Can I Deliver And Disciple Well

Jesus’ ministry was to the masses through miracles, signs, and wonders, and by multiplying Himself in a few people. That is what we call discipleship. 

Matthew 9:35-37, “Then Jesus went about all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every sickness and every disease among the people. But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, the harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”

Jesus’ Method

Masses did not come to Jesus because Jesus was handing out free hot dogs or because He was a great speaker. Masses came to Jesus because He healed all diseases. Jesus never had a problem attracting the masses. I believe that if the Church of Jesus Christ stops relying on Facebook ads or bulletin boards and starts relying on signs, wonders and miracles, we will also reach masses for Jesus. 

God’s method of reaching the world is through miracles, signs, and wonders. It is not just His method but it is a representation of God’s goodness and love for people. God doesn’t use miracles like Facebook ads just to reach people. God uses miracles to love and care for people, destroying the works of darkness. Sickness is the work of sin. Demonization is the work of demons and God wants to give the devil a black eye through signs and wonders. 

The real ministry of Jesus is not organizing a Sunday service but populating Heaven, plundering hell, and doing the work that Jesus did to reach the masses.

If we have miracles, we will have a crowd. If we have disciples, we will have a future. Click To Tweet

Jesus did not only reach multitudes; Jesus made disciples and because of that when Christ died, His ministry and agenda took off. 

Multiplying Through Discipleship

I met with our pastoral team and asked if we all left tomorrow, would our ministry explode or disappear within some months? We are better at gathering crowds than building an army. I believe the Lord wants us to do both. He wants us to have supernatural miracles but also a strategic focus on multiplying ourselves in other people for the future so that we are not just having a revival here and now but we are planting seeds into the revival for the next generation and the next. Our God is the God of Abraham but He is also the God of Isaac and Jacob.

You are not maturing if you don’t multiply.

Our culture has an obsession with children. Today the demonic agenda of indoctrination is focused specifically. People give money to mutilate, indoctrinate and confuse children because they know they don’t have the adult population.

Disciples multiply the heart of Jesus and the agenda of the Kingdom of God into the next generation. Click To Tweet

Miracles For Masses Strategy

Matthew 22:29, “Jesus answered and said to them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures not the power of God.”

I believe that when the church loses the supernatural, we are mistaken. Without miracles, we are mistaken. The church has two extremes. The first extreme is cessationists: God has ended all miracles and stopped doing them. The Bible is written and we don’t need miracles anymore. But people are still sick and God is still powerful. Miracles are like breathing to God.

The other extreme is the charismaniacs who have made the gospel into a sensation. They believe experiencing God is the only goal of existence and living instead of it being a means to a goal. We need a healthy balance where we use the supernatural with Jesus’ strategy to communicate the love of God for the purpose of the salvation of people and making disciples. 

The Power Of Multiplication

Exodus 1:10, “Come, let us deal shrewdly with them, lest  they multiply, and it happens, in the event of war, that they also join our enemies and fight against us, and so go up out of the land.”

The devil will fight every church so that the church does not have the supernatural and we only have things that we can explain. The moment we get the supernatural and are not afraid of the moving of the Holy Spirit, the enemy fights the church to make sure it does not multiply and it dies with that generation. Pharaoh was afraid of multiplication. Multiplication leads to multitudes and multitudes means might. 

Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and have dominion. Something happens when the church begins to multiply; we become a force to be reckoned with. We begin to infiltrate society like salt and light and we begin to shift and change things in our communities. This is what the devil is afraid of. If he cannot stop us from receiving the supernatural and filling us with traditional teachings that we don’t need miracles, signs, and wonders, then he will make sure that we don’t see multiplication and discipleship being done. 

The devil throws everything at you so you don’t multiply so he can steal the future. Preservation protects our comfortable life and prevents future Moses’ from being born. The devil is all right with churches having a lot of salvations as long as no one disciples them. 

Whoever has disciples has the future. Whoever has our children has the future. This vision is for our children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. We want to spread the message of our King Jesus as we possibly can. 

Discipleship Comes After Deliverance

Discipleship without deliverance ends in defeat. Deliverance without discipleship ends in disobedience. Click To Tweet

Jesus said of Lazarus whom he raised from the dead, “Loose him, and let him go.” So those who are born again still need to be loosed, which is deliverance so they can walk for the glory of God. There are exceptions, even in the scriptures, but most of us have to go from deliverance to discipleship to get to the destiny God has for us. 

The deliverance that leads to discipleship will lead you into your destiny. Click To Tweet

Matthew 21:2, 10, “Go into the village opposite you, and immediately you will find a donkey tied, and a colt with her. Loose them and bring them to Me… And when He had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, “Who is this?”

You are delivered for a purpose. You are delivered so you can be discipled because Jesus has a greater plan for you than just being delivered. Jesus wants you to influence your city, neighborhood, and friends by doing the things that He did: healing the sick, casting out demons, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, and preaching the good news. That is our destiny. Jesus wants everyone to do this because He is the vine and we are the branches. The same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives inside us. We were saved for good works.

You cannot get truly discipled if you are not delivered but you can get delivered and never go into discipleship. Click To Tweet

The problem that can occur when you have a deliverance culture is that people go from deliverance to deliverance instead of deliverance to discipleship. Deliverance is what God does for you. Discipleship is what God does in you. Deliverance removes demons but discipleship establishes Jesus’ character.

Important Points For Discipleship

1. Loving God means obeying His commandments. Jesus clearly stated to us that the first commandment is to love the Lord our God with all our heart and soul. You will not experience Jesus’ presence in the way He wants you to until you go and make disciples. Jesus made it very clear how He wants to be loved, (Matthew 22:19-20). Jesus wants us to obey His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome. The great commission is not a great suggestion.
2. Loving people means having compassion for their souls. Oftentimes, in order to love somebody, you have to deny yourself. The ultimate goal is not to just get more people into church but to love people by having compassion on their souls. We have to tell other people about Jesus. 
3. Winning souls and making disciples are part of spiritual growth. Natural process: Born (Hospital), Belong (Home), Build (School), Become (Adults). Life begins at conception. Growing up is hard but it is part of maturity both natural and spiritual. 
4. Winning souls and making disciples is being faithful with what we were given. Matthew 25:16,22, “Then he who had received the five talents went and traded with them, and made another five talents… His Lord said to him, “Well done, good and faithful servant; you were faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord.”
5. We are given the power of the Holy Spirit for the purpose of conquering the world. (Acts 1:8). This is what it is all about; us living our Christian lives outside the church and not just being good citizens but a good influence with the purpose of winning souls. We have the perfect opportunity to have a generation after us that will do greater things than we ever imagined. But for that to happen, we have to be intentional about disciple-making.

Sermon By Vladimir Savchuk; Blog By Edward Gardiner

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