Use, sell or give?

The whole essence of making something is for the purpose of either USING it, SELLING it or GIVING it away. Think of a manufacturer of engines or plastic containers. If you walk around and observe what happens to the things they make, you'll notice those three aspects in play. They are either using the same product themselves, selling it for a profit or giving it away as a charitable donation.

This thought came to me while I was chopping some branches from a tree for purposes of getting firewood and preparing for the rainy season. I smiled because I know that was God speaking.

One thing I have not loved in my ministry journey is the awkward moments when I hear God asking me to move stations. It seems He always asks me to move at the point of success or fruition. Severally, I have hesitated and even delayed my speed of obedience. Sometimes I have struggled, especially when a season ends and I hear nothing from the Lord about what or where next. Those are the seasons when I find myself in-between fields or, as we say in the corporate world, in-between jobs.

As I heard the Lord remind me about making things for purposes of using, selling or giving, I was taken back to His statement recorded as having been said to some disciples at the mountain: “Go therefore and make disciples of all 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.”

I'm almost getting distracted to start typing about the “go” bit or “the name” that covers the Father, Son and Spirit, but I'll stick to the agenda here and talk about the “MAKE” bit only.

The Lord Jesus called on them to MAKE disciples. As we earlier noted, we only make things for three purposes; use, sell or give. When it comes to disciples, the same categories can expose what is happening in our hearts. A well-made disciple is not made so that the disciple-maker can keep them for himself. They are made to eventually be released into the purposes of God.

How? That's what I struggled with.

Whenever I made disciples, I found myself wanting to use them, make a profit out of them, but not release them for free to go out and make more disciples. I was tempted to become a hoarder of disciples.

In using them, I wanted them to be loyal to me alone and feed my ego. I wanted to be their go-to person for the rest of their lives, their prophet and their MOG—omg! 😂 I wanted them available to me, responsive to my voice, desires and instructions. If this desire is entertained and deliberately worked towards, it tends to birth the making-a-profit-out-of-them aspect.

In making a profit, it is tough to confess this because, inasmuch as it is fun to see disciples being formed, my flesh does not enjoy the cost. My dying flesh still loves money. When they start the journey, angels rejoice. At that same time, I'm in shock at what just happened and realize I now have work to do—make a disciple out of that convert or converts.

Please remember that making is not a miracle but a moulding process. That process leaves me wondering, “When will I see fruits that have seeds in them for future planting?” This process costs a lot, both in terms of time and money. It is in the process of covering these costs that we can be drawn towards seeking to profit from the same. We set up programs with a profit margin, we start fellowships with an eye on the basket, we write materials and sell them. We don't say this loudly, but the deceitful heart is doing things behind the scenes and we're rarely aware of this. If the heart is allowed to win, this leads to resisting the next way and the way God wants us to handle the disciples we have made.

Then there is the releasing. This, I believe, is the right way to handle made disciples: release them for purposes of reproduction. A made disciple is a fruit that lasts, as John noted. A fruit that lasts is a fruit with seeds which can be planted again and grow. Not the GMO kind. 😂 That seed is the Word, as Jesus said. Basically, good disciples are made through being equipped by the Word—not the words of men, but the Word of God, YHWH, both written and spoken.

Perhaps this is where my earlier struggle with moving stations comes in. Maybe the difficulty is not always in the leaving. Maybe it is in releasing what God allowed me to make. We are sometimes tempted to think that if something is bearing fruit, we must remain there to keep tending it. Yet there are moments when the most faithful thing a disciple-maker can do is release the fruit and trust God with what happens next.

That's what I heard and learnt today. You can either build a church your way or build His Church His way. Our ways can lead to using and profiting; His way leads to releasing and reproducing.

Now the sun is fully up. I'll continue chopping down firewood from 3pm or 4pm and, hopefully, some more hearing.

Let's make disciples and build the Church His way.