Establishing Hope: Lesson #1

Discipleship Level 2: Reaching Beyond Mediocrity

Paul J. Bucknell

Establish Hope | Spiritual Growth | Path of Discipleship | Strengthen Hope

Purpose: Path of Discipleship, part 3/4 of Lesson #1 Establishing Hope, shows and explains The Flow, three discipleship levels as one progresses into spiritual maturity.

Although many Christians might feel stuck in one of the two earlier stages, God intends to help them grow into a mature adult. Let me use an outline to diagram what perhaps should happen at each of these spiritual stages of growth.

Path of Discipleship

At each stage God is helping the believer to develop in some major way. This development is necessary before moving on into the next stage of spiritual development. Others might assume our spiritual growth because of the number of years that we have been a Christian. This unfortunately is not always true.

Each discipleship level's most significant development needs are pointed out in the chart below. This major area of work is highlighted by its theme. For example, God's major work in the new believer is to reveal His great love. God develops a strong bonding with the believer so that he or she can trust the Lord. This trust must be developed before moving onto the second level. God is doing many things at each stage. As disciples, we must learn and practice these things. As mentors (and hopefully we all are in various ways), then we will emphasize these particular aspects and focus on the different ways to develop this love for the believer in the first stage. Practically, we always need to protect this process through our persistence prayer.

Discipleship Level 1: Discovering Love

• Theme: Strong Security in His Love
  
• Discover how our trust in God grows as we better grasp God's love for us seen in our salvation through Christ. God adopts us as His children, trains us to be like Him and engages us in His work with Him.
  
• No matter what I face in life, God is with me.
  
• The meaning of life - know we are loved and belong to Christ.
  
• As teachers we excite believers at this level to understand the many ways God loves them in Christ. As we instruct them regarding His salvation and the ways He equips and engages them in His plans, we lay a foundation by which they eagerly adopt God's plan for their lives and His people as their own.
  

Discipleship Level 2: Establishing Hope

• Theme: Great Confidence in His Word
  
• Establish a greater confidence in God's Word as we regularly experience the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. Through His Word the Lord reveals His truths which mark out His path for us. At the same time we are better able to discern the evil one's way of confusing and distressing us.
  
• No matter what problems I face, God's Word enables me to overcome.
  
• The power of life - obtain victory by our confidence in God's Word.
  
• As teachers we encourage these believers to look back and see how far God has brought them in their spiritual growth and to observe coming challenges ahead. As they gain confidence, they will increase their number of victories which in turn strengthens them. We hope their increased confidence in God's Word will inspire hope in the lives of others.
  

Discipleship Level 3: Strengthening Faith

• Theme: Deep Intimacy with God
  
• Learn how intimacy with God the Father produces glorious results as we better discern and  complete the Lord's good works. God further reveals His mysterious self, welcomes us step further in and engages us to carry out His good works.
  
• No matter which situation I find myself in, God will bear fruit that glorifies Him.
  
• The purpose of life - enjoy God and carry out His will.
  
• As teachers we emphasize the special desire of God to create a deep intimacy with us by displaying His magnificent person and ways in good and difficult times so that He can bring about many wonderful great and good things through our lives in this world.
  

Establishing Hope (Discipleship Level 2)

While discipleship level 1 speaks about love and security in the infant level, once gained, the child is quick to move to the stage where they begin to do things themselves. This is the stage we are speaking about in this series and where we will focus. In Discipleship Level 3 we will learn how to draw closer to God in our intimacy and from that relationship bear fruit in our lives, those good works that He has ordained for us to full (Ephesians 2:10).

God wants us to strengthen us at this second stage. He wants to develop us and help us see the tools that He has given us to overcome the evil one. The armor that He has given to us, including the sword, serve as great images for us to remember what God wants to do in our lives at this stage (Ephesians 6:10-20). If we are going to be those overcomers, we will need to master each piece of armor as well as better understand how to win spiritual battles.

"I have written to you, young men,
because you are strong, and
the word of God abides in you, and
you have overcome the evil one"
(1 John 2:14).

In this second level we are to take that hope that we have and mature it into a strong confidence. This comes about by learning how to battle and win. Once we have won one battle, then we have confidence to again win. If we are discouraged, even though we have been provided the armor of God, we will not be able to use it. Like David, we will think it is for someone else. God wants us to win. And like Jesus, we are to learn how through the Spirit of God and His Word we are to win battles. The Book of Joshua in the Old Testament gives us a number of pictures of what characterize a victory.

When we win a victory over sin, temptation or some difficult situation, we gain a little hope. When it happens again, we gain more hope. When it happens again and again, we begin to be strong. We now know how to battle and win in this and that situation. We understand how God works in our lives.

When we have begun to gain confidence in one area, the Lord soon moves us on to a new arena for training. This is the training for spiritual warfare. Since we are not trained in a certain area, we need to learn a few new things (which of course seem like gigantic obstacles). If we fall, we need to learn how to get up again, be encouraged and go on in Christ's Name. When we fail in any event, it means that we have not fully learned how to depend upon God in those areas. Perhaps you can identify some of those areas in your life.

Once we have seen how God has worked in several circumstances, we more quickly adapt our skills to enter a new challenging situation. Our confidence is not in ourselves but in what God is doing through our lives. This is the Flow, observing the way our spiritual lives grow. By spiritual, I do not mean to exclude the impact on our physical lives. Many problems we face might have to do with our complexion, our friends or even our lusts. They might have to do with not having enough money, losing our job, or controlling our temper.

The key, however, is to properly handle, and this has everything to do with having Christ live in and through our lives. When we have learned to overcome difficult situations through God's Word, then we have moved into the Discipleship Level 3. It is there that our strong confidence in what God does in our live enables us to help others as they face difficult or puzzling situations. Our real help for others is not some great wisdom that we have in and of itself but it is all the accumulated love, hope and faith we have gained by going through those training sessions.

Growing in Christ

While going through the second level, we are focused more on getting through different difficult situations. The third level is largely occupied with growing closer to the Lord, serving Him more effectively. It is not that each stage is exclusive of one another. Spiritual growth is the development of faith. We will be learning more of God's love even in the third level of discipleship. Our hope will grow stronger. The difference is that we are not learning about His love as a foundation of our relationship which produces a strong trust. At each level, we will see that there is a main concentration of learning experiences. It is hard to see these things unless someone draws your attention to it.

We started by mentioning a number of questions. These are questions that largely arise from those facing problems in the Discipleship Level 2 stage. These are common questions. We have mastered some techniques but still have much to learn! God is waiting to teach us. Jesus is our Master and though the Spirit carefully leads us through our lives.

In each battle we need to learn to trust the Lord to help us. He knows what frustrates us, encourages us, areas we have confidence in and areas we do not. Do you remember how Jesus cautioned Peter about his willingness to die with Jesus? God knows more than we know of ourselves. Once, however, we find that Jesus is closely involved in our Christian growth, then we can eagerly work with Him as He shows us what and how to overcome personal and relational problems.

This second stage is temporary. One is a young adult only so long. We are to quickly master our lessons because of His larger design. Again, it is not that He will not help us bear fruit early on. He will but it will not be our main focus. There is a law in the Old Testament that the people were not to eat the fruit from a new fruit tree for the first years (Leviticus 19:23-25). God's people will bear fruit but are not to focus on it. Maturity is important to preserve fruit, otherwise those that are helped by your life are also discouraged by your failures!

Through this series on Discipleship Level 2, we hope to help you quickly move through this stage. Like a teen, it should not last forever. Although there will be those dramatic failures, you can learn from these mistakes and how to rightly get through them.

If you have been 'stuck' in your Christian growth, you should be aware that this is not normal but be eager to overcome and grow. Once you see God help you get through one problem, you will burst aloud with thanks to the Lord and share you testimony with others. God is glorified through the process and end result. Victory rests in knowing and using what God has given us. Each victory testifies that Jesus words are true, "I have overcome the world" (John 16:33). We are humbled that He works so hard and close to us in this training.

Do remember that the Holy Spirit wants to make us holy. This is a process. Most of the spiritual battles have to do with learning how to avoid temptation and overcome different kinds of sin in our lives.

Continue on reading part 4/4 -> Strengthening our Hope

Biblical Foundations for Freedom ( BFF )

Rev. Paul J. Bucknell