God’s Forgotten Mandate
Discipleship is God’s recipe to multiply His culture on the earth today.
It is not some new idea. It is an old commandment that has been neglected by the church for far too long, and it flies in the face of the celebrity spirit that we see infiltrating the church today. Methodology is important to God, and this reformation of the church will predominantly be found in the “how” of practical Christianity. Those who make disciples the way God says is His way will thrive, and those who do not will not. The Father is taking His church back to its roots, and any spiritual leader who opposes Heaven’s ordained, fundamental reality of discipleship will find the God they love actually opposing them. The church is not being overrun by the devil. It is, however, being dismantled by the Father. He is restoring the foundation of what has been His normal since the beginning. We have drifted from the original plan that Jesus Christ intends for His Bride.
Let’s go back to the Garden of Eden for a moment. The vast majority of Charismatic books I have read concerning the Garden of Eden either deal with theology or ideology. For instance, we discovered through Paul and his writings that Jesus came to the earth to purchase back the authority that satan took from Adam and Eve. As a result, we can now extend the kingdom of Heaven onto the earth through the authority that belongs to those who are in Christ. Much of our authority comes through our own faith-filled words. Time and again I have seen my own words influence physical sickness as I command someone’s body to line up under the mandate of Heaven. I have seen weather patterns shift as a result of authority prayer, people’s bodies healed, and extremely accurate prophetic words given. I not only theoretically believe in the authority that Jesus purchased back for us, but I actually see it as well.
I have preached many sermons on how we are called to rule and reign on earth because that is what we saw Adam and Eve doing in Genesis 3 before the fall. Although I am so very grateful for what I have learned from so many pioneers of the faith who have gone before me, I must ask: “Why are there so few books and teachings in the Charismatic stream on the glaringly obvious mandate of multiplication that we read about in the Garden?” And why are we watering down the mandate “go make disciples” to our current-day mass gatherings, online podcasts, and published books, all of which you can do without even knowing someone’s name? How is that the kind of discipleship that Jesus lived and modeled? Let me explain.
When you read the narrative of the Garden in Genesis, it is obvious that God is creative—that He is the Creator. And to say that He is an artist is an understatement. He comes from Himself, has no beginning, and speaks things into existence. Throughout Scripture, God seems to be driven by connection. Right from the start we see this in Genesis 1:26 where it says, “Let us make man in our own image.” God was in this garden, and from the dirt He created a man whom He named Adam. I have spent many hours just reflecting on what that must have been like. What did Adam feel when his eyes popped open and he looked into the face of the One who created him? Was he overcome with love, acceptance, connection, and peace? I think perhaps Adam felt whole, safe, and in awe of not only God Himself, but of his surroundings.
We know from Psalm 82 that even before Adam was created, there was a council around God—a community, if you will, of Heavenly beings. After Adam was created, God then created Eve from Adam’s rib. What an amazing connection there must have been between Adam and Eve. And just imagine what it must have been like for Adam and Eve to be connected to one another while also connected to God.
God wrapped Himself in flesh and came to the earth in the person of Jesus, who grew in His earthly body even as He grew in His intimacy with Abba. Then, in His 30s, the first thing Jesus did when He began His ministry was to pray all night—to be in conversation with His Father before He picked His family of disciples to connect with and to do life with. Why did Jesus want disciples? Did He simply want community? Did He need some new adult friends? No. He knew that in order to expand Heaven’s jurisdiction on the earth, He needed to model and teach and do life with people for a deliberate time so they, too, could learn and be in a position to teach and model Him to others. In the Jewish culture of Jesus’ time, that kind of intimate connection with followers was the norm. It was the way of rabbis.
Jesus didn’t choose a wide range of people to simply evangelize and convince of who He was and then give them an opportunity to believe it so He could check-mark the box labeled “multiplication.” Nor did He refer to the crowds who gathered to hear him as His “disciples.” He inquired of Abba regarding who He needed to invest in with an intimate life-on-life relationship so that He could expand Abba’s kingdom, His ways, His whys, and His hows. And while it is clear from Scripture that some sow, some water, and some see the harvest, Jesus’ mandate is also clear—each of us are to be about making disciples. Jesus’ method must be our method in this modern day if we are to be true followers of Him. Jesus in the Gospels is the same as He was in Genesis 1 and 2. God, who is the same yesterday, today, and forever, did, does, and always will value connection and multiplication.
Once Adam and Eve were created, God told them to go and multiply. His intention was to be with them as family. The natural by-product of family is connection that results in multiplication. I think it’s a shallow view to believe that God made Adam and Eve so they could enjoy sex and connection in an intimate way without the idea that there is something much deeper than that. Simply put, God has always valued connection with us.
Scripture shows us that the Father valued connection before humans were created, when He created us, and even after we sinned. He values connection so much that He sent His Son to the slaughter to pay the penalty of man’s sins so that we could be reconnected to Him. Is Calvary about authority as a priority? I believe that is putting the cart before the horse. The reason that we do not see many leaders in the Kingdom of God truly making disciples in the way in which we are commanded to do in Scripture is that we don’t understand the heart of the Father in Genesis chapters 1 and 2.
The Father wanted to be connected to Adam and Eve and He wanted their connection to result in one thing—family. When you see what Jesus did when He began His ministry, it actually screams Genesis 1 and 2. Through discipleship, Jesus connected in a very family way with those around Him. We spend so much time looking at the fact that we have been given back the authority stolen from us that we leave out the main reason we were created, which is to be a family with the Father. The second word in the Lord’s prayer is Father. In short, God is a Father who has always wanted a family.
