If less than 10% of the people I preach to in church on a typical Sunday morning go beyond their apparent listening, what can I do to help? That was my particular question and the challenge which has led Seventy-two to produce The Discipleship Cycle App.
What can you do to help? We all want to be a part of the solution rather than a part of the problem.
My answer is in two parts: Firstly, what can I do for myself? Secondly, how can I help others? Today I’ll stick to the first.
When I read the words of Jesus reminding me my heart can be ‘good soil’ when I hear and accept his word, which then multiplies ‘some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown’, part of me thinks wow and part of me thinks how?
I’ve come to recognise it’s very similar to me when I’m in the garden. I choose what plants I want to see in my garden according to what they will produce. In some cases, that’s what I can eat, (fruit and veg such as lettuce, aubergines, tomatoes, various fruits) in others it’s what they’ll look like (flowers such peonies, lilies, stocks, roses) – that’s the wow element. However, I never see the wow fruit without paying attention to the how. How requires daily attention, not necessarily daily action. How requires providing as helpful environment for growth I can.
As this applies to me I recognise I have some responsibility, as a disciple of Jesus, in relation to the seed of God’s word spoken into my life. The Discipleship Cycle is a simple, repeatable cycle I try and work round with those particular words from the Bible where I sense God is not solely speaking truth in general terms, for anyone ‘who has ears to hear’, but specifically, right here, right now, into my life. I don’t want my life to look like my collection of seeds – packets bought over the years, or seeds collected from my own plants – looking really nice, filed alphabetically with nice pictures of what they could look like on the packets, but unsown, unplanted, with productivity declining year-on-year.
By recording as many of those moments when I sense that quickening in my heart, God is speaking to me, I ensure they’re not lost amongst the ever present to-do list. By creating regular space when I can review whether I need to activate a particular ‘seed-word’, where it needs to be planted (in which area of my life or heart), or what I need to do if this is the word of God to me, I’ve been able to identify the life and direction of God’s spirit and consequent spiritual growth in life much more helpfully than previously sued to be the case. I’m not suggesting five minutes a day is enough, but I am saying if you only give five minutes a day to reflect on your life as a follower of Jesus, make sure this is it.
So do you need an App to enable you to do this? Absolutely not. However, if you’re one of those lesser mortals, like myself you’ll be glad for something to help you keep track of those fleeting moments that otherwise so easily get lost. The DC App helps me do that.
Also, maybe you already understand how helpful accountability is in any area of life we want to improve in, whether that be fitness, diet, or spiritual growth. The DC App helps me become more self-accountable before God. I’m my own worst enemy, just like the apostle Paul it seems! Maybe you are too, in which case the DC App will help.
You can download The Discipleship Cycle App for free:
