"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6
PART 1 of 3 - The "Giant Killer"
As I read this verse here at 3:34 am in the morning (for whatever reason I just can't seem to sleep), I have this yearning desire to read my King's Word, reflect on it and share some thoughts on it. I haven't really blogged in about a month due to many things yet, there really is no excuse for not doing so. I can feel a desire in me to "step to a new level" but I feel my "fleshly" behaviors, aka, my imperfections keep me from pressing onward in deepening my relationship with my King. Of course this is a topic for another blog entry for which probably belongs in my Quest for Aslan blog so I may or may not pursue this aspect of my entry in there.
Reading this verse, the first thing I think of is how thankful I am for my one true discipler who discipled me AND for the people whom I have discipled. This has led me to an eye-opening realization in our spiritual transformation we all need a "Paul the Apostle" as a spiritual mentor, "Barnabas" as a faithful friend," and a "Timothy" to be our spiritual spark in our lives.
Why a "Paul?"
Firstly, my one true discipler, and my "Paul the Apostle," was the one who started it in all for me in my life. This man and brother in the Kingdom, felt led to "take me under his wing" and "show me the ropes" per se, helped develop my faith in Jesus and my pursuit of the deeper things of God. Although my body and mind did not want to have anything to do with this person, my heart and spirit was drawing me to grab onto this opportunity to be "mentored" or discipled by this "more experienced" believer in my life. I can tell you that I wanted to fight it but the Holy Spirit wanted me to do this and wouldn't allow me to miss this opportunity! You see, this person would become more experienced and mature believer that would be my "Giant "Killer" in my life. What I mean by this is that because of he, through observing his life on a consistent basis and by the pouring of his spiritual lifestyle aspects of his spiritual life, I was shown how to become equipped for Kingdom work and to LOVE JESUS WITH MY ALL MY HEART, SOUL, SPIRIT and MIND! Let me explain more clearly.
Like Our Father in Heaven
By having this "Giant Killer" in my life, I had someone to guide my pursuit of spiritual things, protect my heart and mind in my spiritual transformation and look to as love me almost as compassionately as Jesus would have if He were walking with me in the flesh! In other words, it's a relationship that is such that when you have a eye-opening revelation in any of the three previously mentioned things you can always look for this discipler to LISTEN, GUARD and LOVE me like our Father in heaven!
I remember an experience when I was hurting deeply because I was questioning what God was doing to me in my life at the time. The only person whom I knew could listen, guard and love me was this "Paul the Apostle" in my life, whose name ironically is Peter (a.k.a., "Pietros" in the Greek, which means rock). Although I could have chosen to meet with Peter "one-on-one" to discuss my struggles, I chose to bring this upto him in our weekly discipleship group meeting. I remember seeing the look in my fellow "disciplees'" faces having the expression their faces that can only leave them speechless, or a look that said, "Dude-- that's heavy and I don't know what to say." As a flood of tears rolled down my face and I wanted to run away from God, my "Giant Killer" listened to me by hearing me out, interceded by stepping in front of me by guiding me, and also spiritually loving on me and holding on to me like our Father in heaven to let me know that I would be loved unconditionally through this season of my life!
The "Giant Killer"
My friend, this "Giant Killer," or my discipler, would claim he was ill-equipped to LISTEN, GUARD and LOVE me as God did, I can tell you from hindsight and discipleship group experience that this was EXACTLY WHAT I NEEDED IN MY LIFE TO SEE and a WAY FOR ME TO HAVE THE EMBODIMENT OF HAVING A PHYSICAL EXAMPLE of our heavenly Father in my life. Of course, my co-disciplees were able to witness this as well (this is a whole other discussion!). This is one of the most valuable and significant experiences in my pursuit of Jesus and why I am passionate about discipleship!
