By Paul Tripp
All effective discipleship runs on the track of the Word of God. That is your most effective tool. Disciples of Christ are people of the Word. Knowledge of the Word of God is what ultimately motivates discipleship.
Prepared spontaneity is knowing Scripture so thoroughly that you are prepared for what you don’t know will happen. Because you aren’t sovereign, there will always be an element of surprise in your life. In every season of life, you are going to have to deal with things that you never thought you’d be dealing with. As a leader, it is important that you know how to prepare not only yourself but also your people for the things they aren’t able to predict.
Four Essentials of Scripture
In 2 Timothy 3:16-17, Paul talks about four things that Scripture does for us. It teaches, reproves, corrects, and trains us in righteousness.
Teaching is establishing the standard of looking at all of life through the lens of the Word of God. The more you teach yourself to think in a distinctly biblical way, the more you’ll be prepared for anything that comes your way because your mind is set on Christ.
Reproof is looking at yourself in the mirror of the Word of God. This view of yourself through God’s Word provides you with an accurate picture of who you really are. The Bible allows you to know your strengths, your weaknesses, your gifts, and your abilities. The Word of God brings self-knowledge. It allows you to know yourself better than you have ever known before.
Correction is figuring out how to change what needs to be changed, knowing how to turn actions that are heading in the wrong direction toward the right direction. The Bible shows you how to correct the things that are broken in your life.
Training is inserting needed habits into your life and doing them again and again. By strengthening those habits, you equip yourself to be able to do what you couldn’t have done before. Training works into you habits and abilities that allow you to do now with ease what you once did with difficulty.
Although you don’t know what you will face today, when you equip yourself with scripture, you give yourself knowledge of the world, knowledge of yourself, knowledge of how to correct things, and a set of good habits to live by. By equipping yourself with Scripture, you prepare yourself for situations to come that you could’ve never been prepared to handle.
Adapted from Training Pathway: Discipleship. Check out more training videos on Ministry Grid here.
