Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe in Your Potential

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe in Your Potential

by | Mar 26, 2020

As COVID-19 continues to sweep the world, its impacts are many. There has been a loss of work, loss of human contact, and even life loss. The pandemic’s most devastating impact, however, is the loss of a predictable future. When will life return to normal? Will life ever return to normal? The uncertainty can be debilitating, and this is why it’s more important than ever that you believe in your potential.

I wonder if this loss of certainty, of predictability, is what Jesus felt as he set his face toward Jerusalem? If so, your Lenten journey is likely more closely aligned with his than ever before.

As the church heads into Palm Sunday, that’s why this week of the 40 Days of Apostleship is paramount. Jesus had to deepen his faith to make it through an uncertain future. The same is true for you. I want to tell you how Jesus did it, and how you can too.

We have explored how to expand our faith from merely believing in Jesus to thinking like Jesus. This expansion accompanies the move from discipleship to apostleship. Are you ready to take the next step?

Even on the way to the cross, amid great suffering and uncertainty, Jesus leans into his beliefs. He believed in his potential. Do you believe that you can fulfill your potential? Share on X

Jesus Believed in His Potential

Because Jesus believed that he and the Father were one and that he did nothing apart from the Father, he could maintain an abiding belief in his potential. In other words, Jesus trusted that with God, he was capable of accomplishing what he sent him to accomplish. Even on the way to the cross—amid great suffering and uncertainty—Jesus leans into this belief. Listen in as Jesus talks with God: “Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do.” (John 17: 1, 4). You can hear the trust and confidence in Jesus’ prayer.

But what does this prayer mean? I had to look up glory and glorify to be sure myself. The glory of God refers to the radiant presence of God. To glorify, then, means to confer this quality on another. It’s a sign of divine approval. Jesus, through the quiet confidence of his belief, is asking to share in the glorious presence of God as a sign of God’s divine approval.

Soulful Step

When you are facing extreme uncertainty, belief in your potential is essential. Even so, it is one thing to know that God fully approves of Jesus and that the Divine presence and radiance is with him. It is another thing to know that Jesus and God fully approve of you. And that the radiant presence of God dwells within you. But it does.

Check this out. After Jesus prays for himself, he reveals his desire for every believer to be welcomed into divine unity. “I have given [all believers] the glory that you have given, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me.” (John 17:22-23a)

Embrace the Belief

Do you believe that you can fulfill your potential? Or do you wrestle with the seven fears of highly effective leaders? If anxiety gets the best of you in uncertain times, you are not alone. So, let me ask you this: Would it make a difference to know that you bear the radiant glory of Christ within you? Not as an afterthought or an earned reward, but only by your connection with him? Most of us yearn for God’s attagirl or attaboy. The scriptures say you have it.

As you embrace this belief, it becomes easier to believe in your potential. You can do what is in front of you.

Perhaps you have heard of the “human potential movement.” It’s the idea that even ordinary people have the extraordinary untapped capacity. While it’s a movement that gained a footing in the 70s, it’s a biblical concept. If mere fishermen could train into apostleship, then you can rise to COVID-19 and the leadership challenges it presents.

The truth is, you not only have untapped human potential, but you also have untapped spiritual potential. Believing like Jesus means that you have a divine partnership, your prayers have power, you have superpowers, and purposeful life. The more you believe, like Jesus, the more your spiritual potential begins to take shape.

Apostolic Action

It’s time to let the glory of God shine through you. Co-create a positive future with God by rising to the challenges that are before you now. 

Finally, as you face uncertainty this week, practice seeing the glory of God in yourself and the people around you, even if you are standing six feet apart.

© Copyright 2020 Rebekah Simon-Peter. Adapted from the forthcoming volume, Believe Like Jesus.

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe Your Life Has Purpose

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe Your Life Has Purpose

by | Mar 23, 2020

The world has altered dramatically since Ash Wednesday and the launch of this Forty Days of Apostleship. The rapid spread of this current scourge has changed everything—restricting or shutting down many public spaces, including churches.

Now that Christians have effectively been kicked out of the nest, church doors clanging shut behind them, it’s time for you and your people to take on the mantle of the apostle you are! No more hiding behind the safety of numbers in worship or the protection of the pews. Your people were thrust out into the world. It’s a scary place to be!

That means people are looking to you to continue to teach them. This is your moment. They need you, and they know they need you. There will be no assurance from the news or the government. They will be looking to their faith.

You can give them the deep connection they are longing for by empowering them to believe like Jesus. That’s the mark of an apostle.

Jesus Believed in His Purpose

What did Jesus believe? In his divine partnership with God, he believed that his prayers had power and that he had superpowers. Most importantly, Jesus believed his life had a purpose.

And Jesus handed that purpose to you. Your job is to embrace the belief that he had. And to share it with others. So how do you believe like Jesus, and how does that lead to action? Use the following process to deepen your faith and that of the people you lead.

Jesus believed his life had purpose and he handed that purpose to you. Your job is to embrace the belief he had and share it with others. Share on X

Soulful Steps: Jesus’ Four-Part Process

Jesus’ life reveals a four-part process of identifying purpose in the Gospels. Take, for example, this story of healing in Luke 4:40-44.

At sunset, the people brought to Jesus all who had various kinds of sickness and laying his hands on each one, and he healed them. Moreover, demons came out of many people, shouting, “You are the Son of God!” But he rebuked them and would not allow them to speak because they knew he was the Messiah. At daybreak, Jesus went out to a solitary place. The people were looking for him, and when they came to where he was, they tried to keep him from leaving them. But he said, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

You can see the four-part process and how it connects you with Jesus and the purpose of this story.

Part One—Doing What You Love

What deeply engages you, comes easily, is natural for you, and serves the greater good? That’s (at least one of) your purpose (s). In this story, Jesus was laying hands on people who were sick and ailing—physically and spiritually. He healed them and cast out demons that were tormenting them.

Part Two—Challenges Arise

Something contrary to your purpose happens. Identify what pulls you off course or causes you to settle for a lesser good. In Jesus’ life, the people he had healed came back to beg him to stay with them. Understandably, they didn’t want him to go.

Part Three—Clarity Emerges

Contrary or challenging conditions make you get clear on your purpose. In this Gospel story, Jesus answers the people, “I must proclaim the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also because that is why I was sent.” In other words,—No can do. I have other places to go and people to heal.

Part Four—Clarity Leads to Action

This chain of events makes the way clear for you to take action. We see it in Jesus’ life: “He kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea.”

Embrace the Belief that Your Life Has Purpose

To embrace the belief that your life has a purpose, personalize the process by writing out these steps:

First, write out the things that come naturally and easily to you and serve a greater good.

Second, write out situations that have arisen contrary to the things you noted in step one.

Third, note what you have found yourself saying or thinking that points you back to your purpose.

Fourth, write what actions you have taken or can take that align with your life’s purpose.

Apostolic Action

Get into action! Say YES! to requests, needs, and circumstances that are consistent with your life’s purpose, or create the conditions in which the world needs your gifts.

But don’t worry if you are not crystal clear on your purpose. I remember when I was agonizing over my call. Everyone else seemed to know what they were doing, but I didn’t. One day it occurred to me that my gifts were my path. God would not have called me to a path that I wasn’t prepared for. Just as Jesus’ purpose is in his gifts, your purpose will be too.

If all else fails, act as though you do have a purpose. And that what you are currently involved in reveals some aspect of your purposeful life. “All things work for the good of those who love the Lord and are called to God’s purpose.”

Don’t Let The Scourge Discourage You.

Above all, don’t let the scourge discourage you! You are not alone!

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe in Your Superpowers

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe in Your Superpowers

by | Mar 16, 2020

It’s no coincidence that these 40 Days of Apostleship overlap with the coronavirus pandemic. As the virus sweeps the world, fear threatens to engulf it as well. There has never been a better time to believe like Jesus—to develop the kind of faith he had—so you can perform the type of miracles he did. This is a great time to embrace your superpower.

Lucky for us, this week brings us to the third of Jesus’ core beliefs. Jesus not only believed in his partnership with God and that his prayers had power, Jesus believed in his superpower. No, I’m not talking about spidery web-making, speed, strength, shapeshifting, time travel, elasticity, invisibility, freezing, or flight. As impressive as these superpowers are, Jesus’ superpower blasts past every one of these.

This pandemic can be scary, but fear could disable more people than the virus itself. This is a great time to embrace your superpowers. Share on X

Jesus Believed in His Superpower

It’s easy to think that Jesus’ leading superpower was miracle-making. After all, he walked on water, calmed wind and waves, and rose from the dead. But I think those miracles were the result of his superpower, not the superpower itself.

Instead, I believe Jesus’ superpower was his ability to choose a miracle-making mindset. When faced with the worst of conditions—temptation by Satan, crucifixion by Pilate, disavowal by family—Jesus opted for faith. He wasn’t swayed by group-think or done in by peer pressure. Nor was he intimidated by personalities or daunted by principalities. Time and again, he chose God’s future over fear. Using this superpower means he stayed calm amid conflict, present under pressure, and mindful amid the madness. All of this allowed him to tune in to God’s prompting.

Soulful Step

Jesus isn’t the only one to possess this superpower. God has given it to you as well (Romans 12:2, Ephesians 2:8, 2Timothy 1:7). Like Jesus, you, too, have the capacity in every moment to choose your mindset. Don’t get me wrong. You’re probably not going to walk on water the first time out. Using this superpower requires a great deal of practice. Think Jedi Masters. It took Luke and Rey a long time to work well with the Force. The scriptures remind us that even Jesus himself had to grow up into the wisdom and stature of the Lord (Luke 2:52).

Choosing your thought-life begins not in your head but in your heart. To take this soulful step, tune in to your heart through quiet meditation, mindful breathing, reflection on scripture, or time in nature. It is from this grounded place that you can begin to notice the pattern of your thoughts. Ask yourself: Do my thoughts build my faith? Or do they tear me down?

Embrace the Belief that You Have This Superpower

The middle of this pandemic is a great time to believe like Jesus and to embrace your superpowers. I don’t know if you have noticed, but some media coverage pulls for panic. That’s troubling; fear could disable more people than the virus itself.

But apostles don’t panic. Instead, like Jesus, they know they have a partnership with God. They know their prayers have power. They know they possess a superpower. Buoyed by these divine beliefs, apostles can hold a high vibration and ­­­­invite others to it.

Yes, COVID-19 is very contagious. Yes, communities and nations must take responsible measures to halt it. Yes, people have a great need. In the face of these new realities, you have two choices: Will you catastrophize? Or will you deliberately resist being hijacked by fear?

For thirty-six hours last week, I found myself waffling between these two choices. I wrestled between hanging on to my vision and capsizing my boat in the pandemic of panic. Overcome by cascading lousy news reports, I temporarily forgot apostles are spiritual badasses in the making, and I gave in.

Then I prayed. I remembered that God called me to this ministry in the early days of the 2007-2008 crash, and has been by my side ever since. I realized that I didn’t have to cede my faith or surrender my spiritual authority to any wind or waves back then, and I certainly don’t now. I remembered I could choose my mindset.

Apostolic Action

In the last few weeks, you have been waking up to a different world. Living with the spread of an infectious disease means endless handwashing, social distancing, travel restrictions, self-quarantines, canceled events, disrupted schedules, extra-long spring break, unforeseen layoffs, and an unsteady market.

But it also means creative self-sacrifice, social solidarity, and finding the fun in dysfunctional. This is a new world of potlucks via Zoom, congregational worship via Facebook Live, and innovative care for the self-quarantined. The Italians have even been singing from their balconies, as dancing healthcare workers in Iran have kept up patients’ spirits.

How can you contribute to the miracle-making mindset the world needs? May I suggest the Prayer of St. Francis Prayer as a starting point? Then you do you as you take apostolic actions.

And remember, if you long to be a shapeshifter or a time traveler, that the miracle-making mindset is the biggest superpower there is. Because when you decide to choose your thoughts, uplift your consciousness, and uplevel your faith, everything becomes possible.

Hey, even the guy with the $17,700 worth of hand sanitizer donated his stash! If that’s not a miracle, I don’t know what is.

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe Your Prayers Have Power

Forty Days of Apostleship: Believe Your Prayers Have Power

by | Mar 9, 2020

During this 40 Days of Apostleship, we are looking at how to expand our faith from a disciple to the faith of an apostle. That means up-leveling your faith from believing in Jesus to believing like Jesus. My theory is those who believe like Jesus can do the kinds of things Jesus did. Last week we looked at Jesus’ belief in divine partnership. This week, we explore a second of his beliefs: that his prayers had power.

Jesus’ Belief: Prayers Have Power

I have to believe that Jesus believed that his prayers had power. Consider the chutzpah it took for him to call forth a dead Lazarus from the tomb. Yet, Jesus preceded this bold act with a prayer: “Father, I thank you that you have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me.” (John 11:41-42a) Only after he prayed, did Jesus cry out, “Lazarus! Come out!”

Not only did Jesus believe that his prayers had power, he believed that your prayers have power. Listen to this audacious advice from Jesus found in Mark 11:24 and elsewhere, “Whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.”

Whatever?! Yep, that’s what the scriptures say.

“I tell you the truth,” Jesus says elsewhere in the Gospels, “if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” (Matthew 21:21-22).

Did you catch that? When you believe like Jesus, you can ask for whatever you want in prayer. No matter how outrageous. All it takes is faith and belief. But when doubt enters in, it can derail you. Somehow, you have to suspend disbelief and refocus on faith.

I envision prayers working as a conveyor belt. The answers to your prayers go on the conveyor belt and begin to make their way to you. Share on X

Soul Work: Allow Your Prayers to be Answered

Let me tell you how I visualize prayer working. I envision a constant conveyor belt of blessing and abundance that flows from God to us. You ask God for answers. The moment you ask for something, the answer to your prayer gets plopped on the divine conveyor belt and begins to make its way to you.

But what if, along the way, you second-guess your request? Or worry about your ability to handle the blessing? Let’s say you’re not sure you can integrate the new state of affairs the answered prayer would bring. Then what?

If felt strong enough and long enough, these doubts can slow down, stop, or even reverse the conveyor belt of blessing. In other words, you can unintentionally work at cross purposes with your prayers.

To allow your prayers to be answered, you have to weed out a doubt. Begin to notice and name the doubts that may accompany your prayers. As you name them, send them on a different conveyor belt back to God. Then ask God to strengthen your faith and increase your belief as you refocus on joyfully receiving whatever you have asked for in prayer.

Embrace the Belief: Start Small

Several years ago, I began to experiment with believing like Jesus. When it came to the belief that my prayers had power, I decided to ask God for something small, inconsequential that wouldn’t trip the wires of self-doubt.

I asked God to have someone gift me with a mug. Then, I practiced believing that I had received the mug by visualizing the act of opening my hands and seeing a mug placed in them. I rehearsed the feeling of happiness that would accompany it. I did that for about a week, then I forgot about it.

One afternoon, three or four weeks later, the doorbell rang. I opened the front door and saw a man I didn’t recognize.

“Can I help you?” I asked.

“I’m Willie,” he answered. “This mug is for you,” he said, handing over a slightly misshapen blue ceramic coffee mug. “Well, for your husband. I made it for him after the last construction job we finished. It’s been sitting on the floor of my pick-up truck for months. I just never got around to stopping by. Til today.”

I could hardly believe it. “Why, thank you,” I beamed, holding the mug in my hand. “You wouldn’t believe it, but this is just what I’ve been praying for.”

Apostolic Action: Build Your Faith

Now a coffee mug isn’t that big a deal. But believing like Jesus is. Master the art of believing without a doubt, and you can have a greater impact than you could ever imagine.

As you move from discipleship to apostleship, doubtless, you will want to make a bigger ask of God than a mere mug. There are wrongs to right, loaves, and fishes to multiply, and wounds to bind up. But start small. Build your faith in your ability to ask and receive. Then visualize the conveyor belt delivering all kinds of answered prayers and the delight you’ll feel when the doorbell rings.

Adapted from the forthcoming book, Believe Like Jesus, © copyright 2020 Rebekah Simon-Peter

When Discipleship Isn’t Enough

When Discipleship Isn’t Enough

by | Oct 28, 2019

Discipleship pathway systems are all the rage in the United Methodist Church these days. And with good reason. These systems are supposed to produce disciples, i.e. growth, and thus enable churches to fulfill the Great Commission, as well as the mission of the denomination.

But what about when discipleship isn’t enough? I can’t help but wonder if this approach to discipleship is short-sighted.  Perhaps even problematic.  The first problem I see is that discipleship as an end game can create passive followers who don’t own their God-given agency.  The second problem is that discipleship without apostleship subverts the Gospels’ meta message.

Let’s start with the first problem.  Jesus didn’t call The Twelve or The Seventy-Two or any of the others for them to be mere followers.  Followership was simply the first stage in their spiritual development.  Apostleship was the ultimate goal of their training.

During the three years The Twelve spent with Jesus, they observed how he thought and how he prayed. They watched how he taught and soaked up what he believed. They watched him engage paralyzed, hurting, desperate people and they noted the way he interacted with others. They listened to the way he phrased things. They were privy to his miracles and glimpsed his inner relationship with God.

But they didn’t stop there. Jesus transferred his spiritual authority, agency, and accountability to them. They were to speak, act, and heal on behalf of him, and of the Kingdom.  Each of these men and women were to be active agents, stewards, of the Kingdom dream.

What’s striking to me is that Jesus never hoarded his power. He freely taught others how to exercise it. After they mastered the kinds of things Jesus had done, The Twelve, The Seventy-Two and likely countless others, surpassed what Jesus had done.  Not only did they heal, preach, and proclaim the Kingdom, they gathered thousands of followers, set up communities in far-flung places, and oversaw the development of structures that allowed the church to grow and expand throughout the known world.

That’s where we get to the second problem with discipleship pathway systems. We’re not going to be any good at making the sort of disciples Jesus made until we are decidedly better at making the kind of apostles Jesus made. After all, it is apostles who make disciples, not other disciples. You can see this shift in the Great Commission. When Jesus commanded the disciples to “Go therefore into all the world,” signaled the ontological change in their status.  From this moment on, they were no longer followers. Their sending signaled they now functioned as apostles.

Yet in the church, we do not teach people, even our leaders, how to be apostolic:  stewards of the dream, agents of change.  We do not teach people that they are co-creators with God.  That their words have creative, divine power.  That they are more Christ-like than they know.  Instead we teach people to give God all the glory.  I’m not sure if God wants all the glory.  Nor does Jesus.  The way I read the New Testament, Jesus expects us to surpass him, to do even greater things than he did.  The only way to do that is to own our God-given agency and our authority.  Settling for discipleship without apostleship undercuts the ultimate meta message of the Gospels.

So before we get too invested in discipleship pathways, we would do well to build apostleship pathways, too. Interested in knowing more about how to do that?

In my work with Creating a Culture of Renewal, I’ve discovered that apostleship starts with Kingdom-oriented dreams. When church leaders know how to dream like Jesus, align others to the dream, and realize the dream, then the dream can expand and draw others to it.  Now there’s a discipleship pathway system.

Adapted from Dream Like Jesus: Deepen Your Faith and Bring the Impossible to Life © 2019 Rebekah Simon-Peter, now available everywhere online.