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Distinguishing Features of Discipleship
Or, How to Recognise a 21st Century Disciple
In our twenty-first century world we are used to judging whether an individual is ‘properly qualified’ by their academic successes, the number of letters they are entitled to put after their name, the impressiveness of their cv and the profile of the jobs they have already undertaken.
There are, however, growing numbers of individuals from all walks of life and all corners of the globe whose suitability for important and often sensitive national and international tasks cannot simply be measured by the traditional methods. These are the twenty-first century disciples whose most valuable training has taken place outside the mainstream, and therefore goes unrecognised. Their cv’s will rarely accurately represent the wide ranging understandings and skills they have at their disposal, as well as the deeply penetrating spiritual, global, historical and ‘big picture’ perspectives they bring to every situation. Our society is simply not trained to recognise mature and highly effectives disciples.
Perhaps this is understandable, for discipleship training (be it formal or as the result of life’s testing), with its resultant radical re-orientation of life purpose and widening perception, forms the deep, solid but invisible bedrock on which all outer structures are built. Genuine disciples will always commit to bring to bear all of their training and insights on every task they are given, but they have traditionally worked silently and without recognition in all areas of human endeavour promoting human progress and pushing humanity out of ignorance and inertia.
So how do we recognise the twenty-first century disciple? While they will differ in many ways from disciples of earlier periods (see the article A Reflection on Discipleship Training) and while we will no longer be able to recognise them by their formal religious affiliation, they too will be primarily known by their high ethical standards, their life orientation and intense sense of wider purpose, their commitment to act in alignment with Divine will, their global consciousness and the practical, loving and generous ‘fruit’, as Jesus described it, of their lives.
Distinguishing Features
The mature twenty-first century disciple can be recognised by the following distinguishing features:
(These have been listed to make them easier to work with.)
Commitment to divine Purpose and Plan
· Coherently aligns with and works (consistently and long-term) on behalf of Divine Will, Purpose, Heart and Plan – as soul, and without small, exclusivist or personal agendas
· Shows consistent ability to hold a high point of spiritual tension, to focus, and to maintain true direction or course
· Understands the potency of prayer and meditation as tools of alignment
· Desires what is ‘best’ (that is, what is in alignment with divine purpose) for humanity as a whole, not one group or faction
· Thinks and acts universally
· Gradually begins to know the Plan, rather than relying on someone else to reveal it to him or her. Understands the Plan as it has worked out through the preceding Ages, is increasingly conscious of the way it is currently working out, senses what is spiritually imminent – and co-operates with these revelations
· Shows singleness of purpose and motive, plus purity of intent (like the Jewish singleness of heart rather than a double heart). This produces steadiness, the capacity to stand (commitment) and to drive forward
· Sees God in all, and all as a crucial part of the ongoing process of unfoldment
· Shows evidence of reliable spiritual guidance untainted, as far as is humanly possible, by ego or personal agenda. Has the capacity to correctly interpret such guidance
Capacity to face two ways simultaneously
· Lives simultaneously the committed, acutely sensitive and aligned inner life and the life of an acutely effective human being committed to humanity and to serving in the world at all times
· Exhibits the capacity to fulfil his or her own destiny and to forget that destiny, participating fully in the planetary journey/destiny
· Concentrates on the next step for humanity and the planet, not upon her own ‘salvation’
· Shows worldly wisdom as well as spiritual insight
Capacity to see the big picture
· Exhibits an indepth understanding of the stupendous intelligently guided journey or process of unfoldment - cosmic, planetary and human
· Sees present issues in relation to the entire unfoldment process that includes a vast past and future
Commitment to serve humanity and the planet
· Oriented away from the self
· Thinks in terms of the whole, and the good of the whole
· Exhibits a high level of relationship with all kingdoms of nature and the planet itself
· Shows a highly developed sense of world need, and sensitivity to that need
· Is committed to serve humanity and the planet in an unconditionally loving, intelligent way
· Lives with the heart continuously engaged, and head, heart, will and creative action harmoniously synthesised. Works from the heart in unconditional love and compassion, though this love may appear very different from and ‘tougher’ than Piscean love
· Promotes right relationship of part and whole
· Sees service as a ‘life demonstration’
Highly refined attributes
· Disciplined, refined and tested in the ‘refiner’s fire’.
· Exhibits purity of motive and a high degree of integrity, authenticity, congruency and reliability at all times, no matter what the circumstance
· Exhibits steadiness, steadfastness, persistence and perseverance
· Shows discernment and discrimination. Applies this to every situation
· Exhibits acute mental clarity, and clear vision based on direct knowing
· Has the courage to stand, and to ask hard questions, of himself and others:
“Am I acting and relating with integrity? Honesty? Compassion? Right use of power?”
“Do I make wise use of money to serve spiritual purposes?”
“Do I live every moment in a spirit of unconditional love while at the same time being prepared to speak out fearlessly on certain social, communal, environmental and ethical issues?”
· Does not become glamoured by power
· Realises that the light she helps shed on the way highlights and helps eliminate darkness or evil. Bears the fire of spirit
· Sacrifices time, energy, money and self in consistent ongoing service
· Dares in every circumstance. Risktakes, and is always to be found in the vanguard or at the cutting edge. A spiritual trailblazer
· Shows boldness, and the willingness to stand up and be counted. Dares to speak out and to act
· Is willing to criticise sacred cows. Is willing to take criticism or abuse
· Is highly creative and expresses beauty in the world. Exhibits a high degree of originality and refuses to be categorized
Capacity to work with spiritual principles
· Exhibits a strongly developed sense of synthesis or oneness. Rejects narrow, divisive or exclusivist perspectives (anyone who works to divide or exclude cannot be said to be working with Divine Purpose and Will). Stands above all separatist creeds, theologies, terminologies and jargon
· Renounces prejudice, crosses barriers and refuses to be boxed
· Exhibits a well developed sense of proportion, and correct perspective. Understands the relative significance of part and whole; sees things as they truly are. This is true humility
· Works consciously, powerfully and wisely with energy. Understands the relationship between energy and form, spirit and matter. Works with love, the energy which coheres the universe
· Understands when to speak and when to remain silent
· Prepared, where necessary, to be an ‘agent of destruction’ – of all that hinders divine purpose and plan (religious, political, scientific, economic, educational and social)
· Acts also as an ‘agent of initiation and order’
· Understands and works with rhythm and perfect timing, or ‘kairos’
· Works toward ‘radical simplicity on the far side of complexity’
· Understands and implements spiritual laws with utter impartiality
Practical grounded action: the twenty-first century disciple is intensely practical, and competent in the world, no matter what the service task.
· Expresses the spiritual life in practical action
· Holds himself open to revelation of part of the Plan, then grounds the revelation in useful dedicated service
· Not a vague idealist, but someone who works in very creative, practical and grounded ways to make the vision a reality. Lives the life; walks the talk
· Understands and works competently with the laws of manifestation. Builds inspirited forms (in all areas of life) based on right alignment, right relationship, right power, right flow
· Acts as a transformational catalyst
· Lives the spiritual life day by day where he or she is
· Remains in the world, a person of action on behalf of the world
· Exhibits the capacity to stand pressure and to work amidst the misery (“a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”) and chaos of world situations, and in the darkness that often hides the way
· Is self-motivated, self-reliant and able to ‘go it’ alone if necessary with virtually no support, encouragement or recognition
· Is also very capable of working at a high level with group. Understands the deeper aspects of group functioning. Works with Aquarian group dynamics to build highly effective group functioning based on: alignment with Divine will, wide vision and sense of Plan, relation of individual and group etc
· Demonstrates highly developed skills in Aquarian spiritual leadership
· Exhibits practical goodwill and the will-to-good
· Does not waste time trying to impose her personal approach to God onto others. Emphasises ‘living by example’ the life of the spirit in the everyday world and producing the ‘fruit’ of the spirit
· Demonstrates forgiveness
· Takes responsibility at every level for her own life and work
· Recognises her responsibility to everybody or thing within her sphere of influence. Teaches mainly by example
· Exhibits the capacity to recognise and work with essentials. Demonstrates simplicity, economy and the capacity to walk lightly on the earth while also confidently and astutely working in the midst of complexity
· Fights for right and truth, while retaining love
· Exhibits vigilance, and the capacity to deal quickly and effectively with expressions of evil
· Works with an absolute surety of the eventual triumph of good – and God’s purpose/plan
· Commits to be:
An ‘intelligent agent’
A ‘rising agent’ (as in yeast)
A firebearer – mature disciples will bear the ‘light of the soul’, but primarily they will bear the ‘fire of spirit’
· Exhibits the capacity to contact Divine Will and make it manifest on earth. This is a real danger area if the disciple allows any personal agenda to intrude
· Attends to every service task with loving detachment, then relinquishes and moves on without the need for recognition or praise
Maybe this is why we don’t immediately recognise a twenty-first century disciple. Mature disciples have always worked largely unrecognised, and they always will. But it is time that we learnt to recognise and appreciate the breadth of talent and spiritual wisdom they have to offer across all fields of human endeavour.
Traditionally they may have worked mainly in the humanitarian fields. In this cuspal time between Ages, their skills and experience will be needed at every flashpoint and wherever old forms are being challenged, and new skills have yet to be learned.
“What is arresting about these persons of Universalising faith and God-grounded selfhood is that in quiet or in public ways they live as though the kingdom of God were already a realised fact among us. They thereby create zones of liberation and redemption in the world which are both threatening and freeing to the rest of us.” (1)
Because they are designed to be spiritual trailblazers, disciples are not necessarily comfortable people to work with. They see further and more truly than the rest of us, they challenge, they will confidently go where most of us fear to tread. And in doing so, they liberate and, most important of all, they catalyse the next phase of humanity’s great evolutionary journey of unfoldment. It is time we learnt to recognise them, and make full use of all that their cv’s don’t include.
References
1. Fowler, JW Faith Development and Pastoral Care Fortress Press 1987 Ch4 ‘Stages of Selfhood and Faith’
By Jan Lawson
www.ists-spiritualschool.org
From section: 21st century Discipleship
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