Follow Me

Lk.5:27-28, ‘After these things He went out and saw a tax collector named Levi, sitting at the tax office. And He said to him, “Follow Me.” ²⁸ So he left all, rose up, and followed Him.’

Discipleship has always been a challenging way to follow our Lord. Jesus left this earth for His heavenly abode after giving His disciples a great commission. He asked them to go out into the world and preach the gospel to all nations. Since then, this great commission has been taken up by innumerable God’s children. But yet, we  need to stop and think whether we at times aim at seeing multitudes or disciples filling our churches.

Jesus called His twelve disciples and asked them all to follow Him. He called them separately and we see them all following Him immediately. Before following they set aside all that would hinder their following of Christ. Discipleship is an ongoing process. In the above verse, we see Mathew, the tax collector leaving all, rising up and following Jesus. Discipleship involves three steps : Leaving, Rising & Following

Leaving is a continuous process, which sanctifies us for the calling with which our Lord has called us.  The more we leave to follow Christ, the more we find within ourselves yet to be left to follow Him more closely.   Peter left the multitude of fishes, boat and all that he had to follow Jesus (Lk.5:11). Yet,  after 3 years, he discovered the inability to  follow Christ any further. This made him return back to boat and fishing (Jn.21). The mercy and interference of the Lord  made him realize that he had to leave the love  and concern for all other things which was greater than love for Christ to proceed further with discipleship. In Jn.21:18,  Peter was allowed to know about the death he would face as a result of following Christ. He could humbly accept it, as now his love for Jesus was more than the love for his own life.  Soon after this, Jesus again said to  Peter , ‘follow me’. This was when Peter could  take the rest of the steps to follow Christ. Love for anything and anyone more than love for Christ can block the path of discipleship. We need to pause time and again to check whether we are removing the blocks to follow Christ or if the unremoved blocks are removing us away from discipleship.

After leaving all things, the tax collector rose to follow Jesus. Rising up is an upliftment from the current status. Its an action which represents constant move. A disciple is constantly on an onward move with little or no rest. The passion to follow Christ makes the life of a disciple action packed. No time is wasted. No opportunity is missed. No thought is in vain, for  our heart is focused in Christ. As the Word says, a disciple aims to glorify the Lord through everything he does or says. Now as we see this as an ongoing process, we need to understand that rising is essential at every step of discipleship. To rise up from the current spiritual status, we need to be unsatisfied with it. Next, we ought to take efforts to rise into the next level of spiritual life. Efforts to pray more, to meditate His word more etc. During this process, we might fall just as a baby bird  falls as it learns to fly. But the trust in the divine protection  & grace enables us not to give up. Peter wanted to walk on the waters just as Jesus did. Though he fell, he tried. The attempt to walk on water talks about a great desire to rise up to the next level of faith life. A disciple who keeps rising in faith life trades his talents to the maximum and thus gets ready to be called as ‘faithful’ servant. Contentment in Godliness is  dangerous. When we feel that we are doing enough for the Lord, we might hear the divine voice that we have a long way to go ahead. Lets not be weary nor be perplexed as to how ? As we continue to submit more to His voice, He increases our capacity to receive more from Him and thus rise up to the higher ground to do what He wants us to do for Him.  Heaven is our limit i.e Jesus who is our heaven is the limit. Lk. 6: 40, ‘A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.’

Mathew, the tax collector, left all, rose up and followed Jesus. We follow Jesus to ultimately reach the place where Jesus is now seated. And He Himself is the only way to reach this destination. Following Jesus is like keeping our feet in His footprints which He has left back for us to follow through His Word. For this, our heart needs to cling to Him & His word every moment in our lives. Discipleship  is not trying to walk after Him at a distance. Instead, its keeping our feet into His footsteps in such a way that  both our footsteps appear to be one. When a third person sees, he or she sees only one pair of footsteps. A true disciple is always hidden and only Christ is seen. Discipleship is like a process of hot wax being poured out into the mold of personality of Christ. Every thought, imagination and motives  is captivated by Christ to fit inside this personality, with absolutely no strings jutting out from anywhere. All the twelve disciples of Christ who were later called as apostles, were persecuted and were martyrs for their faith in Christ. They laid down their lives without any hesitation. They considered the reward in heaven much greater than the pain of being put to death. They considered even  their death as unworthy before the sacrifice of Christ. Hence, Peter chose to be crucified with his head down and feet up. The lives of these apostles perfectly fitted into the personality of Christ. They never rested till they completed the task given to them. They represented Christ in every walk of their lives. This is what true discipleship is all about. Rom.13:14 says about putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. If we follow anything outside the Word of God, we will be presenting a disfigured picture of Christ to the world. Just as Christ is the visible image of the Invisible God, a disciple ought to be the living image of ascended Christ in this world.

Discipleship is the narrow way to be chosen. As the choice of wide way and the narrow way keeps popping up before our eyes and hearts, lets cling to His Word which alone can make us discern every thought and imaginations of our hearts . Lets be willing to chop off every block that might hurl us down from the path of discipleship and lets be on an onward flight, the flight to keep rising in faith life into new heights of spiritual discernment and anointment.

God bless us all

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