Go Therefore and Make Disciples of All the Nations
For over 5 years, The Joshua Fund has partnered with a fantastic team of Israelis whose mission and calling is to make disciples who, in turn, will make disciples. This team has been faithfully leading one of the most effective and fruitful ministries in Israel. They have been very successfully equipping young Israeli believers for life and ministry, teaching them to be fully grounded in the Word of God. These dear, committed brothers and sisters in the Lord seek to serve God in many areas of ministry by serving the entire body of Messiah, preserving the unity of the faith, while encouraging and supporting the youth from local Israeli congregations.
This team devotes themselves to a 3-month intensive discipleship program, twice each year for young people, most of whom are just coming out of their mandatory national army service. This special time away enables these young people to set aside time to intentionally seek the Lord and to grow in His Word, as they are very personally discipled. During these 3 months, they learn to fellowship meaningfully with other believers as well as to boldly reach out to the lost with the Gospel and to serve the local body of Messiah. Throughout the program, the Israeli team models a ‘lifestyle’ of discipleship, where participants are encouraged to set aside time for worship, prayer, systematic Bible reading, quiet time, evangelism, volunteer work and service, and simply seeking the Lord for daily guidance. Here they can develop and practice spiritual disciplines in their daily walk with the Lord, equipping them for future growth, service, and leadership.
It’s our tremendous privilege to partner with this ministry and to share these four brief testimonies from some recent graduates of the program:
“I find that we are not the central focus of our story – our ultimate testimony is Yeshua. I’ve realized that God made no mistakes in how He created me. God decides to use these vessels for His service, not ours. We must trust His promises, and not our own desires. Even when we receive something we didn’t want, and something we think is bad – God is still good. God never breaks His promise. God has promised to save us on that day; He never promised us an easy convenient life here on earth.”
“I was a praying person, but I didn’t like reading the Bible. Here I began reading the Bible, and suddenly I saw how one could go on reading for the entire hour of quiet time, so there was no time left for prayer… I started doubting the sincerit y of my worship and thought that perhaps I was becoming too ‘religious.’ I prayed about it with one of the other participants. Eventually, I found the balance bet ween the two things – both prayer and studying God’s Word. The process I underwent during my time here removed doubts that I’m a believer just because my parents are; I found a personal intimate relationship with God.”
“When I came here my heart was indifferent towards God, cold and distant. I felt I blamed Him, while also feeling internal guilt for many things. Prayer, God’s Word – there was none of that. During the time here, I’ve felt Him break my heart and resurrect it. He’s given me love for His Word; everything has changed. He has freed me of those things burdening my heart. There are others issues and a long road ahead, but thank God – He is at work.”
“I suddenly knew that God exists and is real. Then I brought my weakness and my struggle before Him and asked that His overcoming strength be made perfect in me. Because it’s something that I’d been carrying around for years and, enough, it is too heavy for me to bear any longer. And today, during worship, I felt God was saying to me, ‘Let it go, let me carry it.’ We have a living God and we’ve seen Him at work! Yeshua ascended into heaven and He’s coming back for us – it’s all true. He is alive!”
