Without a doubt there comes to many of us the choice between a life of contraction and one of expansion; a life of small dimensions and one of widening horizons and larger visions and plans; a life of self-satisfaction or self-seeking and one of unselfish or truly Christ-like sharing. (John Mott, In the Gap)

Conversion is a miracle; it is a person being transferred from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. It is old things passing away, all things becoming new. It is a person outside the family of God being welcomed in by the blood of Jesus. The sacrifice of Jesus is vindicated at every conversion.

Nothing can or should stand to minimize the event of a single person’s conversion. But, the Great Commission is our calling to make disciples out of those converts. A convert is a new born ready to be nurtured and cared for. Discipleship is that nurturing process and the giving of care the convert needs and deserves.

A convert is dependant on others; others can depend upon a disciple. A convert needs to be encouraged as to their potential in Christ. A disciple lives encouraged and gives encouragement. Paul said, “For I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day. (II Tim. 1:12)

What does it take for a disciple to “know” and to be “convinced”? That is what a disciple maker must be committed to seeing happen. What does it take for a parent to let their teen take the car for the first time? Training and trust; training with results that are measurable and trust without measure.

In I John 2:12-14 there are three categories of believers or family members, each having those measurable characteristics.

1. Little children

a. Sins are forgiven

b. They know the Father

2. Young men

a. Overcame the evil one

b. Strong and the word of God abides in them

3. Fathers

a. Know Him who has been from the beginning

The little children have learned the truths of redemption and they are in fellowship with their Father. The young men have worked out their belief system in their daily lives. They have disciplined themselves in the Word and are walking in authority over evil. The fathers simply know God. Like Sarah in Hebrews 11:11 who considered God faithful to His promise.

This simple progression is repeatable in any convert’s life. As mentioned, it is measurable and observable. Because of this, the disciple maker and the disciple can know where they are in their development.

Jesus summarized the Old Testament law as loving God and loving mankind. Then He gave a new command, “That you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another”(John 13:34). This emphasis on love will have to be made a priority in the lives of the new disciples. All Christians have the love of God but must learn how to love unconditionally and at all times. Knowledge can be gained by learning the Scriptures and then relating them to forgiveness, to accepting people the way they are and to stay away from being judgmental. The making of a disciple happens when an encounter with a disagreeable person ends positively. Change comes in the midst of life and right decisions are made.

A life of love relates to being a worshiper, being thankful and therefore enhances the disciple’s walk with Jesus. It also relates to service to those in the Body of Christ, to the needy, to their community. There are many people who have never been taught how to relate in a family, how to respect, show honor or to trust. If need be, discipleship includes these areas of love as well.

Once love is figured out everything else is easy! Knowing God, personally and intimately is another priority. This will include having a devotional life, being a worshiper both privately and publicly, and on ongoing prayer life. Here the disciple maker must open up his/her own life to how their lifestyles were developed. An accountability system can be established to keep the new disciple progressing.

Knowledge of the Scriptures is going to produce stability and a hunger to keep learning. James chapter one relates the Scriptures to being a mirror that shows people who they really are. A natural mirror reflects life as it is in the moment. The Word of God reflects who the person is redemptively and who they are destined to become. The more the young disciple focuses upon spiritual truth the more that will dominate the natural and any carnal tendencies.

As soon as a disciple learns who they are in Christ the stronger they will become. One simple outline is to study how the believer identifies with Jesus’ sacrifice.

1. I died with Christ.

2. I was crucified with Christ.

3. I was buried with Christ.

4. I was resurrected with Christ.

5. I am seated with Christ in heavenly places.

These truths will help establish a foundation that is not easily disrupted. Another outline that is both basic and profound is answering this list of questions:

 1. Who is God?

2. What does God have?

3. What can God do?

4. Who is a believer?

5. What does a believer have?

6. What can a believer do?

7. Who is the devil?

8. What does the devil have?

9. What can the devil do?

The process of disciple making is unique to the person but will also include many similarities. If the disciple maker has a general format to follow he/she will be confident in coming alongside a convert and creating a disciple. Every Christian is designed to be a disciple maker.

It doesn’t matter, really, how great the pressure is; it only matters where the pressure lies. See that it never comes between you and the Lord – then, the greater the pressure, the more it presses you to His breast. (J. Hudson Taylor, from Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual Secrets)

In this lesson the question is asked, what stands between a called and equipped church and the evangelization of the world? Or, if the church has it all and can do it all why has the gospel not been preached to all the nations?

First, does the modern church know its position in Christ and potential in Christ? John 15 is the central chapter on teaching on abiding in the Vine. Believers who abide have the very life of Christ flowing into them; the potential of Christ becomes their own personal potential. The culmination of this passage is verse 16:

You did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He may give to you.

Abiding qualifies the believer for fruit bearing; it positions a person to fulfill his/her appointment or destiny. With observable fruit production seemingly low the conclusion could easily be made, no fruit is the direct result of no abiding. How well are you abiding? Are you bearing fruit? How about those with whom you are in fellowship, do they live the abiding lifestyle?

If believers are not abiding in the Vine, what are they abiding in: The most worn out excuse for not living up to our obligation is, “I’m busy.” That expression, as truthful as it may be, is an indictment that the believer is abiding in the world not in the Vine. Whatever comes into a Christian’s life and replaces the priority and centrality of Christ is idolatry. Those are strong words. For many believers Christian duty is what has replaced Jesus. For others their career, their family or their preoccupation with recreation, sports, or their “own” free time. Since we are bought with a price our life is no longer our own. Our sense of freedom is at the expense of the multitudes without Christ.

Abiding is recognizing “It is no longer I who live but Christ” (Gal. 2:20). It is a person under the Lordship of Christ. This person realizes, “Without Him I can do nothing,” and yet “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

The believer who is abiding in the world has not come to know personally the joy of surrendering to Jesus or the peace that accompanies the decision to live with long-term priorities. “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). When a Christian lays down his/her life to Jesus that is the ultimate expression of love.

Another question must be asked, “If Jesus is not willing for people to be lost, why then are His people so willing? First a few Scriptures:

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance (II Pet. 3:9) Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (I Tim. 2:4). Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world (John 1:29).

Jesus died for all and stands desiring for all to be saved. If it is God’s will for all to be saved there must be a divine strategy for each generation to fulfill that will of God. The gap between those being saved and those who could be saved is enormous. Each lost person will miss heaven based upon his/her own decisions. But each believer carries a responsibility to the Lord for the lost. The reality of that responsibility may or may not motivate a person to action.

How can a Christian, who obviously loves God, be casual or calloused about the fulfillment of the Great Commission? How can any Christian use their time, talent, and treasures as it pleases them with wanton disregard to those outside the Body of Christ? Are we convinced of the possibility of eternity in hell?

But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him (I John 3:17).

Logic would say, if I say I love God and if I have the potential to help and I do not then I am a liar and the truth I do not have abiding in me. If such conviction ran throughout the Body would there be any change? What will it take for Christians to rise up and spend their lives on the building of the Kingdom of God?

A testimony is a convincing declaration of what Jesus Christ has done for your life. And there are principles for developing and using it all through your Christian walk.

God has testimonies to us that we can believe and personally apply. They then become our testimonies. We should have many testimonies based on the Word, what it says, and what it has done for others. We can even testify when nothing has yet happened to us.

Psalm 119:2 says, “Blessed are those who keep (obey) His testimonies…” Keeping God’s testimonies can mean believing what He had said or promised. John 6:39, “this is the work of God, that you believe in Him who He has sent.”

The foundation of a powerful and effective testimony must be faith in Jesus Christ and all He is and all He has done and promised to us. Then it can become a useful evangelistic tool.

Developing your testimony is unique by God’s design and is a life-long process. Personal failure is built in to this by God’s foreknowledge. Don’t let it discourage you. This is process. “Procession” is a similar word. You are in the parade of God, featured as a precious person unlike no other and constructed to touch lives like no one else can. Ephesians 2:10 states that “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”

Many Christians feel like they have no testimony. We generally think in extreme or dramatic terms of a pre-salvation lifestyle filled with drugs, jail, the occult, or alcoholism. If you haven’t lived that sort of life before you got saved, then how can you now be that much different? How can your testimony really be effective to draw people to God? Here is the good news….your testimony is ALWAYS powerful now that you’re saved.

It’s not so much your former life that distinguishes you, but your conversion. Conversion is the key. No matter how dramatic or routine our conversion seems, the fact that you were called out of darkness into His marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9) means an amazing miracle has occurred. For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the lord (Ephesians 5:8). There are no distinguished saints. All are products of the same Holy Spirit power.

This is the foundation of developing your testimony. It begins with our understanding of basic Biblical principles that should give us confidence in who we are now. Not what we were, but what has happened inside our hearts that has caused transformation to take place.

How do we use all this…to evangelize and reach the lost? Wait! We also use our testimony to bless God and His saints on earth. Your testimony is to be used for everyone’s edification. 2 Corinthians 2:15-16, “For we are unto God a sweet savor of Christ, in them that are saved, and in them that perish. To the one we are the savor of death unto death and to the other the savor of life unto life.”

We are to be witnesses. Witnessing for Jesus is not just speaking; it is also being. “You shall be witnesses…” Acts 1:8.

Using your testimony requires flexibility, coupled with God’s wisdom. “Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time.” (Colossians 4:5). It takes great wisdom and patience to know how to use a testimony. Most Christians don’t realize the power of gracious words. Often we are too forceful. We think it’s up to us to save someone. How should be speak? Colossians 4:6 says, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt that you may know how you ought to answer every man.”

Don’t compromise the seriousness of the gospel, but do it like Jesus did. People wondered at His gracious words (Luke 4:18, 22). Yet there was authority in His speech (Matthew 7:28-29). In using your testimony, try to target a common need that you and your audience both have. For example, “I was afraid of what the future held until I put my faith in Jesus.” Or, “I knew I needed forgiveness.”

By all means, use the name of JESUS in your testimony. Don’t shrink back. Too many Christians, especially contemporary musicians and singers, write their lyrics and sing testimonies without using Jesus’ name. There is power in that name. You won’t “turn off” someone who is already “off”, but you will draw those to God whose hearts are prepared to hear the gospel. This is an important key in testimony. You’ll feel the atmosphere change when the name “JESUS” is used. (It changes the atmosphere when “Jesus’ is used as a cuss word, does it not?) Hebrews 4:12 says “The Word of God (JESUS) is quick and powerful, dividing soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”

Use your testimony in the 2 Timothy 2:23-26 way. Since “giving testimony” implies dialogue, you will surely face, at times, an arguer. Stick to the claim that Jesus has on all our lives. Sure, go ahead and answer a peripheral question about other Biblical issues, but gently steer the discussion back to what Jesus did for you and must do for your hearers. Don’t strive. Especially if Mormons or Jehovah Witnesses are involved. Be sweet. Be at peace. God alone can change a heart. People will always remember how you made them feel. Titus 3:2 “To speak evil of no man to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.”

Our testimonies are always developing because Jesus is still at work in our lives. We are ever learning Him and ever testifying of Him. Christ in you, the hope of glory! Now that’s a testimony!