A 10-Minute Discipleship How-To…Will You Write Down Your 12?

A Surprising Question from the Spirit

On a Friday morning last fall, a phrase from God echoed in my mind… "Who are my 12?" Who are the people God has given me a heart of discipleship for? Who are the ones I have an opportunity to influence to help them become more like Christ? After some time in prayer, I wrote the names of 12 people God brought to mind. Since then, I have been intentionally loving them in a variety of ways.

Will You Take the Challenge?

As followers of Christ, we should be intentional about discipleship: pouring our lives and faith into the lives of others so they can do the same with others still. Jesus modeled discipleship in the Bible, then he commanded it. Will you ask the Lord to give you the names of 6-12 people you can invest in over the next year? If you don’t know how to make disciples, or how to pray for others, here’s a starting point...write the names down and keep the list on your phone, in your prayer journal or someplace where you will be reminded to pray for them.

Once you've decided on these twelve names, add YOUR name to this list, so we can keep each other accountable and covered in prayer in our discipleship efforts. 

There is extraordinary joy in loving others towards Christ-likeness.

Imagine what it would look like if 5% of the world's Christians were intentional about discipleship, prayer, and loving others towards Christ-likeness. There would be a web of interconnectivity where people are being prayed for, served, loved, encouraged, inspired and instructed.

Jesus calls all of his people into a life of loving people with intentionality when he says…

 "As you go, make followers in all the nations..." (Matthew 28:19)

I suggest you include those who already follow Christ as well as those who haven't yet started. Every believer needs someone to pray for them, love them, encourage them and walk with them . This could include your spouse, your children, your grandchildren, someone in your small group, a relative in another state, a friend, etc.

Non-believers need this kind of love as well… someone to pray for them, love them and stand beside them. As you practice this consistently, others will sense Christ in you, the hope of glory.

Are you ready to invest in twelve people? 

Here are some doable ways to love the people God has sovereignly put in your life.

• Prayer: Pray that they would experience and know God’s fullness, truth and love. Let them know you are praying for them: send them prayers you have prayed for them, call them and pray with them.
• Scripture: Text a verse that just encouraged you. Invite them to read a portion of Scripture with you.
• Share: Send them simple resources that lets them know you are thinking of them...a book, a sermon message, an inspiring quote or video. Or if you really want to bend someone’s brain, send them a handwritten note.
• Care: 
  • If they are local, have them over, take them out to coffee, take a walk. Bring them with you for small slices of life so they can see how you follow Christ...to an event, service project, small group, church. 
  • If they are not local, Call, FaceTime, WhatsApp, Google hangout. Just don’t Zoom because we’re all Zoomed out. Leave that for business.
• Affirm. Let them know the qualities you see in them. Affirmation is a shot of emotional cortisone that is tragically rare in our marriages, families, churches, businesses and politics.
• Invite them to identify THEIR 12. This is the model of discipleship in the Bible!

When we are able to inspire others to identify their 12, the magic starts to happen. The numbers of people who are being loved with intentionality increases dramatically.

Will You Be in the First One Hundred?

The Lord has impressed me to ask for 100 people who will accept the challenge to make disciples and let me know. If you have prayed and written down your twelve names, I ask that you add your name to this list, so I can pray for you.

Objection

But isn’t this loving someone with an agenda? If we are honest, most love comes with an agenda. And most often it is a self-serving agenda. We love others because we want love in return. We love others because we want them to do something for us. We love others because we want them to like us (especially in parenting).

Wouldn't it be much wiser and more biblical to love others towards becoming more like Christ?

This was Paul's example in Colossians 1.

²⁴ Now I rejoice in what I am suffering for you, and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ’s afflictions, for the sake of his body, which is the church. ²⁵ I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness— ²⁶ the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people.

²⁷ To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. ²⁸ He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ. ²⁹ To this end I strenuously contend with all the energy Christ so powerfully works in me.

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