The Meaning of Discipleship

Luke 17:21 “the kingdom of God is within you”

The Merriam-Webster dictionary defines a “god” as:
2: a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship; specifically : one controlling a particular aspect or part of reality
3: a person or thing of supreme value

God wants to us to accept changes within ourselves, to place supreme value in His person, to reprioritize and put His person and His character at the top of our values. He wants us to gave him permission to control our reality and if we do so we will never be disappointed.

God never does things the way we expect Him to, it is our responsibility to learn what He wants us to do and learn how He will act. He also never does anything flashy, never calls attention to Himself or anything that could falsely inflate our pride. He also is not with us unless we are 100% committed to Him. (Children of Israel attacking AI and failing in their own pride and harboring of sin, despite successfully taking Jericho earlier)

Depend entirely on God and mountains will be moved. Trust in your own strength and nothing will be accomplished. The disciples were given instruction to take absolutely nothing but themselves, not a single coin provide for their own needs, and to lean on God absolutely.

Mat 10:34 Do not have the thought that I have come to send peace on the earth; I came not to send peace but a sword.
Mat 10:35 For I have come to put a man against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law:

The message of God is divisive and forces those who listen to take a stand on one side or the other. If your message is not divisive then you are not preaching God’s message. Expect tremendous opposition because this is Satan’s world and he has twisted everything resembling the truth to be so terrible that the truth will be rejected also.

Mat 10:14 And whoever will not take you in, or give ear to your words, when you go out from that house or that town, put off its dust from your feet.

If a group of people reject God’s message, do not stay in the town, do not try harder to persuade them, and do not learn from them or take anything at all from them, don’t even take something as minor as the dust. Don’t feel a burden to try to convert them because it might not be their time to be converted, because we do not convert people, the Holy Spirit does.

Mat 10:15 Truly I say to you, It will be better for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of God’s judging than for that town.

This statement may mean that Sodom and Gomorrah, at the height of their wickedness, was not any worse then those Jews who were living a “good life” but rejecting the truth. Rejecting God or accepting Him is an absolute black-and-white decision. There is no extra reward for those who are extra righteous, nor any worse penalty for those who are extra wicked.

12 disciples with absolutely no possessions, no worldly training, and nothing but God and his message on their side could successfully oppose the entire world, united by Satan, with every material possession and all the world’s military power at his disposal.

Jesus lived a life of perfect unity with His Father, His teaching, and His actions of healing. We compromise the message not only when we water it down, but when we do not know it, when we do not live it, when we don’t help others, and when we do not maintain our relationship and total dependence on God at all times and fail to inspire those we could have inspired.

The truth is not a complete philosophical and theological system of understanding and belief. It only that sin is a sickness, we all have it, we are all dying, and God wants to heal us if we let Him and He will give us life forever. The proof is by our own personal experiences, our own changed and improved lives. The system of living and understanding that derive from this are much less important then the message itself.