“Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Teach these new disciples to obey all the commands I have given you. And be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28
These were the last words which Jesus charged to His disciples before He ascended into Heaven. The Great Commission, as it has been called, was a commandment from Christ to His disciples to go and to reach out to all of those that did not yet know Christ, to baptize them in the Holy Spirit and to make disciples of all people. I believe that this is still a call which we Christians still have the responsibility to fulfill before the second coming of Christ.
This passage from Scripture has greatly challenged me in many areas. It’s challenged my ambition and my passions, my priorities in life and values. It’s caused me to question whether or not my life is aimed in the direction of fulfilling what Jesus commanded us to do. If my life, and by my life not only the circumstances in which I find myself in, but also my heart attitude, aligned with this commandment? For as someone who professes to knowing God and being in relationship with Him, the only natural response to such a great God would be to start living and worshipping Him in a way which reflects the truth of who God is. Plantinga explains this Christian, a prime citizen of the kingdom of God, who truly reflects the disciple who follows this mandate when he writes:
“…a prime citizen passionately year for the kingdom. A prime citizen has been redeemed far down in her spirit, way downtown in her heart, so that she deeply loves God and the things of God. She relishes God’s Word. She rejoices in God her Savior. She finds that the things of faith- repentance, forgiveness, hope in God- seem sweet to her. ..In her best moods she long not just for happiness, but for joy; not just for joy, but for God; not just for God, but also for the kingdom of God. Because of her enthusiasm for the kingdom, she doesn’t merely endorse justice in the world; she hungers and worst for it. She doesn’t merely reject cruelty; she hates and fights it. She wants God to make things right in the world, and she wants to enroll in God’s project as if it were her own. She strives first for the kingdom in order to act on her passion. “
She is a person with a calling, and God has given each one of us a specific calling in our lives. I challenge myself to pursue or at least to continue to align and position my heart to reflect the image of God. I want to be available to God as a ready, strong, and reliable tool which He can use for His kingdom instead of an ever receiving spiritual infant. If this isn’t challenging to you or you haven’t really thought about this yet, it’s about time you start for especially in this season of our lives we must begin our preparations for where God would lead us.
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