Becoming a Disciple

This is an excerpt from MasterLife: The Disciple’s Cross by Avery T. Willis Jr.

When I went away to college, I had been a Christian for several years. I had done almost everything my church had asked me to do. I had tithed, attended church five times a week, occasionally visited prospects, and read my Bible daily. But when the influences of home and church were removed, I came face to face with who I really was. I realized that I possessed Christ as my Savior but that He did not possess me. I faced a decision: Am I going to be a disciple who gives everything to Christ? I spent many nights walking through the fields near the college, talking to God, and pondering whether I really meant business about being a Christian.

Then, I started looking at the Scriptures to see what being a disciple involves. The Bible told me that a disciple of Christ is someone who makes Christ the Lord of his or her life.

I realized that I would be either a real disciple of Christ or a mediocre Christian for the rest of my life. As people often do when they arrive at a crossroads in their walk with Christ, I began to make excuses. I began to tell God that I could not do all He wanted me to do, that I had failed many times, and that I was not even sure He would want me to be His disciple.

In answer to my excuses, God showed me 2 Chronicles 16:9.

I remembered that evangelist D. L. Moody had heard his friend Henry Varley say, “It remains to be seen what God will do with a man who gives himself up wholly to Him.” In response Moody said, “I will be that man.”¹

If anyone gave himself up wholly to God, it was D. L. Moody. With only a third-grade education, he led hundreds of thousands of people in England and America to God. My response was, “Lord, I want to be like that. I want to have a heart committed to You. Then, if You do anything with my life, everyone will know it was because You did it and not because of my abilities.”

My heart has not always been right toward God since that time. However, because of the commitment I made, the Holy Spirit reveals whenever my heart is not right. I immediately confess and ask God to forgive me and to restore my heart.

That is how I decided to be a true disciple of Christ and to commit to a lifelong, obedient relationship with Him. At the outset, I said, “I will obey and do whatever God tells me to do, and I will depend on Him to accomplish whatever He wants to accomplish through my life.” The commitments I made during the following year set the course for my entire life. From that day forward, God began to reveal Himself to me and to teach me how to walk with Him. Looking back, I can say that everything that has been accomplished in my life has been because God did it.

What is a Disciple?

We begin by looking at who a disciple is and what a disciple does. The New Testament uses the term disciple three ways. First, it is a general term used to describe a committed follower of a teacher or a group.

Read Mark 2:18.

The persons or groups who had disciples are John, the Pharisees, and Jesus. These disciples were committed followers of these teachers or groups.

Second, the New Testament uses the term disciple to refer to the twelve apostles Jesus called. Mark 3:14 is very specific about why Jesus called these apostles.

Read Mark 3:14.

Jesus also used disciple to describe a follower who meets His requirements. For example, He said that His disciples must forsake families, possessions, or anything else that might keep them from following Him.

You have seen that the term disciple is a general term for a committed follower of a teacher or a group, one of Jesus’s twelve apostles, and a follower who meets Jesus’s requirements.