“This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”

I have been thinking about the implications of that verse a lot lately. It is perhaps the simplest definition of a disciple – a person who walks as Jesus did. I would assume that to walk as Jesus walked means embracing and living out the character and priorities of Jesus. Through the years I have heard a lot of teaching about the character of Jesus and our need to be like Him – living holy, loving lives – avoiding sin and all appearance of evil.

The result – we work harder at being good. When I look at the life of Jesus I see a couple other key components to His life.

1) There was incredible dependence on the Holy Spirit. He was filled with the Spirit at His baptism. When He came out of the temptation experience, “He returned in the power of the Holy Spirit.” In the Book of Acts it says, He gave instructions through the Holy Spirit (1:2). Believing that Jesus was fully God AND FULLY MAN, He was empowered by the Holy Spirit.

If Jesus needed the empowerment of the Holy Spirit to live as the Father desired and to accomplish the work the Father gave Him to do, how much more do we need the Holy Spirit to fill, empower and equip us for life and ministry. In our discipleship strategy, how much do we emphasize the need for the Holy Spirit and pray for His filling and empowerment?

2). More is said in preaching and teaching about His prayer life than about the work of the Holy Spirit in His life. However, I wonder to what degree our understanding of His prayer life impacts our own. Jesus spent time with the Father before ministries, after ministries and before making major decisions. It does not appear that He asked the Father to bless what He was doing but that He ask the Father what He should be doing. The only evidence of a personal prayer was in the Garden when, in agony, He asked if possible there could be another way. His praying throughout His ministry seems to be about intimacy with the Father and about the Kingdom. John17 is a good example of both.

In making disciples, do we spend more time giving them information – knowledge, ministry skills, lifestyle lessons – or do we teach them to pray?

A part of what it means to walk as Jesus walked is to depend on the Holy Spirit and to live a life of prayer.