A Call to Elevate Prayer in Our Discipleship
In A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, Eugene Peterson warns, “We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently” (16). For most contemporary believers, this sentiment rings true. Think of the microwave, smartphones, and the internet. We have become accustomed to performing many daily chores and activities with relative ease and quickness. In some ways, our technological advancements have trained us to approach every area of our lives with this same call for efficiency.
Discipleship, however, is often a slow, methodical, and time-intensive process. Jesus’s own interaction with his disciples illustrates that making disciples is anything but quick and efficient. He did, after all, tell them three times he was going to die and rise again, and after he did it, they still didn’t immediately believe it (Matt 16:21–23; 17:22–23; 20:17–19; Luke 24:10–11; John 20:24–29).
In the pursuit of the instantaneous, we in the West have created an assembly line approach to discipleship that is more concerned with quantity rather than quality. One of my greatest concerns is that this mass production approach to discipleship increases the chances of neglecting the power of prayer within our disciple-making processes. Therefore, we should remind ourselves of Jesus’s prayerful approach to discipleship so that we might be in a better position to increase our gospel-powered ability to make disciples.
1. Ask God who You Should Disciple
Do you know what Jesus did before he selected the twelve apostles? Luke, under the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, wrote, “In these days he went out to the mountain to pray, and all night he continued in prayer to God” (Luke 6:12, also see Matt 10:1–4; Mark 3:13–19). After he prayed, Jesus called and commissioned the twelve apostles (cf. Luke 6:13). Think about that for a moment. Jesus stayed up all night asking his Father who he should choose before calling, investing, appointing and granting authority to these twelve men. In addition, when the time came for the apostles to replace Judas, they mimicked the Son of God by petitioning to God the Father who should fill this role. They prayed depending on God, and God replaced Judas with Matthias (Acts 1:24–26). Prayer played a prominent role in Jesus’s selection process, and his example was followed by the apostles. We should do the same.
Some might object by asking, “Does not Jesus command us to make disciples of all nations?” While I affirm and resonate with this Great Commission thinking (cf. Matt 28:18–20), prayer allows us to depend on God during the selection process. When we plead with God before selecting disciples it allows him to lead our discipleship efforts with strategic acumen, relational intentionality, and personal investment. We petition God to see who will lean into the process, grow, and reproduce to fulfill the Great Commission.
Think of it like this: Jesus called out twelve apostles. But the transfiguration shows that Jesus invested more energy, effort, and time in Peter, James, and John (cf. Mark 9:2). Many scholars believe these three disciples made up Jesus’s inner circle (Akin, Exalting Jesus in Mark, 180). Therefore, we should ask God—through persistent prayer—who it is that we should invest our time, energy, and knowledge into who will generate exponential multiplication. Jesus modeled this for us. The apostles would become catalysts for gospel advancement. Jesus would pour into them so that they could advance the message of the gospel.
To be prayerfully selective does not mean you are not serious about multiplying disciples. You are simply asking God to bring the growth. In finance, this is called compound interest, which is why asking God who to disciple from the outset can have a potential greater impact in multiplication.
Some may wonder how to pray with this type of intentionality. Here are a few questions I pray over in my selection process: “Who can do this work? Who will dedicate their time to the process? Who will be fully committed? Who has the potential for service and leadership in the local church? Who is going to press into me as a mentor? Who is teachable, humble, and hungry?” Asking these types of questions in our prayer time allows God to lead us to the people he will grow through our discipleship pathways.
Praying before we begin the discipleship process might seem like a waste of time or an additional and irrelevant step in our fast-paced culture. Conversely, it is one of the most important ways to begin making disciples according to Jesus’s own model! Prayer at the beginning, however, does not end there but rather continues into Jesus’s next example.
2. Teach Your Disciples How to Pray
Teaching exists as an essential component to any discipleship process (cf. Matt 28:20). Many people have questions about prayer, may not know what prayer is, or may not know how to pray. Jesus models for us how to make disciples who pray in a way that combats some of our apathetic prayer lives. One day Jesus was praying, and when he had finished one of his disciples came up to him and asked, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples” (Luke 11:1). In this passage, we see two truths: 1) Jesus’s example, and 2) a request to be taught. Jesus didn’t scoff at this disciple’s question or belittle him for not knowing how to pray. Instead, Jesus graciously took this opportunity to teach on prayer. He did not just teach the disciple who asked, but also all the disciples who were there that day and us since it is recorded in God’s Word (cf. Luke 1:2).
Jesus instructed,
When you pray, say: “Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.” (Luke 11:2–4)
Notice that Jesus assumed “when” rather than “if” we pray. Disciples are to be people who are immersed in prayer. But before we can conform to the when, we must be taught the how. Jesus’s teaching implies that his disciples are to be a praying people, but also a praying people who pray “the right way, a way that manifests God-glorifying desires” (Platt, Exalting Jesus in Matthew, 97). Therefore, prayer is not something we do just in the selection process, but also something we must teach to those we are privileged to lead further in their relationship with Jesus.
For example, the men I have the honor of discipling spend the first six weeks learning about prayer because I believe prayer is God’s tool for communing with them, growing their faith, and conforming them into the image of Jesus Christ. We read, together, Paul Miller’s A Praying Life, and I help them learn how to pray with their wives and for their children using James Banks’ prayer prompts in Prayers for Your Children. One Saturday morning, we do a prayer walk through our city. Then on Sunday, they meet me for an intentional time of prayer for our worship services. The goal is to teach them how to pray using both my words and example, like Jesus did in Luke 11.
One of our discipleship aims is to help them draw near to the throne of grace through an active and consistent prayer life (cf. Heb 4:16). We have seen that we pray for who God would have us disciple and teach prayer to those God has allowed us to select, but there remains one more example from Jesus to emulate.
3. Regularly Pray for Your Disciples
Many times, our discipleship is focused on teaching our disciples how to grow. Though this is not an inherently bad action, it does not give a complete picture of discipleship. We should not only help our disciples grow in their relationship with Christ, but also continuously intercede for them in our personal time with Jesus. Jesus, once again, models for us how to personally pray for our disciples.
Before Jesus is betrayed by Judas in the Garden of Gethsemane, the Apostle John provides us with a glimpse into Jesus’s prayer time. The Son of God includes two intercessions for his disciples. First, he clarifies, “I am praying for them. I am not praying for the world but for those whom you have given me, for they are yours” (John 17:9). Later, he petitioned,
I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. (John 17:20–21)
Notice that Jesus is not only praying for the disciples who are only present in the garden but also for you and me—for all disciple-makers to come.
As disciples of Jesus ourselves, we should commit to praying for those we are leading to follow Jesus more intimately. We should pray for their character, their compassion for the lost, their evangelistic efforts, their unity within God’s church, their complete surrender to Christ, and their ability to use their gifts for the glory of God. Disciple makers ought to be intentional about taking their disciples to God in their times of personal prayer. And as we grow closer to them, our prayers should become more pointed for their growth.
Scripture repeatedly reminds us that we cannot change people, but we can petition to the one in heaven who has all power and authority to change everyone made in his image through the power of the gospel. Discipleship pushes us to a posture of prayer because we recognize that we can’t do this work on our own. We need the Lord’s power to draw people closer to himself and cause them to become more faithful in following him. Therefore, Jesus shows us that we are called to regularly pray for our disciples.
While we are called to make disciples by “teaching [all nations] to observe all that God has commanded” (Matt. 28:20), we ought to do this through a steady stream of prayer. We should not allow the busyness of life in America to stifle the importance of prayer in our discipleship processes. Through the model of Jesus portrayed in Scripture, may we pray for who God would have us disciple. May we devote ourselves to teaching our disciples how to pray and witness them develop flourishing prayer lives. May we not neglect to pray fervently for those God has called us to disciple. May Jesus’s prayer ministry encourage us to be ever faithful to place a strong emphasis on prayer throughout our own disciple-making process.
Jeremy Bell serves as one of the pastors at Center Church Brenham in Brenham, Texas. He is married to Katie, and father of Avery, Landon, Addilyn, Lincoln, and Levi. Jeremy is a three-time graduate of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (M.Div, ThM, and PhD). You can find more of Jeremy’s thoughts over at beimitators.com.