The Process of Discipleship: Cultivate

After disciples have prepared the soil of the heart with friendship and service and created interest by planting the seed of God’s Word, the next phase in the disciple-making process is to cultivate the growing spiritual interest. This is the longest and most labor-intensive part of the disciple-making process and is best accomplished by engaging in ongoing personal Bible studies.

In John 15, the word repeated often is “abide.” Using again the motif of agriculture, Jesus likens spiritual growth to the biological growth of plants, namely the vine. The concept of the vine-branch connection is intimately related to the Word. Two hypotheticals are presented in the text, where verse 6 posits the case of anyone who is not in Christ and verse 7 posits the case of anyone who is in Christ. We abide in Christ just as His Word abides in us; it is by the power of the Word that growth occurs. In addition to the Word of God being the seed that gets spirituality started, it is also the means by which spirituality is cultivated.