Follow the Leader

Often when Jesus invited someone to become His disciple, He would use the term, “Follow Me” [Matt 4:19, 9:9]. Jesus, Himself, as well as early followers of Jesus, tell us how to follow Him.

Stay in Jesus

Jesus said that we need to abide in Him and that He would abide in us [John 15:4]. When we were born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, we actually invited Jesus to dwell in us through the Holy Spirit. Its a two way street. Jesus is in us and we are in Him. Jesus actually prayed for all future believers in Him. He prayed to the Father that we would “be one in Us” [John 17:20-21]. So we, as believers, are in God – Father, Son & Holy Spirit but we need to stay there. The Greek word for “abide” means: ​to stay (in a given place, state, relation or expectancy): – abide, continue, dwell, endure, be present, remain, stand, tarry. This takes a conscious effort on our part.

A Steady Diet

No one would say that only one meal a week is enough to promote good health. In the same way we need a steady diet of God’s Word to truly follow Christ. The Bible tells us that man needs more than food to live, he needs the Word of God [Deuteronomy 8:3]. All scripture is inspired by God and instructs us in righteousness that we may be equipped to follow Jesus [2 Timothy 3:16-17]. Just like we need 3 square meals per day, we need to feed on the Word of God often. The more, the better. It is impossible to over indulge feeding on the Word.

Be Like Jesus

You may think that it is impossible to be like Jesus. After all He is Jesus and we are not. However the Apostle Paul tells us to “be imitators of God” [Ephesians 5:1] and to “be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” [1 Corinthians 11:1]. Jesus said to “be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect” [Matthew 5:48]. Don’t get hung up on the word “perfect”. The Amplified Bible renders the original Greek word like this: “growing into complete maturity of godliness in mind and character, having reached the proper height of virtue and integrity”. Every follower of Jesus should continue to grow in Him and be like Him.