In my conversation today with a Christian leader I found the he shared my dismay at how few so called Christians lacked any kind of discipleship training. The subject of our conversation had been stimulated by a book I just finished reading that stressed the lack of knowledge of most Christians. We both agreed that this has come about because of TV and cell phones. People are not taught how to grow in their faith. When we are children it is very important to our parents that we learn to walk, talk, to control our bladder and bowels, to use eating utensils, to tie our shoes, to read, to write, to control our emotions, and to relate to parents and others. No one, however, teaches, us how to develop a relationship with God and how to foster that relationship. We assume that The church will do it, but Satan has convinced church educators that it is not necessary.
My friend and I agreed that one cannot integrate their faith if they are baby Christians. Salvation is not enough! We cannot integrate a faith we do not have, for we have to have command of spiritual interventions to use them. For instance 69 % of patients would like to have their doctors pray with them. But doctors rarely do. If the average Christian prays only one minute a day, how can they pray for a patient. One has to pray in the Spirit for prayer to be effective, and how can they pray in the Spirit if they do not know how to pray for the sick or the Spirit does not guide them. How can they encourage people if they do not know how to convey the hope that they have in Christ? How can their minds be transformed their if we cannot present the truth given to us by God? You have to understand that when a person is sick the entire being is sick! they may be sick in the body, but the rest of their body is involved. Having reached the end of my life at age 90, and having just had a very serious illness that was so severe that all thought I would die I can tell you that what I just wrote is true.
The other tragedy is that the church no longer prays. When I was young we had prayer meetings every Wednesday night The room would be full of people who prayed about a wide array of subjects. Then with time they prayed less and less, and let the pastor do all the praying. Then they quite having prayer meetings Today they have a little devotional when they are going to be about God's work with just a few words of prayer. Very few persons in business or in human services ever pray for God's guidance. For 40+ years I prayed each morning for God to give me wisdom in handling my patients that day. He did.
I wrote a book on discipleship that contained the essential knowledge that a person had to have to be a true disciple, but it has not been popular. Even though I tried to market it I had little success, but recently a small church on Eastern North Carolina did women's study of the book, then men then insisted that they have one too, and they were very glad they did. If you want one you can go to our website at InstChristiangrowth.org and order one. It is titled The Nuts and Bolts of Discipleship.
