They Turned The World Upside Down

This is the Truth Network. Yes, of discipleship, making disciples. The Great Commission puts it this way, go ye into all the world and make disciples of everyone. And then these are the signs that will follow those who believe. You make a disciple, they become a believer, you teach and train them, mentor them, and give them a way to grow and mature in the things of the faith. The way that we know that this is the case, the pattern, the model, we know it from the ministry of Jesus. Because in Jesus' ministry and in that of the early church, the power-packed focus was making disciples, teaching, training, mentoring, followers of Jesus. Not your follower, not my follower, a follower of Jesus.

And then secondarily, yes, they would follow you. If you're following the Lord, Paul said, follow me as I follow the Lord. So that is also true that there's a level where there's a commitment to you because you are committed to the Lord as you make disciples. So I'm just throwing that in there. These followers of Jesus mature to become like Him.

Like Him, that's the point. The fruit of what Jesus explains in John 14, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater works than these. Imagine that. I mean, I can hardly imagine that, but because Jesus said so, it is a possibility for me to believe that I'll do the works Jesus has done and even greater works. Imitating His ministry is really possible for any born-again believer, and the resulting potential is built in to the DNA of the born-again person. It's part of being born again. It's not the old nature, not the way you were initially born.

It is the born-again DNA. Now you've got to admit that sounds pretty exciting, and it really is the dream in God's heart that we would do Acts 17 verse 6, turn the world upside down. So you see, it all goes together, and this process is discipleship. So our title today is, They Turn the World Upside Down.

My name is Shirley Weaver. I'm glad you're here. This is the podcast where we make a very big deal about the power of God, His love displayed through His power in the form of miracles, signs, wonders, demonstrations of deliverance, you know, like the crossing at the Red Sea. So many examples of God's power demonstrated Genesis 1 to Revelation chapter 22.

This is His plan. So discipleship, and I just have to say, I have a personal testimony in this area. As a new believer, I was discipled by those who were way more mature than I was. What were you discipled in, Shirley? Well, I was discipled in everything, primarily by example.

I don't mean this was a school or classes. I've been to many classes since then, so that is a part, an important part of it, but the lifestyle of a believer to trust God in everything, believe Him in everything, to live this way in your decision making, in the way that you run your professional life, your small business dealings, in the way that you pray. You know, I was taught to pray, how to pray, and from that day until this, I've never had the quandary that people have about how to pray, what to pray. Does God hear my prayer?

None of that. I have been completely provisioned by the Lord in the area of prayer because of those who took the time to disciple me. I've got a great example here. I have a grandson whose name is Max. My father's name is Max, so I love it that this little guy is also named Max. There was an occasion one day, he was probably two, maybe three, and I was spending time with him while his parents were away, which I love to do, jumped on every opportunity to do that. We were playing round after round after round, you know, it's endless, the energy of a little guy that age, shooting a basketball through a hoop. Now this hoop was, what, maybe three feet off the ground, but we were shooting this basketball.

He would shoot, I would recover the ball, give it back to him, he would shoot, I would recover the ball, give it back to him, et cetera. At one point he stopped and he looked squarely at me. Squarely at me, he said, okay, Mimi, now you try it.

Okay, Mimi, now you try it. He had demonstrated how to do it, right, because he was completely confident and completely excited about what we were doing, but he observed that I probably had no clue about how to put that ball through that hoop, and so he said, now imitate me. He said what Paul said, follow me as I follow the Lord. He said, imitate me, Mimi, now you try it, and that's what we do in discipleship. We say this is the way, I mean not in a presumptuous or a lording it over way, but you just demonstrate how it's done, and then the person, the individual, the new convert, sometimes, you know, a seasoned convert who's never been taught, never been discipled, you show them how, and you got to remember to say it again and again and again because until you've said it at least three times in some situations, in some ways, until you've said it 10 times, I mean I'm sure all the pastors that are listening can really relate to what I'm saying.

You know, you have to say it again and again and again for some people to actually hear. You know, it's foreign, it's new. It's not something that comes naturally in the sense of natural things. In the realm of the spiritual, it actually comes very naturally. You know, if we could just turn our brains off, turn all that intellect off, and just follow the lead of the Spirit, these things would come much more, quote, naturally.

So that's how you do it. It takes caring, sharing, it takes time, it takes, you know, as I'm mentoring or discipling someone, God will speak to me in the middle of the day out of nowhere how to pray for them, or something to call and say to them, or maybe send them a text or an email because this is the way you parrot. You know, there's a lot of similarity there. And so one of the things that I've emphasized every way I know how recently is the fact that at least one-fourth, at least a fourth of the body of Scripture that we have, again, Genesis 1, 1 to Revelation 22, last verse, at least a fourth of that body of Scriptures has to do with prophetic in-time outworking, the way that it will be in our day. And so if something has been given that much attention to by the Holy Ghost in writing the verses of our Bible, then I would say I could actually give a fourth of my time, my study, my attention to these events. And so I always say, recently I always say, and I confess I haven't always done this, but recently, and I think this has everything to do with how close we are to the return of the Lord, I say, you know, there is a crown, 2 Timothy 4.8, henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, not only to me, but also to those who have loved His appearing. So you see, as we disciple, we mentor, we train everyone who wants to imitate the Lord to understand the time we live in and that there is a crown laid up for you, a crown of righteousness waiting for you, and everyone who loves, looks forward to, is expect enough, is longing for His appearing. You say, well, why do I need a crown?

Well, I mean, think about it. The worship that we will enjoy throughout eternity in the presence of the Lord in His eternal kingdom, remember we bow before Him to cast our crowns in worship of Him. Now, what if you have no crowns? A crown of righteousness is laid up for you, and there are other crowns who are, for those who are expecting, longing for, looking for, love the message about His appearing. And not only that, there's the whole area of providential help.

So we teach and train in this area. I love the verse in Zechariah 9, it's verse 12, return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Because anytime you, as a believer, reach an impasse with seemingly nowhere to turn, the Lord wants to raise a standard that is unique to your situation. These are not cookie cutter things. The Lord does for us something completely unique created for our situation, possibly an even a first ever of its kind.

I mean, that's as unique as you can get, right? That's how particular and intentional the Lord is about meeting, giving you providential help, and whether you are speaking of a nation or a people, whatever the situation, an atmosphere of expectation attracts His providence so that suddenly, in the providential will of God, suddenly things change. An entire government can shift.

Impossible structures move, and that's just one thing. Another thing would be, we disciple and teach and train, you have something of value to say. The disciple of Jesus Christ is supernaturally positioned, after all, to clearly speak truth into situations to do what? To call evil good, and to insist that where good has been called evil, that that must be reversed. And if we do these things, and those that are listening resent our revelation or they accuse you, you just continue to speak clearly, simply, and with authority.

Because remember, until you've said it three times, sometimes as much as ten times, most people have not truly heard you. So this is where we say that the born-again believer is really destined to be an influencer. If you understand the power that you're carrying, that you can continue to speak the truth, and you add to the truth your combination of authority that comes from God's Word, and your confidence that comes from relationship with Him, and that way, those that hear you say of you what they said of Jesus, hey wait, where did this man come from?

He speaks as one with authority. And you know, add to that compassion and love, I want to tell you something. People will listen. They will listen to you. They hear your tenderness. They hear your kindness, your compassion, your wisdom. They sense stability in you, maturity in your faith, and they realize that you are not talking as someone who has read a report or a book and you're just giving your commentary. No, you've lived these things. So in fact, you can impart them. You know, I can't close without saying this.

I find that people who earnestly and truly want to be disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ many times are dealing with lying spirits that have got them so vexed, marginalized and paralyzed. You know, it's like the enemy came to you and said to you something, something. It's this way. You are this way. You did this.

You failed in this area. And you know, there's just something about the way we are as human beings. We just listen to that stuff.

I mean, it's crazy. We shouldn't, but we do. And then we buy the lie. We purchase the lie.

We take it in as though it were true. And we begin to operate out of that untruth and we become like the lie instead of the example that Jesus gave us. So if that's you, if I'm talking to you, you need to recognize the lie that you've believed and you need to disbelieve it.

You need to go, uh-uh, nope. And you know what? We're going to talk about this more another time because it's so epidemic among God's believers who really in their hearts so do not want to be that way and really are not that way. It's the enemy.

You know, it's that little fox that is really destroying your vineyard. So John 14, whoever believes in me will do the works that I have been doing, Jesus said, and they will do even greater things than these than he did. And Acts 17, we imitate his ministry because as a born again believer, that's just in our DNA and the resulting potential hay.

We are in fact those who are turning the world upside down. Thanks for listening. If you enjoyed this episode and you'd like to help support this podcast, please share it with others, post about it on social media, or leave a rating and review. Don't forget to check out the show notes or visit acleartrumpet.org where you can subscribe to Shirley's email list, download the ministry app and purchase your very own copy of Shirley's 365-day devotional, Running with Horses. Thanks again, and we'll see you next time. Bye.