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What's Your Intrinsic Mobilizing Story?

Posted Mar 3 2010 by Jonathan Brink in Coaching, Discipleship, Jesus with View Comments

Do we have an intrinsic mobilizing story that compels us to follow?

This video by Francis Chan is interesting for several reasons.  Francis talks about how we’re attracted to Jesus but not really willing to follow Jesus. We like what Jesus did, but we’re not willing to see Jesus as an action role model to emulate. The subtle tension is that our lack of action reveals a roadblock to following.  Yet what is that roadblock?  I would offer that it’s the way we approach the word “must”.

Francis shares Jesus’ own words that we “must” walk as Jesus did.  I would suggest that “must” is true in the sense that we cannot realize the life of Jesus unless we actually follow.  But the tension for me is seeing it as something we have to do in order to make grace true in a cosmic sense.  This is the subtle tension I have with focusing on “must”.  Its easy to hear “must” and walk away thinking, “If I’m not doing it God must be disgusted with me.”  We can easily create a roadblock to experiencing life.

The question for me is where does our motivation reside.  Do we follow because it’s the right thing to do?  Or do we follow because its the most valuable life to live?  It’s really easy to see following as an extrinsic cosmic rule isn’t it?  In other words, its easy to develop a extrinsic story that has no personal motivating value in our lives.   We assume we’re supposed to follow because it’s the “right” thing to do.  We even agree that its right as though it sits on a shelf waiting to be picked up at some point in our lives.  And suddenly we’re sixty and its still sitting there.

The question is then what would make us pick up that call to follow?

I would offer that we need to shape our stories as something intrinsically valuable.  To follow is to live.  We don’t have to follow in order to be loved.  God loves us before we were born.  But we do have to follow in order to experience that love.  See the difference.  One is a conditional requirement that makes it true in a cosmic sense, or from God’s perspective.  One is conditional requirement that makes it true in a personal sense, or from our perspective. Legalism continually focuses on the former, where I think Jesus saw it as the latter.  We follow to realize the love of God in our own lives, not make it true in God’s perspective.

We need intrinsic mobilizing stories.  We need to see that God’s love is not something we earn by doing the right thing, which is an external motivator.  God’s love is something that is simply true, but can only be experienced by following. The difference is light years apart. I see so many people wanting to love God but their stories are deeply shaped by something they have to do “in order to” receive love.  I’m suggesting that we reframe our stories based on something we “get to” in order to intrinsically experience God’s love.

Category: Coaching, Discipleship, Jesus

Jonathan Brink - I am an author, coach, speaker and consultant. I work with communities and networks looking to engage God's mission in the Way of Jesus.

  • Derowr
    A Vision of Submission and Love

    I had been in search of what i then called the "church" for a number of years prior to my receiving the vision that i will now share with you. In that "search" i heard many preach and speak of the need for "husbands to love their wives".

    Ephesians 5:25 was the prime reference for such preaching. "Husbands, love your wives, even as The Messiah also loved the ecclesia(church), and gave Himself for it."

    "Love" is not a husband and wife sharing their natural affection for one another, which is referred to as "coming together again" in 1 Corinthians7:5.

    And Eph 5:25 was preached and preached, again and again, and i wondered, "why is it that Ephesians 5:25 was recorded after and not before 5:22", and "why is it no one preaches a message concerning those verses just prior to Ephesians 5:25"?

    Eph 5:22-25 "Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Master(Lord). For the husband is the head of the wife, even as The Messiah is the Head of the ecclesia(church), and He is the saviour of the body. Therefore, as the ecclesia is subject unto The Messiah, so let the wives be subject unto their own husbands in every thing. Husbands, love your wives, even as The Messiah also loved the ecclesia, and gave Himself for it".

    Well the "why no one preaches concerning the verses just prior to Eph 5:25" was readily answered as i began to recognize the manipulative processes used by women who desired to dominate the men folk within their particular ecclesia. And yes, that domination began at the "home". However the question of verse order, "why verses 5:22-24 prior to verse 5:25?" was one thing i still could not comprehend.

    And today i yet remain thankful to GOD that i could not comprehend the verse order because that caused me to cry unto HIM for understanding, and HE provided such understanding in a vision, a revelation!

    In the vision there were two hands, a right hand and a left hand. And there was a person running about, to and fro in the left hand, and it was revealed the left hand was mine and that the one running about, to and fro, in the left hand was "I" in days that were thankfully long since gone. Days when "I" was "doing my own thing" seeking my own way, self-willed indeed and Truth.

    And the right hand in the vision?

    It was revealed that the right hand in the vision represented The Hand of GOD!

    It was then revealed that in those times past, when i was seeking to "do my own thing", sadly, i did not know that GOD loved me. "I" did not know GOD. "I" was my 'god'.

    Then by the Grace of GOD, the time came when HE revealed HIMSELF unto me.

    And then HE led me to HIS Son, and HIS Son, The Messiah, led me back to the One i once knew as "GOD". However, the One i had known only as my "GOD", i now knew as "Our Father"! The GOD and Father of The Messiah was now Our GOD and Our Father!

    All Thanks, Glory And Praise Be Unto "Our Father"!

    Then it was revealed that when i submitted unto Our GOD, when i was delivered from my own hand, seeking my own will, and into HIS Hand, desiring HIS Will, it was at that moment i knew HE Loved me.

    Yes, Our GOD and Father even Loved me when i was not submitted unto HIM, yet "I" could not experience, receive, or believe HE Loved me until "I" submitted unto HIM, HIS Will, HIS Way!

    And then it was revealed that it is the same with a husband and wife.

    When the wife submits, only then does she realize that her husband truly loves her. Oh, he loved her all the time, it's just that she could not believe, receive, or experience the love her husband had for her until she submitted unto him.

    And so the simplicity of, and the need for, the "verse order" was revealed.

    Apart from submission, Love can not be received, GOD to Messiah, Messiah to man and man to woman. Love is given, yet only in submission can Love be received.

    Men and women are not the "same" and Thank GOD for the difference. "Our Father" has HIS Order, "HE is The HEAD of The Messiah, The Messiah is the Head of the man, and man is the head of the woman".(ICor11:3) So why question "The ONE GOD, Father of ALL"? Apart from the Spirit of GOD, The Spirit of Truth, women rule over men, and as they seek and desire to dominate, they scream, "you don't love me, you don't love me"! For until a wife submits unto her husband she can not receive and experience the Love her husband was given, to give unto her.

    Yet there is hope for such women, and the men that are dominated.

    There is Hope that there would be those who "see"!

    For Miracles do happen!

    Hope is there will be those who experience The Miracle that is receiving "love of The Truth" for they will "see" that The Only True GOD is a GOD of Order not dis-order, and The Life is only realized by those who submit too, and abide in, HIS Order.

    Father Help! and HE does.......

    Peace, in spite of the dis-ease(no-peace) and dis-order that is of this wicked world, for "the WHOLE world is under the control of the evil one"(1 John 5:19) indeed and Truth.......

    Truth is never ending.......
  • This reminds me of how a passage from Francis Chan's book struck me last year. He essentially said that if we don't love the way the 1 Cor 13 describes, then we're liars.

    Here's what I wrote then:
    http://www.photosensibility.com/2009/01/01/craz...
  • sarooney
    Insightful post! I had a similar reaction to yours. The whole point is that I can never be as Jesus is. I can try all my life long, it won't help. I can live in Him - I can participate in the great exchange - His life lived out as a vicarious man for me. I can live in His empowerment, where He lives and moves through me. But any sacrificial love, humility, and other characteristics are a natural by-product of living in Him, not the result of my efforts. I agree to follow, but He has already fulfilled my end of the bargain in His life, death, and resurrection. Anything else is another gospel.
  • I find it liberating that Jesus was very clear on the one hand regarding what discipleship would entail - letting Him be in charge, willingness to suffer for His sake, self-denial, a light yoke, rest - but at the same time never tried to coerce - not the rich young ruler nor his own disciples at the end of John 6.

    Peter's response there to the question, "Do you guys want to leave me too?" probably summarizes best why they continued following and why I want to follow Him too: Where shall we go? You have words of eternal life!
  • Just one more thought on Peter: you wrote,

    "Its easy to hear “must” and walk away thinking, “If I’m not doing it God must be disgusted with me.”

    Maybe that's exactly what went through his head when he went back to his old job after his experience with personal failure.
  • roncole
    The more I read the gospels I discover " following " Jesus is a profound journey of discovery. It's as if in a sense we unknowingly walk into this abundant life. The disciples followed unknowingly. There was no statement of belief prior to departure. Even up till the crucifixion, they really were not sure what Jesus was all about. But it is in this profound submission, sacrifice, of emerging your life in to the life of Jesus. We become " Christ-like." Or as Paul says to the Galatians, " I have died, I no longer live...it is Christ who now lives my life. It is not a " must ", it is whether you want the life of Jesus. It can not be found in the static life of mere belief...it simply is lived.
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