pieces of fish and bread.  And behold! Jesus does what he sees his father doing and the 5,000 are fed. It makes you question the adult way of thinking. It limits God. Isn't that called unbelief?

For years I thought as a logical educated mature man and applied my worldly intellect into the gospel until I had a God experience.  The kind of God experience that changes everything.  For example, when Jesus became transfigured, it was the first time in centuries that man encounter God in such an extraordinary way. Remember, what God said when he showed up, “This is my begotten Son.  Listen to Him!”

Who are you listening to? Jesus? The World? Or yourself?

Here's the kicker that mature educated adults dislike about trying to be a disciple of Jesus.  In Matthew 18, Jesus makes this commandment.  “Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever then humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 18:2-4

So, I learned that my education placed worldly limits on my mind in the form of unbelief, and God was commanding me to be childlike so that my faith can release the limitless power of God through me.  What a paradigm shift to accept this out-of-the world thinking!

And God commands it!