Most Church’s idea of educating a new believer in the things of God involves sending him/her to a Bible Study or some other social training class – like marriage counseling. I agree that a study of the Bible is important but I believe that there is much more to discipleship training than just a simple Bible Study class. I believe that a Bible Study is just one of the few subjects that should be basic training for a new recruit.
The average Bible Study would usually choose a book in the Bible to study or it was choose a random subject to study. When a book in the Bible is chosen to study, the book is usually covered and discussed from front to back. The Bible Study teacher would expound on the subjects that they come across that he/she believe is misunderstood or is a subject of high interest. When a Bible Study class study random subjects the subjects are usually dealing with scripture on the behavior of the person; don’t judge, give to the least of these, forgiveness, hypocrisy, love your neighbor, etc.
I believe that it is time for an update of the training process for the new believers. I think that it is time for the Church to replace the Bible Study with the Discipleship Study. One Discipleship Study in particular: Immanuel Discipleship Studies.
Immanuel Discipleship Studies has eleven different discipleship subjects: 1) The Message Of The Gospel 2) The Messengers Of The Gospel 3) The Duties Of A Faith-filled Believer 4) To Be An Example 5) Prayer 6) Watching (listening to the voice of the Spirit) 7) Reading the Bible 8) Studying the Bible 9) Discipleship 10) Witnessing 11) Spiritual Gifts. Each subject of the study has a name and an outline of the subject material, for the sake of time and space; I will briefly reveal the names and a small amount of the outline information.
IMMANUEL DISCIPLESHIP STUDIES
- 1. Truth And Grace Together Is The Gospel – we receive a spirit of understanding and perception to understand the truth of the Gospel and perceive the grace of the Gospel.
- 2. Whose Messenger Are You – are you Moses messenger, Sigmund Freud’s messenger, Satan’s messenger, or Jesus messenger, examine your message.
- 3. The Duties Of A Faith-filled Believer – we have to bear fruit, do the will of God, give to the lease of these, go to church, love God, pray, watch, love our brothers and sisters, etc.
- 4. To Be Or Not To Be A Perfect Example – be an example in word, in conduct, in love, in spirit, in faith, in purity.
- 5. The Effectual Fervent Prayer Of A Righteous Man Availeth Much – pray to God – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and to no other, types of prayer: praise, worship, intercession, petition, giving thanks, confession, tongues, and casual conversation.
- 6. Watchman, What Do You Perceive – Ezekiel, the Prophet of God, was called a watchman by God and told that his assignment was to watch for a word from God. We are all watchmen.
- 7. My People Are Destroyed Because Of Lack Of Knowledge – we don’t bear fruit if we don’t know what it is and how to get it, we don’t do the will of God and live if we don’t know what it is. Read the word of God and find the answers you need to be saved and mature in the spirit.
- 8. Study To Show Yourself Approved – there are too many lies in the Church, in the media, and in our own doctrine, when we study the word of God, not just read it the Bible, we learn to recognize the truth.
- 9. Discipleship Followers And Leaders – what do you teach a disciple, how are they expected to act, how are you expect to act as a leader of believers, what should they be expected to do. Five categories of believers: The multitude of Believers types, Susana types, Mary types, Martha types, and the Twelve Apostle types.
- 10. Witness When Perfect Opportunity Exist – we can recognize opportunities to witness instead of forcing the message on people who don’t want to hear it.
- 11. Spiritual Gifts – (I started out talking about ministry, teaching, preaching, and prophesying, then I believed that it was necessary to combined these into one subject that I had already worked on called spiritual gifts) My subject on spiritual gifts is a large subject matter but to condense it let me just outline some things.
1 Corinthians 12: 1-28 and Ephesians 4:11 show three categories of spiritual gifts. 1) Gifts Of The Spirit 2) Operations Of God 3) Administrations Of The Lord
- 1) Gifts of The Spirit – Word Of Wisdom, Word Of Knowledge, Faith, Healing, Miracles, Prophecy, Discernment Of Spirits, Tongues, and Interpretation Of Tongues.
- 2) Operations Of God – First Apostle, Second Prophets, Third Teachers, then types of Healings, types of Miracles, helps, administrations, and tongues
- 3) Administrations Of The Lord – Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Pastors, and Teachers
These Spiritual Gifts do not mention all possible spiritual gifts, although, it mentions most. As you can see, it leaves out some like elders, deacons, bishops, or the spiritual gifts of the heart and mind of a believer – fruits of the Spirit (love, peace, joy, goodness, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, self-control, and long-suffering). Also, all of the 7 spirits of Christ mentioned in book of Isaiah and revelation – Spirit of Understanding, Wisdom, Knowledge, Might, Counsel, The Fear Of The Lord (and the unmentioned Spirit of Revelation – Prophecy, Discernment Of Spirits, Tongues, and Interpretation Of Tongues) are not all mentioned in the lineup but most are present to the best of my knowledge.
