← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
Apprentices of Jesus: Abide and Act
00:20:09
In this episode, Dan Wilt reflects on the significance of Father's Day and the spiritual mentorship he has received throughout his life. He emphasizes the importance of spiritual fatherhood and the role of mentors in guiding him in faith, marriage, and leadership. Dan shares his gratitude for these influences and highlights the celebration of the resurrection, which he considers paramount over all worldly holidays. He encourages listeners to embrace the resurrection life and to pray a prayer of consecration, dedicating themselves to Jesus. Dan delves into the concept of being apprentices of Jesus, focusing on abiding in His love and understanding the "why" behind ministry. He stresses that true ministry is powered by Jesus working through us, rather than our own efforts. Dan discusses the importance of grasping the depth of God's love and living in union with Jesus. He encourages listeners to anchor their friendship with Jesus and to engage in ministry with love and discernment. Th...
Loading summary
Transcript8 lines
- [00:04]
A
Good morning, Sower Nation. Today is Sunday, June 21st, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Dan Wilt and this is your wake up call. It is another Sunday, a beautiful Sunday. To be alive in the presence of Jesus, to know his love, to share his love with others. And today is also Father's Day. So a blessing to you if you're a father, if you have the heart of a father, Blessings on you to you today. I've also had many spiritual fathers in my life. My own dad is an amazing man, one of my heroes, so grateful for him. And I've also just had the gift from the Lord of men who have stepped into my life with a heart for me, who have seen not only who I am, but who I'm becoming. And they've called me forward in faith, in hope, in love, in my marriage, in my parenting of my children, in my spiritual leadership, in my friendships. They've just been faithful to call me forward in many cases as an apprentice of Jesus. And so we continue in that story today. Again, blessings on all the fathers there. And we celebrate the resurrection today, which takes precedence over all the holidays that we celebrate in the world. For the early church, it was every week that they would gather was like a mini Easter. It was a resurrection celebration. And so we celebrate the resurrection today as we gather and the resurrection life that we have the privilege of living in. So wake up, sleeper. Rise from the dead and Christ will shine on you. Let's pray our prayer of consecration as we begin today's meeting with Jesus. Jesus, I belong to you. I lift up my heart to you. I set my mind on you. I fix my eyes on you. I offer my body to you as a living sacrifice. Jesus, we belong to you. Praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Our entry for today is titled Apprentices of Abide and act. And our text is from John 15, verses 9 to 15. Hear the word of the Lord. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends for everything that I learned from my Father. I have made known to you the Word of the Lord. Consider this. Jesus is looking for friends who love why he does what he does even more than they love what he does. If we're going to be used in ministry gifts, engaging this truth is absolutely crucial. If I'm honest, there are moments I have wondered if I've taken too many days in this series to talk about the why of kingdom ministry ministry, the theology of the Kingdom of God from which Jesus operated, all the things he did and taught, the postures of the apprentice of Jesus and what apprenticeship to Jesus means. But then I think back on all the Christlike beauty I've seen in the lives of my own friends and mentors, the lives of thousands touched by them. And when I think about the dangers I've seen when influential people have the wrong why motivating their use of spiritual power. I believe I've seen a lot, honestly over my 40 plus years of ministry life as an ordinary Christian. And what I have seen convinces me that laying our foundations well on what it means to follow Jesus as apprentices in the Kingdom of God is of the utmost importance and is well worth our time. If we are apprentices and the Master is doing the ministry through us, then our greatest work is to trust and obey. Do you hear the hymn in the background?
- [05:37]
B
Trust and Obey.
- [05:40]
A
And that leads us to this. You,
- [05:45]
B
me.
- [05:47]
A
You are not the one doing the ministry. Jesus is doing the ministry through you. Pause with me, please read this with me or say this with me if you're just listening in the podcast out loud. You are not the one doing the ministry. Jesus is doing the the ministry through you. I'm going to say it once more just so we get let it sink into us. You are not the one doing the ministry. Jesus is doing the ministry through you. Now parentheses hear me. We have a part to play. The uniqueness with which God has made each one of us. You, me. We have gifts. We have unique personalities. We have choices. We make, we have surrender to do. We have all these things. Yes, we play a part. But when it comes to spirit powered love and ministry, Jesus is the one who has to do this through us. So let's continue. Is that a cop out? Should we be working harder to do what Jesus did? Or is it the actual central essential idea behind ministry that goes beyond what humans can do? Healing through a moment of prayer for someone? Can you do that? I can't. I can't even fake it some magicians say they can, but no follower of Jesus in scripture has ever claimed anything other than what I do have. I give you when talking about the ministry in the love and power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 3:6 and I know I keep saying this, but I think it's important context as there's a shift going on in the church today about all the things and our need to normalize spirit led spirit empowered ministry in the context of great love in the world. So I say these things often for those who get fixated on the power part of ministry over the love part. My friend Steve Siemens talks about this in his book Follow the Healer. It's so important. Here is a passage that will right the ship. This is a new level of power that some caught up in the language and excitement of power ministry and learning about it and reading about it and all these things can miss. And it's this passage from Ephesians 3:16 to 19 that, that I've lived in for so long now. The prayer goes like this. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being. Ready so that here it is. Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. We need power from the Spirit for abiding, knowing he's abiding in us through by faith and then living as those abiding in him by faith. Fascinating. And then the prayer continues. It's all about something other than just so we can see miracles. And then he says, and I pray that you being rooted and established in love and here it comes again, may have power. Oh, the excitement begins together with all the Lord's holy people. Oh, what's. What is he asking for us to have power to do miracles? No, to grasp that you may have power together with all the Lord's holy people to grasp how high, excuse me, how wide and long and deep. Deep is this is the love of Christ. And to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Wow. Paul is not asking for power in this prayer to do miracles. Paul is asking for power for us to grasp the love of God for us and then that gives us a revelation of love for others. Paul is not asking for power to show who God is. Paul is asking here for power to receive the reality that Jesus indwells us. Power to grasp the length and height and depth of his love. Power to know this love that we might be filled with all the fullness of God. My dear brothers and sisters, Paul is asking for power to apprehend and fully realize our unity union with Jesus. That's apprenticeship at its best in the Kingdom of God. I spent an entire 50 day wake up Call series mining this one truth when I wrote to Know this Love, discovering our union with God in Christ. And honestly, I was overcome with joy by the end of that series. As John 15:9 15 says, People, beloved people, live from love through love and to love and end up knowing the intimate holy business of the Trinity. Abiding people are not navel gazers nor are we lost in worship and lost in culture. People abiding people are people of holy, discerned, loving, powerful and right action. We don't wander on endless side trails and massive ministry campaigns, good as they can be, hear me. But we don't wander on side trails and massive ministry campaigns that feed our egos more than they feed the poor. Abiding people are listening people. We remain in Jesus and know his voice. And we come to know his voice better and better. And as we do, we minister in partnership with His Spirit in some incisive and profound ways. We walk in the Spirit. We keep in step with the Spirit. We follow the guidance of the Spirit. So here is another historic prayer that has proven very useful to apprentices of Christ going for gold in Kingdom ministry. It's a prayer of invitation, of welcome, of surrender, one that has been on the lips of the saints for centuries. It's a simple three word prayer. Let's pray it out loud together. Come Holy Spirit. Amen. And that prayer in many different forms has been a part of the life of the church for so long. And it's an invitation and it's one we're going to be digging into as we go through the days ahead. So our prayer for today, let's pray together. Lord Jesus, I am still learning what it means to abide in you. To minister less from my own effort and desire and more from your presence within. And your guidance teach me to abide in you, to live in awareness that you abide in me. As I take new steps in Kingdom ministry in the coming days and weeks, in the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen. Our journal prompts Journal today about what you see your relationship with Jesus is like right now and what you hope it will become over the next year. Be very specific. What do you hope will change and why? And as you remain aware of Jesus indwelling presence, what is your prayer for union with Him? Activation. Today, your first act of ministry is to reset your anchor in your friendship with Jesus as you go into today, as you go to church, as you worship with the family of God, as you connect with people, family, friends. Maybe you're having some celebrations today. Anchor in your friendship with Jesus. Friends. Know why Jesus does what he does. Review the entries that precede this one on this day. See if you can find 30 minutes or so today to just do that. Review the entries that precede this one and ask the Lord to settle you in the why of Kingdom Ministry to love others into the arms of Jesus. Then get your heart ready to take some fresh steps, maybe even some leaps of faith in the coming days. Pray come, Holy Spirit, as you walk out the door today. All right, well, let's sing the great hymn today. Great Is Thy Faithfulness. It'll be our song of worship as we move forward into the day. And it's hymn number 44 in our great Redeemer's praise. Let's worship together.
- [15:09]
B
Great is thy faithfulness O God, my Father There is no shadow of turning with the Thou changes not thy compassions they fail not as thou hast been Thou forever will be Great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me Summer and winter and springtime and harvest sun, moon and stars in their courses above Join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness Mercy and love O great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning new mercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth Thy own dear presence to cheer, to guide Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow Blessings all mine with 10,000 beside great is thy faithfulness Great is thy faithfulness Morning by morning numercies I see All I have needed Thy hand hath provided Great is thy faithfulness Lord unto me
- [19:17]
A
what a powerful, beautiful hymn, isn't it? I know it's probably one of your favorites. It certainly is one of mine. I think even today, here on a Father's Day, that for me, my awareness of the faithfulness of God throughout my life is just worthy of reflection, of thanks, of gratefulness, of savoring as you move into this beautiful day that the Lord has made. So we step out onto the fields today. Go ahead and get your seeds together and let's sow. I'll see you on the field for the Awakening. I'm Dan.
- [20:01]
B
Sam.