This is the third article in a 3 part series about finding support in the right kind of helping relationships, in this case, discipleship!
A discipleship relationship is a vital spiritual relationship all believers need. I wouldn’t have thought so until a few years ago. That’s when the Lord brought someone into my life. I had not prayed for a discipleship relationship, but He knew I needed one.
Diana’s Divine Discipleship Assignment
A woman I had met at a conference, Diana, asked to exchange contact information, and we set up a time to talk. I learned later that the Lord had placed me on her heart. She was pursuing continued conversations with me not because I was so fascinating, but because the Lord was leading her to do so.
Later, I realized the Lord had appointed her to speak into my life. He was, showing me what discipleship looks like before I even knew what He was doing.
Diana has a deep and compelling love for and intimacy with the Lord. She soaks in God’s Word deeply. It drips out of her like a saturated sponge. It is as though His words have nearly replaced her own. His words flow through her in a loving spirit that reveals the heart of God through her. As a result, God pours into me through her, and I see myself being shaped as a child, through a sister, by a loving Father.
God’s Precious Work Revealed
The time I spent with her stimulated my hunger for God’s word and desire for increased intimacy with the Lord. I noticed a new zeal. I was running with the biggest bucket I could find to lower into the well of His Word. I sought the unrivaled security and warmth of His presence. Along the way, I was dropping less important things I once gripped too tightly.
Before meeting Diana, I smugly felt that I was “spiritually mature.” I cringe when I think about it now. I had no idea where I was spiritually. I had many blind spots that were putting me in spiritual danger.
My theory is that the Lord placed me under Diana’s care because He needed to rattle some idols in my life. He knew I needed someone to come alongside me while He was disciplining me and showing me things I needed to release. I hardly even knew I had any idols until they began to give way from around me and beneath me.
Diana came alongside me in Divine perfect timing. Her prayers held me up. Her spirit-tuned ear heard my heart and wrapped it with truth from God’s Word. She has fought spiritual battles for me on her knees.
While the Lord was helping me release these idols, old sources of false security, I saw in Diana a glimpse of where I could be headed: closer to the Lord, hearing Him as never before, standing firmly on Him in truth, not just in my head, but in my heart. I allowed what I stood on to crumble (albeit not so happily at the time) because I needed to learn by experience there is no security or hope of any kind apart from the Lord Himself.
One For You?
Do you have a sister in Christ that speaks into you spiritually? Consider praying that the Lord will bring you someone or into a fellowship of Godly women. But not just any someone or fellowship – find one where you are being challenged to see what is possible a few steps ahead of you in a deeper walk of faith. Allow others to come alongside you as you take new steps into areas of deeper dependence on the Lord.
While you are praying for that Godly sister to come alongside you, pray that the Lord will bring you into someone’s life as well. Who can you pray for and encourage in her walk into deeper intimacy with God? How can you be pouring into her in a sacrificial way? I believe Diana has some bruised knees and worn places on her carpet with my name on them. Lord let me pay that forward. Let us all learn to do that for our sisters in Christ! Can you imagine the Lord’s delight to answer?
Discipleship relationships are vital to Christian community and our spiritual health. As you are being sanctified in Christ, seek the company of believers who call you forward into deeper intimacy with Him and deeper into His word. You will know you are in the right place if it makes you feel the way Peter might have felt when he said to Jesus, “Lord bid me come to you on the water.”
And Jesus said “Come!”
Hebrews 10:24-25 And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.