RELEASED: Living From Our True Identity, Part 12
SCRIPTURE
…And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.” … And Jesus said to them, “Follow me, and I will make you become fishers of men." - Mark 1:10–11, 17 (ESV)
MEDITATION
Thirty years in the field have taught me one thing about launches: the ones that hold are the ones that follow the pattern Jesus set for himself in Mark 1. Most of the rest, with all their strategy and energy, eventually fold. The sequence matters.
Heaven Opened
As Jesus comes up out of the water, the heavens tear open, and two distinct things happen for him. There is empowerment: the Spirit descending on him like a dove. And there is identity: the Father's voice rolling down, You are my beloved Son. With you I am well pleased. Both arrive before a parable has been told or a disciple has been called, and together they become the foundation of everything that follows. If Jesus himself needed both, what makes us think we can do without either?
I had to learn this the long way. I graduated from theology school in early 1991, called and convinced. But on December 4th of that same year I encountered the Holy Spirit, and in that one moment the Lord spoke his belovedness over me and gave me both the vision for the Great Commission and the faith to walk in it. Until that day I had been working hard. After it, I was sent. There is a difference.
The Wilderness
The same Spirit who descended on Jesus at the river drove him into the wilderness next. Mark dedicates two verses to it, and the verses do a lot of work: "The Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him" (Mark 1:12–13).
We sometimes read this challenging encounter like a chapter that closes. Jesus was tempted, he won, the devil left. But the gospels keep going. The warfare came back: Through demons in people who needed deliverance, through religious leaders who tried to trap him with their rules, through powerful people who used authority and money to silence him. It even came through the same crowds he had been feeding and healing, who turned and shouted, “Crucify him!”
My own life with the Lord has been a series of expansions into his destiny for me, and I have not had even one expansion without a season of pain and suffering and testing. Not always have I walked through them the way Jesus did. But his grace has kept me growing, and it has filled me with gratefulness and humility. Suffering is not a sign that the sequence has broken. It is part of the sequence. The Father's voice does not stop speaking belovedness over us in those seasons. The Spirit does not stop ministering to us through them. Both stay.
A Team Gathered
It was out of that wilderness, and into the ones that kept returning, that Jesus called his first team. Simon dropped his net mid-cast; Andrew followed his brother; James and John walked away from their father Zebedee, who was still sitting in the boat with the hired men. None of them were perfect men, and they would argue, doubt, deny, and run before the story was over. But they had left everything to follow him, and that was enough. Learners more than leaders, sacrificial more than polished, they were willing where it mattered most. Jesus did not start with the impressive. He started with the willing.
A Movement Born
A team of men who dropped their nets and followed formed the foundation of a movement that has carried the gospel into every culture, every language, and every century since. None of them set out to start a movement; they set out to follow Jesus. The movement was simply the fruit of belovedness, empowering, and willing surrender flowing through ordinary people.
That is still how Jesus works: he affirms and anoints his disciples, calls them out of their boats, and builds his movements through their willing hearts. It has never been any different.
So if you are in the beginning stages of a ministry launch, do not despise it. If your team feels small, unfinished, or unimpressive, Jesus started that way too. Hear the Father speak over you. Let the Spirit fall fresh. Then call the ordinary people he has placed around you, because the movement of Jesus is still going forward.
REFLECTION
Sit with the Father's words over Jesus and let him speak them over you today. You are my beloved. Receive that, and then ask the same Spirit who descended on Jesus to fall fresh on you, empowering you for what he has called you to do.
Where is the wilderness in your story right now? The warfare that keeps coming back, the people who have wounded you, the season where you have wounded yourself? Sit there and listen for the Father's voice. He has not stopped speaking belovedness over you, and the Spirit has not stopped ministering to you. Both are still there.
Who are the unfinished, ordinary people God has placed around you? Name them by name, and pray that he would build something multiplying through their willing hearts.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
James Paul is a fifth-generation follower of Christ and third-generation movement leader from South Asia, now based in Kansas City with his wife Sarah and their six children. He serves as a Global Catalyst on the Novo Global Partners Lead Team, walking with teams pursuing gospel movements across the UK, Africa, the United States, Asia, the Middle East, and South America. He writes weekly at jamespaul007.substack.com.