AS A DISCIPLE

Paul Aremo-Oluwa

Dear Believer,

Those years I spent as a Muslim and an Arabic scholar were defining moments in my personal history. It gave birth to the lifestyle of discipleship that proved useful to me now and I guess anyone that came out of such background.

Like the apostle Paul, I studied Arabic and the Quran under one of the finest teachers. The school rightly named Al-Akhyar literally means "The Best." My Teacher studied in the university of Cairo, Egypt. He actively still work with the World Assembly of Muslim Youths (WAMY), an international organisation with an arm in Nigeria. He still teaches Arabic and Islamic studies in one of the government secondary schools in Lagos. He is vast in the political and religious history of the Arabs. Much more, he doesn't conform to the Nigerian way of adding traditions to Islamic practices. Compared to the way most Quranic schools operated then, we outclassed our peers.

We didn't wear the normal Jellabiya (collarless gown) rather, male and female wore green suit and trousers. We didn't recite the Quran with Yoruba dialect as others do. We knew the importance of adding a diacritic "Sukun" which denotes absence of a vowel sound. E.g. Instead of pronouncing the name Kamalu, we terminate the last vowel ("U") and simply say, Kamal. We only and always recited the Quran with melodious intonation, something that made my dad always want to hear me recite. We learnt that from simply observing our teacher.

He is an Hafiz -someone capable of memorising and reciting the whole book of the Quran off hand. When he led the whole congregation in Taraweeh prayers (special prayers during ramadan) every night we all stand for an hour or more as he recites melodiously from the Quran off hand, only making few mistakes greeted promptly by corrections by those directly behind him, to which he is quick to pick and follow in his pace again. These were what we saw and envied, and strived to attain.

For us then, discipleship meant our teacher's thoughts must become our very own ideologies. We hold them dear, and to model our lives after the sort was to fully grasp mastery of life's essence and pursuit. His enemies were our enemies. We hated what he hated. We recited the Quran same way he did. We were set apart from other Arabic and Quranic scholars and we didn't advertise it, the whole community knew us.

I learned how to sit quietly and recite the Quran to myself. I read the Quran for fun. I wanted to be alone to enjoy reading. We were introduced to each chapter by a personal recitation from our teacher (who we foldly refer to in yoruba as "Alfa") in the call and response mode. He decides when we have mastery of each chapter. My memory was stretched in so much it was almost a sin to forget what I was taught. Large portions of Quran chapters are still stuck up my head even as a Believer of Christ. I attained all that because of discipleship without any supernatural help from the Holy Spirit.

When I became a Christian the appetite for God's word set me on my own to study and to learn. This was in 2011, I was in the university. My hall mates thought I was avoiding them on purpose. Six hours reading the bible was just for pure holy pleasure. Sometimes I only leave the room once a day. In no time no single sentence could escape my lips without a portion of scripture mixing up in it, either I was joking or talking.

The desire to be by yourself to devote your time and life to the mastery of God's word (or will) is what is called discipleship (Ephesians 1:17-18 and 5:27, Colossians 1:9 and 2:2). This is why believers are rightly called the Lord's disciples throughout the Book of Acts. More fascinating and intriguing, in the Quran, Christians and Jews are bestowed such honour of being addressed as "The people of the Book." How amazingly surprising then, that even with the help of the Holy Spirit and opportunities provided by technology we still refuse to be disciples.

On one verse of a chapter believers have thousands of contrary opinions and ten thousand conflicting interpretations. This always rouses holy anger in me during Bible study. We read the same word and apply it in a relativistic manner. Believers can't sit for 30-45 minutes listening to the word without gazing at the clock or feel the need to check WhatsApp and Facebook notifications. Yet we want to teach all nations? Back then as Muslims we stood for more than an hour when reciting the Quran. During one month Ramadam fasting we were encouraged to finish the Quran in one month and it is no big deal. Each Ramadan night lecture was subject to the preacher's discretion of time. Six days out of the week's seven days we came to study and recite the Quran twice. Our teacher doesn't have to be there to teach something new, you are expected to push the boundary by advancing in self study or you go back to the previous lessons taught.

I hear and see some believers read the WORD for fifteen minutes and they are already asleep or tired. Some pray five minutes and they felt they have prayed down heaven itself. Little wonder our conviction of God's WORD is shallow. Our faith is baselessly based on "My pastor said" and our thoughts invaded with all kinds of things except the WORD.

I was in attendance in a meeting where the preacher was scorned for "Taking their time" because he exceeded the time allotted to him. Acts chapter 20 gave an account of Paul's long preaching during which Eutychus dozed off and fell down from the building's storey dead. Paul raised him up and continued preaching so Eutychus couldn't have anywhere to escape his long preaching. People sat and heard Lord Jesus for three days and didn't eat (Matthew 15:38); this was where He multiplied seven loaves and few fishes. At another time He preached morning till evening and after it He multiplied five loaves and two fishes.

Sound doctrine takes time to birth. It takes time to digest. Conviction takes time to forge. A disciple is not a follower of someone. NO! This is an aberration of the purpose of God. A disciple is a man moulded by conviction(s). You look at him and you can see his master living through him. He has leapt beyond opinions, or rather, lost his opinions. His convictions are now his very life. To take away his conviction one must first take away the very breath he breathes. To kill his conviction is to kill him first -that is the blueprint of martyrs. When they speak, they are not sharing knowledge -they barely have the leisure of time to waste on such sheer frivolity. Rather they are absolutely convinced that no other way and life is worthwhile except what pounds into the eardrums of their audience. No time in history is greater and more consequential to their audience than at that moment. No other place on earth worth to be than in that place and moment. Their words are exactly their own spirit mingled with their very life and diffused through audible speech into their audience atmosphere. Sound doctrine is the juice derived from devotion to WORD study, it is the oil that fuels the engine of conviction.

Sound doctrine and the life of a disciple are not something that you really like but you endure it anyways. Paul told Timothy "the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears." 2 Timothy 4:3

Not that people will not hear sound doctrines but they will lack capacity to ENDURE (bear) it. Sound doctrine is surely boring compared to teachings that stimulate the flesh through flatteries and enticing words. And out of laziness to study, men shall become dreamers; seduced by fantasies of their hearts and teachers shall override the word of truth by innocent opinions and unknowingly churn out false doctrines. For sound doctrine is a laborious occupation: "Let the elders that rule well be counted worthy of double honour, ESPECIALLY they who LABOUR in the WORD and DOCTRINE." 1Timothy 5:17

Doctrine and study is a exhausting journey both for the teacher and the taught. I can only describe this best as travailing to bring forth. I don't need to dig deep into church history to know that the place of studying the word and praying birth revival. Anywhere you find people who assemble because they solely seek to derive pleasure from listening to the WORD, and when what they listen to moves them to pray and do further study, you'll always see the Spirit breakout and a revival ensue.

How amazing I find it to be that we must add entertainment to our meetings so people don't get bored. We chip in "varieties" so people can be glued to their seats. The dearth of disciples is upon us now. We are birthing spineless babies whose identities are tied to men, names, places and things.

When some folks say they don't understand the scripture, you ask where did you start reading and they tell you verse "kini" and when you counsel, why don't you read the whole chapter? The proceeding and preceding chapter? They vanish into the thin air. A doubting Thomas is in the making. Spiritual spine comes from understanding God's word and then comes the will to consistently choose what you understand, as absolute even in the presence of your doubts.

In the last days time will be costlier than silver and gold. When people are told to pay the price they barely know price is a substitute word for TIME. Hebrews 11:6 shows clearly God rewards diligence in seeking Him. You are not paying the price to make spiritual realities available -No! Christ did that. But you pay the price to access what Christ has made available to you by giving in your time and attention. Just as someone already paid into your account but you access that money in your account via waiting on a long ATM queue or a bank cashier, the TIME FACTOR is inevitable. Spiritual growth is according to the knowledge of Christ that opens you up to the grace available to you as stated in 2 Peter 1:2 and 1 Peter 2:2.

But as the Lord is restoring seekers in such remote places as China, the move will prevail here in Nigeria too. The mighty ones will arise, those sanctified to the Lord Himself. Those schooled in the art of God's presence though without adequate words to express it shall come forth as opposed to those who know how to talk about God's presence but lack the experience. Entertainment will not be enough to satisfy the hunger of their heart. Sensationalism will be offensive to their ears. Nothing will do and nothing will matter. They will pray long and study hard. They will seek God for God not goodies. They are the generation that seeks His face.

Let all saints now say but we will give ourselves to the ministry of the Word and Prayer and let conviction sweep across Zion's streets once again. Yes Lord! We are willing.