Discipleship: The Working of God In You 2 — Prophet Cherub Obadare

In Jesus name we pray. So, we are going to be taking a teaching on discipleship the workings of God in you. Or discipleship, the working of God in a believer, the discipleships of growth process. And so, that is how discipleship is. And Jesus make discipleship um a very very important subject. You know, all through his um historic account in the synoptic gospel, Matthew Mark, Luke and John, discipleship was a core uh subject that Jesus was dealing with. The the disciples were more of his um targets than even the crowd. He came to save the world, but he came to prepare the disciples. His assignment was to save the world, but his primary assignment was to prepare a people that will carry out the assignment of saving the world after he has gone. That's why discipleship was so important to Jesus because it was not going to live um um humanly on earth or in his humanity to to accomplish the work of redemption and salvation onto women. So, he had to prepare his primary assignment. That's why you see he started with the disciples by taking them to the mountain teaching them the interpretation of the parables he told to the crowd. He was preparing them for the eternal assignment he came from because they were to carry on you know after his resurrection. And so he the the discipleship was an important a core course in the heart of Jesus. It was and up till today, I want you to know that though many um people, ministers in the body of Christ are not seeing the disciples from the perspective of Jesus again. Discipleship has become um something that is taught only in Bible school. Discipleship has become something that um only a pastor, you know, learn probably when he goes to Bible College. But, you know, it is according to design, every believer is supposed to be discipled. Today, the reason we have all kind of um attitude among believers is because we the the church, the body of Christ today, lack discipleship. And so, you see all kind of leaders imagine here and there starting up ministry, churches, you know, in there's an an upsurge of pastors, leaders, not discipled. And so, their product is a function of their making. So, if you um and discipleship means the making of God in you. What God makes out of you. That's the meaning of discipleship. You remember in Matthew 4 and verse 19, he said unto them, He said, "Follow me, I will make you fishers of men." That word making me, "I will work on you until I transform you from fishers of fish onto fishers of men." So, it's it's um it is discipleship is the workings. Another one word for workings means the dealings of God. And the truth is this, Jesus was peculiar about his dealing with every one of the disciples. Meaning he dealt with them based on their personalities. The way he dealt with Peter was different from the way he dealt with John. The way he dealt with John was different from the He had this peculiarity of relating with each and every one of them based on their weaknesses, on their talents, based on their strength, based on their, you know, um ability to talk. There are different abilities and God givings in them. So, discipleship has this um way of um um helping people to you know, get the best out of them. So, he deals with each and every one of them in a peculiar way. So, the dealings of God with us are personal. I like you to write that down if you are writing. The dealings of God with you, it's personal. God deals with you as a person. Praise God. Hallelujah. So, and in discipleship, that is what God expect you know, from discipleship. He deals with you based on your personality, based on your intelligence, based on your gifting, spiritual gift. We have different personalities. We are there are some of us who are, you know, um extrovert. There are some of us who are introvert. So, when God is disciplining you, I was listening to Andrew Wommack, Andrew Wommack said, he had this problem that he cannot talk before two people. His um introvert weakness was so bad that if two people are standing he couldn't talk with them. And so, this man now is now a great international minister. That has a lot to do with the workings of God in him. So, so when God was working in him, he was working on his personality because God was going to use him to talk to a lot of people. And so you will see among the disciples, Peter was an extrovert. Where others will not talk, Peter will talk. Where others will not ask questions, Peter will ask questions. Where others will not point at an observation, Peter will point at an. So, Jesus worked on him as Peter. You remember in Matthew 16, when he was asking him that who the people, he was asking the disciples, they all responded based on their understanding of Jesus except Peter. Peter said, "You are Christ, the son of the living God." And the answer he gave to Peter was not general. It was peculiar to Peter. He said, "Peter, he said it immediately he gave him a name there. He said, "You are now the rock." He said, "And on this rock, now, on that rock, he was talking about the revelation that was given. It changed him and, you know, he changed his name and gave him the future of what he was going to be for the church. It was going to be a foundational apostle. Praise God. And so, God deals with us as an individual. Now, for those of us who are already parents, we understand that we have peculiarity with our children. Like for for me now, my children they they have different ways I deal with them because of their personality. There are, you know, things I will do for one that I will not do for the other based on their personality because I already I'm getting to know who they are as peculiar as they are. So, I don't deal with them on a I you know, on a general platform, I look at who they are, what they are, and then deal with them from that perspective. So, there is God's working on us. There's a working of God going on in you right now. It's called discipleship. Now, God use people. He uses circumstances, he uses the word. Everything at his disposal to mentor you into what he wants you to be as a believer. Now, let's look at the scripture. Philippians chapter 1. Philippians chapter 1. Um, Paul speaking when uh, he was writing to the Philippians church. He says, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Now, I would have loved to read from verse one, but what he was saying from verse one was his prayer and um his desire for the Philippians church, verse 5, say, "For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." He was telling them how he was praying for them. And the and he has this confidence that there is a working going on in them. He said that, "He which had begun a good work in you." Now, that word good work is discipleship. I like you to mark it. Good work in you. And God does that to every believer. There's a there's an ongoing work in every believer. See after time he said, "ongoing workings of God." Yeah. There's a there's a there's a workings in you now. As I'm now as I am now, there are things God is working out in my life for the next phase of his calling upon my life. There are things he's trying to deal with, he's trying to chisel out of me. There are things he's trying to teach me, there are things he's trying to build in me. So, the workings of God is the building of a believer. The Bible speaking and says, "1 Corinthians chapter 3 from verse 15, "From thy childhood, thou has known the Holy Scripture, which is able to make you wise unto salvation. For the scripture is profitable." Is given and profitable for correction, reproof, doctrine, instruction onto righteousness, until the man of God is thoroughly furnished." Now, one of the or many instruments that God uses in his workings in our life is the word. Until the man of God is thoroughly furnished onto a perfect Now, that word perfect means matured man. So, in the growth process of every believer, there is workings of God. I I wrote some things down. I would like to share with you um you know, I I said it is important you yield yourself to the workings of God, the dealings of God because God may want to deal and walk in you. You have a role to play. God cannot walk on someone who will not yield himself onto workings. The disciples had to follow because before he could make them. They submitted their time, they submitted their career, they submitted some of them left homes. In fact, it came it came to a point they had to ask, "Now we have left everything." Now, imagine I want you to mark that word. They left everything. You know, the challenge we have today is that we are not willing to live some of us left some things so that he could walk on us. But the workings of God does not happen in a man until he leaves everything. Say, "And we have left everything." He ensured they left everything, then the working began. So, it starts with you submitting. The way to subscribe into discipleship is not with God, it's with you. It's with you coming to be discipled. The Bible say and he called them. "Follow me, and I will make you." So, the first thing they did was to follow. And when they were following, they left everything following. They didn't follow with some things with them. And so the workings began, praise God. And so, the workings of God in a believer you know, make a lot of changes. There are some of us, we God has taken us from one level of our life to the other. There are some things in your life before God has been able to walk out those things. That's why Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God which worketh in you." That is where the Lord open my understanding to the scripture. It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Meaning, even the desire to follow is the one that ignites it. It is the one that initiates it. So, there is a working in you. From the day you came, from the day you heard the gospel and you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, there's an initiation inside of you. There's an ongoing work till this point, until you conform to the um image and the stature, the measure of the stature of Christ. He keeps working on us until he appears when we see Christ. There's a working going on in us, praise God. For it is God which worketh in you. So, there's an ongoing work in you right now, praise God. And so, um another thing I want us to know is that it is important we acknowledge the workings of God. You must acknowledge means um you accept that something is happening to me beyond me. You come to a realization that I cannot just do things that I want. I cannot just go to places I want to go. I can't say things I want to say. I can't eat things I want to eat because there's a working going on in me. So, you have submitted yourself to a higher authority that dictates and controls what happens to you and what how you go about the things because of what is the workings in your life. At times you wake up in the morning, you're not willing to fast. I just hear because there's a working on you. You just hear that morning, you hear the word of God. You hear in your spirit, take seven days fast. It's not easy to yield to that kind of instruction. If you have not acknowledged that there is a higher force working something in me. And so you begin to struggle because you you you are not um conscious of his workings. So, he might not be saying that to another believer, but for you, it is needed. Most often, we are exposed to attacks attacks of temptations from the enemy when we don't yield to this instruction that helps the carrying out of God's work in our life. God knows what the devil is about to do. Do you remember where he told Peter? He said, "Peter, the devil wants to shift you, but I pray for you." So, in his working upon our life, he watch he over us all. The Bible calls him the shepherd and the bishop of our soul. So, you must have you must let it be in your consciousness that something is happening to me beyond me by the Holy Spirit. He that has begun for it is, verse um Philippians 1 and verse 6, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ." Now, I would have loved to read from verse 1, but what he was saying from verse 1 was his prayer and um his desire for the Philippian church. Verse 5 say, "For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now." He was telling them how he was praying for them. And the and he has this confidence that there is a working going on in them. He said that, "He which had begun a good work in you." Now, that word good work is discipleship. I like you to mark it. Good work in you. And God does that to every believer. There's a there's an ongoing work in every believer. See after time he said, "ongoing workings of God." Yeah. There's a there's a there's a workings in you now. As I'm now as I am now, there are things God is working out in my life for the next phase of his calling upon my life. There are things he's trying to deal with, he's trying to chisel out of me. There are things he's trying to teach me, there are things he's trying to build in me. So, the workings of God is the building of a believer. The Bible speaking and says, "1 Corinthians chapter 3 from verse 15, "From thy childhood, thou has known the Holy Scripture, which is able to make you wise unto salvation. For the scripture is profitable." Is given and profitable for correction, reproof, doctrine, instruction onto righteousness, until the man of God is thoroughly furnished." Now, one of the or many instruments that God uses in his workings in our life is the word. Until the man of God is thoroughly furnished onto a perfect Now, that word perfect means matured man. So, in the growth process of every believer, there is workings of God. I I wrote some things down. I would like to share with you um you know, I I said it is important you yield yourself to the workings of God, the dealings of God because God may want to deal and walk in you. You have a role to play. God cannot walk on someone who will not yield himself onto workings. The disciples had to follow because before he could make them. They submitted their time, they submitted their career, they submitted some of them left homes. In fact, it came it came to a point they had to ask, "Now we have left everything." Now, imagine I want you to mark that word. They left everything. You know, the challenge we have today is that we are not willing to live some of us left some things so that he could walk on us. But the workings of God does not happen in a man until he leaves everything. Say, "And we have left everything." He ensured they left everything, then the working began. So, it starts with you submitting. The way to subscribe into discipleship is not with God, it's with you. It's with you coming to be discipled. The Bible say and he called them. "Follow me, and I will make you." So, the first thing they did was to follow. And when they were following, they left everything following. They didn't follow with some things with them. And so the workings began, praise God. And so, the workings of God in a believer you know, make a lot of changes. There are some of us, we God has taken us from one level of our life to the other. There are some things in your life before God has been able to walk out those things. That's why Philippians 2:13 says, "For it is God which worketh in you." That is where the Lord open my understanding to the scripture. It is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Meaning, even the desire to follow is the one that ignites it. It is the one that initiates it. So, there is a working in you. From the day you came, from the day you heard the gospel and you accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior, there's an initiation inside of you. There's an ongoing work till this point, until you conform to the um image and the stature, the…