Discipleship 101

Discipleship is Jesus's plan to change to world. He created Adam and Eve and said "be fruitful and multiply". Its astonishing that Jesus could have easily created every single human being from the dust, however he decided to give us the opportunity to come together and literally create new life just as he did. And I feel that's what d ship is all about. Creating new life that reflects who Jesus is and in that, filling the world with the glory and presence of the Lord. The fact is that were were created for dominion on the earth and the earth to be filled with his glory!

For the last 3 years I have been intentionally disciplining my little brother Joel and I have been able to see life created in his life and mine due to the goodness of the Lord! And now we are living together! This next season is going to be the greatest experience of our lives. Its amazing to see how the reward Abraham sought after his obedience was countless descendants, sons and daughters! And after investing into Joel over the last few years I can agree 100% that having sons and daughters who radically love Jesus is the best reward out there and is what were were meant to do! I say this a lot, but if I were to take everything I have every done in my life (from evangelism, to healing, to all these incredible things) the one thing I could say I have accomplished and am so blessed by is my relationship with Joel and seeing him become the man he is today!

So I wanted to give some advice on things we have learned over the years that have worked in making our relationship blossom and brag on Joel a little bit for how he has been so easy to teach and walk with!

5. Always listen

So many times I would get phone calls from Joel because he wanted to tell me the amazing revelation he was having. At first, being kinda prideful, I would listen but not take anything away from it because it was stuff I had already heard before. Then I got the revelation that he wasn't telling this to teach me, but so he can process it himself. I told the Lord I'm sorry and ever since then it has been incredible! Regardless of what someone is saying in any situation, people want to be listened to and when we come in with the mentality of asking "how is this benefiting me?" we are not loving people, but focusing on our own selfish desires. Also listening without thinking what you are going to say next is so important. Listen, process, then respond. When we listen and think of what we are saying next at the same, we actually are trying to obtain attention in a situation in which we are meant to be there for support.

4. Always be available
 Once again, being available at anytime, even if that means not going to be until 2 when having a 8 o'clock class the next morning, is so important in d ship. Obviously we need to be responsible, but being available for someone who needs you is essential in d ship. Allowing your disciple to invade your life brings freedom and trust to them. As I told Joel he can come to Norman anytime, call me anytime, text me anytime, I took responsibility for making sure he is going through everything in life as a follower of Jesus. Yes, Joel's made mistakes and so have I over this time, but as I opened my life to him, he opened it to me, and now those mistakes are now issues of the past due to the openness of our relationship.

3. Be real

I love how me and Joel can be real with each other! If he is out of line, I tell him and the best part about that is he is so quick to repent and move forward! Joel is the most obedient person I know. If I tell him to do something, he does it. I am so thankful the Lord has entrusted me with his life, so that he can become more like Jesus everyday!

2. No Expectations

This is something I'm still learning, but if I put expectation on our relationship, I am robbing Joel of the freedom he deserves. If I expect Joel to complete a through e every week, I am trying to bound him to my own law, and that's not love. Everyday I expect Joel to walk out in who he is, but if I get disappointed, or angry if he doesn't do something, I am not loving him like Jesus would. I've learned as I put less expectation on him, he actually walks in more freedom and

1. Phileo

Phileo means "brotherly love". Life is so easy when two people love each other with the love of Jesus and from that grow more like him. If it was not for the love of Jesus inside of us, our relationship would be nothing. I wouldn't know who I was, he wouldn't know who he was, and combining that would be a big problem. Jesus wants us to love people like he loves people and that's why we are placed into families, so we can be close and express that love toward each other. The church is the hope of the world because we have an opportunity to love each other like Jesus did and through that transform any environment we are in. I have had people come up to me and Joel and be blown away just by looking at us, how much we love each other. When love isn't contained, it cant help but be seen in any type of relationship.

I hope this gave you all revelation on what d ship means and how when it is ground solely in the love of Jesus, discipleship becomes the best thing we can do with our lives!

In the Middle of the Process

Hey friends! So I haven’t blogged in a long long time, but I felt the Lord wanting me to get out my thoughts and invite everyone into the amazing journey he has taking me on this past year! This is a long process haha. 

So about 3 years ago I started to fall in love with Jesus and my life began to radically change. I was shy, insure, and lonely, but the lord came and brought me life to the fullest and gave me hope and a destiny. I felt the Lord leading me to something huge; I just didn’t know what it was. One day I went to a prayer meeting and received the first prophetic word I can ever remember receiving in my life. I don’t remember the exact word to the fullest, but one phrase seemed to stick out because the Lord really intended it to. The guy giving the word to me said, “Jarred you are going to see millions of people come to know Jesus, yes you heard me right, millions.” I was blown away. He was speaking to a kid who had never even shared the gospel before. As time went on, as with all prophetic words, I made sure to test this word to prove it true. Through countless encounters and other people speaking the same word over my live, as well as hearing the voice of the Lord about it, I accepted this role for my life that Jesus wanted to fulfill.  As my college career continued, I was enchanted by the idea of bringing Jesus to people. Evangelism became a lifestyle and my chemical engineering future started to seem a little less appealing as I continued to hold on to this word. As I began going to Antioch Community Church (probably the best thing that’s happened to me in my walk with the lord), my heart began to stir for the nations. I felt like Jesus was saying that he has millions of people out there for me to find overseas! As time went on, Asia became the focus of my heart. Seeing pictures of China and India and hearing stories of the miraculous things Jesus is doing there has gotten me so stirred up to be a part of a continental revival that the lord doing!

So now that the vision in my life has been planted, I can tell you about the now. Two months ago I graduated The University of Oklahoma with a bachelors of science in Chemical Engineering. Praise the Lord he got me through it! Once you graduate college, you are old. It’s a fact.  Anyways, the obvious question that arose was, what’s next? (I have loans I need to pay off so I couldn’t just jump overseas). As I began to meet with Jesus about my ever arriving future, I felt like the Lord was telling me not to do chemical engineering, at least for this year. This was a hard choice, a chemical engineering job could pay off my student loans in a year and I’d be free to do whatever I want. So after a long summer of waiting on the lord and trusting in his plan, I received a job opportunity from a construction company doing physical labor and not making as much money as I would doing a chem e job. As a prayed about this and received words from the lord, it was evident that this is what he wanted me to do this next year. Along with working, he also highlighted doing the Antioch training school at nights as well as leading in college life group even though I just graduated. 

With all this on my plate, I am about to begin the most humbling exhausting season of my life. At times it has been hard thinking about the “what could have beens” when it comes to the decisions I’ve made, but I know one thing. I do not regret anything that I am going through nor can I see myself doing anything else besides what I am doing now. This is simple because Jesus resides in every realm I have been appointed to be at with him. I would rather make 2 dollars an hour and have Jesus’ blessing on our jobs than 10000 dollars an hour and not have his blessing to be straight forward.

The lord so lovingly spoke to me one day as I was working and it’s something I am holding on to for this season. He said “are you willing to not live, so that your dreams can become a reality?” Dying to ourselves is difficult, but the dreams Jesus has put into our lives cannot come to past if we do not take this necessary step. This next season of my life is dying to myself, putting everything aside so that one day I will be overseas in Asia sharing the love of Jesus to those millions of people Jesus has planned me to reach through him.
So with 90% of my days planned out with work, events, meetings, discipleship for this next year, I am planning on dying so hardcore. And as I am pushed to my limits, I am fully expectant Jesus to be there so ready to break the outer man so that the Holy Spirit inside me can be released to its fullest potential. Just as Jesus saw the joy set before him at the cross, we as the church need to have the same mentality when it comes to the process. Being in the wilderness for 40 days is never fun, but that is exactly where the lord comes to us. In hosea 2: 14 it says that he leads us to the wilderness to speak tenderly to us (metaphorically as the church). The wilderness is the best place to hear his voice! When we let go of everything that allows him to come in and bring all the amazing qualities we desire of him to the surface.

Though there are millions of people over in Asia the Lord will send me to bring them into the kingdom, there are people in the process too, here in America! Over the last year I’ve been able to see crutches being thrown away and not needed after the healing power of Jesus came, back pain gone, shoulders healed, limps restored into regular walks, and all sorts of incredible things Jesus has done while I am still trying to figure out how to get to my destiny. The best part about waiting is practicing for what you are waiting for. Just like watching playoff games before the super bowl or the 1^st 2^nd 3^rd and 4^th movie in a series before the next movie comes to theatre, the process is meant to be enjoyed and necessary in order to receive the full effect of the final piece of the puzzle. The Super Bowl would be meaningless if it wasn't for the season which developed the teams into the best they can be.

I hope this has encouraged you to embrace where you are planted at now, but never lose sight of the incredible dreams you have in your hearts! Jesus wants to do huge things with each and everyone of us, and its our job to discover what those things are and run into his plan! 

If all of you reading this could join me in prayer for this next year and continually seeking what Jesus has for me in this incredible season I would appreciate it! Also the Lord has really been stirring in my heart for me to write out a lot of the revelation he has given me lately. So I am gonna try to blog more often!