I have been thinking about how quietly the world disciples us.

We seldom consciously decide what we will believe about success, security, significance, power, possessions, relationships, failure, or approval. Much of it has already been written into us.

From childhood we absorb what makes someone important, what success looks like, what gives security, what earns approval, what failure means, how power should be used, what we should desire, and what we should fear.

Much of this happens before we ever stop to ask whether it is true.

Perhaps this is why following Jesus is more than believing a different set of doctrines. It is the gradual re-discipling of the imagination.

By imagination, I do not mean fantasy or wishful thinking. I mean the inner picture we carry of what is real, what matters, what gives life meaning, what makes us significant, and what we should desire or fear.

Much of that picture has been formed before we ever consciously chose it.

The world has been teaching us how to see.

Jesus comes not simply to give us new beliefs, but to give us new eyes. He begins to reshape our imagination, to change the way we see success, failure, power, possessions, relationships, suffering, significance, and even ourselves.

Jesus does not merely say, “Believe differently.”

He says: “Follow Me.”

To follow Him is to allow Him to teach us another way of seeing, and eventually, another way of living. For those of us who lead, this involves several profound adjustments.

From Self-rule to Christ’s rule.

The question changes from "What do I want?" to "What does Jesus want?" This is lordship, not simply adding Jesus to our lives, but allowing Him to re-order them.

From Achievement to Faithfulness.

The world keeps a visible scoreboard: money, influence, growth, recognition, accomplishment. God’s scoreboard is often hidden: faithfulness, humility, love, purity, obedience and perseverance.

We can build something impressive and still build with materials that will not survive God’s evaluation. Paul reminds us in 1 Corinthians 3 that God is concerned not only with what we build, but how we build.

From Independence to Dependence.

The world admires, “I can handle it.”

Jesus says: “Apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Spiritual maturity does not necessarily make us less capable. It makes us less self-reliant. We continue to work, plan and lead, but increasingly from the awareness that we cannot do it without Him.

From Control to Trust.

Much of leadership is an attempt to secure the future. We plan, accumulate resources, build relationships and develop influence. Yet Jesus reminds us that our Heavenly Father knows what we need.

Kingdom maturity means learning to act responsibly without demanding certainty. We do what God has given us to do and trust Him with what remains beyond our control.

From Consumption to Stewardship.

The world’s question is, "What can I get?"

The Kingdom asks, "What has God entrusted to me?"

Our time, resources, influence, relationships, leadership, and even our remaining years, are no longer simply possessions. They are trusts.

From Self-protection to Sacrificial Love.

The world teaches us to protect ourselves. Jesus teaches us to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Him.

This does not mean abandoning wisdom or permitting abuse. It means our lives are no longer organized primarily around preserving ourselves.

From Appearance to Character.

Jesus continually draws us beneath appearances to the heart.

Perhaps one of the most searching questions of discipleship is:

"Who am I when nobody is watching?"

The world trains us to manage impressions. Jesus forms character.

And beneath all these adjustments is something even deeper:

Our loves must be re-ordered.

I can know intellectually that money is not ultimate while inwardly believing that money makes me safe. I can know that God’s approval matters more than man’s while still craving admiration. I can confess that Christ is sufficient while quietly depending upon another person’s affirmation.

The Kingdom reaches beneath our beliefs into our loves, desires, fears and attachments.

Slowly, sometimes painfully, the Spirit teaches the heart to release what it has trusted and to say what the mind may have known for years:

Christ is enough.

Perhaps this is the real challenge of leaving the world’s system. The world’s wisdom can become so deeply embedded in us that it feels like common sense.

Following Jesus is therefore a lifelong journey of allowing the Spirit to uncover where the world’s wisdom still lives within us, and replacing it, little by little, with the mind and life of Christ.

The Kingdom does not merely ask us to leave the world.

It asks Christ to re-form the person the world has made us into.

And perhaps true wisdom begins there, not when I become more certain of what I know, but when I become humble enough to let Jesus teach me again.

THINK ABOUT THIS: "Are we trying to live on the other side of resurrection without passing through the pattern of the cross?"