What's Your Purpose? What's Your Goal In Life?

If you were to ask several different Christians what their purpose or goal in life is, you would probably get several different answers. Let’s clean this ambiguity up a little.

For a disciple, their purpose in life is simple. It’s to carry out the great commission. Consider it our “mission statement.”

Jesus absorbed our sins on the cross for us and died. Three days later he rose from the dead. He then walked the earth forty days before ascending to heaven to be with His Father. Right before ascending he spoke to His disciples. He gave them their marching orders, orders that extend until He returns again.[1] Here they are…

Go throughout the world and make more disciples.
Baptize them in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Teach new disciples to do everything that He had commanded them to do.

The above is a disciple’s purpose in life. But the typical churchy Christian doesn’t understand the depth or importance of the great commission. Let’s talk about a few things.

First, let's talk about the word “disciple.” Jesus picked average joe’s (fishermen) and even hated folks (a traitor/tax-collector) to be His first disciples. This shows us that anyone can be a disciple if they choose. As Jesus made His first disciples, He revealed the process to us. He showed us their failures and successes. He showed us His frustrations with them and His love for them. They were just people.

Jesus drilled in them that they can never stop learning and doing. They need to always dig deeper. They cannot ever think they’ve reached the limit of their spiritual knowledge and power. Through dogged determination those first twelve people were forged into disciples. These disciples that Jesus made walked in power! Along with spreading the gospel, they prophesied, casted out demons, healed the sick, spoke in tongues, etc.

This power they demonstrated meant the Holy Spirit was moving through them. This is where most churches have dropped the ball. Jesus demonstrated what He wanted a disciple to be like. He showed us the living definition of a disciple. He wants us to follow His lead. He wants us to become a disciple that meets His expectations of a disciple. He doesn’t tell us to make churchy Christians who talk a good talk, but don’t walk in power.

This watered down, weak version of a disciple is the world’s version. This version allows demons to thrive. Demons start by influencing individual people and when this becomes rampant, they can influence families, cities, countries, and the whole world. This is the state we are in today.

At The Training Ground, when we talk about being a disciple, we are ONLY talking about a disciple according to Jesus’ definition!

Now let’s talk about the second part of the great commission…baptizing in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Clearly understanding that each of them are their own person is important. They can all be referred to as “God” because each of them has absolute power over everything in the seen and unseen world.

A disciple knows that God the Father and Jesus are together in heaven. The Holy Spirit is here in us. We develop our deep connection with Jesus by allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us. We are being obedient to Jesus when we let the Holy Spirit lead us. Learning to let the Holy Spirit lead us is mandatory! We move from under the law (death) to under grace when the Holy Spirit is leading us.[2] Learning to be led by the Holy Spirit is probably the biggest difference between a churchy Christian and a real disciple.

How do you know when the Holy Spirit is leading you? He probably is when…

strongholds (evil tendencies, addictions, etc.) in your life get torn down.
the cares of this world don’t bother you.
you can feel His conviction (that yucky feeling) when you’re doing something that’s grieving Him.
you don’t harbor negative feelings or grudges.
you don’t harbor fear.
the bible comes alive. It becomes like a book of truth that only other disciples can read and understand with such depth.
you have a desire to be baptized if you haven’t already.
you develop a desire to carry out the great commission.
you develop a desire to intercede for others.
you will be casting out demons, healing the sick, speaking in tongues, etc. Such things are only done by the Holy Spirit moving through us.
the fruit of the Holy Spirit blankets you (love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, and self-control).

The third part of the great commission is for us to do everything the original disciples did. This included casting out demons, healing the sick, speaking in tongues, etc. Then, we are to teach our disciples-in-training to do the same. Jesus even told His disciples that they know they are carrying out the great commission successfully when their new disciples are doing these things![3] Many pastors who refuse to walk in power explain Mark 16 away by saying this scripture wasn’t in the original text, it was added later. I say it is consistent with other scripture and we should be very careful about cherry-picking the scripture we choose to be obedient to.

One of the biggest flaws with the current church system is that they don’t use the original disciples as an example of what we can and should strive to be like. See…the original disciples walked in power. The current church doesn’t. Often pastors will talk about the “dispensation” of God. This means God accomplishes his goals in different ways during certain periods of time. Pastors who aren’t walking in power like to say that the power the original disciples demonstrated was only meant for that period of time. This is simply wrong. I’ve spoken to demons (rarely do I do this), I’ve cast them out, and I’ve healed the sick (instantly) enough to KNOW these things are still happening. The entire world can say I’m crazy and ridicule me, but I’m here to tell you…THE POWER THE ORIGINAL DISCIPLES DEMONSTRATED IS STILL AVAILABLE TO THE DISCIPLES OF TODAY.

We should always follow Jesus’ lead…

Jesus walked in power, proving the Word is true. This made people pay attention to Him, which allowed Him to spread the Word better.
The original disciples walked in power, proving the Word is true. This made people pay attention to them, which allowed them to spread the Word better.
Paul walked in power, proving the Word is true. This made people pay attention to him, which allowed him to spread the Word better.[4]

Now we need to do the same…

REFERENCES

[1] Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen. (Mathew 28:19-20, NKJV)

[2] But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. (Galatians 5:18, NKJV)

[3] And He said to them, "Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. (Mark 16:15-20, NKJV)

[4] And I, brethren, when I came to you… my speech and my preaching were not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, (1 Corinthians 2:1,4, NKJV)