Making DisciplesSample

With-ness

As they walked with Jesus, the disciples witnessed His power, love, obedience, and peace. Jesus imparted to the disciples who He was—they experienced God firsthand— though at the time, the disciples were not able to comprehend nor believe everything Jesus taught.

In the Gospel according to John, Jesus gives His disciples insight into the relationship He’s always had with the Father: “I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; He can do only what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.” The keyword here is nothing. Jesus models meekness.

Jesus speaks of the continuous communion He has with the Father: “By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please Myself but Him who sent Me.” Then Jesus adds, “Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just My own. Rather, it is the Father, living in Me, who is doing His work.” 

As we walk in the Spirit and spend time with Jesus every day, God will produce His purpose in us—to conform us to the image of His Son. In John 15, Jesus explains to His disciples how this Teacher–Disciple relationship works: “Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in Me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing.”

After Jesus died, Peter and John, who had walked closely with Jesus, were in hiding along with the rest of the disciples because they knew that without Jesus, they could do nothing. When Jesus was raised from the dead, He met with His disciples again and instructed them to wait for the Father’s promise: His Holy Spirit. 

The Holy Spirit is the only way a disciple of Jesus can “remain in Him and bear much fruit.” After receiving the Holy Spirit, Peter and John were full of courage and the people around them realized that these “ordinary men” had been with Jesus. That was God’s work! 

It is not about who you are, but about the One calling you into His purpose.