Discipleship

-World of social media follow someone at click of button twitter/facebook

- access comings and goings, opinions, interests, ask them to be your friend
- minimal effort to follow and no action required after
- are you a better person as a result
Christs day - followed by many- truth seekers - pharises/saducees, keep tabs but not for good intentions
-In latter days nearly instant access to scriptures and words of prophets literally at our fingertips
- To truly follow Christ we cant just follow at the click of a button
-Paul once declared: Romans 8:16-17 - The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we
suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.
-As Children - each glorious divine potential achievable by suffering with [Christ],
-suffer means follow, unlike social media, following involves action; it involves true discipleship
discipleship = discipulus = Pupil / Student (another word...
Discipline definitions:
many definitions - (all definitions point to one thing training)
- Training to act in accordance with rules. (being taught principles, manners, rules, etc)
- Proverbs 22:6 - Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it.

- Activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill. (Such as physical training)
-DC 10:5 Pray always, that you may come off conqueror; yea, that you may conquer Satan, and that you may
escape the hands of the servants of Satan that do uphold his work.

- Punishment inflicted by way of correction and training. (such as children)

-Matt. 18:3 - Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into
the kingdom of heaven.

- The rigor or training effect of experience, adversity, to perfect moral character.

- Lord counseled Joseph in liberty jail but a small moment not yet as Job good(DC 121)
- similarly Peter counseled if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let
him glorify God on this behalf.
As disciples of Christ we must each individually abide the training of our lives:
- Every persons personal experience, trials, adversity will be different, but the principles of the gospel,
and the steps we must take will remain the same.
King benjamin expounded at length many of the principles of discipleship and testified of the
importance of putting off the natural man
Step 1 Put off the natural man
King Benjamin - Mosiah 3:19 19 For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of
Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off
the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a
child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord
seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father.
By putting off the natural mans pride, envy, lust, etc, we make way for love, joy, peace, gentleness,
goodness, faith, and other blessings that abide with us as we partake and share the fruit of the spirit.

We make room for the cleansing power of the atonement to clean us, purify us, and prepare us to be
reunited with our father in heaven in the celestial kingdom of God.
Step 2 dilligently watch, pray, seek (help for above)
Alma - But that ye would humble yourselves before the Lord, and call on his holy name, and watch
and pray continually, that ye may not be tempted above that which ye can bear, and thus be led by the
Holy Spirit, becoming humble, meek, submissive, patient, full of love and all long-suffering.
- notice how he places the responsibility upon each of us to pray and watch in order to build up our
spiritual defenses. The lords strength becomes our own as we diligently seek him, for we will find him,
and the doors and blessings of heaven will be opened unto us.
Step 3 serve
It is our responsibility as Christ's disciples to serve others to help them and strengthen them as Christ
strengthens us:
Benjamin Mosiah 2:17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may
learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.
- Further reading immediately blessed and further in debt to god still unprofitable servants
- even after all we can do it is still only by the grace of God that we are saved, and as true disciples of
Christ we must come to understand this as king Benjamin also taught saying:
3:17 . . . there shall be no other name given nor any other way nor means whereby salvation can come
unto the children of men, only in and through the name of Christ, the Lord Omnipotent.
And in providing this glorious blessing Alam tells us that:
7:11 ... he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the
word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.
12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and
he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh,
that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.
We must each strive to show mercy and to succor one another as Christ has and does for us for we
know that: 3:21 . . . when [the] time cometh, none shall be found blameless before God, except it be
little children, only through repentance and faith on the name of the Lord God Omnipotent.
The people of king Benjamin who acted upon this knowlege... 4:3were filled with joy, having
received a remission of their sins, and having peace of conscience, because of the exceeding faith
which they had in Jesus Christ who should come
They believed that Christ would come, we believe that he has come and that he will come again. King
Benjamin exhorts us to develop this belief: 4:9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created
all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven
and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.
Those of us who embrace these truths and embark on the path to true discipleship will not only face
many challenges, but will have a lot of work to do. Humility, faith, caring for and raising our children
in righteousness, serving one another, repenting of our mistakes and misgivings all take work.
Discipleship is Training - And so we must 1) rely on the grace offered through the atonement to lift
us up 2) recognize that we must move forward diligently 4:27 ... in wisdom and order; for it is not
requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. Nevertheless, it is expedient that he
should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize... (Lay Terms Work not too hard but
hard)

It is our responsibility as disciples, true and active followers of Christ, to follow his perfect example,
keep the commandments, and endure to the end. And this we do because for us he has suffered more

than man can suffer ; for behold, blood cometh from every pore. For
behold, his blood atoneth for the sins of those who have fallen . . .
Brotheren and sisters, who among us has not fallen?
I testify
In closing:
2:41. . . I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of
those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all
things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are
received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of neverending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord
God hath spoken it.