What if Yeshua (Jesus) were teaching in Capernaum in the next few days? We can rest assured that most Christians would probably move heaven and earth to go to hear Him, even if we had a broken leg and a back out of place. We would go especially if we had these ailments in order that He might heal us.

The Apostle Paul was a man who apparently had met the Messiah. No doubt he had seen Him in Jerusalem, because Paul was a young aspiring Pharisee there in Yeshua's day. He seems to speak of a possible fleshly meeting in 2 Corinthians 5:16. It is interesting what Paul says in this respect:

"Therefore, from now on, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer." Paul was no longer yearning for just a flesh encounter with Yeshua.

Today, of course, we know that Yeshua will not be at Capernaum teaching. He is not walking around the lake making disciples. How then can we be disciples at the beginning of the 21st century? It seems that there are two primary means of discipleship today.

Discipleship in the Spirit

First of all, we need to make sure we have had that drastic change in our lives called the "new birth." It is a change that must come from above - from God. Once Yeshua spoke with the leader, Nicodemus, and said to him bluntly: "...Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God" (John 3:3). Our soul needs a spiritual awakening. Like a newborn child, we need to be translated into another realm and immediately gasp for that first breath of air. We need to start breathing and living in the spiritual world, not just the physical.

We read in John 4:24, "God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth." Because God is Spirit and because He lives in the spiritual realm, we must meet Him there if we are to meet Him at all. All true worship takes place in the spiritual realm where God lives. In this respect, believers make up a spiritual temple for the true worship of God (1 Pet 2:5).

Not only does our worship take place in the spiritual realm, but our guidance and instruction comes from there. In John 16:13, we read: "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth..." The Holy Spirit has been sent from the Lord to indwell the believer. That same Holy Spirit becomes the guide and teacher of each newborn soul. This is true to such an extent that it is said in 1 John 2:27, "But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things..." We, therefore, might think we have no need that anyone teach us. However, if that is our thinking, then we actually do have a great need for a teacher. Otherwise, our own spiritual pride will overcome us.

Many today seem to take the matter of spiritual life rather nonchalantly, but the Scripture gives us some specific commands about our relationship with the Spirit. In Ephesians 5:18-19, we read, "And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord..." We have a command to be filled with the Spirit. Our lives need to be opened to the Holy Spirit's influence. Actually our filling needs repeating and refreshing from time to time because, like an old rusty bucket, we leak. We see also in this verse that we need to be speaking to each other in psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. At this point we might ask ourselves, "When was the last time we spoke to someone in a spiritual song?" God wants to set our heart singing, to give us new songs that will lift up the Body of Christ.

In Galatians 5:16, Paul says: "...Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." All of us have days when we are "high as a kite" in the spiritual realm. On those days, we have those wonderful, divine appointments. On those days, the spiritual answers are on the end of our tongues. Then there are other days when we are lower than a snail's belly. Usually God is not able to use us much on those occasions. Then we are the ones in need of ministry rather than the ones giving it out.

The Lord expects us to think, meditate and speak spiritually. Paul says, "These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual" (1 Cor. 2:13). The olive tree heritage into which we are grafted (Rom. 11:17) pictures for us our spiritual heritage. The olive oil is the oil of light, revelation and anointing, which all speak of the Holy Spirit.

We need to pray for one another in the Spirit. Often when we pray, we say things like this: "Lord bless brother Joe Doaks and sister Suzy Doaks. God bless John and Mary Smith," and so we quickly go down our prayer list. We need to pray like Paul prayed. We read one of his many prayers in Ephesians 1:17-20. He said in this passage: "Therefore I ... do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers: that the God of our Lord Yeshua HaMeshaich (Jesus Christ), the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places..."

When Paul prayed, spiritual things happened to people. Saints were born and churches grew to the measure, stature and fullness of Messiah.

Discipleship in the Word

The second great realm of discipleship is in the Word of God. Yeshua came to earth as the Living Word (Jn. 1:1). Those men who followed Him were, spiritually speaking, eating His flesh and drinking His blood (Jn. 6:53). They were having a daily feast on the Word of God. As modern-day disciples, we must love the Word. The Psalmist said, "Consider how I love Your precepts;..." (Psa 119:159). When it gets close to meal time, we usually begin thinking about food. Yet Job remarks, "...I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food" (Job 23:12).

A disciple must stay close to the Word. The Psalmist said, "My soul follows close behind You; Your right hand upholds me" (Psa. 63:8). To be a disciple today, one must almost become a fanatic concerning God's Word. Such a disciple in the past century was Smith Wigglesworth. He was a man of great spiritual power. God used him to heal the sick and even to raise the dead. He was also a fanatic over the Word of God. It was his firm conviction that one should not go more than fifteen minutes without reading the Word. When Wigglesworth was invited out to dinner, he would pause to read from the Word of God after each course in the meal. On one occasion, someone was transporting this great saint to a meeting when he cried out for the car to stop. When the driver stopped, Wigglesworth informed him that they had neglected to read from the Word of God. He then bowed to ask God's forgiveness.*

When we look in the Bible, we realize that John was probably the closest of all the disciples to his Master. He was the one who leaned upon Yeshua's breast. He thus heard things others did not hear. He heard about the new birth and the coming of the Holy Spirit to comfort the Lord's people. He knew Yeshua as the Word, the Good Shepherd, the Living Water, the True Vine, and the Bread of Life.

It should not surprise us that when the risen Messiah desired to give the Revelation of things to come, He called to John. John was accustomed to receiving spiritual revelation. What a blessing his book has been to God's saints through the ages.

Thus we see that the Christian life is a delicate balance between the Spirit and the Word. There is a little jingle going around in Christian circles, which accurately expresses this balance. Someone has said that with the "Word only," we dry up; with the "Spirit only," we blow up; but with the "Spirit and the Word," we grow up. We also see in 1 Peter 1:2 and in John 17:17 that the Spirit and the Word work closely together for our full and complete sanctification.

Yeshua is not teaching at Capernaum at 10 a.m. in the morning, but He is teaching at 10 a.m. He is also teaching at 9 a.m. and any other hour that we will attune our ears to His Holy Spirit and His Word. Yeshua is not walking around the lake making disciples at Magdala and other places today, but He is making disciples - in fact, everywhere in the world. We must simply get ourselves into the mode of discipleship for the age in which we live.

*Smith Wigglesworth, The Secret of His Power, by Albert Hibbert, Harrison House, Tulsa, OK 1982 pgs.30-31.

Jim Gerrish directs our Bridges for Peace Galilee Study Center located in Migdal, north of Tiberias on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. Contact Jim via email at: 104146.2722@compuserve, Tel/Fax 972-6-671-2981.

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