Disciples Practice Spiritual Disciplines

People who are disciples of Jesus practice spiritual disciplines.

The word discipline means training that develops self-control, character, and efficiency.

A disciple, then, is a person who, as he follows Jesus, allows Jesus to put certain disciplines in his life that will produce self-control, godly character and God-honoring works.

I want to focus on three disciplines that are mentioned specifically in the Gospels in relationship to the disciples of Jesus.

Luke 19:37
As He was drawing near - already on the way down the Mount of Olives - the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen.

Disciples worship Jesus.

We think of worship in terms of music and singing. But the word translated worship in the New Testament means to bow and kiss the hand of one out of reverence.

Worship is not just music. It is a an act of a person’s will to surrender to Jesus as Lord, serve Jesus with all that they have, and obey Jesus no matter what.

The acts of private and corporate worship help us to be disciplined or trained to live our lives in worship of God 24/7.

Disciples pray.

In Luke 11:1 Jesus was praying. When He had finished, His disciples asked Him to teach them to pray.

Jesus then gives them a model prayer. He didn’t intend for this prayer to be simply repeated. It was a model to help us to know what to pray for.

Jesus instructs His disciples to pray that God’s name will be honored. Jesus says to hallow God’s name. To hallow means to purify something. We are to purify God’s name by not using it in a common or profane way. We are to always honor and glorify God’s name because His name is who God is. We are to honor God. That has to be our first priority and out greatest desire.

Disciples are to pray for God’s kingdom to be established. Our goal as disciples is the establishing and growing of God’s kingdom. We are not to spend time or effort growing our kingdom.

Disciples are to pray for their daily needs. When we pray for our daily needs, it demonstrates our dependence on God, not ourselves, for everything we need. In 2 Peter 1:3 we are told that God has given us all we need to live a godly life. Praying for our daily needs shows that we believe all we need is found in Him. We are given freedom to pray for what we “need”, not what we might “want”.

Disciples pray for forgiveness of our sins. Disciples are not perfect, sinless, got-life-all-together people. Disciples are like all other human beings - sinners. Two things distinguish a disciple of Jesus from a person who is not a disciple.

First, disciples are forgiven because we have acknowledged our sin, repented of our sin and asked God to forgive us. The second is that we then become recovering sinners.

So, yes, disciples still need to seek God’s forgiveness.

Then disciples turn around and forgive.

How could we not forgive others? What we did in rejecting Jesus and making our own selves God is much worse that what anyone could ever to do us. When I compare what God has forgiven me for as compared to what I have been asked to forgive others for, it is the difference between asking someone for a penny or asking someone for a trillion dollars. My sin is the trillion dollar forgiveness.

Disciples pray to overcome temptation.

We are going to face temptation. We cannot avoid it.

Hebrews 4:15 says that Jesus was tempted in every way that you and I have been tempted, but He overcame all of the temptations He faced.

On my own, I will not overcome the temptations I face, so I need to pray so that Jesus’ power to overcome is enabling me to overcome. If I depend on my strength I will fail and let temptation lead to sin and sin leads to death.

There is another thing that Jesus taught His disciples to pray for that is found in Matthew 9:37-38. It says, “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few, therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’”

The harvest is God’s. We don’t make the harvest; God does. God gives us the privilege and responsibility to “harvest the harvest“. As Jesus’ disciples, we need to pray for more disciples to go and reap the harvest so more disciples can be produced.

Disciples serve.

When Jesus fed the five thousand and the four thousand, He blessed the bread and fish, He broke them and then He gave them to the disciples and they served the people.

The word serve in the New Testament means to execute the command of a superior to meet the needs of another.

According to Matthew 20:28, Jesus came to serve and He wants His disciples to follow His example.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is about letting Jesus form spiritual disciplines in us. The purpose is that we can exercise self-control, develop godly character, and effectively serve God.

Our ability to practice spiritual disciplines comes from the Spirit filling, enabling and controlling us. That only happens as we apply the truth of Luke 9:23: denying self, taking up our cross daily, and following Jesus.

Spiritual disciplines come only by surrendering everything to Lord Jesus.

By Godly Discipline Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls
Joe