If you have a desire to start discipling women but have never been discipled yourself…. here’s hope!  :0)  If you read my first story posted July 31st you’ll discover that’s how I started!  In fact, I wasn’t blessed with the experience of someone discipling me until a year later!  (Did that ever make me appreciate the gift even more!)

You don’t have to have a seminary degree or have attended Bible college to do this!  You just need to know Jesus and be  F.A.T.!

F = Faithful to do what Jesus tells you to do even when it’s not what you want to do.  I’m not saying you have to be perfect!  But have you surrendered your life to following Jesus?  A disciple isn’t just one who knows something, but one who follows someone and makes their teachings the basis for their conduct and life.  You also need to be faithful to those you are seeking to invest in.  When you say you are going to do something or be somewhere it’s so important you do what you say!  When I first started passing on to others what was helping me as a brand new believer  I was pretty shaky in this area (being the descendant of a pirate probably didn’t help!!!), but I was eager to grow!  So maybe the best question is, are you willing to keep growing in being faithful?  For me, that’s a lifelong quest!

A = Available!  Most importantly, are you available to do whatever the Lord wants you to do?  Can you truly say to Him, “Not my will, but yours be done?”  Even if it’s scrub toilets?!  Spend time with that difficult person?!  Or be still and know that He is God?!  Secondly, are you available to meet with someone?  Discipleship takes time – and not even just the time when you’re meeting, but time to pray, time to listen to the Lord as He guides you in what to do with them, time to actively love them as the Lord directs…

T = Teachable!  This is a biggie!  Are you still growing yourself?  Seeking to learn all you can from the Lord?  Or do you think you already know all you need to know?  Or are you coasting on things you learned years ago?!  The moment you stop learning, you stop being a disciple and that’s pretty key because…

You have to be a disciple of Jesus to help someone become a disciple of Jesus!  And being Jesus’ disciple is not a designation, it’s not a position you attain, but a direction you head!  It doesn’t matter how many years you’ve been a Christian or even if you are on staff with an organization noted for making disciples!  If you stop heading in Jesus’ direction, if you stop following Him and actively living out what you are currently learning from Him, you are no longer a disciple!  Someone who has just started following Jesus and is heading in His direction is more qualified than a fifty year coaster!

So are you heading in Jesus’ direction, committed to faithfully following Him, available to do whatever He wants you to do and hungry to learn from Him even things that aren’t a lot of fun to learn?  If you are, you are His disciple!  And you are totally qualified to start helping someone else!