← The Wake-Up Call
The Wake-Up Call
Apprentices of Jesus: Witnesses Are Disciples on Fire
00:22:19
In this episode, Dan Wilt explores the concept of spiritual awakening and discipleship through a Christian lens. He emphasizes the journey of love from Jesus to individuals and how this love transforms hearts. Dan discusses the importance of becoming people who embody the teachings of Jesus, not just through actions but through a deep, abiding relationship with Him. He highlights the role of the Holy Spirit in empowering believers to continue Jesus' ministry, encouraging listeners to embrace their unique spiritual gifts and engage in everyday ministry. The episode is part of a series aimed at fostering a transformational journey with Jesus, encouraging both followers and those new to the faith to experience a loving relationship with God. Dan shares personal anecdotes and biblical references to illustrate the power of witnessing Jesus' work in one's life. He recounts a miraculous healing and his experience leading worship in St. Peter's Basilica, emphasizing the profound impact of ...
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Foreign. Sower Nation Today is Saturday, June 20th, in the year of our Lord 2026. I'm Dan Wilt and this is your wake up call. Everything we're about on the wake up call is about helping you wake up to Jesus, helping me wake up to Jesus. And I love this definition of awakening that JD is sharing these days. And he basically says that awakening is the journey of love from Jesus to a person, through a person, to a person, through a person, and so on and so on. Jesus is awakening hearts. He's awakening your heart. He's awakening my heart to see him as he is, to experience his love, love, and then to share that love. And everything we're doing in this all the Things series is really meant to be a beautiful, slow, encouraging, activating, catalytic, transformational journey. Every day, a meeting with Jesus toward us becoming the kinds of people not who do do things, but who have become someone who then does things in the world. And we don't do those things in our own strength. The Holy Spirit lives in us. This is central to the teaching of Jesus. And in John 15, he just, he settles the issue. I am abiding in you, you are abiding in me. It's the language of mutual habitation. And then with the Spirit in us, Christ in us, the hope of glory, as the scripture says, we then are those through whom the Spirit moves. And Jesus continues his ministry through we who are his disciples, his Talmudim, his apprentices, his learners. And we are learning to love others in his name in ways that, yes, are natural to who we are, that match and connect with personalities, but also are connected to our unique spiritual gifts and then gifts from the Spirit that God gives for a moment, in a moment of obedience, partnering with the Father and what he's doing. We see everyday ministry in the power of the Spirit happen. We see what Wimber called power encounters, power ministry. And so I'm wanting to just slowly walk us into that. That's what our journey is, is about over this whole series. And so today, if you're a follower of Jesus, be encouraged by what's shared. If you're not a follower of Jesus yet, be encouraged by what I share. Today there is a God who loves you, knows you, sees you, and is welcoming you into a loving relationship that will transform you from the inside out. I need to hear that. You need to hear that. The whole world around us needs to hear it. We need to remember that there is going to be no political decision, no, no flash, you know, in a moment in the, in the entertainment industry in on Wall street. There's going to be no good news that comes that transforms the human heart. There is only one good news that celebrates and awakens the world to the transformation of the heart. And it is the movement of J into a heart transforming us from the inside out by the Holy Spirit who lives in us and then making us overflowing vessels of that same love, that unconditional love, that caring love, that love that approaches people in humility and gentleness, with compassion, with the fruits of the spirit, undergirding it all around it. And then we find ourselves becoming discerning people, hearing the voice of God because we are learning to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit from our own and our own thoughts. So that's a journey we're on. We're in our apprenticeship moment within the series and I'm excited about today's entry. 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. And we're praying in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Today's entry is titled Apprentices of Jesus. Witnesses are disciples on fire. And our texts for today are Mark 3, 14, 15 and Acts 1, verse 8. Hear the word of the Lord. He appointed 12 that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons and from acts. But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you. And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth. The word of the Lord. Consider this friend John Mumford recounts the story when his wife Eleanor was miraculously healed of meningitis. He says this in her early 30s, Eleanor had severe meningitis and was prayed for by some faithful Christian friends. And she was healed instantly. The rule and reign of the King, the reality of his kingdom had burst upon us. I've known John and Eleanor for many years and this one thing is obvious to anyone who knows them. They have been witnesses of Jesus. J.D. waltz says that a witness is a disciple of on Fire. And I couldn't agree more. For many years I wanted to visit St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City. In Rome. I'd seen pictures of it. I'd read about It. I'd even studied it. Its dome. It's Pieta. It's the nearby Sistine Chapel. So much more. But then one day, I witnessed it. I walked into the cathedral and took in its architectural grandeur, its remarkable dome, its astounding acoustics. And here's a fun fact. I actually led 70 leaders in worship there in one of the marble chapels you talk about reverb. It filled the whole place. And. And we had people coming up to us as our group was walking out, saying, are you part of that beautiful choir? And it was because I was with many Vineyard leaders. When they sing a song, I always say, songs are a place we go. They're a place we go to meet with God. When they sing a song, they don't just sing it. They actually enter it as a place of meeting with Jesus, like we seek to do together. And man, we fill that place with beauty and harmony and true worship from the heart. And. And people were asking us if we were the choir. They heard rumbling throughout the. The whole basilica and in the dome. And it was quite beautiful. But I digress. When we witness what Jesus has done, we can't unsee it. If we don't open our lives to behold Jesus, we will, out of habit, see ourselves as outside the scope of being used by God in miraculous ways. We will default to distant observing out of fear or unbelief, offering oohs and ahs over what God does through other special saints, and ultimately experience a non start in our engagement with spiritual gifts. Apprentices of Jesus have been with him and live in him, and he lives in them. They are witnesses, beholders of Jesus in all his beauty, his kingdom at work within their hearts, and the demonstrations of his love and goodness in the lives of those in front of them. Mark 3:14 puts it clearly. He appointed 12 that they might be with him. Then Acts 1:8 follows this withness. And you will be my witnesses. In short, I like to think of us as witnesses of Jesus. People look into our eyes and they see what St. Patrick said in his Lorica, his breastplate prayer. Christ in I of all who see me, Christ in ear of all who hear me. In other words, this one has been with Jesus. There are no shortcuts to our union with God in Christ. We must be fully set on entering into the maturity of the faith that is Christ in us. The hope of glory. Colossians 1:27, 28. Manifest in a life lived with the singular goal of union with Him. Remain in me, and I in you. John 15:5b this is a life set on experiencing the arrival point of which the Apostle Paul spoke. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. Galatians 2:20b Witnessing Jesus, deepening in our loving union with him is the prerequisite to evidencing the fruit of the Spirit and operating in the gifts of the Spirit from the source of love. First Corinthians 13 is there for a reason. Spiritual gifts operating in people who are not motivated by the pure and self giving love spoken of in 1st Corinthians and Philippians 2 are honestly downright dangerous. Let me just say that again. First Corinthians 13 is there for a reason. Spiritual gifts operating in and through people who are not primarily motivated by the pure and self giving love spoken of in First Corinthians and Philippians 2 are downright dangerous. Yes, there are many unhelpful models and extremes in the body of Christ to say they are doing what Jesus did. I won't stand in judgment on any of those expressions. I love the whole church of Jesus and I am keenly aware that my own blind spots and life in process exists that I too miss the mark on this journey of mystery. But I do believe loveless or love starved models of ministry exist and they often hurt people in their wake with confidence and with the love, gentleness and humility of Jesus as our guiding postures as we minister in his name, we can make some bold moves as we live out our apprenticeship to Jesus. And here's our prayer. Lord Jesus, beholding you is at the center of my apprenticeship as your child. Make me a witness, a true withness of your love, your goodness and your truth. In the name of Jesus I pray. Amen. And let's look at our journal prompts for today. Write down any false metrics you've heard for determining whether you're discipled or not. See if you can come up with some false metrics you've heard where someone has evaluated if someone has been discipled or not. Things that you think don't work as you've grown in your journey with Jesus. Then write down a contrasting set of metrics that begin and end with closeness with Jesus and an ongoing beholding or witness of his work in your life. And here's our activation for today. Again, in our activations we're always carrying with us. May I pray for you our kingdom? Question our prayer as we talk to people. Your kingdom come. Your will be done Come Holy Spirit. We're always looking for what the Father's doing. These are now part of our weekly activations in this season together. I'm doing them, you're doing them, and we're hearing from you in Holy Spirit stories and I'm accumulating my own and we'll be sharing those in the coming season. But today's activation is this. Ask the Lord that you might behold him walk through the day with your eyes open and your ears attentive to his presence with you and around you. Listen to worship music you love that moves you in your car throughout the day and sing with those recordings. If you can find space in your home where you can play it loudly and sing as loud as you want where you can be on your own and no one's listening, listening. If you can't, that's fine. But sometimes I do that in my car. I go for a long drive in the country. That's what I do every weekend. And I just sing. I worship as I drive and look at beautiful views where I live in Tennessee. And I encourage you find an opportunity to do that. Let your heart be filled with adoration, adoration of Jesus. Do this until you become less self aware and more aware of Jesus and his beauty. That's what happens when we respond to God in worship. It's one of the reasons I love being a part of worship environments in all the different streams of the church. The sacramental expressions, the contemporary expressions. I love them all because they're opportunities for lingering, staring at Jesus, saying thank you, saying we love you in response. Remember, we didn't start this. We love him because he first loved us. So we're responding. Worship is a response to the, the overwhelming, all consuming love of God for you, for me and for the world. That's what worship's about. So find a way to spend some time just beholding Jesus. You might do that by sitting with the word of God today. You might do that by noticing the beauty of creation. And instead of simply noticing it, pause and say, thank you Lord, for that, that blue jay I'm seeing over there. Thank you for this beautiful tree that I'm seeing in all its glory shining in the sun. Thank you for this rain. Thank you, thank you Lord, for this person in my life, for this friendship, for this family member, for, for this community, this church I'm in, whatever that is. Find ways to behold Jesus, to see him in it and celebrate his closeness with you. Your closeness with him witnesses a disciple on fire. Well, let's worship together today with a song we've, we've used before, but I'd love it to just a moment where we behold Jesus and we give him thanks for who he is. It's you are worthy of it all. Let's sing it together.
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Because you are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all. For from you are all things and to you are all things. You deserve the glory. You are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all. For from you are all things and to you are all things things you deserve the glory.
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All the saints and angels and all
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the saints and angels, they bow before your throne and all the elders come cast their crowns before the Lamb of God and say, you are worthy of it all, You are worthy of it all. For from you are all things and to you are all things, you deserve the glory. You are worthy, Lord, you are worthy of it all. You are worthy of it all. For from you are all things and to you are all things. For from you are all things and to you are all things. For from you are all things and to you are all things, you deserve the glory.
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So today we're stepping into the world as not only disciples, but witnesses that great commission call to be those who behold Jesus, who see him as he is, who cultivate that ongoing encounter that gives us the encouragement, the strength, the perspective we need to walk into the world with having been with Jesus glistening in our eyes. And then we do what St. Patrick put in his prayer. We. We go to people in love. And Christ is in the eye of them as they see us. Christ is in the eye of that person as they hear us. We are Christophers Christos, Pharos, Christ, carriers in the world. I bless you, my brother, my sister, to go and to be his apprentices in the world today. All right, let's get those seeds together, and I'll see you on the field for the awakening. I'm Dan.