Part 2 Lesson 2
I am Caleb Fielding and I have a question for you, How is your walk with God?
Imagine if you will a fifteen year old walking around in diapers, and still getting bottle fed. That would be pretty weird.
In your personal life do you read your Bible, pray, go to church? Do you know the basic doctrines of the Bible? If not then you are a baby Christian, which isn’t so bad if you have been saved less than a year, but if you came to Christ in elementary school and are now an adult, you are spiritually like a 15 year old running around in diapers who is still bottle fed. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 5:12-13
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Do you want to be an adult baby Christian? Where spiritually you are wearing diapers, and being bottle fed until you get to heaven? How embarrassing would it be to get saved in elementary school, live a long life, and get to heaven still wearing diapers? If you don’t like that idea then the fastest way to get out of your diapers and to get weaned off the bottle is through discipleship.
If you don’t know how to walk with God or if you don’t know what the basic doctrines of the Bible are you really need to sit down and talk with your pastor about this and ask him about being discipled in these two areas. It doesn’t matter if your pastor personally disciples you in these two areas as long as your pastor directs you to someone in the church who can.
The first area of discipleship is in a personal walk with God.
When God made Adam, the first thing Adam did was walk and talk with God. This is our purpose, to love God and have a personal relationship with God.
To have a personal walk with God you need to read your Bible, pray, and worship. If you do all of that, wonderful. But if you do not do all that then the best place to learn is in discipleship.
If you know Christ as your savior then there should be a love for Gods Word according to I Peter 2:2. Somtimes there are legitimate barriers to reading God’s Word that the discipleship process can break down for you.
For instance there are still many languages in the world that do not have any written words and missionaries will go to those people put their words into writing, and then translate the Bible into their language. This process takes years, and there are still many people who do not have access to the Bible in their language. If your language does not have a Bible then you will either need someone to translate it for you, or learn another language so that you can read the Bible. Either way discipleship is the answer to the problem.
Maybe you never learned to read. For instance prison is filled with people who graduated from high school and never learned to read, when they were in school someone just kept pushing them on to the next grade. I used to go to church with a guy who was 50 years old had a high school diploma but never learned to read. My mom had a high school senior mow her lawn and when she went to pay him she found out he could not read or count, after 12 years of school. If you cannot read you need someone to show you how to read so you can read the Word of God.
Maybe you got saved at a young age and as a child did not have interest in reading a book as big as the Bible and now as an adult you need to address the bad decision you made as a child. Best thing for you to do would be to go to your pastor and ask him where you need to start reading your Bible.
Maybe you read your Bible and get lost and confused about what is happening, and honestly part of the discipleship process is talking to whomever is discipling at you about what you are reading. Its not a problem to not understand whats going on in the Bible, it’s a problem when you don’t ask about it.
Part of the discipleship process is learning how to faithfully read the bible and any barrier to that should be brought to the attention of your pastor or whomever your pastor is allowing to disciple you.
Many people struggle with praying but it is my experience that most churches have some prayer warriors, and in my experience most prayer warriors have various approaches to praying. I know some who kneel, others who sit, and others who walk. I know some who recite all prayers from memory, others who write everything down and others who leave reminders to pray all over their house.
Following a prayer warrior into their prayer closet would certainly be an appropriate part of discipleship. If you do not know how to pray how are you going to learn unless you follow someone who does pray. Or perhaps with your pastors guidance following several different people into their prayer closets to see how God guides you to pray.
Over the course of following whomever disciples you, you will see good times, and bad times, and in the midst of it all you will see them worship God in the good times and bad times. To an extent without discipleship the worship we see in the local church is shallow. At church everyone is dressed up, and looking their best and often the issues in their life is private so we do not know what that worship cost them. But in discipleship, when we are following a mature Christian, we will see them have prayers answered, and watch them worship in those wonderful times. In the course of time we will see them be blindsided by a tragedy or heart break and still worship. We will see them get depressed over a long term suffering and despite that worship.
It is seeing the mature Christian go through life’s joys, sorrows, and doldrums that we learn what worship really is, in a way we would never get to in church. This is why discipleship is so powerful.
Can you imagine a better way to wean yourself off of milk than seeing men and women consistently walk with God despite their circumstances, good or bad, and beginning to follow their example in your own life?
The second area of discipleship a baby Christian needs is in understanding basic doctrine
When someone first comes to Christ generally they know little or nothing about the Bible, and so there are some things that they need to learn right away.
Things like the deity of Christ, the trinity, the virgin Birth. What is eternal security? What is Grace?
Depending on your religious background and baggage you will be able to easily grasp some of these concepts and struggle with others. This is where personal discipleship really shines as the Bible has many many verses dealing with all these doctrines, if you struggle with one of them then whomever is personally discipling you can gently take you through the Bible and deal with whatever you are struggling with.
Other doctrines to deal with would be the inerrancy of the Bible and why we are KJV only for the English language.
Others would include what tithing is and the difference between tithing and giving.
Every church should have a statement of faith. During this time of learning Basic Bible doctrine you should sit down with whomever is discipling you and go through your churches statement of faith, until you understand each and every doctrine that is on that list.
Some statement of faiths are shorter and others are longer. That’s fine. Once you are through going through your statement of faith you should ask whomever is discipling you if there is any other basic Bible doctrine that you need to know. Things like what is the rapture, the tribulation and the imminent return of Christ may or may not be in a statement of faith but you should know about it and what your church believes about such topics.
Over the course of 5 years your pastor will likely preach in depth about every single one of these issues but its best for you to learn them as quickly as possible which is one of the reasons why discipleship is so great. You don’t have to wait 5 years to learn doctrine.
That said there may be some things your pastor does not have in depth knowledge about such as creation. He knows the doctrine on it but he may not know all the science behind it. I would encourage you to ask who he thinks you should listen too to learn more about that subject.
In fact before you start listening to any internet preacher (myself included) you should ask your pastor what he thinks. The reality is that if you are not grounded in doctrine then you will likely believe anything anyone says on the subject and for your pastor to deprogram you from bad doctrine will make the discipleship process much longer.
Ephesians 4:14 says “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; “
Until you are grounded in doctrine you should ask your pastor who you should be listening too. Because according to the Bible baby Christians are in real danger of being tossed about to and fro with every wind of doctrine. There are a lot of internet preachers out there that will cripple your spiritual growth.
In Conclusion until you have a consistent walk with God, and understand basic Bible doctrine you are a spiritual baby. Do you want to have the spiritual maturity of a baby for 50 years? Or do you want to mature into what God has for you?
If you are a single adult I would encourage you to wait to date until you have been discipled because until you have a consistent walk with God and know your doctrine you are unstable. You will be tossed about by every wind of doctrine. I have seen married couples make dramatic changes in their life from one week to the next because they are listening to different preachers on the internet every week, or they are reading different books about the family every week, and even though they are trying to do right there is no consistency in their life because honestly they do not have a solid walk with God or a clear understanding of doctrine, so they make dramatic changes one week to the next based on the newest thing they heard.
If you want a life of stability then you need to build your life around the solid rock of Bible doctrine, that way you don’t change your life style everytime someone writes a book or someone post a video on youtube, if what they say doesn’t line up with Bible doctrine, instead of what they say tossing you about like a wave tosses a ship, their words will break against your understanding of the word of God, like a wave breaks against a rock.
I am Caleb Fielding and I have a question for you, How is your walk with God?
Imagine if you will a fifteen year old walking around in diapers, and still getting bottle fed. That would be pretty weird.
In your personal life do you read your Bible, pray, go to church? Do you know the basic doctrines of the Bible? If not then you are a baby Christian, which isn’t so bad if you have been saved less than a year, but if you came to Christ in elementary school and are now an adult, you are spiritually like a 15 year old running around in diapers who is still bottle fed. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 5:12-13
Heb 5:12 For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat.
Heb 5:13 For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe.
Do you want to be an adult baby Christian? Where spiritually you are wearing diapers, and being bottle fed until you get to heaven? How embarrassing would it be to get saved in elementary school, live a long life, and get to heaven still wearing diapers? If you don’t like that idea then the fastest way to get out of your diapers and to get weaned off the bottle is through discipleship.
If you don’t know how to walk with God or if you don’t know what the basic doctrines of the Bible are you really need to sit down and talk with your pastor about this and ask him about being discipled in these two areas. It doesn’t matter if your pastor personally disciples you in these two areas as long as your pastor directs you to someone in the church who can.
The first area of discipleship is in a personal walk with God.
When God made Adam, the first thing Adam did was walk and talk with God. This is our purpose, to love God and have a personal relationship with God.
To have a personal walk with God you need to read your Bible, pray, and worship. If you do all of that, wonderful. But if you do not do all that then the best place to learn is in discipleship.
If you know Christ as your savior then there should be a love for Gods Word according to I Peter 2:2. Somtimes there are legitimate barriers to reading God’s Word that the discipleship process can break down for you.
For instance there are still many languages in the world that do not have any written words and missionaries will go to those people put their words into writing, and then translate the Bible into their language. This process takes years, and there are still many people who do not have access to the Bible in their language. If your language does not have a Bible then you will either need someone to translate it for you, or learn another language so that you can read the Bible. Either way discipleship is the answer to the problem.
Maybe you never learned to read. For instance prison is filled with people who graduated from high school and never learned to read, when they were in school someone just kept pushing them on to the next grade. I used to go to church with a guy who was 50 years old had a high school diploma but never learned to read. My mom had a high school senior mow her lawn and when she went to pay him she found out he could not read or count, after 12 years of school. If you cannot read you need someone to show you how to read so you can read the Word of God.
Maybe you got saved at a young age and as a child did not have interest in reading a book as big as the Bible and now as an adult you need to address the bad decision you made as a child. Best thing for you to do would be to go to your pastor and ask him where you need to start reading your Bible.
Maybe you read your Bible and get lost and confused about what is happening, and honestly part of the discipleship process is talking to whomever is discipling at you about what you are reading. Its not a problem to not understand whats going on in the Bible, it’s a problem when you don’t ask about it.
Part of the discipleship process is learning how to faithfully read the bible and any barrier to that should be brought to the attention of your pastor or whomever your pastor is allowing to disciple you.
Many people struggle with praying but it is my experience that most churches have some prayer warriors, and in my experience most prayer warriors have various approaches to praying. I know some who kneel, others who sit, and others who walk. I know some who recite all prayers from memory, others who write everything down and others who leave reminders to pray all over their house.
Following a prayer warrior into their prayer closet would certainly be an appropriate part of discipleship. If you do not know how to pray how are you going to learn unless you follow someone who does pray. Or perhaps with your pastors guidance following several different people into their prayer closets to see how God guides you to pray.
Over the course of following whomever disciples you, you will see good times, and bad times, and in the midst of it all you will see them worship God in the good times and bad times. To an extent without discipleship the worship we see in the local church is shallow. At church everyone is dressed up, and looking their best and often the issues in their life is private so we do not know what that worship cost them. But in discipleship, when we are following a mature Christian, we will see them have prayers answered, and watch them worship in those wonderful times. In the course of time we will see them be blindsided by a tragedy or heart break and still worship. We will see them get depressed over a long term suffering and despite that worship.
It is seeing the mature Christian go through life’s joys, sorrows, and doldrums that we learn what worship really is, in a way we would never get to in church. This is why discipleship is so powerful.
Can you imagine a better way to wean yourself off of milk than seeing men and women consistently walk with God despite their circumstances, good or bad, and beginning to follow their example in your own life?
The second area of discipleship a baby Christian needs is in understanding basic doctrine
When someone first comes to Christ generally they know little or nothing about the Bible, and so there are some things that they need to learn right away.
Things like the deity of Christ, the trinity, the virgin Birth. What is eternal security? What is Grace?
Depending on your religious background and baggage you will be able to easily grasp some of these concepts and struggle with others. This is where personal discipleship really shines as the Bible has many many verses dealing with all these doctrines, if you struggle with one of them then whomever is personally discipling you can gently take you through the Bible and deal with whatever you are struggling with.
Other doctrines to deal with would be the inerrancy of the Bible and why we are KJV only for the English language.
Others would include what tithing is and the difference between tithing and giving.
Every church should have a statement of faith. During this time of learning Basic Bible doctrine you should sit down with whomever is discipling you and go through your churches statement of faith, until you understand each and every doctrine that is on that list.
Some statement of faiths are shorter and others are longer. That’s fine. Once you are through going through your statement of faith you should ask whomever is discipling you if there is any other basic Bible doctrine that you need to know. Things like what is the rapture, the tribulation and the imminent return of Christ may or may not be in a statement of faith but you should know about it and what your church believes about such topics.
Over the course of 5 years your pastor will likely preach in depth about every single one of these issues but its best for you to learn them as quickly as possible which is one of the reasons why discipleship is so great. You don’t have to wait 5 years to learn doctrine.
That said there may be some things your pastor does not have in depth knowledge about such as creation. He knows the doctrine on it but he may not know all the science behind it. I would encourage you to ask who he thinks you should listen too to learn more about that subject.
In fact before you start listening to any internet preacher (myself included) you should ask your pastor what he thinks. The reality is that if you are not grounded in doctrine then you will likely believe anything anyone says on the subject and for your pastor to deprogram you from bad doctrine will make the discipleship process much longer.
Ephesians 4:14 says “That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; “
Until you are grounded in doctrine you should ask your pastor who you should be listening too. Because according to the Bible baby Christians are in real danger of being tossed about to and fro with every wind of doctrine. There are a lot of internet preachers out there that will cripple your spiritual growth.
In Conclusion until you have a consistent walk with God, and understand basic Bible doctrine you are a spiritual baby. Do you want to have the spiritual maturity of a baby for 50 years? Or do you want to mature into what God has for you?
If you are a single adult I would encourage you to wait to date until you have been discipled because until you have a consistent walk with God and know your doctrine you are unstable. You will be tossed about by every wind of doctrine. I have seen married couples make dramatic changes in their life from one week to the next because they are listening to different preachers on the internet every week, or they are reading different books about the family every week, and even though they are trying to do right there is no consistency in their life because honestly they do not have a solid walk with God or a clear understanding of doctrine, so they make dramatic changes one week to the next based on the newest thing they heard.
If you want a life of stability then you need to build your life around the solid rock of Bible doctrine, that way you don’t change your life style everytime someone writes a book or someone post a video on youtube, if what they say doesn’t line up with Bible doctrine, instead of what they say tossing you about like a wave tosses a ship, their words will break against your understanding of the word of God, like a wave breaks against a rock.