Disciples Are Made Not Born: Helping Others Grow to Maturity in Christ

by Walter A. Henrichsen

He did not die for a cause. He died for people.

There is tremendous potential in the life of one man.

When we invest in the lives of other people, we transmit not only what we know but, more importantly, what we are. Each of us becomes like the people with whom we associate.

Faithful men—Discipling stands or falls with these two little words.

Dawson Trotman, founder of the Navigators, used to say, “Activity is no substitute for production. Production is no substitute for reproduction.” Whatever ministry we are engaged in, it ought to be reproductive.

Let’s mentally digest a few essential traits of the person who wants to qualify as “a faithful man.” He Has Adopted the Same Objective in Life That God Sets Forth in the Scriptures

Jesus said, “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (Matt. 6:33). Rarely did the Lord Jesus ask people to seek something, but here He suggests we seek two things that are to become the twofold objective of every believer: His kingdom and His righteousness.

Notice that Jesus does not say to seek money or a wife or a dozen other things that could e...

Whatever your vocation is, it must never be your life objective; for your vocation, no matter how noble it may be, is, in the final analysis, temporal. The Scriptures teach us that we are to give our lives to the eternal and not to the temporal. A faithful man is a man who has chosen eternal objectives for his life.

Let me ask you: Is there anything between you and God? Are there any little pet sins that you have been unwilling to confess and forsake? Any areas that you have not put under His control? How about your finances? The question is not how much money you have in the bank but rather who has the power to draw on your account? Do all of your financial assets belong to Jesus Christ? Do you know what it means to give sacrificially? And by that, I mean to give what you know from a human perspective you cannot afford.

Do you have an insatiable appetite for the Word of God? Do you crave it like you crave food? Are you in submission to the authority of the Word of God? Or do you pick and choose what to believe and obey?

What is your Scripture intake? Do you have a regular Bible reading program? Are you systematically studying the Scriptures? Is your craving for the Bible so great that it is impossible to satisfy?

He Has a Servant Heart

A person may try to recruit others to help him accomplish his vision. The disciple-maker, however, seeks to invest his life in another to help that person accomplish his own vision.

Worldliness and having confidence in the flesh are very closely related, for worldliness can be defined as “living as though you had no need for God.” For example, to leave for work in the morning without first spending time with the Lord to me indicates having a tremendous amount of confidence in oneself. It is equivalent to saying, “I can run my life today without an absolute dependence on God.” One of the ways of determining exactly how much confidence you have in the flesh is to take an inventory of the number of times you come into your own conversation. How often do you talk about how great you are and the things you have done?

A young man once told me, “I will listen to what God has to say to me, but I will not learn from other people.” To have such an attitude is to live in self-deception. People are often God’s instruments to communicate to other people. God is looking for faithful people who are willing to subjugate their own ideas for the sake of the team.

I remember reading a Peanuts cartoon in which Charlie Brown said, “I love the world. I think the world is wonderful. It’s people I can’t stand.” Yet, people are the reason Jesus invaded human history. He came to redeem people. That is what the Gospel is all about. The disciple is one who is involved in the lives of people. The faithful person has a love for people.

“I will never allow another person to ruin my life by making me hate him.”

I believe more disciples become ineffective in the Christian life because of a root of bitterness than because of any other sin. Faithful Christians guard their hearts well in this critical area.

“Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may win. Everyone who competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Therefore I run in such a way, as not without aim; I box in such a way, as not beating the air; but I discipline my body and make it my slave, so that, after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified.” (1 Cor. 9:24–27) One day I sat down and meditated on what would be the most horrible thing that could happen to me as a Christian. The conclusion to which I came was that when I die, God would take me aside and say to me, “Henrichsen, let Me show you what your life could have been like if only you had done what I asked, if only you had been faithful to Me, if only you had disciplined your life and made it really count, as I wanted you to.” Have you learned to discipline yourself? Have you learned to say no to temptation? Maybe there is a habit that you have been unable to conquer. You know that the Spirit of God would like you to get victory, but you have done nothing about it, having rationalized that, “If God wants me to give up this habit, then He will have to give me the power to do it.” Although this is true, it is avoiding the issue, because God has already given you the power. It has been made available to you through the Holy Spirit. All you need to do is appropriate it—and such appro...

You sow a thought and reap an act. You sow an act and reap a habit. You sow a habit, and you reap an eternity.

It is evident that one does not become a “faithful person” by being a weekend Christian.

The faithful person is one who has applied the Scriptures to eve...

A disciple is a disciplin...

The gold medal goes to the athlete who has worked hard, who has learned how to discipline himself, who has learned to say no to the myriad distractions that cross a person’s life, who has a clear-cut objective and has resolved in his soul to stay with it until he accomplishes it. This is the kind of person God uses.

Jesus Is Lord Whether We Want Him to Be or Not

Have you ever considered how little of your life you control? Did you decide when you would be born? Or who your parents would be? Or in what country you would be born? Did you decide the color of your skin, your eyes, your hair? Did you decide your intelligence or your gifts and talents? How about your height—did you determine that? Or your appearance, whether you would be good looking or rather plain? The answer to all these

questions is no. In every one of these areas and in many more, you have no say in the matter. Your vote counts for absolutely nothing!

Then at what point do you exercise control? The Bible suggests that you control a small but important part ...

When you make Jesus Christ Lord of your life, you can count on Him asking you to do things you would rather not do.

Abraham did not want to offer up Isaac as a sacrifice. Moses did not want to go before Pharaoh. Joseph did not want to spend all those years in prison. Jesus Christ did not want to go to the cross.

When Jesus Christ is Lord of your life, every area is under His jurisdiction—your thoughts, your actions, your plans, your vocation, your leisure time, and your life goal. All of these are under His lordship.

We think we know what is best for us. Nothing could be further from the truth.

When we reach physical maturity, however, we think that things suddenly change. This is where we make our mistake. A child left to himself will probably hurt himself. As mature adults, left to ourselves, we do hurt ourselves.

Have you ever thought about the fact that we hire policemen to watch over us to make sure that we don’t do anything wrong? Yet we have the audacity to say that we know what is best for our lives.

We are not sure that God has our best interests at heart. If God wanted to make it hard on us, can you imagine what He could do? If He wanted to make us miserable and plague us with difficulties, He could make life absolutely intolerable.

The disciple himself is not one who has arrived. On the contrary, he is a learner, a pilgrim, one who is on a

quest to make his life all that God would have it be. Therefore, he must understand the needs and frailties of people.

How many non-Christians do you know who would consider you a close friend?

Begin by doing what you know through the Scriptures to be the will of God. If you do this, the Holy Spirit will be faithful to make clear those areas that are uncertain.

ask yourself who owns it.

Everybody wants God to commit Himself totally to him, but few are willing to commit themselves totally to God.

Jesus did not say, “Lead us not into sin.” He said, “Lead us not into temptation.” To pray this prayer means that I am willing to surrender questionable things. I am not only willing to surrender those things that are sin, but I am also willing to surrender all those areas of my life that tend to lead me into temptation. You yourself know what these areas are. To make Jesus Christ Lord of your life means that you are willing to lay them aside.

Why Does Jesus Want to Be Our Lord? Why does Christ bother to get involved in our lives? Why does He not just leave us in our misery? This

discipleship has been designed by God, with our best interests at heart.

God does not need our help; we need His. Discipleship was designed by God to give us the help we need.

When I first heard this story, I thought, What a beautiful and precise illustration of how God treats us. Our Lord gives us so many wonderful gifts, then He comes to us and says, “I would like to have them all back—every one of them.” He does this so He can combine them with His unlimited resources and give them all to us.

Discipleship is our opportunity to tap the infinite resources of God. It is our chance to give our lives to significance rather than mediocrity. In discipleship, we are not doing God a favor; He is doing us a favor. It is vital that the disciple grasp this important concept.

Our Lord always lived by principle, never by circumstance. As His disciples, how do we live? By circumstance or by principle?

The disciple is one who in every area of His life determines from the Bible what is right and lives it consistently rather than allowing circumstances to shape his conduct.