Source Ministries International

Q.  A minister friend asked – Hey Lewis, the Lord has used me for years to point men to Him. As you know, it is His Heart that we should Know Him. Recently a middle-aged Christian businessman asked me if I would consider Mentoring him? So, could you give me some general guidance, the do’s and don’ts or some guard rails. God Bless you My Brother

A. It all depends on what you mean by mentoring and what you hope to accomplish. I like to think of mentoring from a biblical perspective as discipleship, which is more involved and far more effective. While mentoring can be helpful and beneficial in the practical realm on the human plain it is not discipleship. Therefore, I am going to emphasize discipleship, which brings me to your comment, “God wants us to know Him.” I concur. So, let’s begin there.

Knowing God is the basis of all true discipleship. But that is not the same as knowing about Him, which is simply acquiring biblical information. Sadly, this is what is often presented under the guise of discipleship.

Teaching Bible stories, Bible History, and Bible doctrine is not discipleship! Even sharing biblical principles or Christian disciplines cannot solve your problems or help you to live the Christian life. And they certainly cannot make you a disciple of Christ—a true Christ follower.

Emphasizing principles and disciplines is nothing more than a Christianized version of self-help techniques or behavior modification.  All of these activities only build up the outer man of the flesh (your humanity) while neglecting the inner man of the spirit (your true self).

Information can never result in transformation. Biblical information—knowledge of the letter of the law—can even cause someone to be puffed up causing spiritual pride. Furthermore, such information is only able to produce the dead works of the flesh, void of God’s Life. Yet that is what many Christians and churches are doing. They erroneously call it discipleship and think they are fulfilling the great commission.

But not the Apostle Paul! He had a divine compulsion—“that I might know Him” Philippians 3:10. Paul also had a divine commission. He was committed to making Christ known. This is quite evident in all his New Testament letters. Now that’s my kind of discipling! Furthermore, it’s true discipleship—the only kind that works.

Knowing about Jesus Christ is not enough, we must know Him! We not only need to know about Christ intellectually, we need to know Him spiritually by Holy Spirit enlightenment (Ephesians 1:17-18). We need to know Christ Himself . . . as our Lord, our Life and our all. We must know Him personally, intimately and experientially. When we do we will experience Christ as our life in every area of our life, every day of our life and every moment of our life.

Paul declared in Colossians 3:4 that, “Christ is our life.” Yes He is! The moment that you receive Jesus Christ He becomes your life. But that’s not the issue. The real question is, are you allowing Christ to be your life? Are you trusting Christ to live His life through you? Are you abiding in Him as your life? If you are then His life should be evident in every area of your life.

Otherwise, all you have is a theological concept, empty words, religious rhetoric, or at best a humanistic imitation of the real thing, which is Christ Himself. When it comes to Christian living there is no substitute for Christ doing the living. If Christ is not living His life through you by the power of the Holy Spirit, all that remains is a form of godliness. Such a form of godliness is merely your futile attempt to try to be like Christ.

However, only the Spirit of Christ in you can live the life of Christ through. Therefore, you must allow the Holy Spirit to fill you so that the life of Christ can be expressed through you. The result—a true disciple of Christ, manifesting the life of Christ as a Christ follower. Now that is Christianity at its finest!

Is your life established upon the true foundation of Jesus Christ Himself? It should be clear by now that it is not enough just to know the right biblical information. You must know THE LIFE!!! Jesus said, “I am the life” (John 14:6). Therefore, if you really and truly know the life, then . . .  you’ll be living the life! You will be living victoriously, triumphantly and consistently in all things as more than a conqueror through Christ who is your life!

So, how’s that working out for you?

Dr Lewis W Gregory © 2024