Five Revelations: The 'Mark 4' Problem & Solution

Instructions:
The first revelation we received was through the word of God in Mark 4:

We saw a 'hardpan' being created by an overwhelming onslaught of information coming at us each day. This hardpan results in constant distractions, a sense of urgency, overwhelm and forgetfulness that allows the truth and application of God's word to be easily stolen.

We saw that the 'shallow soil' was our lack of self discipline. We are simply too overwhelmed and easily distracted to pursue God in a consistent and meaningful way.

We saw the 'weeds' are our entanglements with the ways of the world. Unable to apply God's word, we find ourselves pursuing what other people think of us, what we have, what we do and what we think of ourselves.

We saw that the seeds of God's word were being lost. God's word was not penetrating to the deep places in our hearts and minds. We were not becoming nor making disciples. Busyness, distraction, forgetfulness and overwhelm are the problem. Any solution, because it required more of our time and effort, was perceived as only contributing to our sense of being overburdened. This is the 'Mark 4 Problem'.

Instructions:
We received a second revelation:

The Navitent platform is God's inspired innovation that is designed to work as a drill, bringing an organized, systematic and persistent onslaught of training in God's word. This drill will work to penetrate the hardpan of information overwhelm, assist us with our lack of self discipline and deliver us from our entanglements with the ways of the world. The Navitent platform is God's tool to deliver the seeds of God's word to the fertile soil where we can apply it to the realities of our daily lives and see the fruit that only He is capable of producing.

Eager to apply this revelation, we began with the one action God stated was most important to Him: "To love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind" (Matthew 22:34).

Instructions:
We realized that our entanglements with the ways of the world were much deeper and more severe than we first imagined. False idols were influencing our thoughts, beliefs, behaviors, choices and relationships in ways we were not able to fully comprehend.

We set out to free ourselves from these entanglements by understanding, identifying, overcoming and, finally, defeating the false idols of our day.

Instructions:
We received a third revelation:

Like the stock market on Wall Street, there exists a very real market in the 'Economy of the Kingdom of God'. In this market we could make daily investments in the fruit of God's Spirit and grow in our maturity in Christ and as disciples to our Lord and Savior.

Instructions:
We understood that to become successful investors in the 'The Economy of the Kingdom of God', we needed to have a clear understanding of the Biblical requirements of discipleship.

We agreed to take three courses before we entered the market:

Instructions:
Having established our Biblical understanding of the Kingdom of God and what it means to be a disciple of our Lord, we set out to enter the market of 'The Economy of the Kingdom of God' and make our daily investments in His Kingdom Economy. These investments would be the basis of our daily training as we sought to become His disciples.

We made investments in the fruit of His Spirit including the:

Instructions:
In addition to making daily investments into His Kingdom Economy, we agreed to deepen our commitment to The Lord by returning to our daily training in the instruction He stated was most important to Him: "To love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind" (Matthew 22:34).

Instructions:
Having renewed our commitment to love our Lord first and foremost, completed our training in defeating the false idols and making daily investments in His Kingdom Economy, we saw that we were still having difficulty getting the seeds of God's word in the deep places of our hearts, souls and mind...We needed more.

Instructions:
We then added daily training in Sanctification and witnessed the seeds of God's begin to slowly, but steadily make their way down into the deep soil. We had overcome the hardpan, shallow soil and our entanglements. We were truly receiving Him! Daily training in Sanctification had been the missing piece.

Instructions:
We received a fourth revelation:

The forces of the world, our flesh and the enemy form a persistent, organized, systematic onslaught against the seeds of joy and hope God has placed within us. We saw, in attempting to become disciples, we were fighting this onslaught with a strategy that entailed: going to church services, joining accountability groups, attending weekend retreats, Bible Studies, reading Christian books, etc.

This strategy, while encouraging, was simply not enough to fully reveal and consistently sustain the joy and glory God had set within us. We were fighting a losing battle. We then saw that the Navitent platform was more than just a 'drill' or 'tool', it was God's inspired strategy: giving us a greater persistent, organized, systematic onslaught against the forces that were preventing us from receiving and sustaining the full harvest of God's joy and glory in our lives.

Properly armed with the word of God and this new strategy, we set out to seek and sustain this joy and glory for His pleasure and ours!

Instructions:
We began to meet together in small platoons to fulfill His Great Commission: to go out into the world and make disciples to the Lord, Jesus Christ.

Instructions:
As we set out as disciples, we received a fifth and final revelation:

We saw that, in addition to being a strategy, The Lord was going to use the Navitent platform as a new infrastructure for His Internet. Through this infrastructure, we saw Him spreading a full measure of His mercy, love and life to people worldwide. We saw Him sending healing and restoration through the Internet. We saw His Spirit going out to multitudes who would come to see, hear and follow Him. We saw row after row after row of His disciples rising up as one army of Christ. We saw multitudes coming to glory. We saw God transforming 'social networking' into 'discipleship networking'. We saw the Groom with His Bride. This is the 'Mark 4 Solution'.