“Follow Me.” Mark 1:17, 2:14
In the final analysis, walking in the presence of Jesus come down to two simple little words: “Follow Me”. Those of us who want more of the presence of God have to want to be with Him where He is. To be with Him where He is, we must want His will.
There simply isn’t any other way… Jesus must reign. But the legitimate question is raised… What is His will?
Consider those two words from Jesus that answer almost every question regarding what we are supposed to do as Christians. “Follow Me.” It’s Jesus’ personal invitation which He extended to us who would be His disciples. And He continues to extend this invitation to every one of us who want to walk in discipleship.
“Follow Me.”
He didn’t say “Follow My followers”, which is incredibly easy to get caught up in. We find it so easy to compare ourselves to others and depending on who we compare ourselves to, we come away depressed or arrogant and self-satisfied.
He didn’t say “Follow My leaders”. To look at the church today we might think that that is exactly what He said. Remember the Israelites at Sinai. God might have met with His people, but the people cried out, “Oh no, not with us. Meet with our leaders.”
God wants to meet with us, and today, we are still often pointing to other believers. We point at our leaders… “Meet with them and they’ll bring us the message”.
God has raised up a Church of sons and daughters, not a church of superstars and ordinaries. God has transformed sinners into brothers and sisters who can come boldly before their Abba, Father, not as little candles who have to get their daily spark from a special caste of fiery stars.
The counsel of fellow believers is often wonderful, useful, helpful… but it isn’t the same thing as the counsel of God. And when push comes to shove, it is the counsel of God that is the only place of truth, mercy, and safety.
Am I against the counsel of other believers? Am I against leadership? No… may it never be. Each is given to us by God. But virtually everything God has given us that is good and right can become wrong and harmful if it is mishandled. And when we expect our friends to be God’s directors in our lives, or when we expect our leaders to be something other than our brothers and sister we have misused them.
When we look to brothers and sisters as super spirituals and ordinaries, captains and privates, we disparage the image of God that dwells within each Christian through the Holy Spirit.
To those who want to walk with Jesus, He says, “Follow Me.” There is no other way to follow Him than to come to Him and invite Him to lead… and then FOLLOW.