You were made for a mission.
Sadly, many people don’t realize that. They drift through their lives, feeling like each day is as meaningless as the next. There are some people who believe they have a mission, but they think the mission for which they were made is about money, comfort, status, or fame. They couldn’t be more wrong.
In today’s world, there’s a competition between two strategies for life. One strategy aims to glorify God; the other wants the glory for the self. People who aim to glorify God will live in a way that demonstrates God’s goodness, wisdom, and strength. Those who aim to glorify themselves will consistently draw the attention onto their own supposed goodness, wisdom, and strength. The contrast is stark, and the competition is real.
The competition between these two strategies isn’t actually new. It’s been around for a long time. The Old Testament prophet Isaiah noted the contrast in his own day. Seven hundred years before the time of Jesus, he saw people who disobeyed God’s ways and sought to glorify themselves. But he knew it wasn’t supposed to be that way, so he called his counterparts to a different way:
“LORD, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws; our heart’s desire is to glorify your name”
Isaiah 26.8 NLT
So, what is your mission?
Your mission is to glorify God by knowing Him and making Him known. God wants you to leave a legacy of faith that impacts your generation and the ones to come.
One day, Jesus was walking on the beach when He saw two brothers fishing. These men, Peter and Andrew, had been with Jesus on earlier occasions. They’d seen Him turn water into wine at a wedding in Cana. They’d seen Him heal people of sickness and disease. They knew that He was no ordinary rabbi. He had authority, and He had a mission. Jesus knew that this was the moment to invite them to join His mission: “Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” Matthew 4.19 ESV.
Jesus invited them to share in the challenge, wonder, and adventure of living out a purpose that was bigger than themselves. He called them to look beyond themselves, to something bigger. He asked them to leave behind their temporary desires and focus on God’s eternal kingdom instead.
What did they do? Matthew 4.20 ESV says, “Immediately they left their nets and followed him.” Jesus’ invitation wasn’t only for those fishermen; He invites you too. Those men jumped at the chance to join Jesus’ mission. They left everything behind to embrace whatever He had for them. His mission became their passion, and they changed the world as a result. How will you respond to Jesus’ invitation?
This blog originally appeared at: How Will You Respond to Jesus’ Invitation to Join His Mission – discipleFIRST and features an excerpt from one of their Student Series books, Reach Your World.
Because of the importance of intentionality in disciple making, we at Discipleship.org are going to emphasize this skill set and mindset over the next four months. Please join with us and seek to share understanding, insight, and practical tools so that you can become skilled at intentionality in relational disciple making and you can help those on your team or in your leadership group to do the same. There are four ways in which we are emphasizing intentionality to help you in the next four months.
- Discipleship.org City Tour Forums – our four City Tour Forums are designed to help you and your team both understand and develop an intentionality posture. The tour is comprised of one day, high impact forums where there will be teaching and round table discussions. Every attendee also gets a copy of Brandon Guindon’s new book, Intentional: Living Out the Eight Principles of Disciple Making.
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Take the FREE Individual Disciple Maker Assessment – we designed this assessment with a team of national and international disciple making leaders to help each individual be able to evaluate their disciple making mindset and skill. Just by taking this assessment, you will gain an appreciation for the value of intentionality, along with a sense of how you can increase your own level of intentionality. Click the image below to take the assessment.
- Read the short FREE book, Becoming a Disciple Maker: The Pursuit of Level Five Disciple Making – Bobby wrote this short eBook with statistician Greg Wiens to help you understand the mathematical and practical impact of one person’s disciple making efforts and skills.
Click the image below to download this free eBook.
- Read Brandon Guindon’s book, Intentional: Living Out the Eight Principles of Disciple Making – Brandon wrote this Discipleship.org book and Zondervan is publishing, because the understanding and practice of disciple making is so crucial. Every attendee at each of our City Tour events (Nashville, Houston, Dallas and Raleigh), as mentioned above, will receive a FREE copy of Brandon Guindon’s book.
Click the image below to order Brandon Guindon’s book from Amazon.com.
Please join with us in this quest to better understand and practice intentionality. It will help us all to become more and more like Jesus, the world greatest disciple maker.