========================================================================
  KINGDOM MINDED DISCIPLESHIP
  by Gbile Akanni
========================================================================

Summary: Gbile Akanni emphasizes that discipleship must be kingdom-
focused, producing spiritually equipped and mature followers of Christ
who actively participate in God's revival and kingdom agenda.

Duration: 1:20:55 Topics: "Discipleship", "Kingdom of God", "Revival"
Scripture References: Genesis 14:11-16, Acts 9

------------------------------------------------------------------------
DESCRIPTION
------------------------------------------------------------------------

In this teaching, Gbile Akanni explores the vital role of kingdom-minded
discipleship as the foundation for revival and advancing God's kingdom.
He uses biblical typology and practical insights to show that
discipleship is a purposeful process of spiritual birth, training, and
equipping believers to be effective in God's battle. The sermon
introduces the Five C's curriculum—Christ, Character, Charisma, Career,
and Courage—as essential elements for raising mature disciples. Akanni
challenges listeners to pursue discipleship that results in Christ
living powerfully within each believer.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENT
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Living Seed Media brings to you God's Word, which is his comprehensive
equipment for changing lives. May the Lord impact your heart as you
encounter his Word. For further enquiry or counsel, contact Peace House,
PO Box 971, Boko, Benue State, Nigeria.

Telephone numbers 0703 03636 59 0703 76811 98 Email address
lsmediaatlivingseed.org or visit our website at www.livingseed.org Let
us sit back and listen as the servant of God brings forth the Word of
Life. We decided to raise an issue of a challenge particularly for those
of us who have been in discipleship for quite a while. And I am going to
just raise the issues a bit before I bring in my brethren, Brother
Charles from Boko and Brother Amos coming to us from Uganda.

Over the years, by the grace of God, as we had kept looking at this
Revival, and like I would say, we went from towards Revival, laboring
towards Revival for many years. Actually, we started with solemn
assemblies, gathering the people to pray and to pursue Revival. Then we
went towards Revival in the different lands and people groups, language
groups, tribes, nations.

And as God began to move us forward, we began to say, oh, Revival has
started. And we moved to Revival labels. And we have been in Revival
labels up until now that God has declared to us that hereafter we are
going to see Heavens open.

And without any doubt, over the years, discipleship has been our central
methodology. It has been our method of prosecuting this Revival. For us,
this Revival can only come down not with fanfare, not with plenty of
noise.

We are not looking for bright lights and shouting and excitement.
Revival for us means that lives are brought to encounter the cross and
they are built in the image of Christ. They are grown to conform to the
image of our firstborn, the firstborn in the family.

That for us is Revival. As God said to us several times, even in this
meeting, He has reminded us that we will not see rain, we will not see
noise, we will not see rain, we will not see clouds. Yet, the valley
will be full of water.

And He has instructed us to dig ditches. That meant prepare containers,
prepare vessels, prepare people who will be the vessels through which
this Revival will come. And that has been our focus.

But then we wanted to add a dimension to it this afternoon by focusing
our mind on the fact that discipleship is not just an unending classroom
teaching program. It's not just to keep doing discipleship like we are
doing in discipleship. And it sometimes is looked upon as an unending
process.

But God's mind, God has a purpose for discipleship. So we are going to
be looking at kingdom minded or kingdom or discipleship for kingdom
profit. We want to discuss the fact that all our discipleship is towards
a purpose.

God has a program. God has something for each life that God brings to us
in discipleship. And for us as disciples and leaders of discipleship
classes and even disciples that are beginning to become multiplied and
we ourselves are beginning to raise disciples, it must be clear to us
that discipleship is with a focus.

And this afternoon we want to look at that curriculum. What is that kind
of curriculum that can produce the kind of disciples that will be
profitable to the kingdom of God, disciples that is going to, in a
sense, meet the needs, meet the yearnings of God who has brought this
Revival upon us. I'm going to read this story very quickly from the book
of Genesis.

I am not going to speak for too long before I bring in my brothers. But
I want us to read Genesis chapter 14 to verse 12. And it's a story that
is not strange to any one of us who has been in discipleship for a
while.

But in this story we want to use this story as a kind of template for us
to see what is God doing with this discipleship program or what is it
all about. Let me start reading from verse 12 because of my time. Or
verse 11.

And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, all their victuals,
and went their way. And they took Lot, Abraham's brother's son, who
dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. And there came one that had
escaped and told Abraham the Hebrew, for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre
the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Anna.

And these were confederates with Abraham. Verse 14. And when Abraham
heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants,
born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto
Dan.

And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and
smote them, and pursued them unto Hoba, which is on the left hand of
Damascus. Verse 16, which will be the final verse we are reading. And he
brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and
his goods, and the women also, and the people.

If we look at this story as typifying the household of faith, and just
as a typology, we are looking at Abraham as our father. Abraham is the
head of the family, he has a sudden emergency. His brother was taken
captive.

And the Bible says, when he suddenly saw that he has somebody very
important to him, Lot, he's lost, he's been captured, and he's about to
be slaughtered. The Bible said, he took three hundred servants born in
his house, trained by his men, armed them with his weapons, and numbered
them into an army, with which he prosecuted the war, and recaptured Lot.
This discipleship process that we are in, is because our father has a
battle to fight.

Our father has a project. In other parts in the New Testament, the Bible
says, the kingdom of God is like a man who is wanting to build a tower.
And in another place, it said, it's like a man who wants to fight an
enemy.

So, discipleship is not focusless, it's not just an aimless process. Our
father has a battle to fight. Our father has a project in mind.

There is a revival to prosecute. There is a kingdom agenda, which
disciples are being raised to prosecute. But the disciples that are
going to be able to prosecute the project of our father, must be this
kind of disciples.

Number one, they must be disciples that were born in Baba's house. They
are born in his house. They are properly born.

Then they are trained. They are taught. They are raised.

They are shown the principles of the household of faith. They are shown
the principles of the kingdom of God. There are people who are being
trained, exposed to discipleship principles.

And whenever Baba is ready to launch them into his army, the next thing
he does is to arm them with his own weapons. So we see this kind of
stage by stage processing of lives that can be taken as part of the
army. This is not just an aimless teaching.

Once God delivers a disciple into your hand, he has a project in mind.
He wants that life to be grown enough, matured enough, trained enough,
and then armed to be able to be a part of the army. That is what is in
God's mind.

That's what is at the back of his heart. And that's why discipleship is
very important to us. So if somebody comes into your hand, it's not just
somebody that, if a disciple comes into your hand, it's not to be raised
into what we have referred to many times as a loyalty court.

Just to say, I am not a big man. You are counting your disciples. My
disciples are up to 30 now.

They are up to 40. That's not the purpose. The discipleship process is
not to raise houseboys and housegirls.

Somebody to help your wife in the kitchen. Or somebody to work in your
mechanic workshop. Or somebody with whom you can send on errands to do
this.

That's not the purpose of discipleship. God has a project in mind. Baba
has a work in mind.

There are some lords outside there that have been captured. They are
important to God's kingdom, yes. They may have taken the wrong
decisions.

They may have done wrong things. That's why they are outside there. But
nevertheless, they are Baba's family.

And he wants them back in his kingdom. He cannot just hijack people from
the road. So that is the reason for discipleship.

He takes them. They must be people that are properly born in his house.
Properly trained by his men.

In the process called discipleship. They must be people that are armed
with the weapons of the kingdom. Ready to fight.

And whenever he has his eyes on something. Whether it is in the family.
Whether it is in the denomination.

Whether it is in a professional field. Wherever it is that Baba decides
that I am going to recover the lords that rightfully belong to me. He
must have people born in his house.

Trained by his men. Armed by his weapons. With his weapons.

And then he can number an army with which to prosecute the reviver. This
in a nutshell is what the discipleship process that you have come into
is all about. It has an aim.

It has a focus. Every product of your discipleship must be trained. They
must be usable.

They must be people who are spiritual weapons. People whose life and
character can be used by God. Just thrown into a professional space.

And they can wreak havoc in the kingdom of the devil. That's Baba's
intention. That's Baba's focus.

That's God's intention for bringing, attracting disciples to you. It
doesn't just bring people to you for your own purposes. I'm going to be
bringing in my brethren now.

We are going to be discussing what we feel is the curriculum that every
disciple should have in mind when you are raising disciples. Let me
therefore bring in our brother Amos from Uganda. And brother Charles
from Koko.

Thank you. And over the years as God has brought us in the issue of
discipleship. And I think this is coming from one of the messages that
our elder and leader shared several years ago.

The five C's that every disciple should pursue in the life of a
disciple. The five C's that should be the focus of our discipleship. And
we are going to be, it's quite a tall order.

Within the remaining few minutes left for us, we are going to be looking
at these five C's very quickly. That if a disciple is deposited into
your hand, we expect that you should carry this disciple. Within this
space, permit me to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Within three years, a disciple should be taking through these five C's.
And I'm going to ask brother Charles to, first of all, come in quickly
and help us to bring those five C's into focus as we run through them
quickly. Yes, so I've named them the five C's.

On the screen there you can see that first on the list is Christ. And
then character, charisma, career and courage. Now this should be the
focus of every young person.

Let me use the word young. Because many times when people come into
discipleship, their present reality may help us to know where they are.
But if God gives us a privilege to be involved in the life of any young
person, it's an opportunity to build from the scratch.

It's an opportunity to look at the scope and dimension of what God would
want to do with his life in order to position him for the kind of things
God wants to do with him. And so let me first of all just introduce
those five C's. And if it is possible, as much as possible, they are
very simple to remember.

Put them at your fingertips. Christ, character, charisma, career and
courage. God may give you other acronyms for it.

He may give you some other words. But if we, by the mercy of God,
remember these five C's, then we'll know that gives us a complete
comprehensive curriculum of what God would want to do with any young
man, by the grace of God. All right.

Thank you very much. So let's go right away to discuss the very first C
that we believe every discipler, every discipleship class, every
discipleship program must focus on. And the first is Christ.

Can you bring on the first light for me? Christ. What do we mean by
that? Just like we read with Abraham that the first thing that anybody
who is going to be... Can you bring in the next slide for me? All right.
Thank you.

Anybody who is going to be a part of God's army must first and foremost
have been born in his house. In other words, any disciple, the first
objective is that Christ be formed in such a person. And we are going to
do it in short, short, short.

And we have put some scriptures around which we can look. But the first
objective is that if somebody comes, you cannot say that there is a
discipleship program going on between you and an individual when that
fellow has not yet met Christ. When Christ has not first and foremost
been born inside of him, he has not become born again.

You cannot disciple an unbeliever no matter how willing he is. Like we
have said several times for many of us who have gone through
discipleship classes, we say you cannot feed a lizard to become an
alligator. It's a species issue.

A lizard overfed can only be a big lizard. It can never become an
alligator. It's a species issue.

If they have not been to the cross, if they have not met Christ, they
cannot be like Christ. Brother Amos, you want to add something to that
quickly? All right. Just to add to what Brother Landry is already
saying, the beginning of an effective discipleship is that the life of
Christ is established in the disciple that we are training.

Just like he has also said, the Bible says if anyone is in Christ, it's
a new creation. We are dealing with discipleship. One of the best
definitions we have found for discipleship is that discipleship is God's
way of making somebody to become like Jesus.

Accept you have the seed of Christ in you. No matter the level of
training, no matter the level of teaching. Now, if the seed of Christ is
not in a person, you cannot disciple him to become like Jesus.

Now, and I'm speaking on two notes very quickly. Both on the part of the
disciple, which Brother Landry has already mentioned, and I don't want
to repeat some of the things he has said. We discovered that when you
look at Acts chapter nine, after Paul gave his life to Christ and he got
to Damascus and asked him and prayed for him and all of that.

Now, when he eventually got to Jerusalem, the Bible said he attempted to
join the disciple, but he didn't believe it. He was born again already.
Even the apostles were afraid of him.

Until Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles and he
testified. It means he must have sat down to listen to his testimony of
how he got born again, how the Lord spoke to him on the way. So it means
both on the part of the disciple and the disciple, this is the first
thing to establish because we are talking about the life of Christ.

Now, let me conclude that section by saying that is why I keep telling
people today that we cannot replace discipleship with mentorship. In
discipleship, the focus is Jesus. The life of Christ is what we are
pursuing.

In mentorship, you are just wanting to become like somebody. You are
learning techniques. You are learning things to do.

Brother Charles, let me allow you to make a point quickly before we move
on. In addition to what you have said, I just want to restate it that
what we are talking about is what I may call in another way the new
creation realities. Now, the reason is because there is something that
is parallel, that is very close to it, that may look like that's
discipleship, but that is not.

Many times, taking somebody to teaching Bible and learning the Bible,
going to a Bible school, it's good, it's a process, but does not
necessarily replace what we are talking about. We are talking about
Christ himself as a person, living in a person, as opposed to the person
just observing the teachings of Christ. There are many times that I have
seen these two parallel, and sometimes I see it in many mission schools
as I look back.

You know, what I've discovered over the years is that when you take a
young person and you take him through the Bible, the Bible itself, the
instructions, they contain moral lessons, they contain the teachings of
Jesus Christ. They have capacity on their own to subdue a man, to make
him sober, but you see, it's not a replacement. Copying Christ,
following the example of Jesus, is not a replacement for Jesus living in
a person.

I will give you the example of what I'm talking about. You see, Jesus
himself brought disciples to himself. Those three years, he taught them.

They saw his teachings, they saw his ways, and there were changes. They
actually took steps to be like him, but for the Lord Jesus Christ, he
knew that what he's looking for is not somebody who is practicing to be
like him. It's not somebody we are making to accept his teachings.

Christ himself had to, by a mystery of the Holy Spirit, go back to
heaven and come back himself to live inside them in order to live the
life he has taught them. Now, if we miss this reality at this point,
we're going to produce a lot of powerless Christianity. We're going to
produce what would have passed as Christianity, sound, moral people who
knows the word of God, who knows teachings, who are trying to live that
life by their strength, by their power, who will still not get what God
is looking for.

So I wanted to state that again, and that's what every disciple, a
disciple, must labor for. Many times it's very cheap to bring somebody
who you are simply teaching in the Bible, but the encounter, the
deliberateness of making sure that it is no longer him that lives. It's
not that he's trying to live the life of Christ for Christ.

It's not that he's trying to behave like Jesus, because all of this can
be done. But that he has understood the mystery, that it is Christ
wanting to behave Christ in him. That's where we are going to.

And I just want to share this with us in my little experience. I've
discovered that when I look back and I meet many men who went to mission
schools, many of them are our leaders today. But you see some of them
somewhere along the line, they have jettisoned what they learned.

And I easily saw why. You see, when you bring somebody under the Bible,
and you have taught him that when they slap him back, he should not
slap. You have taught him how to be humble.

And it goes out into the society. And by the time they slap him three or
four or five times, and he has no answer. The truth of the matter is
that he is not going to follow that.

The reason is that Jesus himself, who said we should be as innocent as a
dove, also told us to be as wise as a serpent. Because that's who he is.
If he's not the one living his life inside us, morality can be dangerous
many times.

It can put you at a disadvantage. So let's note that what we are looking
for is a new creation life. Christ living his life, but in a body that
has been emptied.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. So before we go to the next C, what we have
said in essence is that it is Christ in you that is the hope of any kind
of glory.

So discipleship has not yet begun for a life that we cannot ascertain
first and foremost that that person has met Christ and Christ is living
inside of him. Now we go on to the second C in the series of five C's,
which is now character building. And to just go ahead on that is the
fact that when Christ begins to live inside an individual, he begins to
live his own life and we can now train that life in righteousness.

In 1 John 3, verses 5 to 10, he said, That looks like tautology, but it
was put there for a purpose. Somebody cannot claim to be righteous when
he's not doing righteousness. We all agree that we are made in
righteousness of God in Christ Jesus by the death of Christ on the
cross.

Yes, that's the first C we talked about. Righteousness is imputed upon
us. Yes.

But the evidence of showing that righteousness is that you now begin to
live a righteous life. You begin to have a character that is like that
of Christ. And this needs to be emphasized.

It's like flipping a coin. Brother Charles was saying it is possible to
become moral without meeting Christ. But let me also add the second one
is that it is impossible to have Christ inside of you and now not live a
life consistent with Christ, to not live a moral life.

Now, because there are many doctrines flying around now, doctrines that
says once you give your life to Christ Jesus and you are saved, that's
all. No matter what happens, you are going to heaven, you are already
righteous and Jesus inside of you cannot be kicked out by the devil at
any time. All of that, we need to now train each person.

That's part of the discipleship process. The life of Christ that is
inside you, it is only when Christ has started living inside of somebody
that you can now, it is now, how do I put it? It is now relevant to tell
that person that when they slap you on the right cheek like Jesus, the
Jesus inside of you will like to react without, will like to respond
without reacting with another dirty slap. Can I allow you to make inputs
into this? Alright, quickly, character development.

Alright, just to take it a little further, now the Bible says the fruit
of the Spirit is. Now, when somebody gives his life to Christ, as we
have seen in Peter, it say as newborn babes, it means he has the futures
of Christ, the seed of Christ, both immature and undeveloped. Now,
discipleship is what turns that into the solid future of the life and
the character of Jesus.

That we now see as described by the fruit of the Spirit. So, when a life
is passing through discipleship, now the measure of the life of Christ
is not just by how much he can preach and how much he can speak, it's by
the life and the character that is coming out of that life. Now, imagine
that Jesus recruited James and John and he called them sons of thunder.

Sons, the Bonagis. So much that when they made a road block on his way,
he said, excuse me sir, can we command fire? And he told them, he said,
you don't know the spirit that you are made of. Now, imagine now that
the same John, now James didn't live long enough for us to see what
discipleship actually brought out of his life.

But thank God that we have John. These same sons of thunder became an
apostle of law and wrote so much about law than almost any of the other
apostles. So, what did Jesus do? It's like he addressed the issues of
character in their lives.

You know, he was able to turn these sons of Bonagi that is always ready
for revenge, always ready to condemn fire into an apostle of love. That
will say, whereby we perceive the love of God that he gave himself to
us, we also ought to give ourselves to the brethren. So, when we receive
disciples, they will come very raw.

They will come with all what was the seed of Christ is there.
Discipleship in teaching, in training, and in the discipler,
exemplifying the truth of the gospel for him or her to see. Now, begin
to form the character, the nature, and begin to make it visible and
manifest.

And that is when we can say that there is progress in discipleship. And
we see all of that with people that came under discipleship, either
under Jesus directly or even in other lives. Thank you, Mark.

Thank you, sir. Yes, Brother Charles, quickly. Just to add to what God
has helped us with and to bring a little light to what may have looked
like Confucian.

I want to describe character as the container for life. Now, you see,
the life of Christ we received is a disposition, is inside us, is
invisible. But our character is the interface, is the outward
characteristics that men touch.

Now, our character will, therefore, become the container through which
the life of Jesus, who is invisible inside us, reaches out to men. And
that's what we train. We train the character to become aligned, to
become an able dispenser of Christ's life.

So, when the character is not trained, Christ is restricted inside of
him. Christ is there. He may read the Bible and be having high
temperatures of revelation.

But as long as his behaviors, his outward relationship with people,
which all of these are issues of character, what people see eventually
is what determines the effective witness of the Christ's life that he
carries. But like we said, whereas life is supernatural, it's something
that God gives us, but character, we train the character to carry the
life, or else we'll be stranded. And many times the training for
character, the Bible, the Word of God, correct example, but it's
sometimes more than that.

It involves some deliberateness of reinforcement of discipline. You
know, I'll give you an example. If you have somebody who has received
Christ and is very lazy, you will discover that he reads the Bible, he
knows that Christ is not lazy, but he is lazy.

Now, that laziness that people see already has become an obstruction to
who Christ is. So what do we do with such a person? We train him. You
see, we may read the Bible, but it's not the Bible alone.

You see, I'll give you an example. If it's somebody that cannot wake up
early enough in the morning, it's all right to, first of all, exhort him
from the Bible. Such a person just needs to get a bucket of cold water
and pour on him.

But that's that kind of, that's the discipleship of character. Let me
share an example. Let me just finish it.

You know, we read, when I came into discipleship, I came in, just like
Brother Emo said, raw in many areas. And my own formal lifestyle trained
me to choose whatever I want to eat is what I eat. And so, you know, in
discipleship class, we come to the point of saying a disciple is not
choosy.

The Bible says, eat whatsoever is set before you. I arrived at that
academy, one of those, many years ago, and I came in there and there was
this soup. I've forgotten the name now.

Black, slimy, like this. And then they said, this is what we are going
to eat. I took one look at that thing and I told myself, I am not eating
this.

Yes, I know the Bible said, eat whatever is set before you. But the
training of character. It doesn't just look like that.

I say, what is happening? I say, excuse me, sir. Excuse me, ma'am. I'm
not eating this thing.

This black thing, they say, ah ah. Does that, the Bible not say, that
time is pastolary, you are going to eat that thing. Ah ah, the Bible
says, eat whatever is set before you.

It's an elder that is speaking to me. I gritted everything inside of me
and sat down as I was putting that thing in. At first, it was looking
like I was going to vomit.

But eventually, I ate it. And it became one of the soups that I enjoyed.
And that's training that we are talking about.

That taught me something. That when the Bible says, eat whatever is set
before you, the character of being malleable, the character of being,
people can instruct you and you can follow it, was becoming set. Thank
you very much.

I'm looking at my time. We have to move to the next scene because of
time. Let's move on to the next scene, which is now charisma.

Now, sometimes, because we emphasize on life and character development
so much in discipleship, there is the possibility for us to push aside,
as if it is not necessary, the issue of developing your gifts, the issue
of developing your graces, the issue of fanning a flame, the spirit-born
creativity that is now subdued under Christ. Yes, at the beginning of
discipleship, we may have to cut down all the, like for me, it was a
battle. But at the end, we say, Larry, you are too brilliant.

Allow Christ, allow Christ. But did Christ not put the brilliance in me?
I needed to subject that to Christ first and become the subdued disciple
that is not bumping to do, I had to learn, who told you to do this? Who
is pushing you to do this? But eventually, the grace, the gifts, the
capabilities in the disciple must not be allowed to die. I will just
read one scripture before I keep quiet for others to make an input.

The Bible tells us in, you know, there is this 1 Corinthians 1 verse 4.
1 Corinthians 1, if you follow me quickly, and verse 4 says, I thank my
God always on your behalf for the grace of God which is given you by
Jesus Christ, that in everything you are enriched by Him in all
utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was
confirmed to you, so that you come behind in no gifts, waiting for the
coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. So, the gifts are there. That's part of
what we should work on in discipleship.

As we work on character, the gifts of Christ, spiritual gifts,
competencies, sometimes talents, are all issues in the disciple that
must be discovered and utilized. Several of my gifts today are becoming
useful because it was not killed by a discipler. Several of disciplers,
because, eh, sit down there, who told you to do that? Why do you want to
show yourself? All of those things may kill the disciple before he
develops it.

And of course, 2 Timothy 1, verse 6 says, you should stir up the gifts
of Christ that is within us. Let me keep quiet here. Charles, Amos?
Alright, let me just add something to that, very quickly.

Now, when Jesus recruited the early disciples, now he had a focus of
what he wanted to make them. He said, follow me and I will make you
vicious men. Now, of course, he gave them the order that your life
first.

You know, he recruited them that they might be with him and that he
might send them to go and preach. Now, I want us to know that in
discipleship, God does not intend that we should waste men or waste
their talents. And one of the reasons why sometimes we do that, which
actually with every, I don't know how to put it, I learned this from
Brother Gili, is that he has a heart that he can endure your mistakes.

He can endure your wrongness. But sometimes as disciples, we quickly
take over. When a disciple is trying to express and is not doing it the
way you think he should do it, when he's making a mistake, sometimes
it's after you have not done all of that, he will say, Amos, but this
should have been like this, you know.

And sometimes he will only first even appreciate and make you to see the
ones who have done good, the ones who have done well. And then you are
able to listen, say, but next time, this like this, this like this. You
know, but sometimes I wonder, but you should have at least even taken
over.

I say, no, no, no. Sometimes you even intentionally say, go and do it.
And when you have done it, you didn't do it well, you say, go back
again.

Now, in the training of discipleship for disciples, for their gifts to
manifest, the disciple must endure mistakes. Sometimes, as long as it's
not going to be a colossal, it's not a mistake that has to do with life
and all of that. Now, training, you know, in materials, in time and all
of that, only comes out in development of gifts and talents when we
allow the disciples to be able to practice, to be able to express, to
express.

Now, and when we do that, the discipleship becomes, it becomes
enjoyable, even to the disciple. You know, I just add something. Now,
one of our children, he was appreciating me and he was telling me, he
said, one thing I thank my dad for, which was also what I learned in
discipleship, he said, even when I was not doing well academically, he
believed in me.

He just believed that it would be okay. And today, it's already pushing
to be a first class material. He said, but when I was not doing well, I
wonder what made him to believe that I would do well.

So, we should believe that discipleship, because it's the life of
Christ. Now, disciples under Christ that have the life of Christ, with
training, with patience, they will do well, by the grace of God. Amen.

Quickly, Brother Charles. Yes, not much to add, but to say that this
must be deliberate. I'm still very, I'm talking, maybe if we are dealing
with old people in discipleship, elderly people, as we look at their
realities, there may be more critical issues that need attention because
of some mistakes they have done.

But when we are dealing with fresh lives, young men and women that God
has brought to us, we should know that what God is giving us a way to do
is to build, and we must build wholesomely. We are not, it's not just
remedial, remedial, remedial. Now, it is in the light of this that God
must help us as disciples.

The reason is because there are several of us who are disciples, who
have come into this, and without saying, some of these things in our own
lives, they are not present. Either because of what we have gone through
in life, some of us God had to rescue us from some things that, so we
may not necessarily be a perfect example for the things we are talking
about. That's what is just coming to my mind now, because I have seen
it.

A disciple may not have opportunity himself, maybe in a corner, he
doesn't express any gift, apart from maybe the gift of the Bible that he
teaches, which is alright. He should be willing to impart that, but he
should go beyond that. He should know that this life has dimensions
ahead of him.

So this is my counsel, and this is what I think God may be leading us to
in this time. Discipleship is a teamwork. We must be ready now, at this
critical time, in order to achieve what God is doing, to collaborate.

I have quietly begun to see that the way we are going, if we are going
to believe God and help these young people, to even go beyond what we
don't have, because we cannot give what we don't have, is that we should
be willing to identify these things and seek for help. And I saw that in
the Acts of the Apostles, and I'm looking, and I saw that their own
discipleship was communal, even though each and every one of those
apostles, they have oversight over each of those. But I saw a net, where
any soul that is inside is already caught.

So if we have this kind of mindset, instead of this individualism, of
saying, these are my disciples, and you are making sure that you are
using them to make an impression, you don't want them to go anywhere, so
that people will hail you that you are the best disciple, and all of
that. And these people may be dying secretly, because they need things
that many times you don't have. And God is giving you a privilege, even
when you don't have it, even when God has helped you, even without some
of those things.

These children must not be disadvantaged. These young lives must go
beyond us. So this is one area, because many people may claim that they
themselves, they don't have these gifts, they don't have many skills,
but you can be a facilitator.

You can identify and make room, make provisions, create environment,
create enablement, support, monitor, all of that, even when the gifts
that the disciple is wanting to manifest, or God wants to put in him,
even when it seems as if you don't have it, but as a disciple, God has
put you there to be a steward, to help him midwife it. You can call upon
other disciples, you can look for where those things are abundant, and
call for help, instead of sitting on disciples as if they are your
personal properties. Thank you very much.

That point is very important, and that was what I was going to round up
with, that there is not a single one of us that can raise a life. Even
in our local cultures, this is understood, that it is two, they will say
four eyes give birth to a child, but a million eyes watch that child to
grow. That's the communal discipleship that we are talking about.

Identify people who can make an input into the disciple under your hand,
and release, sometimes release them. Several of us that are seated down
here, by the grace of God, we have children, and we are disciples
ourselves, but in order that those disciples will not miss out anything,
we send them out, go and live with this person. There is none of my
children that has not lived with at least two, if not three other
disciples, in order for them to be exposed to something else, apart from
what they can gain from our lives.

Let's move on to number four. And number four is career, job, and work
ethics. Again, the scriptures we have put there, they are just to guide
us.

The Bible says, Seest thou a man that is diligent in his business, he
shall stand before kings, and he will not stand before men. Proverbs 24,
I think so, 24, 27 says, Prepare thy work without, and make it fit for
thyself in the field. Afterwards, build thine own house.

What is that bringing in very quickly? Every disciple must have a sense
that, excuse me, we're going to job, we're going to work, with an
understanding that we don't eat first. These are all things that must be
built into the disciple. A career is only a vehicle.

A career is not first for food. A career is not first for what you will
eat. A career is something that you will, is a means to a work, first.

Before, later, you can now start talking about building your own estate.
You can now talk about enjoying, if there's something like that. And we
can now say, oh, it's time we can now build this, we can now buy this,
we can now do both.

Most of our disciples, they don't have this correct sense in
discipleship. They are looking for money. I meet several disciples now.

The first struggle is to deliver them from mammon, is to deliver them
from the pursuit of money. Now, for the disciple, your career is not a
means of making money. Your career is a platform for serving God, is a
platform for allowing Christ to flow through you to places that he has
posted you in.

As usual, I would just want to open the subject and allow us to bring
inputs into it. Go ahead, sir. Now, we have to know that in
discipleship, just to build on what Larry has said, now, when the
disciple comes to our hand, discipleship is holistic.

Discipleship is wholesome, is complete. Now, somebody has come into your
hand and maybe he stopped at secondary school or halfway or even dropped
out of school. Now, as we teach them all of that and train them in life,
in gifts, in all the things we have said, now, how do we develop a
sustainable career for these disciples? Some, we may have to encourage
them and make input into their education.

Some, we have to support them and encourage them in their career because
the more he's able to make progress, he has a better platform to express
this life. Now, I remember one of the brothers that came to us several
years ago. Now, he came as a graduate assistant, and I said, okay,
brother, if you have chosen that it is academics you feel you want to
pursue, then the slogan there is publish or perish.

So, I kept encouraging him, pushing him, and can I tell you, to the
glory of God, in less than 17 years or thereabouts, he became a
professor. Even some of the things he thinks is not possible, I said,
brother. In fact, at a point, I said, don't tell me.

You need to go and do this. You need to go and do this. So, all of these
are part of discipleship.

Now, for Jesus, for example, he was able to develop these people as
fishers of men to the extent that the Sanhedrin Council, they could not
push them aside. He was able to develop them in their own career, if we
call it fishers of men and preaching, to the extent that, as we heard in
the morning, we saw how Peter was able to quote from Psalms, quote from
this, so they became very proficient in what he discipled them to
become. Now, so we must put this also at the back of our mind, that when
a disciple has come, how do we improve his career or his proficiency in
what we perceive he needed to pursue? If it's education, how do we
encourage? How do we tell him that this is possible? Sometimes it is the
disciple that prays and God shows him, okay, this is what this disciple
should go and read, and then you share with him.

This is the school next he should go. This other exam he attempted and
he failed, it's still the next thing to pursue. And you are praying with
him, you are sitting with him, you are encouraging him.

So that more disciples come into our hands, and it's after many years,
if we see his colleagues, if we see his classmates, they have become
something, you know, even in the society, and they are becoming a
platform for the expression of the life of Christ, and he is not feeling
as if he has been wasted. He's not feeling as if there are some things
we should have done we did not do. Now, there are some other ones we
didn't do very well, and then when we realized, we said, so what else
can we do in order for whatever gap, whatever is left that should have
been done? So we need to put this as we look at the issue of career, as
we look at the issue of job, as we look at the issue of works and all of
that, so that discipleship becomes holistic, it becomes, you know, a
disciple is entire, is complete, lacking nothing.

Praise the Lord. Yes, sir. Because of time, can I ask you to, whatever
you want to bring, bring, but touch on the issue of ethics, because I'm
looking at my time, for us to go to the last one.

Go ahead. Yeah, so just to note that part of what is very critical, you
know, to impart every disciple with, especially as issue of career and
professional vocation, because that's their license to touch the world.
Definitely, it is obvious that it's not everybody that Jesus Christ
would want them to have a career inside the church or in the pulpit.

So you know that that's the majority of where the body of Christ is.
They are there in the world because he commands it. We should go out
into all the world.

So it's very critical to note that, to have a young one with you as a
disciple, and every day he wakes up and says, the only thing God is
asking me to do is to pray and fast. I will not doubt that, but I want
you to know that it's not just to pray and fast. You have a seven-year,
a nine-year, a 10-year-old boy, and you say the gift of the Holy Spirit
is upon him.

God is making him a prophet, and because of that, you will not send him
to school. I tell you, you are not doing correctly. At this stage of our
life, career is a critical vehicle, as we have said, and we must help
them identify.

Some of them, they will come to us confused, not knowing what to do. It
will be our responsibility to pursue God with them and then help them to
identify what their career path is. In doing that, I just have a
suggestion.

In our own training, especially in the area of education, we discovered
that learning is majorly dependent on three domains, the cognitive, the
affective, and what we call the psychomotor. Every human being has this
capacity, but they are only developed to a degree or the other. Some, it
is their cognitive ability that is coming out clearly.

Some, they may not be very much, you know, stimulated in their
cognitive. It's our responsibility to quietly look at their strong
point, which of this domain is very strong in their life, and then we
push it. And who knows, from that point, they can even return back to
academics.

Rather than leave them idle, we must not do that. And I just want to use
the opportunity, even though the time is very short, to note that even
God has held our leadership responsible for this. And for this reason,
that is why we have Price, Pivots, Fatty, Fifth Tech.

Only God knows how many He's still going to bring. But this won't
matter, it's because of this holistic discipleship. You can't have young
men living with you, staying with you as disciples, reading the Bible,
and you are not deliberately training every other part of their life for
a career in the world on behalf of Jesus.

It's a very critical thing. You are not doing well, whether it's your
own child, whether it is somebody that is a disciple, whatever. That's a
critical point.

So I just want to use the opportunity to mention this. That's why Fifth
Tech, you see the nature of the training, is to cater for some persons
that look as if, okay, their own aspect of training and career is not in
the cognitive, but is much more strong in their psychomotor domain. They
know how to use their hands.

They know how to manipulate things. We can give them a career from that
standpoint. So note that that's the reason for FATI and the Institute of
Greek, the Peace House Institute of Printing Technology, the Pivot,
which is the most recent one, Peace House Institute of Vocational
Training, and then the Price itself, which is a scientific research, to
give expression to those young men who have discovered in their life
that that's that area that God wanted them to make a mark.

So those are the things I just wanted to add to that. All right. Thank
you very much.

I wanted you to speak a bit about ethics, too, which we have spoken.
Many times you have a disciple that you are looking for a job for. You
cannot, you can't get a job because even if you give him a job, within a
few months, he's thrown out.

He's lazy. He wakes up late. He's sloppy.

He doesn't do his work well. He's not diligent in business. The Bible
says confidence in an unfaithful man is like a tooth out of John.

Very soon, the people say, even though you are speaking in tongues, we
thank God for your life, but we cannot keep you here because you are not
faithful at your work. You are not, you can't be depended upon. Very,
very important.

We will have to move to the last one, which is courage. This is a bit
technical, but it's another aspect of discipleship training that we must
not overlook in raising the disciple. I think the only scripture I would
like to read would be in Daniel 1. If we read Daniel 1, I think the
message of Living Bible Translation is very, very interesting.

What will eventually fit our disciples to places where they can command
authority, places where they can make effect for Christ, places where
they can really make impact, rather than just not only in the church.
What can fit them for those places is this last area we call courage.
Now, can you go to Daniel 1? Aha! It says, The king told Aspen as head
of the palace staff to get some Israelites from the royal family and
nobility, young men who were healthy, handsome, intelligent, well-
educated, good prospects for leadership positions in the government,
perfect specimens, and indoctrinate them in the Babylonian language and
in the law of magic and fortune-telling.

That's as far back as the Old Testament. This is just to show us that
the world system is looking for perfect specimens. They are not
looking... You may be good.

Sometimes you meet a disciple, very brilliant, very sharp, maybe even
made a 2-1 or a first class in school, but his appearance does not make
it easy for him to enter into certain places. He cannot speak to his
colleagues, cannot speak to the government. Many things make him easily
despisable.

This is also part and parcel of our discipleship training, to train
their courage. And we have listed personality and productivity. These
are two areas.

First, work on their personality. Their ability to stand in the king's
palace. Their ability to compete with their mates.

Their speaking language. They speak well. Sometimes you meet some
disciples, English you cannot speak well.

Even your local language you cannot speak well. No language you are
proficient in. No matter your certificate, no matter your spirituality,
there are places you need access to.

By the grace of God, some of the places that God has allowed us to step
into in life is because there is nothing they want to do there that we
cannot do. And there is nothing they want to manifest that, by the grace
of God, we are trained and ready for it. It is not fair to the Lord
Jesus Christ to have disciples that are not usable.

Disciples that are not sendable. Disciples that are not productive in
themselves and they cannot stand among their colleagues. Brother
Charles.

Yes. And many times in addition to this, part of this carriage, what we
call deportment, will also be things like insecurity, inferiority
complex, lack of assurance, over-affirmation, nervousness. Those are all
some of the things that quietly are inside, that play out.

And you know what we are talking about now is that the carriage is the
outmost manifestation of our personalities. They have a way of placing
us in the eyes of men or wherever they want to place us. So God also
intends that in working on a disciple, after working on his character,
it's not just enough that he knows what is good.

The most refined aspect of life is what we are dealing about. His
movement, his walk, his posture, his dressing, his speech. All of these
are very critical to be a winner.

And I just want to say that it's not only the king of this world that
demands such. If you look at Psalm 144 verse 12, you will discover that
even God himself made such a demand that our daughters may be as
copters, fit for the palace. So God must help us, especially when we
have opportunity to deal with people that are at their formative stage,
to deal with everything about them.

You see a young girl that is not yet old and careless living, careless
diet, careless eating. She's already developing a tire in her stomach.
Her breast is already doing booga booga somewhere.

You know, all of those kinds of things. There are some places, no matter
how sharp she is, that as soon as she comes out, do you know that in
interview partners, they are what we call appearance. And that carries a
mark of his own.

They just look at what they know. And sometimes, you know, like we said,
God must help us to not be deliberate. And like I said before, even if
some of us, I had to say, all of those things don't matter.

What matters is anointing. God is using it because of anointing. I say
no.

Anointing matters, but there are some of us that when God could not find
us to train us, look at me like this. You see, many people know that I
have a hunchback. Can I tell you that this hunchback is not
physiological? That's not how I was born.

I happen to have fallen into wrong, wrong, wrong friends, the hands of
wrong friends in my undergraduate days. Who taught me, because I wanted
to belong so much, that the way to impress girls and to show that you
are somebody is to walk as if God doesn't exist. You know, it wasn't
until I developed a hunchback.

Now it's very difficult for me to stand straight. And I know many times
people that should have, you know, all of this. Thank you very much.

All right. I think you have made your point and our time has run out.
The Bible says in 1 Timothy 4, verse 12, it says, Be thou an example of
believers in many ways, in charity, in speech, in behavior, in
conversation, in manner of life.

Be an exemplary person that when they see you, they cannot push you
aside. What we have done today, by the grace of God, is to just touch.
Of course, you know that each one of these things is something that we
could sit down for a whole hour or two dealing with.

It's just to show us that discipleship is holistic. Discipleship is
total. When I learned discipleship, I learned it as an adoption of a
life, which you will, under God, you will become responsible to ensure
that this life fulfills all of God's purpose for that life.

So whether it's academic, whether it's in marriage, whether it's in job,
whether whatever area of life, discipleship is meant to prepare that
person holistically for his or her future. Especially now that we are
pushing the battle for the young. If you look at our secondary schools
today, now, many, many things are going on.

That is not preparing those children for their future. And by the grace
of God, when they come into our hands, discipleship is meant to pick
them up, deal with them spiritually, character, get their job, get their
future. So that by the grace of God, God has hands that he can use in
different aspects of the world.

Brother Amos is just going to give us a five minutes, a short and make
it short, short and sharp. God bless you. But the aspect I want to now
finally look at very, very quickly, Jesus said, follow me and I will
make you fish as men.

Now, the way God has helped us, just in a measure to describe what
discipleship is and what it should be. I want to believe that as many of
us as are following today, you can now appreciate discipleship. Now,
maybe we should apologize on behalf of those that have shown the wrong
side of discipleship.

And I've made people to believe that, excuse me, I don't need it. Can I
tell you? I don't need it. No man can make himself.

You have to be made. Even after you say I'm born again, I'm growing. Now
there are different aspects of your life that those that have gone
ahead.

They are the one that can serve as the visual in order to make your
journey fast. And in order to make your journey smooth. So can I appeal
to as many as I hearing who are not in active discipleship? That first
today you will say, Lord, cover that discipleship is your provision to
speed me up and to make me fast on to becoming what you want me to
become.

Now, this discipleship is both vertical and horizontal. Vertical under
the Lord Jesus himself, who is the master discipline, who we have all
been called to become like him. But in order for this particular
sometimes to be fast in order for it to, to, to be with us much
struggle.

Now, God provides for several of his children, people that can also say,
follow me as I follow Christ. Will you want to pray today and say, Lord,
now that I'm discovering that discipleship is your provision, especially
now that God is saying, and you will see greater things. Sometimes you
are seeing some things, but you are not seeing it very well.

Sometimes you are seeing something. You are not understanding it very
well. In order for you to be very effective in this state, that God is
advertising.

So you will see greater things. You say you are going to see the Son of
angels ascending and descending. Now, some of the things you are seeing
as a young person, whether you are young in faith or young in age, some
of them need interpretation.

Actually, each of us, as we have been sharing, you will bear us witness
that several of what you are seeing in our lives today. Now, some of
them, we are not able to get it directly, even from the Bible, but God
show us an audio visual. And that is why we also have the strength and
the courage to also tell others and say, follow me, because we have also
seen that somebody say, follow me.

And as we are following, we are becoming more and more like Jesus. So my
own appeal and my own challenge is that we are adults that are not in
active discipleship, that you don't have discipleship, you don't have
discipleship relationship. Now, it only makes your journey long.

It makes it slow. It makes it sluggish. Now, if you have seen the bad
side or the negative side of discipleship, we are showing you today that
that is not what discipleship actually is.

And that is not what God meant discipleship to be. So one of the prayers
we want you to pray with us today is that Lord, even as I've surrendered
my life unto you, as I believe that I have the life of Christ and I've
encountered you. Now, and as I'm trying to grow directly and vertically
as a disciple under you.

Now, where is that life also? Where is that Elijah? Where is that Paul?
Where is that Barnabas that can add to my journey? That can help me in
order to quickly become what you want me to become. So for Jesus, he
called these people and they responded. Each of them, they abandoned
their career.

Some even their parents, their sheep, and eventually they became the
fishers of men that they are supposed to become. So as we get to the
point of prayer, I want you to respond to me and say, Lord, I need this
provision of yours. Especially now that you are advertising or you are
proclaiming an open heaven, so that there will be no wastage in my life.

You know, sometimes there are things that you need. There are things you
need to know to do that discipleship can help you to address. That is
our own experience.

I don't have time to begin to share, but there are several things that
sincerely is in following regularly and having the advantage sometimes
just to drive him, just to watch him, just to listen to him. We go for
program just to see the way he behaves. Sometimes I'm just watching.

Now, there could be those Barnabas here and there, that when you pray,
God will be leading you to them. And there could be some, that is the
last thing I want to say, even as disciples, that you are the one that
we call and say, follow me. When you see young lives, whether they are
brothers, whether they are sisters, as a brother and as a sister, that
God has helped your own life.

Just like brother Charles said, the help may not have been complete. We
are all growing, or at least we have something to offer under the law.
Now, call men also to discipleship, under this open heaven, so that we
can help, we can prepare vessels so that this open vessel will not be
wasted.

As I hand over to brother Larry, now to pray with us. Now I want you to
respond, and I want disciples to be, to be committed afresh, on raising
lives, after the pattern of Jesus, as we have discussed today, and on to
giving men holistic discipleship. Don't let any aspect of their life,
please don't let it suffer.

Don't let anybody come back tomorrow and say, boy, you wasted my life.
Now, as disciples, we need to pray. And as those that need to respond to
discipleship, we need to pray.

As those that are already in discipleship, now brother Danny said, we
need to engage this thing much more than ever before. As God is saying,
open heaven. Behold, you will see the heavens open.

But Larry, please conclude for us. God bless you sir. There is not much
to say again.

He said in all of the centers, and as you heard us speaking about
discipleship, I say, I don't have anybody doing this for me. And I want
to enter into a discipleship relationship today. I want to have a
disciple.

I want to begin to attend a discipleship class. I want to be helped
spiritually, so that my life will turn out to be, wherever you are, can
I ask you to just stand on your feet, wherever you are. We're going to
pray with you just quickly.

Our time has finished. Please just stand wherever you are, all across
the centers. God bless you.

Thank you. Stand up and say, I want to be discipled. I want to have a
discipleship relationship.

Thank you. God bless you. I see people standing up all over the centers.

Thank you. God bless you. Just stand to your feet, quickly, quickly,
everywhere.

I want to have a discipleship relationship. I want somebody to help me.
God bless you.

God bless you Ma. God bless you sir. And as you are standing, I want you
to talk to God and say, Lord, here am I. Make me.

Make something out of my life. Pull out something out of my life. I want
my future not to be a waste.

I don't want to waste around. God bless you. Just stand to your feet,
quickly, wherever you are.

Please just stand. God bless you. Thank you.

Our time has finished, and I will have to pray now. I will have to pray
now. to sensitize the hearts of your children everywhere to
discipleship, to committing themselves to becoming like Jesus and to
allow their lives to be watched over by disciples that have gone ahead
of them in that so that they will become something quickly.

Father, I plead with you for everyone that is standing on their feet,
either they are standing up to want to be made into a disciple or they
themselves are standing up to say, Lord, disciples under my hand will
not waste any longer. Father, hear our cry, release grace from heaven
cause these lives one by one to be registered in your registrar. So that
when you are looking for men born in your house, trained by your men,
armed with your weapons and you will be able to put them in your army to
prosecute the war and prosecute the revival that has suddenly come upon
us.

Thank you for hearing us. We worship and exalt your name. Father, I pray
that the Holy Spirit will watch over these ones.

Please follow them up. Even for those that we may not be able to get
down their details, for those who are listening online, those who are
making decisions in their parlor, those who are making decisions in far
countries where we don't have hands yet. Father, we are praying that the
Holy Spirit will follow it up.

Bring them into a net, bring them into where their lives can be helped.
Thank you for hearing us. In Jesus' mighty name, we are praying, amen.

♪ Take me home ♪

========================================================================
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/gbile-akanni/kingdom-minded-discipleship/
========================================================================