¶ Discipleship Made Easy
Hey , welcome to Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha . We are so pumped that you're tuning into this podcast . It has been designed for people just like you . We wanna do life with you , share our wins , our defeats , our ups and our downs , in hopes that you'll grow closer to God and to the people that you love in your life . Sit back and enjoy today's podcast .
Hey , what's up everybody ? Hey , everyone , welcome to Doing Life with Ken and Tabitha 24 years of marriage . We have been 24 years .
It would be actually 25 years this year it will , and we believe that we are about to celebrate . We are just growing up , babe 20th a quarter of a century .
Oh snap , you have had to put up with me . I was gonna say I have had to put up with you , but then people will tear me up in the comments section because they love you so much . But anyway , welcome everybody to Doing Life .
Change the topic With Ken and .
Tabitha , we are so pumped , you know , we pray all the time and we say God , would you please send people from around the world , help them find our podcast .
Amen .
You can use this as a tool to restore marriages . Bless marriages help marry people , single people alike . So we don't believe that you're watching this or hearing this by accident . We do believe in divine connections .
Absolutely so . We just wanna say thank you for doing life with us , but then also send in your testimonies . Let us know how God is working in your life . Let us know if you're doing some of the tips that we give you . When it you know as it comes to marriage , parenting , just life in general . We wanna hear about it .
Amen , we wanna hear about it . You can find our email address in the show notes . All right , now . Today is a special , special , special day . We're gonna talk about discipleship Now at our church , it is the year of multiplication . Those of you all who are connected with us , you've been hearing this word multiply .
We've been talking about multiplying disciples , and today we're gonna talk about discipleship made easy . But before we get into that , you know we have a couple of things that are coming up , and this is probably the biggest thing that we've released as Ken and Tabitha before . You know , we have a desire to make marriages better .
Yes .
And our goal is to help bad marriages become good , good marriages become great and great marriages to become out of this world . Out of this world and I'm happy to announce that on February , the 1st , we are launching . We are launching the Better Marriage Bootcamp .
Better Marriage .
Online Bootcamp , y'all . That's right . Let us know you like that in the chat and I hope that you do , because so many of you guys have been reaching out to us through DMs and emails and the question has been do you guys counsel ? Will you guys counsel our marriage ? Do you do one-on-one counseling ? And of course we couldn't scale that .
Yes .
For hundreds or thousands of people . But what we've decided to do is we've put hours upon hours into a 12 part bootcamp . It's gonna be a 90 day journey to make your marriage better .
You can go through it as a couple , you can go through it by yourself and you're gonna wanna get ready , because we are launching that on February the 1st , okay , and we'll have more information about it and I believe it's gonna be transformed .
It's gonna be good . We worked hard on it .
We did and .
I think it's gonna be a blessing . We really did . We really did .
Today's episode is entitled Discipleship Made Easy , because sometimes discipleship seems hard . It's something that we know we should do . We hear about the Great Commission , but for some reason many of us we just don't know how to mentor others . We don't know how to make disciples , and we wanna make it as easy as possible today .
So the subtitle is how to Make Disciples , and we're gonna give you practical steps to be able to influence the people around you in a very godly way . I wanna start today with some definitions . Sweetheart , how would you define a disciple ? What is a disciple to you ?
Well , biblically , a disciple is a follower of Jesus . So I would say that number one .
Okay , you got a number two .
I think number two , a disciple is , I guess , a follower of anyone Like I can well .
That's true .
I mean , john had disciples you know , but we wouldn't call them disciples yeah , they're really following the Jesus in us .
If you take the spiritual part away and you just say what is a disciple ? Yes , it is a learner who follows . That's what I would say . I would say a learner who follows . I mean , I think the original root word comes from the word discipline , so disciples have discipline . They're student . They are a student , so they're .
Also one of the definitions would be a scholarly approach to it . But I think , if I was to make it simple , it is a learner who follows . It's not just a follower . It's a learner , meaning that it's a person who is gathering information . But it's not just a learner , it's also a follower .
So I like to say it this way A disciple is best defined as a learner who follows , because discipleship is more than a class , it's more than the transfer of information . It is initiating or imitating the life , embracing the values and reproducing the teaching of the one we follow .
And in the context that we are speaking of , we are talking about being more like Jesus , or following the example of Jesus , or being a disciple of Jesus . And you know , what I've learned is that you cannot be like Jesus , and I believe that many people , if they're a believer , you wanna be like Jesus . He's the trendsetter , he's the goal .
You cannot be like Jesus if you don't make disciples . We have to learn how to multiply ourselves . Wow , okay .
That's really good .
I wanna define discipleship . How would you define discipleship ?
Discipleship would be . I would think I would define I don't know the process of making disciples .
Okay , I like that . I like that . I'll give a practical definition that we'll use for the rest of today . It's helping other people grow in their walk with Jesus .
I like that .
It's exactly what you said .
I was looking for . Yeah , I was looking for that version , but I couldn't find it . Don't look too hard , just get me what you got off top of your head .
Yeah , it's helping other people grow in their walk with Jesus , and this is what I want everybody to know . Please hear me , please hear me , mike Drop . Discipleship is one of the most rewarding , fulfilling experiences that you will ever have in your life .
Amen .
Discipleship , let me say it again , is one of the most rewarding , fulfilling experiences For those of you all who feel like you're stuck spiritually , you feel like you're not growing spiritually and your life with God is so , so you need to make disciples , all right , and so for us , you know , before I was a pastor , I was in real estate .
I knew we owned a real estate brokerage and when I first got into real estate you know I'm selling houses , I'm living outside of Washington DC , merlin , virginia area , and right now , of course , we live in Orlando , florida but back then I lived in Washington DC and I was working with a guy .
So I was selling houses and I did business with a mortgage banker and the mortgage banker was a great businessman , I mean , he had great rates and he closed deals on time . But he was an atheist and he would let you know I'm an atheist . He wasn't one of those atheists that would like attack Christians or anything like that .
He just would let you know I'm an atheist . I do not believe that there is a God , all right . But I continued to work with him because I just felt led to . I felt like I wanted to be a light in his life and , honestly , he was just really good at what he did . I mean he closed deals on time , and that's important when you're trying to sell homes .
If you miss a settlement date , people are frantic , okay , and so I would invite him to church and invite him into spiritual moments all the time . You know , week after week went by , a month after month Almost probably years have went by . I'm just kind of sowing a seed here and there . Hey , do you want to come to church with me ? Hey , what about this ?
And he wasn't very interested . And then it came to an Easter weekend , all right , after probably a couple years of this , and the Holy Spirit gave me something wise to do . He said I want you to invite your friend over , my atheist friend over for Easter dinner , and you can cook . I mean , you can cook , that's crazy .
Actually , it's one of the ways that you won me back in the day . I remember like it was yesterday , the first meal that you made me .
What did I make you , babe ?
French toast scrambled eggs , and I think it was some kind of bacon or something there too .
No , it was a vegetarian so I didn't make you any meat , but it's French toast , scrambled eggs and breakfast potatoes .
And we didn't spend the night together .
I came over for breakfast that morning .
That was true , and you made me some breakfast and my life has never been the same again , but anyway . So like this one , we can cook y'all I'm talking about from scratch . Everything I'm talking about you . The best is homemade . Yeah well , you can just give her some potatoes . Ain't no potatoes out of the box . Give her some potatoes .
She's gonna be up there mashing the potatoes , making some potatoes . You know . You give her some flowers , she's gonna turn it into some bread . So make some cornbread , just give her some flowers some sugar she's gonna start mixing stuff Anyway . So my friend , my atheist mortgage banking friend , he knew you could cook .
So I said hey , I want you to come over to my house for Easter dinner , but first I want you to come to Easter Sunday service with me After all this time . He agreed and so I remember going through the service and you know how you are you're just praying like God . Do something At the end of the service .
I was believing with you . I remember .
The pastor says every head bowed , every eye closed . If you wanna give your heart to Jesus , please lift up your hand . And my friend's hand went up . My atheist friend hand went up and back in the old school church we would have you come to the front Like after you open up your eyes .
Okay , I want you guys to come here and then we would escort you to another .
Another room .
Another room so that we could pray for you . And so my friend , I saw him going out , and so me and you , after church was over , we went up to this prayer room and we were just waiting on him to come out and this guy's probably I don't know 275 pounds , used to be an MMA ultimate fighter kind of guy . I mean , it's a big old guy .
He comes out of the door with tears in his eyes and he's like Ken I don't believe this God is real . And I said what happened . He says man , I was sitting there and the pastor started to say who wants to give their life to Jesus , please lift up your hand . And this is what he said .
I felt my hand going up and I didn't need to mean for it to really be going up . And he gave his heart to Jesus that day . And then he went into the back and when they was praying after salvation , they say well , do you want to be filled with the Holy Spirit ? Do you want to pray with the ?
And he didn't know really what that was , but he just agreed , yeah , and they prayed with him and he got filled with the Holy Spirit and began to pray in other tongues . And so he comes out of the back room and he's like I'm praying . He didn't even know how to pray in English . He knew how to pray in other
¶ The Power of Discipleship
tongues . I think sometimes we make spiritual things too hard and all God is looking for is childlike faith . He had never read the Bible , he didn't have any objections to anything . God just filled him with the Spirit . Right , he was atheist two minutes ago . Now he saved and Spirit filled and he goes on .
And so I continue to disciple him , mentor him , pray with him , help him understand the things of God , and he ends up becoming a pastor . And you know what ? There is no greater feeling than that and I just believe that every believer , you need to experience that .
You need to experience you inviting somebody to church , them getting baptized , them getting into growth , track them , starting to serve on teams , god starting to renew their mind , change their marriage , and just to know that you had a small part to plate this .
And that's better than drugs , that's better than alcohol , that's better than hitting a lot , the fact that you are going to make an eternal difference , that God would so choose you as a broken , imperfect vessel to minister and to be a conduit to help somebody else find him .
I'm just letting y'all know I don't know what your goals are this year , but there is nothing like making disciples .
This is absolutely true . You know , that's such a beautiful story and I think that's one story , but there have been many people like that that you and I have discipled , called into our homes , let live with us , and God used them and God was able to bless their lives .
Now , not everyone ended up being a pastor , you know , called into five-fold ministry , but a lot of people went on to get married . A lot of people went on to find successful jobs , buy homes , go to college , things like that , and it's just there's nothing like it .
You know , I think one of the I don't know the marriage is one of the greatest , like the greatest relationship in our lives , right , like so much happiness that you get from marriage .
I think the second relationship is parenting , like the relationship between a parent and the child , and I think discipleship is the closest that we can get to that parenting relationship , to where you give birth to this child and you see them go from a baby to an adult , to see them get married , to see them get a job , to see them graduate college , you know ,
to see them have successes in life . There's nothing like it .
Discipleship is like that To see them become a follower of Jesus like a fully devoted , committed follower of Jesus , to know that God would use you as a tool there is nothing greater , nothing like it . But what I found out is that many people are disciples that do not make disciples .
They've accepted Jesus but they haven't come to the place where they're helping other people accept Jesus , meaning that I don't believe that we're healed for us . He healed us so that we can heal somebody else . We're not saved just for us . We've been saved so we can help somebody else get saved .
He didn't deliver us from all the things that he did just for us . He did it so that we could go and help somebody else , meaning that part of our assignment and responsibility is to actually pay it forward .
Can I point this out ? The story that you just told ? You invited your friend to church and he got saved . You discipled him before you were a pastor , before you were a minister , you were just a believer .
I'm just a believer . I'm just a believer , and that's what believers should do .
That's what we do .
Believers should be multiplying . We like baby's kids . We don't die , we multiply . We everywhere influencing everything government , media , everywhere we are . We are light in a dark world . People do not understand us cause they don't see what we see , and once upon a time we didn't see what we see right now either .
People say well , why are you so excited about Jesus ? Cause I was blind . Come on , and now I see , and I want everybody to be able to see as well , and I know some people like the dark , but the light is a whole lot better than the dark .
And listen , sweetheart , I know this is a marriage relationship podcast , but you know , what I really believe is that when we get better , the marriage will get better . And I know this year we've actually started off with just like spiritual topics . Why ? Because if we grow , every relationship around us will grow .
If we become more like Jesus , we will be in a much better position to love people . Your husband , your wife , like Jesus , would love us . And sometimes I feel like we're just looking for things Like give me 10 things to fix my marriage , give me five things to do about my marriage . No , fix your heart , yeah , you know .
Start to develop the fruit of the spirit , develop kindness . Like you grow as a human being , you start making disciples . It's just something about just whatever the Bible says . That's what I want to be .
And it like floods every other area of our lives . And I think that whenever you take the focus off of yourself and you can put your attention to someone else , to serve someone else , to do the work of the Lord in someone else's life , I think it's you know what you focus on will magnify , or you know , will you know you'll get more of that .
As husband and wife . Sometimes we don't have anyone that we're pouring into . We don't have any service that we're doing in life .
We're not taking all of this good stuff that we have and giving it into somebody else and all we do is sit around and look at each other , nitpicking each other and , you know , trying to make ourselves into like this perfect being when we're never going to get there . Until you know when you get there , it'll be time to go home and see Jesus .
So we won't get there till we go home .
Until you go . Yeah , you're right , and so , anyway , I guess I'm saying , if we could put our direction toward discipling and maybe helping other people in their lives , then maybe we'll put down the our rocks and stop throwing them at each other .
Here's the deal .
¶ Discipleship
This podcast is a marriage mentorship podcast . When you strip it all back , it's all basically relationship coaching . And what I found out as the host is that when I feed others , I feed myself , meaning that when I help other people get better in their relationship , I automatically get better in my relationship .
A lot of people , they just wanna feed , feed , feed , feed , feed . They wanna be fed , they wanna be fed , they wanna be fed . But the way that you actually grow is that you eat and you feed . One of the ways that you can make disciples is just by taking this podcast and paying it forward .
Come on Gathering people that you work with and start to sit down and watch it together .
Put other married people at your house , sit down , watch the podcast together and break out into some questions and say what happens that very accountability that there's somebody coming over your house every seven days that you have to minister to and you have to make them better .
Actually , when you start making other people better , god uses that seed to bring a harvest into your life , to make you better . That's why discipleship is so important . We have not been called to consume , consume , consume , because every organism needs an input and an output and there's too many people that are spiritually bloated because they come to church .
Feed me . I want a better song . I need another message , I need another podcast , I need another book . But what are you doing with the information ? To pay it forward into somebody else's life ?
If you get hold of this , this thing will change . It'll change your life . Would you call this podcast that we're doing on marriage ? Would you call this a form of discipleship ?
It's a form of discipleship and there's many forms of discipleship . Reading somebody's book is a form of discipleship . Sitting in the congregation is a form of discipleship . It's not the closest form , but it is a form . A podcast this is a form of discipleship because you can learn and you can also follow If you want to take it closer to Jesus .
I mean , people say , well , we want to make disciples like Jesus . That means you want to leave your job and your family and just follow a man around and not have any money and we just going to go out on the street and preach and believe people to provide for us . So we don't need to be exactly how .
Jesus wasn't just raising up disciples , he was raising up future apostles . The expectation or the cost for that is much higher . He was raising up not just future apostles but the first apostles of the Lamb . They were the people that would be martyred . The cost was extremely high .
So we don't look at Jesus and say , oh , we have to make disciples just like he did leave everything and follow me but we look at Jesus and say , oh , what we learned is proximity . He let people close to him . What we learned is consistency . What we learned is . Sometimes he talked in parables and sometimes he spoke plainly .
What we learned is he exemplified certain things before people . What we learned is that he should or tapped certain people and say hey , come with me . The principles apply to us today . I'm feeling myself getting excited . Can I give you a scripture to back this up ? Matthew 28, . Do y'all know what Matthew 28 ? What would you define Matthew 28 ?
As I'm thinking something , let's see if you can read my mind 25 years of marriage .
Matthew 28, . The great commission .
Come on somebody . She got it . I don't know how I got that , because I don't do numbers . I don't do numbers in scriptures . We've been married so long .
I just felt like we're talking about discipleship . It has to be the great commission .
Have you ever been at dinner with somebody like your spouse and they saying something that you don't want them to say and you just kind of pressing up against them ? Or you like you're trying to squeeze her , like please don't say that , please don't say that , or you're just trying to transfer what's in my mind into your mind . Somehow you got it .
I'm so proud of you .
Well , thank you it worked .
This is the great commission , everybody , somebody say the great commission .
The great commission .
And some people will say this Jesus's last command is our first concern , even though this wasn't really his last command , but it should be our first concern . This is what it says Verse 18 through 20, . Then Jesus came to them and said all authority in heaven on earth has been given unto me .
Therefore , go and make disciples of all nations , baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit , and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you , and surely I'm with you always , even to the end of the age . Talk to me , sweetheart . What jumps out to you when you read the great commission ?
Man go and make disciples . That , of course , because we're talking about it . But he didn't stop at making disciples .
I think he kind of showed us the definition of what it is to make a disciple , baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son of the Holy Spirit , teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you , and so I think that there's spiritual things involved in this .
It's not just like I own a business and I'm gonna teach them how to do what I do in business .
That's a form of mentorship .
It's a form of mentorship .
Now , you could have a mentorship in your you can have a trainer physical body , you can have a mentorship in business , you can have a mentor . What we're talking about is discipleship , which is the overarching thing . Mentorship is a part of discipleship , but this is the spiritual portion of it .
So those spiritual things such as baptizing and teaching them the word of God yeah , he said everything that I've commanded you Come on everything .
There's a lot of work to do , and so here's a few things that I highlight from this passage . Number one this is what we commonly refer to as the Great Commission . Now , what is a Great Commission ? It is Jesus commissioning his disciples . Excuse me , my nose is itchy . It is Jesus giving his disciples a commandment or an assignment . Watch this .
Not just disciples back then , but every disciple that will come after them have been commissioned the same , so we don't . As a believer , if you are a follower of Jesus , you do not get the privilege to say discipleship is for somebody else . Discipleship is for them , pastors , discipleship is for the bishops and the reverends .
No , if you are a born again believer , when you stand before Jesus , you will give an account of the Great Commission . How did you go and make disciples ? It's a Great Commission . Number two I see that we are called to go . That is an action word . An action word it is a verb go , in contrast to like coming .
Many people in churches say well , we just want the world to come . The world ain't coming unless you first go . Now the scripture says there's this example about people going to the highways and byways and compelling people to come . But you first have to go before they come . We can't just say come , we have to go before they come .
That means that the gospel now has to go out of your church and to the streets . It has to go out of this room and to around the world . It is . We are commissioned to go . And then I like this last part .
Number three our God given assignment is to make disciples , make disciples , come on , make disciples make disciples , and I want to highlight these two words together , because disciples don't just fall off a tree , they have to be made . Disciples aren't just born , disciples are made . So , we've been called to make disciples .
Just like you make a cake , the butter and the batter and the sugar don't just mix itself , the batter don't just jump in the oven and the cake don't just jump in your mouth . You have to go and make the cake and you got to put it in the oven . You got to cut the cake . You got to put the cake in your mouth .
Just like you make a cake , you have to learn to make disciples .
You know what I know about making cakes .
Come on , I know , you know .
I know you know what I mean . It's not always a clean process . Things get messy and so flour flies up everywhere . You got to crack the eggs , you got eggshells . You always have to clean up , and that's the worst part for me .
I love to make the cake , but I don't like cleaning it up , and so I think , when it comes to making disciples , you got to understand that it's going to get messy , but that's just the part of the process .
I like that . That was really good , thank you .
Real discipleship is messy .
Because people aren't a program . They're people Meaning that what took you three months to get out of might take somebody else three years . And you're going to have to be patient enough to go through the messiness of life with them to help a disciple be made , absolutely . Don't miss the point . Disciples are made , they're made , they're made .
And so what I like and people don't like this , but Jesus is no longer making disciples , he has commissioned us to do it . People don't like the way it's saying , but it's true . He's going to help us , he's going to empower us and , ultimately , to him be all the glory .
We're co-laborers together .
Jesus is partnering with us as we put our hand to the plow and we have to go and we have to make some , and I think Jesus has the harder part .
I think , it's the easier part for us to just go and open up our mouth , have the conversation , kind of do what we know is
¶ The Power and Importance of Discipleship
right . Jesus is the one that supplies the power , the anointing . You know how sometimes I've heard it say that we are fishermen for Christ , and so sometimes you catch a fish in order to eat it . You have to clean it up and you know you do all this stuff to prepare it . But as for us , we're just the fishermen .
We don't have to cut it up and clean it and do surgery and all of this stuff . So when we're making disciples it's kind of like we just have to be willing to catch the fish . That means let me invite you into my own home , let me go out and have conversations with you , let me have phone calls with you . God is going to clean them up .
I'm going to present you with the gospel . But the gospel , the word of God , has the power to cleanse , to bring about righteousness , to bring a thirst and a hunger for holiness .
Yeah , I mean , I think in that perspective that's true . I would just give another angle , because there's a part of me that knows that believes that Jesus is by the right hand of the Father , forever making intercession .
He's kind of in a position of rest and so I feel like that we do have a part to play and it's not to say like our part is harder than Jesus' part . What I'm saying is that I think that's the reason people don't make disciples because they don't know that it is going to require an investment of your time .
Absolutely .
It is going to require you being on the phone , you opening up your home . It is going to require a lot of you .
Yeah , and what I meant was it's going to be hard work , it's messy , it's hard work , but God has the harder work , which is the spiritual part .
We just have to put our faith out there . Okay , why do you think discipleship is so important ?
How will we know ? Let someone tell us . How will we know , unless we hear someone's testimony ? How will we know the word of God unless it's preached ?
Yeah , for me I feel like the gospel is the most powerful thing in all of the universe Pfizer , pfizer , pfizer . It's one thing to like win people to Jesus , but they're babies , but it's a whole another thing when you help babies mature and they become an army .
And I think that there is a step from like the cradle to like becoming a family , to a family becoming an army , and I think that many people they get stuck in just being a babe , like they really don't know how to pray , they really have a trouble with generosity , they really , you know , and because of that , satan is actually able to have more influence than
what he should . What I mean by that is that and I said this before and I mean it that Satan's kingdom is multiplying . It's not a biblical statement . It's more of a prophetic statement , meaning that when churches are getting smaller , when wars are happening and more people are living in sexual immorality , his kingdom is getting larger .
Okay , how do you stop his kingdom from getting larger or having more influence ? You have to win people out of darkness to light , and the more disciples that are made , that's when his kingdom is divided . That's when his kingdom is subtracted . So when you multiply the kingdom of God , you divide the kingdom of darkness .
When you multiply the kingdom of God , you subtract from the kingdom of darkness . And the greatest way to multiply the kingdom of God are disciples . We should be like baby kids . We should be multiplying .
We should be in every area where we're raising up people and then sending them out , and then raising up people and sending them out , and then raising up people and sending them out . And I can give you many different reasons of why that doesn't happen in many churches and in many camps . I mean that could be a whole another podcast .
I think we coddle people too long . I think we let them be on the bottle way too long . I think that we don't matter of fact . I think many churches today are pastoral instead of apostolic .
And if you have a pastoral anointing in your church , everybody just wants the pastor to come to the hospital , come to the wedding , come to the funeral and come pray for me .
But if your church is apostolic , it will be more like we're doing all these things to raise you out , to go and shake nations , and so under the apostles there should be a level of pastoring so that people are shepherd at well , but we need the apostolic anointing , because that's the one that breaks the ground of the principalities and goes into the nations and
to make sure , and so all of these fivefold ministry gifts are supposed to be working in this beautiful harmony and this beautiful orchestra . We need prophets , we need teachers , we need pastors , we need evangelists , we need apostles , and all of these fivefold ministry gifts are the divine graces of Christ himself .
So , when we step into these offices , jesus was a apostle , prophet , teacher , evangelist . He was all of the manifestation of these , and we need all of them in operation or we have a church that's more of a fraternity than a church . It's more of a , let's have a potluck dinner , and I don't have a problem with potluck dinners .
I don't have a problem with us just having fun in the church . But , if that community doesn't turn into an army . We're actually stopping short of what our assignment is to do , and discipleship is the key .
It's so good . I'm just , as you're , saying , all that fivefold ministry apostolic anointing . I just hear the scripture that we read , where Jesus said make disciples go and teach them everything , everything , everything . I have taught you .
Man , I just feel this in my spirit because you know we ain't talking about any of this . This is just flowing out when I read the Bible . There's a scripture that says something like freely you receive , freely give . And there's a scripture that says heal the sick , cleanse the leper , cast out devils graze the dead .
And the average Christian doesn't look to do any of that . They just look to go to another class or another small group . Where is the training to heal the sick ? We all should be healing the sick . You wanna see his kingdom come . We all should be raising the dead , or at least have that kind of faith . We all should be casting out devils .
I just mentioned about casting out devils in a group of Christians and a lady looked at me like oh my God , what is that and why are you saying that ? Because , it's in the Bible . Have you not read it ?
And the average Christian , unfortunately , right now has been coddled and it's more of a social club than a kingdom of heaven invading this domain , and I believe that this discipleship in a podcast like this is the key . Where people are , stuff is happening right now . Things are being turned on . That was turned off . We're moving from production into power .
This is a great harvest of souls on this way . I love what you said about the power and the casting out demons , the healing of the sick , because the example that you gave of the man who became a pastor that same day now we weren't ordained or anything like that .
Okay , so this is what happened later on on Easter Sunday , after we left the church , we came home to eat the food and my food was cooking .
It smelled like turkey and stuffing and apple pies smelling wonderful , but before we ate , what did you say ? You said well , let's pray . It was a setup .
We said let's pray Listen , and we ain't gonna pray like no little names . Lord , please bless the food , Amen .
We were not pastor Tabitha , we were not pastor Ken , we were real estate company .
We were filled with the Holy Spirit and we were believers and you want to tell a story .
Go ahead , go ahead . You're gonna take over anyway , but I'm going to butt in .
So you go ahead and tell it you can take over . You know you had a spirit to take over .
Okay , well , I'll start and then y'all gonna see him take over . Okay , so we came home he said would you mind if we pray ? So we just start praying . And actually I don't know how we started praying for him , but probably you initiated it .
Oh , you're gonna say the story . Right , let me tell it , okay , because I don't remember it . She ain't you gotta set this thing up .
Okay no-transcript .
¶ The Power of Making Disciples
Probably 15 to 20 people at our house . On the table . There's turkey steam coming off the turkey . There's stuffing macaroni and cheese . The thing smells delicious . But I say let's pray . And I said everybody grab hands , so we get in a big circle . I know people think we about to eat . We start praying , right , I start praying . I start praying .
And my atheist friend was there , right , and I said come here , man , we just got saved .
We just got saved . We're with the spirit .
He got saved one hour ago . He's in my home . I said come here , we're gonna pray for you , man . I laid my hands on this dude , 275 pound man and I said in the name of Jesus , you will be everything God's called you to be . I said God is developing you a wife right now . I said the hand of the potter is on the wheel .
The potter's hands on the wheel .
I said he's even removing the taste of cigars from your mouth . I said that this man fell out . He fell out by the power of God in the middle of my living room . Knocked the couch over . This man didn't even believe in Jesus about an hour and a half ago . Now he's falling out in the middle . Now the turkey is still on the dining room table .
It is steaming . People are smelling the turkey . This man has fallen out .
We forgot about the turkey .
We were like the kingdom of heaven is at hand , and then we had some other radical friends to start praying for somebody . There was one young lady that was there and she was pregnant with a child and she was actually thinking about an abortion , and the person came up and started praying over her feet and say this child should live and not die .
That baby is alive today . That baby is alive and well .
Today I'm talking about the kingdom shall come . You know what I'm saying . This man got up from that encounter and didn't smoke cigars no more . He told me the taste left my mouth whenever I got up . He was an atheist an hour and a half ago .
Come on See , when every believer starts acting like that , yeah , that stops wars , that transforms nations , communities , blocks , that dumps out your prison system .
When we know who we are as ambassadors of Christ and we don't just have a potluck dinner and we ain't going bowling and fishing together , but we're praying that the fire that fell when Elijah prayed starts falling again right now . So when we talk about raising up an army , we can list you if you want to . This is part of the training process , you know .
I grew up in a very main line Protestant traditional church . When you talk about the Holy Spirit , people weren't falling out . Nobody prayed in other tongues , and so I could have said I could have rejected it , like many people do . Or I could say you know what ? I read the Bible and I ain't seeing the Bible lived out . Where is the God of Elijah ?
Where is the God of Abraham ?
Isaac and Jacob . But I think that's why a lot of people aren't making disciples because they don't see the power in it . They don't know about the power in it , and I think that I'll be a part of a team . I don't want to be on a team that's losing .
I don't want to be on a team that's sick all the time , about problems all the time like you know all of this . I don't want to be on that team that lacks power . But show me the gospel . Show me that I can cast out demons in the name of Jesus so many . Show me people getting out of the hospital , getting out of the sick bed .
Show me that I want to be on that team .
Here's the deal , and that shouldn't be the abnormality , that should be the norm .
This should be the normal believer . It happens daily . We're going to help us get there .
I think we're going to do a podcast within the next few weeks of how to have a spirit filled marriage . And on the inside of that . We will go over with you guys . Check this out , if you haven't seen it yet and you're watching the playback of this . We're going to talk to you about the baptism of the Holy Spirit and how to begin to walk in power .
For the sake of time , I want to jump into how to make disciples and I'm going to kind of breeze through these . Those of you all who are taking notes write these things down or listen to the playback , but this is how this is the practical . This is discipleship made easy .
Number one you got to pray for those around you Because discipleship is a spiritual thing and you want God to lead you to people who want to grow in Jesus . Pray for your neighbors , man , pray for your supervisor , pray for your coworkers , pray for your family members that do not believe yet .
Pray that their hearts be softened and that God removes the blindfolds this world has placed on their eyes , so that the light of the gospel can burst forth in . So many things will happen in prayer . Anything on that , jump in whenever you want . Number two be kind and approachable .
All right , if you want to make disciples , have a demeanor that people want to be around . Don't make people feel less than I think . That's religion , where you think you're the man and everybody else is beneath you . I don't want anybody in our audience to feel like that . I want to lift them up . I want them to go further than me .
That's what a disciple is . That's what a spiritual father is . I want my kids to excel me . I want you to go further , faster than me . So be kind , be kind , be approachable , be a likable person .
I just saw something on social media and there was this woman and she was a Christian and she was singing on the plane and it was like the stewardess was like , hey , stop doing this . And she was like , well , I won this award and I won that award and I'm a Christian , so I'm going to sing , I'm being led to sing . I'm like that is a turn off .
Just be quiet , be kind , be approachable , be life giving . You make disciples . Number three you got to be fruitful . Most people want to follow people that are successful . Nobody's signing up for your class . If you can't pay your bills , you can't keep yourself together . We have to grow , and so we want fruit .
Jesus said it this way you will know a tree by its fruit . A bad tree produces bad fruit . Good tree produces what Fruit ? Good ? Fruit we need to be fruit inspectors .
And I want to say that you need to be fruitful . It doesn't , it's not like the size of your fruit . That means that you don't have to own your own business . Own a million dollar home , have a million dollars in the bank , drive a certain car . To be fruitful Because you can make a disciple on whatever level of life that you're in .
You could be a student in high school , you could be a student in college and still be fruitful to make disciples .
Oh , when I'm talking about fruitfulness , I'm not just talking about financial fruitfulness . That's just one part of fruitfulness . Have the fruit of the spirit . Have kindness , meekness , temperance , long suffering . I mean , have some fruit in the things you've prayed for . You actually have some manifestation . Just have fruit .
¶ Practical Steps for Discipleship
Number four would be invite other people into the relationship and so create spaces where people feel included instead of excluded . You know , just be that kind of person where people don't have to measure up to be around you Invite .
You know always said like this now , me and you , back in the day before we were pastors , we knew how to get a room of people , whether it was I remember we had a party for the Mike Tyson fight when he bit off Holyfield's ear , and we would do Cheesecake Factory we just knew how to get people together and my rule was always to try to have 80 , 20 , 80%
of people in the room that's already saved and 20% of the people that's trying to figure it out and they not saved yet . Now I don't think that we should just be hanging out 100% of people , just church people . We just praying for each other , casting the devil out of each other . Nobody's getting affected , we just , it's always just us .
And I don't think the room should be 50 , 50 , because then it's gonna get ungodly . They gonna start sleeping around with each other and you just gonna be crazy .
But if you can try to keep it somewhere around 80 , 20 , basically , your unsafe friends will come over your house to your barbecue and be like oh my God , you guys are different Because right now Christians are getting a bad rap , because that's what Satan's job is to do he is to make us to look foolish , narrow and judgmental . And it's not true .
That's the lie . That's what he is . He's a master deceiver .
But when you invite people into Christian spaces and they all of a sudden feel valued , seen and loved and they have fun without the drinking and the smoking and the booty shaking , all of a sudden , they're like oh my God , they was lying about y'all and then they wanna join see , and so we need to know how to invite other people into relationship .
Yeah , and I think I love what you said about being inclusive and not exclusive .
Sometimes we can just have a circle of friends or a group of friends , like , for example , you could have a group of friends that you go exercise with and a group of friends that you go over these are your friends from high school back in the day and these are your friends that you go to church with , what I do . Like . I've never had friends like that .
And even as husband and wife , you can have your friends and I can have my friends . We always came together and was just like okay , your friends are my friends , these are our friends , and when we get together , our friends are going to come and we get them all together .
And even me , as a woman , if I had , like you know , a few girlfriends or whatever , I would introduce my girlfriends to my girlfriends you know what I mean and we would come together .
So you make your friends friends .
Yeah , I make my friends friends and so now it's like I'm not just like I got a disciple this person over here and this disciple over here , like everyone's a disciple and it's wearing me out . No , we all come together in a group and I lead the group .
You know whether we're going to the movies today and we're going to go out to eat , okay , and like we just disciple to the masses so to say . And so I think I don't know , it's just a way to do it so good .
Number five practicality be available . Okay , we can talk about this more later , but you cannot make disciples if you so busy and you so . You see , this has to do with margin in your time and people have made time for you . Now you have to make time to make disciples . You have to make time .
Sometimes our schedule is so busy with us our four no more that we just don't have time to make disciples , and so I think this year we need to relook at our calendars and say can I make some more space for people ? Number six is look for discipleship opportunities , and what I want people to hear is that discipleship opportunities are not just in the church .
When the Bible says , go and make disciples , the spirit of the scripture is to go outside of your community , to where people are . Win them to Jesus , make disciples , then bring them into your community . The average person just thinks of discipleship in a small group , like Christians that are ministering to Christians and we pray for each other .
The rest of our lives were in the same small group for 30 years and we cast the devil out of each other for 30 years and we pray for each other for 30 years , and there's something powerful about community . I'm not gonna take , thank God for 30 year relationship with people where you can walk together .
But the commission is not just for us to be in our small groups . It's actually for us to go to where unsafe people are , get them saved wherever they are , make disciples wherever they are and then invite them to be a part of our army and equip them to do the work of the ministry .
Number seven is be patient , cause in order to make disciples , you're gonna have to be patient .
You know , I just had a friend of mine that I know for four years and I don't think he would mind me saying it's my barber and he's been my barber for about four years and I love this man , he's just a good dude and he told me this was just like just a little bit ago , like a couple weeks ago .
He says , hey , since conference I quit drinking and smoking and I thought to myself , man , that is amazing , what a powerful testimony . But I've been walking with him for four years . Now I can sit there and I can judge him and say , man , I gave that up in four days and this done took you four years .
Or I can say , man , I'm patient with you , and you know what the crazy thing is ? I never brought it up to him . I knew that it was happening . I mean I could smell it sometimes , but I never brought it up to him because I knew God was working on him . I knew he just needed me and his life .
I just needed him to stay connected to the church and at some point God would do what God always does . And I think sometimes we write people off too soon because we just don't have patience .
It's so true and I picture myself , you know , when I was 20 years old , 21 years old , when I didn't know things , and I'm just so thankful that God didn't give up on me and God wasn't judging me and be like well , I just quit on her . But sometimes we can do that we can forget where we were and then we don't understand someone else's perspective .
We haven't walked a mile in their shoes . What they've been through , what they're currently going through , yeah , so good .
I'll give you one more and this is maybe the most important one and I hope for you guys . Please leave comments , let us know if this has been good for you , share this information and this is just practical stuff of how to make disciples . Number eight is practice spirit-led discipleship .
And I wanna do a lot of teaching on spirit-led discipleship Because when I look at discipleship and here's what's funny it was prophesied over me here recently that God's given me a blueprint for discipleship that pastors would come from around the world to learn how we make disciples here . I've received that by faith .
I don't feel like I know everything or I know a lot , but I do feel like I got it . I feel like it's in my spirit and the more I talk about discipleship , hopefully y'all can hear it coming out . But there's something about spirit-led discipleship .
What I mean is that discipleship is not cookie cutter , it's not a 12 step program , it is not a class that you graduate from and then never think about it again , cause every person has individual experiences , backgrounds , anointings and futures . So you have to handcraft or be spirit-led to disciple people how they need to be discipled .
It's what I call spirit-led discipleship . What my atheist friend needed is not what my barber needed .
And what my barber needed isn't what this person over here needed , and so my job is to , when I'm making a disciple , to do a quick inventory of just letting them close to me , play basketball , go fishing , come over the house , hang out , build a relationship to the place where now I can tell they want my help .
Sometimes they might ask me first , or sometimes I might ask permission hey , do you mind if I help you grow in Jesus ? Okay , Then what I wanna do is only take about one , two or three things that I feel like are the major things that are hindering them from being Christ-like .
I am not creating clones , I am not creating little me's , I am not creating servants . That's just carrying around my stuff . I am making disciples of Jesus . So I wanna do life with that person , and I'm not trying to do five , six or seven .
I wanna find one , two or three of the greatest strongholds , behaviors and attitudes that are stopping them , and then I'm gonna come up with a spirit-led discipleship plan to help them close the gap and grow in those three areas .
And then , as I do that , I'm gonna ask them to pay it forward , and what I've done for you , you go do for somebody else and every person's different . What I might craft for you might be different from you and I gotta hold you . I might have to call you every day . This other person I might have to check in on once a month .
This other person I might say you call me once a week . Another person I might say hey , you read a chapter of John a day and you tell me what you get . For another person I'm saying okay , let's develop your prayer life over here . For another person I'm helping them be a better husband . For this person here I'm helping them get on budget .
For this person here I'm helping them they don't have a job . I need to sit down with them and help them get a resume . You've seen me do all of those things .
I just said .
That's why you're smiling .
You're just excited . This discipleship thing is just really . It's good . I got it on me , man . I got it on me . I got it on me . I feel like giggling .
Yeah , yeah , I'm laughing , but tell the people you've seen me do all of that I've seen you do all of it .
Yes , you've seen me do people's resumes . Absolutely , absolutely , you've seen me go over and clean up people's houses .
You've seen me go paint with people .
I've seen you . You know people come into your closet , take a couple suits , Take all my suits , Yep .
You've seen me let 19 people live with us over spend nine years . You've seen it all .
Yep .
And so I'm not . What I'm saying is that there's just something about discipleship that God wants to honor , and so we're just out of time for the day , though . I mean I could go on , but y'all gotta catch it next Thursday , maybe we'll give them the overflow of this I pray you guys enjoy today's podcast as much as we did .
I feel like the presence of the Lord is in this place when we talk about discipleship . Just know that we love you . If you're new to our podcast and you're on YouTube , make sure that you hit the subscribe button right away . We want you to be the first to get the content . We release a new show every Thursday , 3pm Eastern Standard Time .
If you want to jump on live with us , there's hundreds of people that are on the chat as soon as the groceries are delivered . All right , we got some awesome things that are coming up , but I want to highlight a webinar . That's right , a webinar coming up on January , the 25th . Okay , put that in your calendar . There is a link in the show notes .
You can go to Kenandtabathacom . We are doing our first ever Ask Ken and Tabatha live marriage editions . We're going to take an hour from 6PM to 7PM on January 25th and we're going to answer all of your most difficult , most right now current questions live . Okay , so we would love for you to join us for that webinar .
And just know that we are launching a bootcamp coming up as well , on February 1st . You're going to hear more about that real soon . We love you guys and we thank you for hanging out with us today . We'll see you next week , peace .
