The Believers' Calling Part 1 – Call To Be With Him

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Believers' Calling is to know, love, and be like the Master. This comes before doing great work or service for God as God does not use  untried, untested, and unproven vessel

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When a soul first comes to the Lord, there is joy both in heaven and in the heart of the believer (Luk 15:7). God’s first desire and plan for the new believer is to make His abode in him. This is because God wants to build a personal relationship with every individual that comes to Him (Rev 3:20). This supersedes any assignment or calling we think God has for us. This also come before any zeal we may have for Him or His work. He does not use an untried, untested, and unproven vessel (Heb 13:5).

Jesus gathered His disciples first and foremost “…that they should be with him”

It is in the place of being with Him that He prepares His disciples “…that he might send them forth to preach (Mar 3:14).
So, the primary believers’ calling after the salvation experience therefore is to learn to be with Jesus - this is discipleship.

Discipleship
Discipleship is mentoring, teaching, learning, and empowering a follower for the task ahead.

Being a disciple means been a follower, a learner, an apprentice, a servant, a pupil, and this requires relationship with the master. This is important not only for an assignment but majorly to equip and to impart knowledge to the student (Rom 1:11, 15:23,32).

• A father equips the child first before he releases him to life.
• A soldier is first equipped with all necessary training before being released into battle.
• A teacher equips the student with all the necessary knowledge he needs before setting an exam before him
• So also is God.

At the beginning of His ministry, Jesus called each of the disciples, and to each of them at different times He said, “follow me, and I will make you…” Him (Mat 4:19, Mat 8:22, Mat 9:9, Mat 10:38, Mat 16:24).

It means that:

1. It is Him that makes you, no one else can (not education, seminary, G.O., situation, etc)
2. Before Jesus can make you, you have to follow Him (a non-negotiable prerequisite – no following, no making, i.e., no discipleship, no ministry).
3. You follow Him in order to learn how to bring souls to Him, His way. The souls belong to Jesus, not to a system. Your duty therefore is to learn to bring souls to Jesus and not to a ministry, organization, or denomination.

To achieve these, a believer must first BE WITH HIM. Being with Him makes a believer:

• Rooted and grounded (Eph 3:17, Col 2:7-12). 
• Not to be “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine" (Eph 4:14, 2Pet 2:18)
• Do His desires not theirs
• Prepared and empowered for the task ahead (Luk 24:49, Act 1;4, John 16:7-8).

Overall Result of Being With Him:

1. We BE LIKE Him (1Jn 3:2)
   1. The whole concept of discipleship is being a clone of the master.
   2. We must be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus when we get to heaven because he became like us when he was on earth Heb 2:17, Rom 8:29, Eph 4:13)
   3. A servant aspires to be like his master so also a disciple. Jesus said, “it is enough (necessary) for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord” (Mat 10:25).
   4. In heaven, we will all look, dress, and talk like Jesus because we already learn to be with him (Rom 12:5).
2. We KNOW HIM (Joh 14:7-11, Luk 24:30-33, Php 3:10).
   1. Knowing Him requires relationship as you can’t know someone you’ve never being with.
   2. The disciples on the way to Emmaus were able to recognize that the “stranger” they’ve been interacting with was in fact, Jesus by the way he broke the bread (Joh 21:7, Luk 24:30-33, Rev 3:20)
   3. Knowing Him requires knowing His strength, love, passion, commandments, and suffering (Eph 3:17-19, Phi 3:10-11, Heb 5:8).
3. We LOVE HIM (Rom 5:5-7, 1Jn 4:19) 
   1. When we know the grace of the Lord Jesus and His sacrifice for us on the cross, it will provoke love in our hearts for Him (2Cor 8:9, Rom 5:7)
   2. When we love Him, we will keep his commandments (Joh 14:23)
4. We are SENT forth: (Mar 16:16, 1Tim 4:2-2)
   1. God sends us into the world to bring lost souls to Him (Joh 14:12, 15:1-5).
   2. God doesn’t want us to send lost souls to buildings, ministry, church, or denominations (Luk 15:7). He says, “… Come unto Me…” “…Follow Me…” (Mat 11:28).
   3. He sends us into the world not to be part of it but to be as gentle as a dove and as wise as serpent (Mat 10:16, 1Jn 2:15). 

It is easy to know those who have been with Jesus and those who haven't.

Signs of those who have been with Him:

• They behave like Him - They are little Christs (Act 11:26)
• They are bold and wise (Act 4:13, Mat 10:16)
• They are obedient to the master’s call and voice (Mar 16:15, Jo 10:5, Act 5:29, 1Cor 9:16, 2Ti 4:2)
• They are strong (Eph 6:10, 2Ti 2:3,10, 2Tim 4:5)
• They demonstrate power and authority over sin, Satan, and the world (Heb 12:4, Jas 4:7, Luk 10:19, Rom 12:2).

If the believers’ calling is to be with Jesus, how can this happen since Jesus is no longer physically with us? (Mat 28:20)

1. Through the Holy Spirit – By Baptisms (Joh 14:16,26, Joh 16;7)
2. Through the Fellowship – By Koinonia (interactive meeting with brethren - Heb 3:13, Heb 10:25) 
3. Through His Word – By the Bible (Joh 5:39-40, Joh 8:31, Col 3:16, Heb 4:12)

The believers’ calling is primarily to be with Him, we must therefore learn to bring our time, thoughts, life and “every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God into into captivity and every thought to the obedience of Christ” (2Cor 10:5).

The Believers' Calling - Part 2: Call to the Purpose of Christ

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