How Can We Follow Jesus if You Don't Know Where He Is Telling Us to Go?

In the Gospel accounts of Matthew, Mark, and Luke, Jesus begins his ministry to his disciples with the simple invitation: “Follow me.”

Consider these words from the Gospel of Mark:

In certain circles of the church today, it is becoming more and more common for Christians to distance themselves from the name “Christian,” and instead describe themselves as a disciple, apprentice, or simply a follower of Jesus.

The biblical support for this is simple — “Christianity” begins when Simon and his brother Andrew decide to follow Jesus.

In the text, the implication is that they as Jewish men are deciding to follow Jesus as a Rabbi, learning from his words and ways. This notion of following continues into the early Christian tradition.

In the Book of Acts, for instance, the group following Jesus is most commonly referred to as the Way (Acts 9:2, 18:25-26, 19:9, 19:23, 24:14, 24:22), implying that the group identified themselves as following the ways of their Rabbi.

At the end of the disciples’ apprenticeship to Jesus, they are commissioned to continue on in this work of going, teaching, baptizing, and obeying, all of which is summed up in the phrase “make disciples” (Matthew 28:18-20).

Most importantly, however, and perhaps most forgotten, is the final element of the Great Commission: “And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (For more famous and more complete ideas than mine on this topic, please see Dallas Willard’s The Great Omission.)

In other words, the work of following Jesus and making disciples is meant to be done with Jesus — in His presence.

To follow Jesus is not primarily to come around a certain political ideology, to subscribe to specific set of worship practices, to commit to any particular hot-take issues, to merely go to church — to follow Jesus means that we follow Him. We follow a Person, not an idea. (And, to be fair, that Person should inform our political ideologies, worship practices, and perspectives on hot-take issues — we just need to know what comes first!)

And to follow Jesus, we must know where He is telling us to go!

And for this, the last line of the Great Commission is incredibly important — “I am with you always.”

If we are not engaging the presence of Jesus in our lives, we run the risk of imitating an idea of Jesus, subscribing to a set of beliefs about Jesus, or believing what others tell us about Jesus instead of encountering Him for ourselves. If we are not endeavoring to hear God and respond, I question if we are following a real Person or merely an idea.

Of course, we must follow Him in alignment with His teachings (otherwise we risk following our own subjective understandings of where He might be leading us), and all the other elements of the Great Commission.

Yet, I think that last line of the Great Commission implies the how we are meant to go about following Jesus — with Him!

Consider the words of Jesus in John 15:5:

Faithfully being with Jesus will always lead to the fruitfulness of following Jesus where he is going in our lives.

So, where is the presence of Jesus inviting us to go today?

For some of us, abiding in the presence of Jesus means staying right where we are. There is a saying that I am fond of — “whatever you can’t get out of, go further into” (I first heard this from Ronald Rolheiser.) Staying in the presence of Jesus leads some of us to root, plant, and go deeper when we’d maybe rather run away. This is the tradition of the apostles in Acts 8:1, who, when the rest of the church is scattered, felt called to plant and continue to establish the church in Jerusalem even in the face of opposition. It’s the tradition of the many local churches that Paul visits in his time traveling throughout the Roman empire, the ones to whom Paul instructs to “remain in the situation they were in when God called them” (1 Corinthians 7:20), and it’s the tradition of many throughout history who have felt the call to root, plant, build and seek the welfare of the city God has placed them in (Jeremiah 29:7).

For others, abiding in the presence of Jesus means following Jesus across our fear and into God’s future for us. This is the tradition of Elijah, who has to leave when the brook dries up (1 Kings 17:7), of Abraham, who has to go even when he does not know where he is going (Gen 12:1), and of the many saints and heroes of history who have felt God’s invitations to cross the boundary, press the edges, and expand the domain of God’s kingdom into some new place or territory.

Sometimes God invites us to stay, and sometimes God invites us to go. The key is not whether we stay or go in a place, it’s whether we stay or go with Jesus. I love the Apostle Paul because he models both — sometimes he feels God’s invitation to stay, such as in Ephesus when he stays for two full years to teach (Acts 19:10), and other times he travels frequently and quickly to where God has called him to go (see, for instance, Acts 16). Even Jesus demonstrates both the dramatic act of leaving heaven to come to earth and the rootedness of never traveling outside the boundaries of ancient Israel.

The key is abiding in Jesus. Doing it with him. Truly following Him.

So, where is He inviting you to go today? What does staying with the Presence of Jesus mean for you?

I’d love to invite us to pray today:

• Begin by taking some deep breaths in and out. Perhaps as you breathe in pray “Come,” and as you breathe out pray “Holy Spirit.”

• Once you feel settled, begin to identify: is this a season where following Jesus means staying, rooting, planting, and going further in? Or is this a season where following Jesus means going, trusting, and stepping over fear into God’s future for us?

I love hearing from those of you who are coming alive and living more in love with Jesus. Always feel free to hit “reply” and let me know if there is any way that I can support you in prayer.