Meeting: Sunday Service
Date: 26th April, 2026
Message: The Essence of Discipleship
Minister: Pastor Laide Olaniyan
(Matt. 28:18-20) – “And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”
The word ‘teach’ in verse 19 and verse 20 are different. The word teach is called mathēteuō in Greek meaning to disciple – to make disciples of all nations. How we are baptised into the names of God is through discipleship. The system of immersion in the name is discipleship.
Discipleship is the means of transference of life that one has attained into other persons who have chosen to follow. Discipleship is the medium through which life, wisdom, culture, grace, character that has been formed in a vessel is passed down through to another.
Discipleship can also be described as choosing to follow and embrace the life of another for the purpose of inheriting and imbibing it as against what you know as your life.
We can have many believers but few disciples, because the concept of discipling has been watered down. There is an emphasis on the thought that once you believe, you are saved, hence there is no need for discipleship. However, the life of faith can only be transmitted through the vehicle of discipleship.
The foremost essence of church is discipleship. The system of discipling did not start in the church, it started before the church. The Jews had been making proselytes; they were involved in doing what we call evangelism (Matt. 23:15).
The essence of discipleship primarily is to succeed in delivering a person to God. It is possible to convert a person but not succeed in delivering him to God, rather you can make the person twice the child of hell bound for destruction. Proselyting in itself is not a sin, it’s the act of converting someone to your faith. Proselyting without discipleship is a truncation of the process that God has set in motion or in place for every believer to be established and come into the promises of the believers in light.
In the early church we see that not only the number of saints multiplied, but that the numbers of disciples also multiplied (Acts 2:41-43).
How does one become a disciple? (John 8:31) – “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;” – We become disciples by continuing in His word. A believer is not a disciple unless he continues in the word. The people that believed in the scripture above, didn’t only continue in the word, but they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers (Acts 2:41-43).
We see a version of the faith today, that a person believes but we don’t see the person in church consistently. The church rarely successfully migrates believers into disciples. (Matt. 28:18-20) The mandate of the church is to make disciples.
We don’t disciple on evangelical ground, but within the system of the church.
It is in the place of discipleship that we are known. The church is where we are known. There is a version of the faith that Satan is propagating where you are not known, nobody knows your house or your life yet you are in church. From the version we see in the scripture, a disciple follows his master everywhere and knows all about their master because in discipleship nothing is hidden from your discipler and it’s not because of coercion but because of submission. (Acts 2:44) – “And all that believed were together, and had all things in common;” – One of the first breakthroughs they had with them was that the boundary of my possession had been removed.
(Mark 10:28-30) – “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee. 29 And Jesus answered and said, Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake, and the gospel’s, 30 But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecutions; and in the world to come eternal life.”
The hallmark of the life of a disciple is that he is willing to jettison his own life, to follow the life of another for the promise of a higher life (the life God has wrought in him). This man will not regard the life or things he has previously owned as his own because mercy has been supplied to see the futility in those things. This first stage of weaning, many believers never get there. The gospel many get is the one that teaches you to own and own and accumulate and not to let go to receive of another. Just like the rich young ruler, the person wants to use God to make it. He comes believing, not to let go, but to add. Due to this inability to let go, he becomes rich in all things but not able to enter the kingdom (Rev. 3:17).
Discipleship is God’s plan for baptism. Without discipleship, baptism will be a cliche and not a life experience in the church.
The difference between the sons of the prophet and Elisha is discipleship.
(1 Kings 19:16-21) We can see from this scripture the conversation of heart that made God choose Elisha among the sons of the prophet. He was attending to the farm of his father. He had a privileged life and left it to become a househelp. If it were to be in today’s world, it would be said of him that Elisha was exploited.
The hope Elisha had wasn’t to be a prophet, all he saw was God and he was willing to give up on his father’s business, burn the bridge and follow Elijah.
(2 Kings 3:11) – “But Jehoshaphat said, Is there not here a prophet of the LORD, that we may enquire of the LORD by him? And one of the king of Israel’s servants answered and said, Here is Elisha the son of Shaphat, which poured water on the hands of Elijah.” – This became Elisha’s CV. He was more content doing this for the sake of laying hold on life. Even the disciples of Jesus, weren’t they feeding their family? What became of their families? Because we see Peter say “We left all to follow you”.
In our present day, anyone that leaves all to follow the Lord in today’s world is seen as a pastor, but in their day, every disciple was seen to do this.
(Mark 10.28) – “Then Peter began to say unto him, Lo, we have left all, and have followed thee.” – We see here a pattern of sacrifice to be able to lay hold on life.
When we believed something happened, however, we weren’t helped to cross into becoming disciples. Being a disciple is a precursor to finding truth. It’s a necessary condition. If you are not being cultured into being a disciple, you will never come to the place of finding truth.
(Acts 2:45) – This is a training of milk. What they did here is similar to what Elisha also did. He let go of his possessions. They knew what they were called to inherit was more precious than their possession. This is the same curriculum Jesus gave to the rich young ruler – come, follow me then you will have life (Matt. 19:21).
The issue about discipleship is a grave course many aren’t willing to embrace. This is where we lose ourselves, this is where we lose our ambitions because here we are made to forfeit our ambition to serve another greater purpose.
If you will inherit life, you must be willing to suffer affliction with the people of God. Some of the things the world has arranged around us can prevent us from entering into life and it is by subjecting ourselves to the will of another that those things can be undone.
Oftentimes God raises one who has embodied to a great degree the life and then is made to raise others on that path as seen with John the Baptist (John 1:40-42).
In the case of staying with brethren, many think it is only those that have need for a place to stay e.t.c but we must see beyond ourselves. We must understand why the Lord makes us live with the brethren. Why many people end up not having the life is that they skip discipleship therefore they end up missing the baptism. When you are too wise, too smart and you bypass the life of the brethren, you miss out on the life that accompanies it. You will have a life but it will be different from what your brethren have. If you eat the food, drink the water and do the chores your brethren are doing, you will end up with the life of the brethren.
(Dan. 1:1-15) – Daniel and his brethren were not the only children of Israelites the King called upon, there were many other Israelites there. Sometimes we don’t know the miracle that’s in the pot of the brethren. It’s a form of baptism, baptism into a life. Jesus and His disciples at some point had to pluck ears of corn when they were hungry to eat (Matt. 12:1). They fed on the leftover corn on the field of others who did that as a form of welfare for others by their law. Truth is, the kingdom we are gunning for is different from the kingdom Satan wants to hand to us.
We could easily neglect the program meant to baptise us and give us the life we need. Without baptism, we will never receive the fullness of the life designed by God for us to come into – a life amidst the brethren. This is how we get the name of God.
(Acts 6:6-7) – “Whom they set before the apostles: and when they had prayed, they laid their hands on them. 7 And the word of God increased; and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem greatly; and a great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.” – The numbers of disciples multiplied greatly. These were believers who had believed who had now become full fledged disciples.
There needs to be earnest continuity in the word for true disciples to be raised and Satan does not want this.
(John 8:31-32) – “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” – Every disciple has an ordination to know Truth. Being a disciple builds in us a raising that can fellowship with Truth.
Discipleship is also a teaching, but a teaching full of life. Programs tagged as discipleship training, structured and done within a time duration, doesn’t necessarily make disciples. The crucible used to immerse men for baptism is where discipleship lies. To be baptised is to be immersed until you lose your former self or nature. An example of someone who was fully immersed is Moses (Acts 7:20, Heb. 11:24-27). After forty years, a man mighty in words and deeds became a stammerer. The one that was mighty in words and deeds became a herder of his father-in-law’s sheep, later recorded as the meekest man on earth (Numb. 12:3). Discipleship is by subjection and leading in a way until you lose your own life. It is the way of the spirit, it is the way of God.
Disciplers teach but not necessarily only in the way we know teaching to be. For example with Jesus, many of the things He taught the disciples were as a result of their questions, meaning until you see and desire understanding, you can’t take life. There were many things He wanted to teach them, but He needed them to see it to be able to call for it. The reason the disciples asked Him to teach them how to pray was because they saw Him pray all night one day (Luke 11:1).
In discipling, you are finding grace to overhaul the understanding, the reason and system of living of a person from the foundation. If you don’t help them see the goal, everything that will be done will be done in futility.
Jesus never really went out of His way to teach the disciples to pray, to cast out devils e.t.c, He just told them to do it. There was no special step by step curriculum, rather, it looked out of line and uncoordinated. Discipleship might look haphazard but it’s structured to expose your darkness.
The challenge with many of us is that we do not realise that we are being discipled so we don’t ask questions. Sometimes when we are close to our leaders, we don’t know that it’s an opportunity to ask questions.
The bond that exists between the discipler and the disciple is trust because literally it is entrusting one’s life to his or her judgement. There are certain things we might not fully understand about discipleship because the curriculum is in the spirit which is why many of us don’t understand it yet.
(2 Kings 5:6-23) In the story of Gehazi, He did not trust Elisha enough. The Lord used Elisha to break Naaman and humble him for him to be saved but Gehazi, not understanding God’s heart, decided to do otherwise. For many of us, our respect for corruptible things is what shuts us out of the things of God. God will need to help us to trust and have faith in the judgment of those God has placed over us.
This system of discipling also ought to be expressed in our households. Every household is supposed to be a way-holder, raising others in the way, to the end that they receive the name.
(Acts 9:10-18) Ananias’ commitment to the word and the Lord is what made him obey even though it could have meant his death. It was a disciple that filled the great Apostle Paul with the Holy Ghost.
Every believer should be a disciple and should be able to disciple another. Discipleship is not raising followers after yourself but building up your brethren and younger ones for Jesus.
Some subtly build their own empire in the church, whose allegiance is to themselves and not to the hope of the gospel nor to Jesus the Son of God. We need to be careful to remove ourselves in discipling a soul and allow them to only see Jesus. We mustn’t think or approach people with the mindset that they can only prosper in God only through our church or this waters. We should push the destination (God) much more than the vehicle, in this case our church.
(Mark 9:38-41) We see Jesus forbade His disciples when they assumed someone else could not partake of or use His name because he was not one of them. Even the disciples of Jesus tried to build an empire out of what He had given them. (1 Tim. 2.3-4) We must be careful with things given to us by the Lord, minding the desire that comes with protecting it, but as much as we try to manage it, we must be careful to ensure that it’s unto the Lord.
Tongues and Interpretation (1)
What I have given you is a key
It’s an access into the training of followership and of continuing
For you have professed in your mouth that you want to follow me.
I have put around you an arrangement for that to be done but saith the Lord, many of you have despised that arrangement.
I say to you, I veiled that man, I veiled that woman myself. I veiled them to really see if you will follow, if you will trust.
For you to press beyond the life, for you to press beyond the veil, there is a life of continuance and of followership.
You must press beyond that veil to see that I am the one leading.
You must follow the man, you must follow that woman, you must follow that brethren.
You must follow even that arrangement that I have made for you to follow
I have given you the key, you have no reason for you to be shut out of the grace that has been made available.
For truly, I have put many things in the people that I have placed you under
I have given them things for you but truly you have not discerned them as you ought to. You have been veiled by things that is not making you press.
My hand is still outstretched to you through them but you have not received the things I have given, for you do not like the arrangement I have given.
Saith the Lord, for you to follow me you must follow those that I have put you under, you must follow those who through faith inherit the promise.
There is something that is in them that is for you, you must see it and discern it. Saith the Lord, I have given you a key, you have no more reason to be shut out of grace any longer.
Discern! Discern and repent.
You don’t know anything as you ought to
Be meek, be low, receive the things that I am stretching out through the people I have placed you under and indeed you will come into the life.
Message continues..
Discipleship is not apprenticeship for ministry. It is following for life. The allocation of all the names have their baptisms.
(1 Cor. 10:2-6) All of the children of Israel were supposed to be baptised into Moses but only Joshua and Caleb successfully learnt the wisdom, life and work that was weaved in Moses. Moses was supposed to disciple them but many of them were offended with his life. With Paul also, we see only Timothy learnt his manner of life. We can have revelation but without the vehicle of discipleship, we won’t be able to pass down the life from generation to generation and without the heart of the people embracing the process of discipleship, the life cannot be passed down through different generations. At the end of the day, it may just be that only a fraction of the generation would have embodied the life because the people did not follow through the model that God laid down for transferring the life.
(2 Tim. 2:2) – “And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” – We must desire for the work of Jesus to abide. That life should be able to be transferred from one to another. That everyone would have His life as their heritage.
Discipleship is baptism and this is how we would be immersed into His life.
In discipleship, it does not mean you have no right to commune and hear from God, it just means for order sake and for the sake of the work he seeks to establish, you are wise enough to submit what you hear to him or her.
Discipleship is not by coercion. It is being willing to jettison your own life, standards and judgment for the purpose of embracing the work wrought in another person. Many people are drawn by privileges you seem to enjoy and not the life and work that has been done in your soul. If the Lord doesn’t help you discern this, you will think that they are here because of the life. Once you can discern this, start praying for that soul else their ways just like Judas can remain set in themselves.
Sometimes a person can be singing eternal life, but still with the hope of ministry, his singular purpose is not yet Jesus or the hope of the life in Him. Jesus was careful and patient and was gradually hacking down other hopes in His disciples.
Discipleship is a delicate work. You must know the wisdom to know what measure of burden to put upon every soul at every time. If you push too hard, you can lose a soul.
If you desire His name, you must be discipled. You must be given fully to be immersed in the names (Matt. 28:19). If a person doesn’t see himself as a disciple, he will see the church as a shopping mall, where he handpicks what he agrees with and ignores what he doesn’t. Many of us treat commandments based on our desire or interest, such a person is not a disciple. A disciple indeed is one who even though he cannot bear the instruction will keep asking for mercy until a work is wrought inside of him that can bear that work or instruction.
Many call themselves Omo RKO but are they willing to embrace the process, the sufferings and afflictions that made him? Do we love the Lord so much that we are willing to embrace all that God has wrought in Him. Discipleship is not picking that which we love and leaving behind what we lack interest in.
(Acts 2:41-47) This means the people who consistently followed the word became disciples. They were consistent because there was a bond of trust and followership. This is how we will be made a practitioner of Truth. We mustn’t be a person who knows the truth, but doesn’t seek to embody it. Don’t just be a believer. Become a disciple. We must trust the Lord to make us consistent and continue in the word daily. (John 8:31-32) The Lord will make us disciples indeed. Amen.
THE END.