The Way Of The Disciple
by Chip Brogden

"But put ye on the Lord Jesus, and make no provision for the flesh,
to fulfill its lusts (Romans 13:14)."

"There is a way which seems right to a man, but the end is death
(Proverbs 16:25)."

"The way which leads to life is narrow, and few find it (Matthew
7:14)."

"I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6a)."

We talk about "one way", but there are really two ways: the broad way
which many take, ending in death; and the narrow way which a few
take, ending in life. There are two ways presented to us. One way is
of man, seems right in man`s opinion, and leads to death. The other
way is of God, seems wrong in man`s opinion, and leads to Life.

We find that Christ is the Way to Life, and He Himself is Life. He is
both the means towards the End, as well as the End.

What is God after? What does He seek from us? What does He want?
First and foremost, He desires a people who will be conformed to the
image of His Son, that they may demonstrate the preeminence of Christ
in all things. But how does He gain such a people for Himself? The
first step is to reveal His Son to us. This is the narrow gate. We
cannot begin to walk the narrow path until we have entered the narrow
gate.

Upon entering the narrow gate He begins to change us from the inside
out so that it is Christ expressing Himself through us. "Not I, but
Christ." This is the narrow path. This narrow path we call
discipleship. It leads us somewhere. A path is not for standing
still. It has a destination. Where does the path lead? What is the
End? Christ as All in All. That is the End. All things work together
according to this supreme purpose, His Purpose.

What is a disciple? A disciple is someone who applies their energies
to learn a special discipline under a master teacher. There is no
other way to be a disciple. There must be a pupil who is taught, and
there must be a teacher who teaches. The disciple lives with the
teacher, eats and drinks with the teacher, travels about with the
teacher, observes the teacher during the course of the day and night,
asks a lot of questions and listens intently to the answers. This is
the Eastern way of making disciples, and it is the way the Lord Jesus
discipled the Twelve.

Disciples sit under the teacher - literally at his feet - and hang on
his every word. Disciples memorize their master's teaching and repeat
it verbatim to one another, using the same hand gestures,
phraseology, and emphasis, until they sound and act just like their
teacher. Thus when you see a mature disciple you will, in essence,
see the teacher as well. When the disciple speaks, it is as if the
teacher is speaking. This not only honors the teacher but preserves
the teaching.

So a disciple of the Lord Jesus is someone who enters the narrow gate
and walks the narrow path until they come to the end of the narrow
path and are left with nothing but Christ. As you can see, this is a
very, very narrow way, which is why few find it, and fewer still
remain on it once they find it. Nothing of self can be retained. All
of self must be lost in order to gain Christ.

As we walk the narrow way we are being changed from glory to glory.
Today we should reflect a little more of the glory of God than
yesterday; tomorrow we will reflect yet more than we did today. This
is growth. Growth is not more knowledge or increase of years: it is
simply more of Him and less of me. He increases as I decrease. This
is what it means to be a disciple.

What God Wants Is Disciples

God does not want ministers or workers to begin with. We think these
things are very important, for how can the Church get along without
ministers and workers? What else does God want if not ministers and
workers? Quite simply, He wants disciples first and foremost. There
are many ministers and workers today and very few disciples. Everyone
either has a ministry or wants a ministry. Everyone is expected to be
a minister or a worker. We do not hear too much about being a
disciple, yet this is what God must have before He can have anything
in the Church.

Jesus said go into all the world and make disciples. It is not that
ministers and workers are unimportant; indeed they are. But what is
the priority? Can a man or a woman truly be a minister or worker on
behalf of the Kingdom if they are not a disciple first? Of course
not. They can minister and work themselves to death and still be in
the flesh, doing many mighty works in the name of Jesus and not know
Him at all.

"Few there be that find it." But doesn't everyone know the way by
now? Surely multitudes of people will find it? Not at all. The way
that leads to Life is narrow, and few there be that find it. Isn't
the way Jesus? And doesn't everyone know that? Well, everyone has
been told that, and they think they know it, but Jesus as He really
is and Jesus as He is commonly taught are two different things.

What is our idea of discipleship? I hear brothers and sisters say, "I
have been sitting under the ministry of brother so-and-so for years
now." They say this with great pride as if it is something others
should be impressed by. I ask them, "How long have you lived with
your teacher?" Invariably you discover they do not live with their
teacher at all. They simply listen to his sermons in church or on
television or on cassette tape or video tape. Furthermore they have
no personal relationship with their teacher. In many cases they have
never even met in person, much less shared a meal with them.

Be careful of who you "sit under" for you will become just like them,
and you will never advance beyond them. Please understand that the
Lord did not call us to go forth mentoring and being mentored. A
mentor is a synonym for teacher, guide, or counselor. If I am not
mistaken (and I am not), the Holy Spirit is our Teacher, Guide, and
Counselor, not man. This is where so many of us have missed it. We
are still looking for man - flesh and blood - to affirm us and tell
us what to do. Should we encourage one another? Yes. Should we seek
advice and prayers of other brothers and sisters? Absolutely. That
does not mean we need a mentor to tell us what to do. Who tells the
mentor what to do? His mentor? And who tells the mentor's mentor what
to do? You see this can become ridiculous, and it has in fact become
that ridiculous in recent years right up until this present time.

There are people out there who are eager and willing to be your
mentor, to teach you how to release your "gifts" or find your place
in "ministry" or move in the "prophetic" or pastor a large "church".
Anyone who is eager to mentor someone doesn't know himself well
enough. Anyone seeking a mentor doesn't know the Master well enough.
Finding a mentor isn't difficult. The difficult part is understanding
that discipleship has nothing to do with finding a mentor or sitting
under a teacher. Instead the Bible tells us that we have no need of
any man to teach us, for the Anointing (Christ) will teach us all
things and will lead us into all truth. A teacher who is teaching in
the name of Christ will always teach you away from himself and
towards Christ as the Teacher. "Less of me and more of Him." Does
your mentor do this? Does your pastor do this? Or do they find ways
to keep you dependent upon them and their teaching?

Who Is Your Teacher?

When the Lord revealed Himself to me I realized that such
experiential, intimate knowledge cannot be found in a book, or I
would have had it years ago. It cannot be found simply by reading the
Bible, or everyone who has a Bible would know the Truth
experientially, and we know that is simply not the case. It is a
revelation of Truth as a Person, not as a philosophy, and from that
day forward I understood that MAN cannot add to it or take away
anything from it. That is when I stopped seeking the affirmation or
confirmation of man.

I understood then (for the first time) that there is only one
Teacher, and I am His disciple. I do not belong to anyone else, and
no one else belongs to me. This was not something I would have
understood automatically. As a pastor I was used to talking about "my
sheep" and "my congregation" and "my church" as if I owned something.
But when I discovered that there is One Flock guided by One Shepherd
I knew then that I owned no one, and no one owned me. I belonged to
Him, and they belonged to Him. What liberty! For me certainly, but
more so, for the ones who were formerly "sitting under my teaching."
People would come to me to be taught instead of others because they
claimed they could not be fed by others, only by me. What a tragedy!
Who is your source? Where did the manna come from? Moses? No, "Moses
did not give you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the
True Bread." When will we look away from Moses the man and towards
Christ the Living Bread?

Now I can say (and indeed, "boast" is not too strong of a word here)
that my teaching is not my own. It is from Christ, for Christ, and
unto Christ as All in All. My boast is that my teaching does not come
from a human source. That is not to say that I have not learned much
from the likes of Watchman Nee, T-Austin Sparks, and others. I read
their writings for years and continue to read them. But what I know I
did not learn in a book. I do not read them to discover something
new, but to verify something I already know. We have the same
Teacher.

What is my point? To boast of myself? Not at all, but to boast of my
Teacher! There is no better thing in the world than to have someone
ask, "Where did you learn what you know? Who taught you these
things?" and for you to respond, "Jesus Christ is my Teacher, and He
taught me everything I know." This is discipleship! The Lord told us
to call no earthly man "Rabbi" (that is, Teacher) because you only
have One Teacher. But how many of us can say that?

Become His disciple. Sit at His feet and hear His Word. There is no
other way to learn. You cannot get it from someone else, you must get
it from Him. He is Truth.

The Cost of Discipleship

What does it cost to become a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ? What
does one have to give up? There is truly only one thing that must be
given up. It is not, and it never has been, a question of giving up
friends, family, material possessions, fame and fortune. You can give
up all those things, just like the first disciples of the Lord, and
still run away and deny Him.

Forget the outward things and go right to the heart of the matter.
Only one thing is necessary, and if we give up this one thing we are
qualified to be disciples of the Lord. What is the one thing? All we
have to give up is OUR WAY.

There are two ways, one which seems right, and one which IS right.
One is my way, the other is His way.

Yes, if we are willing to give up OUR way then we have, in effect,
given up everything. I am thinking of a dear man who pastors a
church, but he does it according to his way. Unfortunately he cannot
see that he is pastoring according to his way. Not that his way is
necessarily bad, because there is a lot of good work in his ministry.
But it is not purely the Way of Christ. I do not expect that he will
give up his church, or his ministry. The reality is that he will
probably never give up his work. The glorious thing is he does not
have to give up a single thing, except his own way! If he will but
give that up, everything else will take care of itself. The same is
true of us.

That is not to say we will keep everything. When we give up our way
then we will, in fact, lose quite a bit. We will lose the admiration
and appreciation of the world. We will lose the prestige and position
we once enjoyed. We may very well lose friends and even members of
our family who will not approve of us anymore.

The disciple is not greater than the Master, but it is enough that
the disciple be like the Master. The cost is great, but the reward is
greater. He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep in order to gain
what he cannot lose.

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