Following Jesus: An Approach to Christian Spirituality

By Blake Ferriss

Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.” John 8:12, NLT

"Following Jesus: An Approach to Christian Spirituality" provides a basis for understanding how the Lordship of Christ is the essential criterion for determining how Christianity functions as a relational experience with God. With that relational experience, for the believer in Christ, being the product of supernatural experience with the Holy Spirit.

The book functions as an organizing tool to be used for a conscientious inquiry into how a Christian worldview operates in four relational categories of experience. With these relational categories act as a basis for understanding how our choices affect our lives, and our futures, both now and in life, and eternally, and how it is that God loves us and will give our lives the meaning and purpose that we all long for.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Word Alive Press
• Release date: May 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781486601851

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Following Jesus

Copyright © 2019 by Blake Ferriss

All rights reserved. Neither this publication nor any part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60199. All rights reserved. • Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980,1982,by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. • Scripture quotations marked NJB are taken from The New Jerusalem Bible, © 1998 by Darton, Longman, & Todd, Ltd. and Doubleday and Company Ltd. Used by permission. • Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE ®, Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. • Scripture quotations marked NIV are taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®. Copyright © 1973,1978,1984, by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. • Scripture quotations marked WET are taken from The New Testament: An Expanded Translation. Kenneth S. Wuest. © 1961 Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. All Rights reserved. Used by permission. • Most Scripture references have been drawn from The NIV Handy Concordance. Copyright © 1982 by The Zondervan Corporation. Grand Rapids, Michigan. Used by permission.

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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

Ferriss, Blake, 1955-, author

Following Jesus : an approach to Christian

spirituality / Blake Ferriss

Issued in print and electronic formats.

ISBN 978-1-4866-0182-0 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-1-4866-0183-7 (pdf).

--ISBN 978-1-4866-0184-4 (html)

1. Spirituality--Christianity. I. Title.

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C2013-906115-0

Table of Contents

Preface One: God’s Ways Are Above Our Ways

Preface Two

Introduction One: Following Jesus: an All In Experience of the Heart

Introduction Two

CHAPTER ONE: The Promise and the Covenant: Our Problem—God’s Solution

CHAPTER TWO: The Question! Two Types of Spirituality:Christianity Versus Religianity

CHAPTER THREE: The Principal of Double Advocacy: Jesus, Our Advocate to the Father, and the Holy Spirit, the Father’s Advocate to Us

CHAPTER FOUR: The Conceded Life: A Free-Will Offering

CHAPTER FIVE: Ambassadors Wanted: Bondservant-Followers Need Only Apply

CHAPTER SIX: New Creation—Relational Theology: The Necessity of Interpretation and Application: A Fresh Proposal

Final Word

About the Author

Bibliography Including Additional Resources for Further Study

Preface One:

God’s Ways

Are Above Our Ways

How this book came to be written:

The author was informed by the Holy Spirit in April of 2009 that one billion young people will come to Jesus Christ as their saviour and Lord in a ten year period of time, with that period of time beginning not later than 2015. The author was, at the same time, given by the Holy Spirit the principle idea for this book, and began preparatory work on it then, with the actual writing process beginning in September of 2009.

It is the author’s opinion that Jesus Christ initiated the beginning of this ten year youth mission in September of 2015. The author feels that, in part, this billion-person youth mission will be fulfilled through the Lord Jesus Christ raising up one million evangelists from the youth of the world to preach the Gospel to their generation.

This book, Following Jesus: An Approach to Christian Spirituality will find its place, through the work of the Holy Spirit, as one of the elements that God uses to enable these young evangelists and their disciples, along with anyone else who is called to participate, in accomplishing the fulfillment of God’s intention to reach one billion young people with the Gospel of Jesus Christ by September of 2025.

The Ministry of the Prophet Elijah Is a Ministry of Reconciliation

The Lord is going to call on the youth of the world to come to him and be born again to an experience of new life in Christ. The experience of life transformation that these young people will experience will include the healing of the hurt and the pain that has been inflicted upon them. With respect to the young people who have left the church, Jesus had told his disciples not to prevent or forbid the children from coming to him (see Matthew 19:14). Somehow this is what the church has done, and this is the reason why so many of the little ones have left the church or exhibit such an attitude of resistance to the message of the gospel.

It is the intention of Jesus to meet the young people of the world, and as they accept the salvation that he offers to them, he will bring them, through the Person and work of the Holy Spirit, into a supernatural experience of the heart. Because there is no miracle greater than the miracle of a transformed soul, the testimony of these transformed lives will be the basis from which Jesus will reveal the life that is his to give to whomever will come and receive it from him.

Reconciliation Requires the Participation of Two People

According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary the word reconcile means to cause to be friendly or harmonious again. In order for us to settle our differences we must reconcile. The word reconciliation, according to Merriam-Webster’s, is the action of reconciling,¹ (see 2 Corinthians 5:19-20).

It is the responsibility of all who call themselves followers of Jesus to invite the young people of the world to come and be reconciled with God and experience Jesus for who he is as the Lord of love, hope, and destiny. Jesus is the Lord of life, and that more abundantly, and our mission as followers of Jesus is to introduce young people, whomever they may be, to Jesus Christ.

The Application of the Book

The essential function of this book is to act as a helper to anyone with the desire to enter into the fulfillment of heart and peace of mind that are a part of knowing Christ and what it means to experience the reality of a life of love, hope, and destiny.

Please Forgive the Failure

It is here that we as followers of Jesus from the heart must extend an apology to all the young people of the world who have been wounded or disillusioned by what has been referred to in this book as Religianity. Whatever harm may have befallen you through the experience you’ve had with Religianity, which is considered here to be paganized Christianity, is one that Jesus, through the ministry of the Holy Spirit, will seek to overcome within you if you will give him the opportunity.

The decisions we make today have a direct bearing on what kind of life we will live tomorrow and where our eternal destiny will be realized, with that destiny being in either Heaven or Hell. Our desire is that you will make a decision for Christ and then enter into a life of meaning and purpose in this life, and then experience for eternity the destiny in Heaven that he offers to all who will place their faith in him and answer his call to come and "Follow me" (John 21:19).

Our desire is that the young people of the world will not lose their future by making decisions today that are based on anger, pain, resentment, rejection, and other forms of abuse that have occurred in their past. Jesus will meet you in the now moment of your experience and will show you a way of life that is unavailable to you anywhere else (see Psalm 121:1–8; Matthew 11:28–30).

Jesus Christ and the salvation that he offers is the means through which life can be experienced and a future with a hope can be realized. It is our hope and our prayer that if the reader has never experienced the saving grace of Christ, he or she will take advantage of the opportunity that God gives to all who will come to Him and be saved and will receive the great gift of salvation that is available through Christ, and then participate with Christ in the life, and that in abundance, that is available to anyone who will concede their life to him as Lord.

Jesus’ Love Is for Everyone

To those who have rejected the Lord for other reasons, whatever those reasons may be, the invitation is being made to you to come and experience Jesus as the Lord of life. Jesus’ intention for you is that you will enter into an experience with him that he refers to in John 3:3 as being born again.

To be born again is an experience where you are forgiven for your sin (see Romans 6:23) and then given the opportunity to enter into an experience with the Holy Spirit that will result in your being transformed into the image of Christ (see Romans 8:29). The result of this transformation into the image and likeness of Christ will allow you the opportunity to know what it feels like to be properly (perfectly) loved (Psalm 23:6; Ephesians 1:1–6).

The practical application of the alteration of life that we are speaking of here is the experience of character transformation. To have our character transformed through a work of the Spirit will enable us to experience a quality of life that is reflective of the quality of life that Jesus experiences as person. (See Romans 14:17 and Galatians 5:22–25. For the experience to be a reality in our own lives see especially v. 25.)

Let Jesus Love You!

Let Jesus love you! What have you to lose other than the pain of loneliness and rejection? Christ’s offer to you is Follow me and let him lead you into a life filled with the transformative influence of his love.

To follow Jesus is to make a journey through life with him to Heaven (Revelation 21:1–7), which is a land that is yet to come, a place where your eternal destiny is realized and where the reality of life, and that more abundantly, is fulfilled forever.

The decision is yours to make. The only question to be answered is What will you do?

God’s Intention Is Global Evangelism

The one responsible for organizing this global evangelism is the Lord Jesus himself. People from all over the world will be involved in this global evangelistic effort in ways that are unique to themselves. There will be people from the four corners of the world being invited by the Lord Jesus Christ to work with him in this endeavor. Whether you will work with Jesus and how you will work with Jesus in this global evangelism are questions only you, through prayer and inquiry of the Lord concerning his will in the matter, can appropriately answer.

The Book Provides the Basis for a Teaching and Sanctification-Training Ministry

The ministry that is relative to the teaching found here, in this book, is not for everyone. There will be other ways in which the Lord Jesus will be engaging with his intention to bring a billion young people to salvation. Maybe the Lord has spoken to you of this for yourself. If this is the case, then go with God and do as he has asked of you.

The book gives readers the necessary theological understanding to establish for themselves the means through which they can think through their Christian faith and then draw conclusions for themselves as to what they believe and why they believe this to be true. The imperative intention in a sanctification training ministry is to free people to follow Jesus, not enslave them to a ministry or a church or a denomination or an individual teacher.

It’s important to note here that our intention in writing Following Jesus has been to write a reflection, not a dogmatic doctrinal statement. Due to this, the thinking that we are trying to encourage is for the purpose of freeing the reader to determine for themselves what a Christian worldview should look like. We do this for the reason that no belief is more influential in our lives than the one that we personally hold to.

The book has within it the necessary strengths to equip those who want to work with Jesus with a Christian worldview that they can build upon and then use as a basis for their own teaching and sanctification training ministry. The preference here is for the use of the expression sanctification training rather than discipleship training, as that expression has a lot of negative and control-based baggage attached to it.

With sanctification training the intention is to free the individual through empowering them to be a follower of Christ. Jesus tells us "Follow me (John 21:19), not, men, women, churches, denominations, institutions, traditions, or anything else that we would care to add here. The call of Christ is to Follow me," and the one involved in sanctification training has one intention, and that is to empower people to become followers of Christ from the heart and then let Jesus lead them and guide them in whatever way he will choose.

Note: The prefaces and introductions are provided as a means of giving the reader a basis of understanding (in the general sense) of the concepts, principles, and ideas that are being applied throughout the book. A careful reading of the prefaces and introductions will aid the reader in processing the chapters and fulfilling the intention that we have of providing the reader with a way of thinking rather than just an experience in information acquisition.

The Issue Is Not Ministry or Who We Participate With

The issue is not what ministry we participate in but rather our intention is to function as bondservant-ambassadors for Christ to the communities we live in and the world at large. If we have made a decision, or we make a decision, to function as bondservant-ambassadors for Christ, then we must remember that we are representing the interests of the humblest person who has ever lived. In order for us to reflect the humility of Christ in our own experience we must concede to Jesus as Lord in a manner that reflects Jesus concession to his Father in heaven while he was here on earth (see Philippians 2:5–11).

The Ministry of a Bondservant-Ambassador for Christ Is a Ministry of Reconciliation

John the Baptist’s ministry was a ministry of reconciliation (Matthew 3:4–11). Jesus’ ministry was a ministry of reconciliation, with the exception being that Jesus’ ministry was the ultimate ministry of reconciliation, with this being due to how Jesus reconciled the creation back to God (Colossians 1:15–20, especially 19–20). The ministry of the apostles was a ministry of reconciliation because it was through the apostles, as they functioned as Christ’s bondservant-ambassadors and were inspired by the Holy Spirit to write the New Testament, that God sought to reconcile the human race to Christ (2 Corinthians 5:18–20).

The issue of reconciliation as it pertains to humankind being reconciled to Christ is directly related to human free will and the necessity for people to make their own decisions about whether they will enter into the experience of the Kingdom of God, which the apostle Paul refers to as "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17 NKJV). To be reconciled to God, we must be saved by grace, through placing our faith in Christ, for it is only in this way that we can be born again" (John 3:3; see also Romans 10:8–13; Ephesians 2:4–10).

Note: The apostles function as the means through which Christ will reconcile the repentant to God through how the apostles wrote, or acted as apostolic authority for, the New Testament. The ministry of the apostles is unique and non-repeatable only in that the apostles were selected by Jesus for this special writing and authoritative ministry. The apostles’ ministries, which function through the Spirit, are only unique and non-repeatable as they are used in this way. In all other respects the apostles act as our reference point and example of how a follower of Christ should function as a bondservant-ambassador to individuals, local communities, and the world at large.

The entire New Testament is uniquely personal and can be applied to our own lives as we seek to function as Christ’s bondservant-ambassadors to the individuals and communities, the world in which we find ourselves today, and the world at large. The faith issues and struggles of different kinds that we see in the apostles’ lives, as they seek to follow Jesus, are not unique to themselves but are relevant to each of us, as we make decisions of our own to follow the Lord.

Jesus tells us that to enter into the experience of the Kingdom of God we must be born again.

Jesus tells us in John 3:3–21 about how the entry point into the spiritual experience of kingdom life is one that is available in no other way but through an experience with the Holy Spirit (see John 3:8; ref. Romans 14:17). The means to this experience with the Holy Spirit is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ (see John 3:13–15). To enter into the presence of the Father and the experience of His love we must believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our savior and be baptized with the Holy Spirit (see John 3:16–18; Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8).

A ministry of reconciliation has three aspects:

Repentance and invitation. We ask the young people of the world for their forgiveness on behalf of the past and present-day church. We pray they will be reconciled to God. Our voice is crying out to them, calling to them to "taste and see that the LORD is good" (Psalm 34:8).

Sanctification training. We teach what it means to be a follower of Jesus from the heart. We teach how to walk in the Spirit and enter into the life of Christ. We teach how this life is a supernatural experience available only through the Holy Spirit. The reality of the experience of Pentecost, and the empowering presence of the Holy Spirit enabling us to function as Jesus’ witnesses (see Acts 1:8), becomes a lived reality in our lives.

The fruit of reconciliation. This means that young people will enter into the life of love, freedom, and destiny that is theirs in Christ. They will be released to live their own lives with God as their witness. They will take responsibility for their own destiny in life through the choices they make, knowing that those decisions have meaning in both this life and the life beyond.

They will be accountable to the Lord, not human religion and tradition, for it is the Spirit who brings life. They will function as ambassadors for Christ to their generation, leading others into the ultimate possible experience for a human being: the experience of the same quality of life as a person as Jesus Christ experiences as a person (see Matthew 11:28–30; Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22–25). To experience the same quality of life as a person that Jesus experiences as a person is not to share in his divinity, but rather is to experience relationally what God intended for the human being when He created them in His image (Genesis 1:27).

The Message of A Heart Set Free Is the Message of the Gospel

It is in this experience of sharing with Christ in his life where we find out what it means to be created in the image of God. And it is God’s will that we live our life as the image of God. The idea that we are working with in Following Jesus is that a life lived as the image of God is a human life that is to be lived in relationships in the way in which God has created us to live.

To experience righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit and then have this translate into our relationships with God, ourselves, others, and the rest of the creation as the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians. 5:22–25) is the ultimate supernatural experience that a human being can enter into and participate in. To enter into the experience of the heart set free from the ravages of sin, through salvation in Christ, is the message of the gospel (see Matthew 11:28–30).

The Necessity of Humility

The central dynamic property that unites and harmonizes the three aspects of the ministry of reconciliation is humility. Without genuine humility of heart there will be no expression of integrity in what we are saying and doing as we express to the young people of the world the invitation given in the gospel, with that message being that the Lord is good and his love will endure forever towards those who will come and experience his salvation (see 1 Chronicles 16:34–35; Psalm 100:5; 107:1).

The Spirit of Elijah Is a Ministry of Reconciliation

Look, I am sending you the prophet Elijah before the great and dreadful day of the LORD arrives. His preaching will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers. (Malachi 4:5–6)

John the Baptist was the voice of the prophet Elijah for the first coming of Christ. The voice of the prophet Elijah in the last days, before the return of Christ and the consummation of history, will be the voices of Jesus’ bondservant-ambassadors calling the young people of the world to respond to their need to be reconciled with God through placing their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior.²

As followers of Christ our intention is to communicate the message of Christ and his call of Follow me to the young people of the world. Through the sharing of the gospel—which is the message of life, love, hope, and destiny that are found in Christ—with the young people of the world, we will as well reach everyone else who will choose to listen.

The Voice of the Prophet Elijah

The voices of those who are followers of Jesus from the heart are the voice of the prophet Elijah seeking to call the youth of the world, and all others who will choose to listen, to come into the place of their destiny as followers of the Lord Jesus Christ.

God is calling His followers from all points on the Christian compass to rise up as one voice in the world and shout the declaration of the gospel that Jesus is the only name under heaven through which we can be saved (see Acts 4:12), and how his salvation, and life-transforming power, are available to all who will come and receive the eternal life that is his to give. The words of the Psalmist in Psalm 34:8 is the sound of the voice of the follower of Christ calling to the young people of the world, and to everyone else who will hear and respond, to come to Jesus as savior and Lord, and then for themselves be able to speak the words of testimony: "Taste and see that the LORD is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!" (David, king of Israel).

1 Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, s.v. reconcile reconciliation.

2 There is more than one idea about the passages in Malachi and how they should be understood and applied. Here in Following Jesus the sense intended is that the result of the Elijah ministry will be reconciliation.

Young Heart

By Blake Ferriss

In a broken world

Where pain and loss

Are both easy and real

Young heart longs

For a love desired

Hard to find

Even harder to feel

Young heart—searching heart

Who through wandering soul

Believes for what is not

Hoping it will be real

Jesus through searching heart

To wandering soul, speaks

Telling young heart

Words of selfless-love

Which can be believed

The Spirit to young heart says,

"The miracle Man

From Galilee

Is the only One

Who can set you free"

Preface Two

What is written here has in all likelihood been spoken of or referred to in some way or other somewhere else by someone else. The writer of Ecclesiastes is correct when he says that there truly is nothing under the sun that is new (see Ecclesiastes 1:9).

This book is written for those who are followers of Jesus or would like to become followers of Jesus. The purpose of the text is to stimulate the readers to think, or for some rethink, their approach to understanding what a Christian spiritual worldview or spiritual life-view should look like. The book is unapologetically Christian in content and intention. It is written for the benefit of those who desire a deeper and more meaningful experience with Jesus Christ.

The objective is that the text will be used as a reflection on relational-spiritual theology with an application to a sanctification training (discipleship) teaching ministry. For this reason the book is not written from the perspective of a professional scholar, but rather with pastoral and theological concerns in mind. The book is not scholarly in nature, due to how its intention is to address the spiritual needs and concerns of everyday people.

Special Note:

Any person who is being quoted or referred to in this document is not being endorsed. The book has been written by an ordinary, everyday Christian to help young people, and anyone else who cares to read the book, find their way into a deeper and more meaningful journey through life with Jesus Christ; and it is to this purpose that it is dedicated. Any errors, oversights, or omissions are entirely accidental and unintentional.

For too long people have been taught what to think instead of how to think for themselves. The intention of this document is to provide concepts, principles, and ideas as conceptual building materials, along with a general interpretive blueprint for organizing, interpreting, and implementing them. The purpose is to provide the reader with the basic tools and understanding that are necessary to construct their own biblically based and Christ-centered approach to Christian spirituality.

The document has been written to help people learn how to think for themselves, so that their faith is their own. It is up to the readers to determine for themselves what they believe and why they believe it to be true. We must learn how to think for ourselves, and this will require that we challenge ourselves to question what we believe now and see if it is genuine and whether it takes us to the place of meaning in life that we seek and that God has intended for us. And it is to this end that that the document is constructed.

The intention of the book is to help you become a follower of Jesus Christ from the heart. If you can say after reading this document that you are better informed about what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ and that your experience with the Holy Spirit is more meaningful to you now than it was before you read it, then we will have succeeded in our intention.

Note: The term follower of Christ has been misused in some circles. A biblical definition of follower of Jesus and what is meant by this term as it is used in Following Jesus is this: A follower of Jesus Christ is someone who has believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his or her sins (John 3:16; Romans 10:5–13), been born again to new life in Christ (John 3:8), experienced the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to function as Jesus Christ’s witness (Acts 1:8), and dedicated himself or herself to Jesus Christ from the heart to be his volunteer-slave (Revelation 1:1–2) and then function as his bondservant-ambassador through preaching the gospel (Mark 16:15) and making disciples (Matthew 28:19–20), with this ambassadorship occurring through how he or she understands that his or her life is his or her ministry (Galatians 2:20; Matthew 11:28–30; Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22–25).

The life of the follower of Jesus will be defined by a willing concession to the Lordship of Christ, with this experience of Lordship being exercised in their life through the Person and work of the Holy Spirit. The application of biblical morality and ethics that are expressed through the personality as a normal aspect of life will be the hallmark of a true follower of Jesus from the heart.

The principle desire of a true follower of Christ is to be like Jesus in character, and because God will give us the desires of our hearts, what we will see demonstrated in the life of a true follower of Jesus Christ from the heart will be the manifestation of the character of Christ, which is understood as the fruit of the Spirit (see Galatians 5:22–25; Romans 14:17).

The relationship between the chapters in the book are like the links in a chain. Each chapter in the book is sui generis (unique to itself). Yet when the chapters of the book are brought together they form an interconnected unit of thought, with each chapter being linked conceptually and theologically to each of the other chapters.

The book has not been written in a standard outline format. The book does not operate from a standard outline format. The format used here allows for the interconnection of concepts, principles, and ideas so that they can be woven together in the minds of the readers in such a way that they will be required to organize the material for themselves, the end result being that a way of thinking has been achieved, rather than just the transference and accumulation of information.

Our intention has not been to create a systematic theology, but rather to foster discussion. One aspect of how our intention to encourage discussion is engaged is through how we have chosen to capitalize the words Pagan and Paganism as a way of indicating the pervasive nature of the spirit of anti-Christ as it engages the human race and infiltrates the Church.

One other aspect of our intention to cultivate discussion has been to capitalize the word Person as it relates to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is unfortunately often referred to as it or is referred to as a power or force, and our intention in capitalizing the word Person in relationship to the Holy Spirit is to emphasize the personhood of the Holy Spirit as an equal member of the persons who comprise the Trinity.

We have as well chosen to refer to Jesus as person through refraining to capitalize the references to him. Our reason in doing this is to emphasize Jesus’ humanity in relationship to his divinity. So we use the lower case he and him rather than the upper case He and Him. Our reason to do this is to stimulate the reader to a deeper understanding of the reality of the incarnation of Jesus Christ as the supernatural manifestation of the Second Person of the Trinity, who then acts out in the natural circumstances of human experience the realization of God’s righteousness. Major W. Ian Thomas has said of Jesus’ incarnation that Jesus, who was never, ever, less than God, for the thirty-three years that he spent on earth behaved as though he were never, ever, more than man.³ This is a statement that we agree with and are trying to emphasize throughout our document.

The reader will find that there are other areas in our document where we have chosen to attempt to motivate the reader to think in fresh terms, or rethink and reevaluate the point of view that they are using now, through our approach to Christian spirituality. This has not been done to provoke argument but rather to proffer the opportunity for discussion. Our intention throughout this document has been to assist the younger Christian readers-students, particularly, in the broadening of their intellectual horizon and to help them to deepen their experience of the heart with God. It is our respectful hope that at least to some degree we have been successful in this endeavor.

The essential harmonizing theme of the entire book is Following Jesus from the heart.

If any of you wants to be my follower, you must turn from your selfish ways, take up your cross daily, and follow me. (Luke 9:23) Jesus Christ

The Principle Concept of the Book

The principle concept being dealt with here is that the center of Christianity is the person of Jesus Christ. To be a follower of Jesus Christ from the heart is not only necessary but essential if we are going to experience all that our being born again (John 3:3) to new life in Christ can mean to us in our relationship with God, self, others, and the rest of the creation.⁴

Note: A follower of Christ is one who has surrendered all personal rights in a permanent relation of servitude to Jesus Christ.⁵ And, as well, as has been stated before, the idea of being a follower of Christ is drawn from the book of Revelation (1:1), where John refers to his audience as bondservants or slaves of Christ and to himself as a slave, or bondservant, of Christ. The idea of being a slave or bondservant-follower of Christ is demonstrated through the lives of the apostles and other followers of Christ who are spoken of in the New Testament. And the idea of being a slave of Christ, as it is being used in Revelation 1:1, is an irrefutable relational application that is to be applied to all who call Jesus savior and Lord.

A bondservant-follower of Christ is in practical terms a volunteer-slave. All of the various descriptive uses of bondservant in the book you are reading now refer to the notion of someone functioning as a volunteer-slave. The notion of a volunteer-slave is one that is tied to the idea of how, if we are to follow Christ, we must give up all rights and privileges. To put it another way, the one who volunteers to become Jesus’ slave and then function as his bondservant-ambassador is in a position of having the privilege of answering Jesus’ call to Follow me. The freedom we have in this experience of voluntary-slavery is exercised through our right to refuse Jesus’ call on our life at any time and then go and do it our own way.⁶

The apostles were called by Jesus Christ to "Follow me" (John 21:19). The New Testament gospel writers were speaking from the perspective of someone who had been with the Lord while he was here on earth, and this is seen clearly through how the apostle John wrote, "So the Word became human and made his home among us (John 1:14). The point of view of the Gospels with respect to the call of Christ to Follow me is taken from the writers’ physical experience with the incarnate Lord, who was living and functioning on human terms in human context. (Luke, who was a second-generation believer in Jesus, drew on the eyewitness testimony of others.) The perspective of the writers of Acts and the letters and epistles of the New Testament is taken from a post-Pentecost experience, so their position on the call of Christ to Follow me" is drawn from the idea of living life in the Spirit.

The apostles followed Christ physically as he was physically present with them in Israel in the first century CE. Those who are born again by the Spirit through faith in Christ follow Christ in the Spirit regardless of where they are at in the world or what period in church history they live in. And this experience of following Christ in the Spirit is one that the apostles defined for us as they lived for Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), preached the gospel (Mark 16:15), and made disciples (Matthew 28:19–20), as is seen in the book of Acts and the letters and the epistles.

The idea of being a follower of Christ is as relevant today as it was in the first century. The issue for us today is keeping the pre-resurrection and post-resurrection experience with Christ properly in tension with each other. One other thought in this regard is that the command-invitation of Christ to "Follow me" that is given in John 21:19 is a post-resurrection experience. With Jesus’ command-invitation being post-resurrection we are as responsible to obey the Lord in this regard as the apostles and other followers in the first century were at the time this declaration was made.

Following Jesus: An Approach to Christian Spirituality functions as a thought structure that is useful in constructing a Christian worldview. The intention of our document is not to provide a seamless thought structure but rather to provide a thought structure that will enable the readers to establish the necessary platform from which they can then construct a responsible understanding and approach to their own Christian spiritual worldview. Then, from this platform of understanding, intelligently researched and well informed opinions can be developed.

It is important to comment here that knowing how to think from the perspective of the Bible is imperative if we are going to establish an intellectually responsible and relationally meaningful understanding of the Christian faith.

Note: The idea of a seamless thought structure would be relevant to an approach that is so perfectly integrated that there is no room for adjustment. The idea with the document constructed here is to provide a basis for discussion and the promotion of individual thought, not to engage people with a system of thinking that locks them into a necessity of agreement with it.

Hook and Pull as a Literary Device

The hook and pull method allows for the document to be knitted into the mind of the reader and then function as a thought structure that operates as a mental organism. The result of learning how to mentally organize information in this manner is that the reader will establish a way of thinking that is essentially Christian and biblical in nature.

An example of how the hook and pull method is used in the book can be seen through how the principle of separation is introduced in chapter 1 and then is applied throughout the text on a repetitive basis. In chapter 6 the principle of separation is then applied as the cornerstone to an approach to hermeneutics (interpretation) for the entire Bible.⁷

The nonlinear literary structure of the book is used to reflect the manner in which the Bible communicates with us and draws all of the issues of life under one universal application of the Lordship of Christ. Alan Hirsch has spoken of the nonlinear thought structure of the Bible with reference to the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Bible) in these terms:

When reading the Pentateuch one is immediately struck by the radically nonlinear logic associated with it. It seems to jump from one subject to another, from issues of sublime theology in one verse to seemingly trivial issues in the very next verse…There is actually a rather profound if somewhat nonlinear logic in the Torah, a logic that trains us to relate ‘all aspects’ of life to God. The implications of following the Torah faithfully will be to connect all things in life directly to Yahweh, whether it be the mildew [in the kitchen] or the temple worship and everything in between. Therefore, everything—one’s work, one’s domestic life, one’s health, one’s worship—has significance to God. He is concerned with every aspect of the believer’s life, not just the so-called spiritual dimensions.⁸

The Bible is the story about the relationship between God and humans. We need to understand the story that the Bible is telling us and how all the various aspects of that story relate to each other. The essential principle of interpretation needed to properly relate the different aspects of the story that the Bible is telling us is the principle of separation.⁹

The appropriate use of the principle of separation will allow us to hold each aspect of the story that the Bible is communicating to us in proper tension with each of the other aspects of the story. The dynamic properties of a relational theology, such as the one being used in this document, is seen in how the story the Bible is telling us is a love story, and that love story must be understood and explained in relational terms.

The hope is that the book will strengthen you in your faith. One of the principle intentions of the book is to help the readers to come to a place of increased strength in their faith. It is hoped that the concepts, principles, and ideas that are presented here will aid believers in Jesus Christ to determine for themselves what a biblically based and Christ-centered spiritual worldview should look like and how that approach to spirituality should be lived as an experience in the Holy Spirit.

The intention is that the reader will be aided in coming to their own conclusions about what they believe about Christian spirituality. If the readers choose not to agree with something that is written here, then they are encouraged to figure out for themselves what it is that they do agree with. The intention with our document is not to try and induce the readers to agree with what is written here, but rather our hope is that we can help the readers to think for themselves, so that their relationship with Christ is authentic and genuine and is one that issues from their hearts.

Modern Christians often limp along with a truncated understanding of divine grace. We think of faith in therapeutic terms, as a way of meeting emotional needs, a means for coping with the stresses of life. But God wants to give us a whole ‘new’ life. He wants to tear down the mental grids that limit our thinking and give us a fresh perspective—one that transforms every area of life.

This is what the Scripture means when it teaches the Lordship of Christ: that He rules not only over our own lives but also over all creation. As His people, we are called to view all of creation from the biblical point of view—politics, science, social life, economics, the arts and culture. In short, we are called to develop a full-orbed Christian worldview.¹⁰

Readers must come to their own conclusions. What is presented here is only one approach, not the only approach, to Christian spirituality, and it will be necessary for readers to reflect on the contents of Following Jesus: An Approach to Christian Spirituality and come to their own conclusions about the system of thought that is being presented here. In the process of reflection upon what is written here, readers will need to call upon the Holy Spirit to lead them to the strongest possible point of view upon which to base their Christian spiritual worldview. For believers in Christ it is essential that the approach that we take to understand and explain our Christian spirituality be biblically based and Christ-centered.

It must be clearly understood that no other aspect of our spiritual life will have more effect on how we live our life than the approach we take to the subject of what it means to be a follower of Jesus Christ from our heart. And it is hoped that the contents of this work will be of meaningful assistance to you as you seek to enter into a more rewarding experience of what it means to know Jesus Christ as your savior and have Jesus Christ as the Lord of your life.

3 Major W. Ian Thomas, Message Two: Astonishing Preacher, Rediscovering Christ, Torchbearers of the Capernwray Missionary Fellowship, DVD, 1992. We advise the reader that the date of Jesus’ birth and the date of his death on the Cross and resurrection from the dead are debated. So we would point out to the reader that here in Following Jesus we are not making specific declarations as to how many years Jesus lived on earth as this is a question that is debated amongst scholars. The number of years being thirty-three is the opinion offered by Thomas.

4 The four relational categories of God, self, others, and the rest of creation are drawn from classes I attended at Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. Instructed by Rabbi, Dr. Asher Finkel.

5 Gary Hill, The Discovery Bible Reference Edition, (Chicago, Moody Press, 1987), 542, 543.

6 The source for the expression Then go and do it your way is Archie Penner, The Divine Covenants: Conflict or Harmony, 2nd ed. Revised, Expanded, Corrected. (Elkhorn, Manitoba: Servant Publishers, 2003), 369.

7 The author’s idea for the hook and pull as a literary device is developed from the work of Max Kadushin, Organic Thinking: A Study in Rabbinic Thought (New York, New York: Bloch Publishing Company, 1972), 173-175. However, the idea of the hook and pull as it is described and used in Following Jesus may be a usage never understood or intended by Kadushin and may be one that he would not agree with.

8 Alan Hirsch, The Forgotten Ways (Grand Rapids, Michigan: BrazosPress, 2006), 90–91.

9 The principle of separation as a concept was discussed in class with my professor Rabbi Dr. Asher Finkel, Seton Hall University, South Orange, New Jersey. For an example of the principle of separation and how it is used in the Bible, see the creation account in the first chapter of Genesis. The manner in which the idea of the principle of separation is used in this document Following Jesus may not agree with Finkel’s use of it.

10 Nancy R. Pearcey, introduction to A Dangerous Grace, by Charles Colson with Nancy R. Pearcey (Dallas, Texas: Prison Fellowship Ministries, 1994), vi–vii.

Introduction One

Following Jesus:

An All In Experience of the Heart

• This is not a leadership book; it is, to coin a word, a followship book. Jesus is for his followers their only leader, and they have one desire, and that is to follow him.

• The intention and purpose of the book is to equip the reader, the seeker of God, with the tools necessary to construct a biblical and Christ-centered worldview. This worldview will allow the follower of Christ to enter into a faith experience that is simultaneously intellectually satisfying and relationally fulfilling.

The Christian worldview is received; it is not conceived. We do proclaim a worldview, but it is a worldview that we have received, rather than one we have conceived.¹¹

To learn how to think like the Bible thinks is to learn how to think like God. This God think perspective and perception is the basis of a Christian worldview. Our perception of reality must operate from a perspective that originates with God and proceeds from God. The worldview being spoken of here is one that is based on the Bible and the active presence and work of the Person of the Holy Spirit.

Our thought structure acts as the basis for our speech and our actions. What we say will be determined by how we think (see Matthew 15:19; Hebrews 4:12; Proverbs 22:11). To think, speak, and act in a manner that reflects God is to think, speak, and act like Jesus would if he were in similar circumstances or situations.¹²

Through the experience of being born again, through faith in Jesus Christ, the human being shares Christ’s life with him. To be born again is to enter into the experience of the creature reconnecting with the creator. And then, through the presence of the Holy Spirit within the life of the believer, the believer can enter into the reflection of the quality of life that is defined through the application of the character and integrity that is experienced by the creator and then demonstrated in human context and on human terms through the person of the God man, the Lord Jesus Christ (see Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22–25).

The depth of the intensity of the life of character and integrity that is experienced by the believer through the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit will be dependent on the degree to which the believer concedes his or her life to Jesus as Lord. To think, speak, and act like Jesus would if Jesus were in our circumstances or situations is the manner in which we are to function as Holy-Spirit-empowered bondservant-followers of Christ.

This is not a leadership book. As has been stated earlier, this is a Followship book. Jesus is the greatest leader, and his bondservant-ambassadors are the greatest followers. It’s a necessity for the followers of Christ to have a working familiarity with the worldview of their leader. Christians—the bondservant-ambassadors for Christ—understand that if they are going to be great leaders, they must first be great followers.

Christians model leadership by reflecting the character of Christ in everything they do. As we follow Christ, we are enabled to lead others.

And you should imitate me, just as I imitate Christ. (1 Corinthians 11:1) Paul, a follower of Jesus Christ

To be a follower of Jesus Christ, one must accept the becoming aspect of the experience. It must be remembered that the believer in Jesus is in a process, and that process is referred to as sanctification. To be a follower of Christ, as it is being referred to here in Following Jesus, requires a commitment of our lives that leaves nothing out. It is an ongoing experience of dedication and selflessness that always leaves the heart room to grow and develop more and more into the heart reflection of Jesus Christ himself. The process of dying to self is a commitment that the apostle Paul speaks of in Galatians 2:20: "My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me."

Note: The theological concept of sanctification, as it is used here in this document, refers to the believer, through the work of the Holy Spirit, being conformed to reflect the image of Christ. To be conformed to reflect the image of Christ is to effectively share in Christ’s nature (2 Peter 1:4), with the result being that we will manifest Christ’s character as our own character (Galatians 5:22–25), with both of these things occurring through the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

To live as followers of Jesus, we must experience the crucified life. In Roman times, those who were familiar with the experience of crucifixion knew that when someone was on their way to the cross there was no going back. There was no tomorrow; there was only the certainty of death and the grave. For our Lord Jesus this kind of hopelessness was not the case. For Jesus, who is the God man, the Cross was the means through which he would bear human sin and redeem humanity back to God through resurrection from the dead and then ascend to sit in heaven at the right hand of God the Father (see John 16:28; Revelation 5:6–14; Daniel 7:9–14, especially 13–14).

Everyone who identifies with Jesus as savior and Lord is called to the bondservant-ambassador experience. In Revelation 1:1 we see Jesus speaking to his bondservant-followers (plural) through his bondservant-follower (singular).¹³ It is clear that no one who belongs to Jesus is exempt from being referred to in this way. No one can opt out of this experience and commitment of his or her life to Christ. If to live is Christ and to die is gain, then the life we are now living, as followers of Jesus, is a life lived by faith in the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, who loves us and gave himself for us (see Philippians 1:21; Romans 10:17; Galatians 2:20).

There is no other way for the follower of Jesus but to trust and obey. For the bondservant-ambassador of Christ, the way of trust and obedience is the way of the Cross. "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. (Galatians 2:20 NKJV). For to me, Paul goes on to say in one of his other Epistles, to live is Christ, and to die is gain" (Philippians 1:21 NKJV).

Questions for the Bondservant-Ambassador

What is the difference between leadership and followship?

Why is it important that the Christian worldview be one that has been received rather than one that has been conceived? What is the difference between them? (The idea of the Bible as an inspired and thus received text will need to be integrated into the answer that is developed for this question.)

When we speak about giving Jesus our all, what do we mean by this? Was giving our all to Jesus a part of what Paul was speaking about in Galatians 2:20?

What does the crucified life mean to you? What did the crucified life mean to Paul? Are these two meanings in harmony with each other? If not, what is the difference between them? Can your attitude to the Lordship of Christ be an alternate attitude to Paul’s attitude?

Would you describe your willingness to follow Jesus as a desire or a commitment? How does the attitude of the heart determine the difference between them? Is there a difference between being eager in our willingness to follow Jesus and being steadfast in our commitment to follow Jesus?

11 Isaac C. Rottenberg, Judaism, Christianity, Paganism: A Judeo-Christian Worldview and Its Cultural Implications (Atlanta, Georgia: Hebraic Heritage Press, 2007), 10.

12 The intention–articulation–action model is from Samuel Belkin, In His Image: The Jewish Philosophy of Man as Expressed in Rabbinic Tradition (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1979), 185.

Belkin says, Our Sages recognized three stages in man’s conduct: intention, articulation, and action. By intention is meant the motive or purpose that impels a man to action, by articulation, the oral announcement of an intention or desire, and by action, the purposeful performance of a deed. The manner in which this model is used in Following Jesus may not agree with Belkin’s use of it or intention for it.

13 This is a revelation from Jesus Christ that God gave John concerning the events that would happen soon. An angel was sent to God’s servant John so that he could share the revelation with God’s other servants. (See Rev. 1:1.)

Introduction Two

Ambition is like the sea wave, which the more you drink the more you thirst—

Yea—drink too much, as men have done on rafts of wreck—it drives you mad.¹⁴

Note: The brotherhood-sisterhood of the world revolves around slavery to ambition and the promotion of self, whereas the brotherhood-sisterhood of Jesus revolves around concession to the Lordship of Christ and self-sacrifice for the benefit of others (see Mark 9:33–37, especially 35; Philippians 2:1–4).

Note: It is here, as it is everywhere else in this book, the responsibility of the readers to determine for themselves whether the Scripture references used are the best possible selections for the purpose they have been chosen for. In determining for themselves the best choice of Scripture reference, the readers will enter into the experience of thinking through the material for themselves, and this will help them to establish an understanding of the concepts, principles, and ideas being presented.

To be a follower of Christ is to lay aside all personal ambition! The Greek word douleuo is defined as to completely and absolutely assign all personal rights over to the authority and will of another person; to be in a ‘permanent relation of servitude to another, his (the slave’s) will altogether swallowed up in the will of another’ (Trench); the permanent surrender of personal rights in an attitude of total submission.¹⁵

Note: The New Testament use of the idea of a slave is being applied in Following Jesus: An Approach to Christian Spirituality through the notion of a volunteer-slave. We, as followers of Christ, are to be in a condition of relationship with him in what we are referring to here as being his volunteer-slaves.

The Difference Between a Hired Servant and a Slave

The apostle Paul referred to himself in the terms of being Christ’s slave in Acts 27:23 when he spoke of how an angel of the God "to whom I belong and whom I serve" had visited him. The difference between a servant and a slave is that a slave is owned by his master, while a servant is hired for salary. The apostle here prefaces his servant status with the fact of his being owned by Christ. The apostle was saying that as slave of Jesus he freely and willingly served him (see Galatians 2:20; Acts 20:22–24).

The spiritual relationship that the believer has with Christ is based on faith, hope, love, respect, and humbleness of heart. The bondservant-followers of Jesus are not compelled in their relationship with Jesus in the sense that they experience a loss of free will and their independence of heart. But rather the followers of Christ voluntarily, from their own free-will choices, decide that being volunteer-slaves of Christ is what they want and that this is the life they choose to live.

The relationship of oneness of heart with Jesus that volunteer-slaves are committed to can be retracted at any time, because our choice is a voluntary one. We make the decision for ourselves to be in a relationship with Jesus that issues from the heart. We are not compelled in any way due to how we have freely given ourselves to Christ. The voluntary concession of our lives to Jesus as Lord is a continuous decision, because it is one we must make freely every day of our lives.

Note: To be adopted into the family of God (Ephesians 1:4–5) is to experience what it means to be born again, and then the decision as to whether we will function as bondservant-followers of Christ is made every day. The Lord Jesus is our example in this daily concession of our will in how during the period of his earthly ministry he functioned as a bondservant to the Father. Christ demonstrated his unity with the Father through his unconditional willingness to only think, then say, and, if action was necessary, then do as the Father willed.

To experience salvation through concession of our hearts to Christ as savior and Lord (Romans 10:5–12) and then, through the work of the Holy Spirit, possess the mind of Christ (Romans 12:2) is to enter into the experience of relational oneness with Christ through the Person and work of the Holy Spirit (see Romans 14:17; Galatians 5:22–25). And then through this experience of transformation of heart and mind we will demonstrate, through the application of character, the true nature of our adopted status as children of God.

One can be born again but not function as a follower of Christ, because to be a follower of Christ from the heart is to give up all right to our own lives. To give ourselves to Jesus is to allow him the right to give direction and counsel to us, through the Holy Spirit, in such a way that God’s direction and counsel to us become the direction and manner of life that we have chosen for ourselves (see Psalm 32:8). To function in relationship with Christ in the manner that is being spoken of here is a decision to enter into a relationship of mutual concession with Christ, and it is one that must be decided upon and then