“And He said to them, Come after Me [as disciples – letting Me be your Guide], follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!” (Matthew 4:19).
Follow Me, and I will make you; these seven words wonderfully spoken by the Lord Jesus is the marching order to greatness in the Kingdom! It is the blueprint which has unlocked the destinies of all good men from the beginning until now. Saints have obeyed these words and found their onward motion to greatness in them. Mortal destinies have fulfilled immoral purposes and heaven has kissed the earth because men heard and obeyed the Lord’s decree when it came out expressly saying, Follow Me and I will make you.
Darkness loomed about their heads. They were desperate fishermen who toiled all night, always freezing in the cold of the open sea in search of fish. They had hungry families to feed and heavy taxes to pay to the Romans who had colonized their country. Sometimes they caught a little, but most of the time they caught nothing which was a great struggle for them to make two ends meet. Their lives were empty and void, they were stuck in the rut of unproductive routine. This was the lot of Peter and Andrew, his brother before they met Jesus. Their story is similar to many in modern times who jump from one end of the city to another in the quest for survival. Frustrated and caught up in the cycle of defeat, they have given up to a presumed fate that success and prosperity is for everyone except them. Something amazing happened to the Galilean fishermen that changed the course of their lives forever. They met Jesus. One encounter with Jesus makes all the difference. There were other fishermen by the Sea of Galilee on that morning, but God hand picked these two men to favor them. Your encounter the anointing upon this ministry is a divine life jacket for you that will aid your swim out of the waters of frustrations into your Fairhaven.
A REVELATION OF YOUR PROPHETIC DESTINY
In a twinkling of an eye, their lives were going to experience a complete turnaround. The voice of destiny was calling them to disdain mediocrity and walk in the paths of greatness which God had ordained for them. They were ordinary fishermen, the Sea had been all they knew and lived by; but there was more to their lives that they were not aware of. They were destined to be world changers, history makers, but they were ignorant of who they were. When Jesus called out their names and gave them a revelation of their divine destiny, it was an eye-opener to God’s original purpose for their lives. The Word of God sheds lights to the darkness that overshadows our consciousness and gives us a revelation of who we were made to be. The Word of the Lord located these men, the King of kings sent for them saying, Follow Me and I will make you. Indeed such a word could only be spoken by a man who has the authority and power to give meaning, purpose and direction to their bewildered souls.
GOD IS CALLING YOU TO MORE
If her majesty the Queen of England would take a stroll on the street, arrayed in her royal apparel with all the honor and power of her sovereignty and suddenly, among the cheering crowd, she looked upon a peasant in his depravity and fastened her eyes upon him. The royal gaze would have been sufficient to impact the impression of a lasting sweet memory on the peasant. Then imagine the Queen taking the gesture of grace even to a greater dimension by uttering those life changing lines to the peasant “Follow me and I will make you”, will he not jump up immediately and follow the royal summon? The peasant knows very well that it would be the call of destiny; the Royalty who had called upon him had the power and wherewithal to transform the course of his life completely. “For the word of a king is authority and power, and who can say to him, what are you doing?”(Ecclesiastes 8:4)
If the decree of an earthly ruler would carry such a weight of authority that can make an entire army advance into battle, how then powerful shall be the decree of the King of heaven Whose Kingdom transcends the scope of this present life, when he says to you,, Follow Me and I will make you. No matter how deep the pit that you are in might be, if you can also hear the voice of Jesus, His power will lift you out of the miry clay and set your feet upon the rock. One of satan’s strategies is to use the circumstances of life to push you down to a position when your potentials are locked in and we become demoralized. If your life has come to this point when you know that God has more for you than what you are now, when there is a longing in your heart for new horizons, you need to run towards the Lord and receive a definite Word that will give direction to your confusion and bring you out of every tight corner.
RESPOND TO GOD BY FAITH
As they followed the King, unschooled fishermen were on their way to becoming men who turned the world upside down; they would practically crumble the Roman Empire from within. Their influence would exceed the limits of their own generation and set ablaze generations yet unborn. As illiterate as they were, their writings would later constitute part of the Inspired Word of God, which modern theologians and scholars would continue to postulate different hypotheses to unravel its mysteries.
How was it that Simon Peter became so bold to challenge the authority of the Sanhedrin, – a council of seventy senators among the Jews, usually with the addition of the high priest as president, who determined the most important affairs of the nation to defend his faith without fear? How was he able to step out and take a stroll on the raging Sea of Galilee? How was his shadow able to heal the sick and cast out evil spirits? With what authority was he able to raise Tabitha who was already confirmed dead? In response, Peter would lift his calm face to heaven and smilingly answer, “He said to me, ‘Follow Me and I will make you’ and I simply followed”. When Christ becomes your Torch Bearer, you never walk in darkness. Christ is the Sun of righteousness and when we are positioned in Him, our light begins to shine to illuminate this dark word. Your life can produce unbelievable miracles, success and productivity when you stop trying to handle matters in your own strength, turn over the wheel to Jesus and enjoy the ride to the top. Follow Him and He will make you.
This powerful phrase Follow Me and I will make you is the password of the ages, the secret code by which all the Patriarchs of old who through faith subdued kingdoms and obtained the promise released their prophetic destinies. Think of Abraham, who left the place of his childhood with Sarah to a land of which he knew nothing. He lived a nomadic life and journeyed about the promised land. He waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. He eventually became the Father of many Nations, and obtained the Messianic legacy which no other obtained before and after him. What was the beginning of the exceptional feats of Abraham? How is he able to keep on living, though he is dead? The answer is found in Gen 12:1-2 when God called Abraham, ‘Go for yourself [for your own advantage] away from your country… and I will make you. Those who hear the voice of God, the world will hear them. Those who bend their knees to God will not bend them to any man. This is the open secret of many who are producing greatness for Jesus today, please do likewise.
The list is endless of a thousand of the faithful ones in ancient and modern times who have received colorful destinies and stood out among their contemporaries by simply obeying the King’s summon when He called out, Follow Me and I will make you. Many of these heroes of faith were men of no-repute, without any charm or brilliance. Today, many people brag and claim to be self-made. I do not know anything about being self-made, because as for me and my brethren, we are a God-made breed. Those of us who are privileged to follow in the footsteps of the Lord can only recite with John Newton, in the fifth stanza of his hymn Amazing Grace, Through many dangers, toils and snares, I have already come; ‘Tis grace hath brought me safe thus far, And grace will lead me home.
As foolish men followed the One Who is the Wisdom of God they became wise. Weak and feeble men followed Him who is the Strength of the ages and they obtained the power to accomplish the impossible. Only eternity can fully comprehend the wealth of possibilities embedded in the simple command, Follow Me and I will make you. God’s will is that your name joins in the league of the Champions who are fulfilling their Destiny in rigorousness. Today, take the first step after the footsteps of the King of Glory. Follow Him and let Him make you.
BECOME A DISCIPLE
The salvation experience is an entrance point into the Kingdom, however for you to access your Kingdom inheritance; you need to understand the mysteries of the Kingdom. You have to dig deep into the dynamics of the Kingdom and comprehend strategic alliance with God’s covenant. You cannot enjoy the full benefits of God’s Kingdom by choosing to dwell on the surface. You must be willing to move in the steps of Christ to speak as He speaks, to think as he thinks and to envision as He envisions. Only then will your life produce the same results that the Lord produces. God has to release into your spirit a paradigm that will cause you to have the right orientation that will align with His purpose for your life. You might be asking, how do I follow in the footsteps of the King? Come along.
An ancient way of education was the method of apprenticeship. Students would enroll to study under the tutelage of a renowned teacher. The students would live with and serve the Rabbi for the length of time of their studies. This kind of education exceeded just the acquisition of knowledge in a career line. It embraced training of the total man in discipline and character building. The credibility of any student depended on the quality of the Rabbi whom he served under. Paul prided himself as being a disciple of Gamaliel, a doctor of the law held in high reputation by all the people in Israel. Elisha was a student under the tutelage of Elijah and he received a double portion of the anointing of his master.
“Now when they saw the boldness and unfettered eloquence of Peter and John and perceived that they were unlearned and untrained in the schools [common men with no educational advantages], they marveled; and recognized that they had been with Jesus” Acts 4:13. Jesus Christ reproduced in His disciples exactly who he was. They rubbed off on his character, power and miracles. It is a glorious privilege to keep step with the marching order of the King of kings. Will you not like Peter and Andrew follow on in the Master’s step and become a student in His Academy of Abundant Life.
This was exactly the strategy which the Lord adopted when He appointed twelve, that they might be with Him and that He might send them out to preach with power to heal sicknesses and cast out demons. These men left everything behind and just followed the Lord everywhere He went and did exactly what they saw Him do. They were family men with domestic commitments, but they left all that behind and followed after Him because they knew that He had the words of eternal life. He was the key that would unlock their prophetic destinies. It was not so long before the influence which He impressed in them began to mold them into brand new men.
The logic behind the Master’s method of mentorship was simple: To make them exactly who He Is. The mode of teaching was exemplary. He used His own life as a pattern for His early disciples and for us too to follow. He modeled for them exactly what He wanted them to become. If we are going to experience transformation in the world, we need to understand that the world does not need a motto to say, but the world needs a model to see. Jesus Christ did not hold a special conference on prayer, to teach the disciples the 21 principles of prevailing prayers. He simply prayed. They saw how He sent the multitudes away, went up on the mountain by Himself to pray alone with the Father. They observed that whenever He spent time alone in prayer, he returned with a higher dimension of God’s miracle working power.
It soon became clear to them that prayer was the secret of His power. As He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray ”. We live in an age of ideologies. There is a vast increase in knowledge and inventions. However, God’s methodologies are eternal and immovable. The ways of God are superior to the inferior systems of the world. If we must manifest the glories of the celestial realm in the earth realm, then we must bypass the culture and approach of the world and walk only as Jesus walked.
If you are going to enroll in the Academy of Abundant Life under the tutelage of the Rabbi Jesus Christ, if you are going to work the works of God and disdain the average life, you must first agree to the conditions of enrolment to the School. This is how the Master Himself puts it, “If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]” Matthew 16:24. These words are the dividing lines which separates the true disciples from the everyday Church goers.
