One thing I recently was reminded of though was how deeply rewarding this labor is. Over the last 2 or so years, I have been deeply involved in raising up leadership on SVSU's campus. I've worked on training several students on how to be disciple-makers and continue the work I had started on SVSU's campus. I've created discipleship groups, met one on one with my aspiring leaders, and challenged the heck out of these individuals. And this last weekend I was reminded of how much doing that work can pay off.
I had gone up to Saginaw last weekend because of a class, but had the hope of catching up with many of the friends I had discipled. This was harder to plan than I thought though because they were right in the middle of kingdom-expanding activities. One of my boys had to blow me off to evangelize. He had the opportunity to spend time using one of his hobbies to connect to nonbelievers and couldn't pass it up. How can you blame someone for that? One of my girls left hanging out with me to go comfort someone she was discipling. My "babies", as I have so lovingly called them, were almost too busy for me because they were doing the very kingdom-expanding things I taught them to do! And the others all had come back to me with stories of how God was using them, and questions of how they could do things better. How awesome is that! I thought it was really cool when by the time I left, most of my babies (all of my official ones at least) were on Standing in the Gap's leadership team. However it was even cooler this weekend to see that those babies weren't just given a label, they were still acting those things out even after I wasn't there to guide them every day.
But this story is not exclusive to me. It's not because I am awesome. It's because I followed what I've learned, my passions and the Holy Spirit's leading in my life. It's because I've used the gifts God's given me. God has happened to bless me with the gifts of shepherding, leadership and teaching. So my story of how I've gotten to, and will get to, use God's gifts to expand His Kingdom will look a lot different than yours might. For instance, one of the things I'm so excited for as I look to teach in the Philippines is that it will be the perfect opportunity to raise up young leaders for Christ and that's my passion and my gift. That's going to be one of the best investments I can make for the Kingdom, I'm so sure of it! But one of my friends for example might have the gift of faith. And they may pray and change the whole outlook of this tiny time we have here on earth. Another friend might have the gift of evangelism. They may go win many to Christ. I wish I was good at this, but I know God has chosen to give us all different gifts so that together we can be most effective. But the thing is, when you are using your gift, you will begin to see the fruit of your labor as long as you keep at it without giving up. And as I said when I preached, whether shepherding is your gift or not, I think discipling is a job for all of us. Because as Paul says "there are ten thousand guardians in Christ, but not many fathers" (1st Corinthians 4:15) and the importance of having fathers to help us grow up so that "we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming" (Ephesians 4:14). So go disciple, train others in the way of godliness, and be amazed at the rich fruit of blessing that follows.
