Daily Directions
FOLLOW THE WAY
1. Daily Directions
WEEK 1 - DAY 1
Follow Me
Matthew 4:19
Jesus said, “Come, follow me.”
Jesus calls us to be His followers or disciples. A disciple is someone who becomes a student or an apprentice of someone else in order to be with them and ultimately become like them. Apprenticeships have been successfully used for years—make that centuries—in the skilled trades. For example, by working alongside a certified plumber, an apprentice effectively learns the plumbing business. A Christian disciple, then, signs up to be Jesus’ student or apprentice in order to get to know Him better and to learn how to live life as if Jesus were in his or her shoes. So discipleship isn’t just about believing in Jesus; it’s also about becoming like Him in everything we think, say and do. Discipleship is the process of becoming and maturing as Jesus’ disciple.
The purpose of Follow The Way is to help you passionately follow Jesus and personally live His way of life. Follow The Way is an invitation to start a discipleship journey with Jesus using these seven Maps:
Daily Directions
The Story
The Mission
The Great Greats
Freedom in Christ
Naturally Supernatural
Relationships, Work & Calling
Are you ready for a life-changing journey of following Jesus?
FOUR ONGOING STEPS
To help with this discipleship journey, Follow the Way cycles through four steps in our walk with Jesus:
Connecting with God
Several times a week you will be connecting with God through prayer and Bible reading. This is often called daily devotions. We call it Daily Directions because you’ll be going to God to get a roadmap for each day’s journey.
Supporting Each Other
You won’t be taking this journey alone. You’ll have some travel companions. With a Guide and one or two other people, you’ll discuss your Daily Directions and share what God has been saying to you through them. We call these Weekly Huddles. Keep in mind your guide is not an expert in the faith. They’re just a few steps ahead of you in this discipleship journey and will help you scout out your route ahead.
Living Life
This is where the rubber meets the road. In the Daily Directions and the Weekly Huddles, you will be asked to make I Will Statements. These are personal and practical action steps that you will take to walk out your faith in Jesus. Follow The Way is built on what could be called obedience-based discipleship. Each week at your huddle you will be asked how your I Will Statement from the week before has gone. By building accountability into the journey, you’ll be encouraged to keep going and growing.
Guiding Others
The goal in all of this is not only to help you follow Jesus, but to help you help others follow Jesus too. Follow The Way will prepare you to share with others what Jesus has done in your life and help guide them in their journey with Jesus. In this way, your discipleship journey comes full circle as you return to the beginning to help someone else get started on their journey. The goal of Follow The Way is to create a movement of disciple-making disciples.
DAILY DIRECTIONS
This first Map of Follow The Way is about how to connect with God through prayer and Bible reading. This daily connection is foundational to the whole Follow The Way Discipleship Journey.
Dallas Willard a Christian philosopher has said:
A biblical Christian is not just someone who holds certain beliefs about the Bible. He or she is also someone who leads the kind of life demonstrated in the Bible: a life of personal, intelligent interaction with God. (Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with God).
What an amazing thought. Can you actually have a “life of personal, intelligent interaction with God”? Yes, you can and you will! Through the daily readings and weekly discussions, you’ll start that kind of relationship with God or take your relationship with God to a deeper level.
Throughout every Map of Follow The Way you will be led through the following Daily Directions journaling pattern:
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
IN - Take In God’s Word
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
GO - Go Through Your Day
Starting with Day 3, we will begin explaining what each Daily Direction means. Today we’ll just jump into the Directions. It will be sort of sink or swim. But don’t worry. They’re simple, and over the course of these next two weeks we’ll unpack the meaning of each Direction.
You’re encouraged to journal your responses. You could use pen and paper or some electronic device. Either way, you’ll want to keep track of your responses, so you can share them at your Weekly Huddle. This is especially true for the two responses under IN - Take In God’s Word, namely:
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
Much of your Weekly Huddle conversation will be based on those responses.
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
Use a sentence or bullet points to finish these statements.
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
Jesus is the only Way to God the Father. And He calls us to follow Him, that is, to be His disciples. A disciple is someone who not only believes in Jesus, but also becomes Jesus’ student or apprentice for the sake of knowing Him better and learning how to live His life as if Jesus were in his or her shoes. You are on an exciting journey of becoming like Jesus in all you think, say and do.
John 14:6
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
Acts 4:5-13
The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest’s family. They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. Jesus is
“‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.’
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
Congratulations! You got through the first day. Once again, every day will follow this Daily Directions journaling exercise. The write-ups and the Bible readings will change depending on that day’s subject, but every day will follow this same basic pattern.
WEEK 1 - DAY 2
Join the Way
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
Use a sentence or bullet points to finish these statements.
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
In the Book of Acts, the church is called The Way because they followed Jesus who is The Way and because they followed His way of life. In a world—that goes its own way and strongly entices us to follow along—following Jesus is not easy nor should it be attempted alone. We need all help we can get. And we have it! We have three great sources of help, namely, 1) The Bible, 2) The Holy Spirit and 3) each other. God’s Word reveals to us Jesus and the way He lived. God’s Spirit within us inspires us to trust and follow Jesus. And your discipleship huddle will encourage you to keep going and growing. Follow The Way will help you to connect deeply with all three sources of help so you can join Jesus and His way of life.
Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)
Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.
Matthew 9:9-13
As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.
While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Acts 9:1-5
Meanwhile, Saul was still breathing out murderous threats against the Lord’s disciples. He went to the high priest and asked him for letters to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any there who belonged to the Way, whether men or women, he might take them as prisoners to Jerusalem. As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
“Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked.
“I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
WEEK 1 - DAY 3
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
Use a sentence or bullet points to finish these statements.
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
Daily Directions start with praise. That only makes sense. Our very lives, our relationships and everything that we have is a gift from God. So God is certainly worthy of all our praise. And when we connect with Him through prayer it’s only appropriate to begin with praise. Rather than starting your prayers with a so-called grocery list of needs and requests (don’t worry, you’ll get to that), it’s better to start with thanksgiving. So start with praise. He’s worthy of it and it will prepare you for the rest of the Daily Directions.
Psalm 100
Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.
Worship the Lord with gladness;
come before him with joyful songs.
Know that the Lord is God.
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.
Enter his gates with thanksgiving
and his courts with praise;
give thanks to him and praise his name.
For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;
his faithfulness continues through all generations.1 Thessalonians 5:16-18
Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
Are you getting the hang of it? From now on we’ll drop the “Finish this sentence either with full sentences or bullet points” from the Daily Directions.
WEEK 1 - DAY 4
DOWN - Bow Down in Repentance
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
Use a sentence or bullet points to finish these statements.
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
Once you have spent some time praising God, the next step is to repent of your sin to Him. Once again, this only makes sense. When we come to God, we come to Someone who is perfectly holy and pure. Obviously, that can’t be said of us. So the next step is to own our sin and ask Him to forgive us. This is also an important daily discipline. By keeping short accounts with God, we maintain a close relationship with God and we remain in tune with His active intervention in our lives.
Psalm 32:1-5
Blessed is the one
whose transgressions are forgiven,
whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the one
whose sin the Lord does not count against them
and in whose spirit is no deceit.
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
Then I acknowledged my sin to you
and did not cover up my iniquity.
I said, “I will confess
my transgressions to the Lord.”
And you forgave
the guilt of my sin.Luke 11:4
Forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who sins against us.
Luke 15:21-24
“The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’
“But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best robe and put it on him. Put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Bring the fattened calf and kill it. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”
Revelation 3:19
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
That’s Week 1 of Follow The Way on Daily Directions. Now you will meet with your discipleship huddle to discuss your experience and share what you have learned from it and what God has been saying to you.
DISCIPLESHIP HUDDLE FORMAT
Look Back
How did your “I will” statement go this past week?
You will answer this question each week after you have met once.
Look In
Give a summary of each day.
What has God been saying to you?
What’s new for you?
Do you have any questions?
Etc.
Look Forward
What will your “I will” statement be for this coming week?
Look Up
How can we pray for you?
Spend time in prayer for each other.
BUDDY SYSTEM
It is recommended that you set up a buddy system for ongoing encouragement and accountability. Buddy people up and have them contact each other for a midweek check-in. Ask these questions of each other:
How are your daily readings going?
How is your “I will” statement coming along?
How can I pray for you?
WEEK 2 - DAY 1
IN - Take In God’s Word
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
As Christians we believe that the Bible is the Word of God. Here’s a good statement on the Bible from the VineyardUSA Statement of Faith.
We believe that the Holy Spirit inspired the human authors of Holy Scripture so that the Bible is without error in the original manuscripts. We receive the sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments as our final, absolute authority, the only infallible rule of faith and practice.
As the inspired Word of God, the Bible reveals to us both the way of salvation and the way to live our lives. The Bible is both the record and the tool of how God saves us. So we need to get into it and it needs to get into us. We need to read it and let it read us.
Follow The Way uses the To Hear Is To Obey Bible study method. After reading the Bible complete these two thoughts:
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
The Bible wasn’t meant just to be read or understood or even just believed. It was meant to be obeyed. That’s why Follow The Way aims not just at Biblical literacy, but Biblical obedience. We can all certainly know the Bible better. And Follow The Way will help you do that. But we can also follow the Bible better. Our hope and prayer is that as you journey through Follow The Way, Biblical information will lead to Biblical transformation. It’s what we call obedience-based discipleship. The point is we must translate our knowledge of the Bible into living it out in our daily lives and relationships.
2 Timothy 3:14-17
But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have become convinced of, because you know those from whom you learned it, and how from infancy you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
2 Peter 1:19-21
We also have the prophetic message as something completely reliable, and you will do well to pay attention to it, as to a light shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture came about by the prophet’s own interpretation of things. For prophecy never had its origin in the human will, but prophets, though human, spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Hebrews 4:12
For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
James 1:22-25
Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
WEEK 2 - DAY 2
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
The next part of Daily Directions is what we normally think of as prayer—telling God our prayer requests. Like a good parent, God loves to have His children come to Him with their requests and He loves to give good gifts to His children who ask. So don’t hesitate to ask Him for anything.
Matthew 7:7-12 (NLT)
“Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
“You parents—if your children ask for a loaf of bread, do you give them a stone instead? Or if they ask for a fish, do you give them a snake? Of course not! So if you sinful people know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him.
Philippians 4:6-7
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
James 4:2-3
You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
1 Peter 5:7 (NET)
Cast all your cares on him because he cares for you.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
WEEK 2 - DAY 3
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
DAILY DIRECTIONS JOURNAL
UP - Lift Up Your Praise
Lord, I praise You for …
DOWN - Bow Down In Repentance
Lord, I repent of …
IN - Take In God’s Word
Maybe you grew up with the safety jingle, “Stop, look and listen before you cross the street.” That’s where Follow The Way’s Stop, Look and Listen comes from. The idea in this Daily Direction is to not hang up the phone after sharing your prayer requests with God. Give God time to speak to you. Better yet, invite God to speak to you. Ask, “Lord, what do you want to show me or say to me?”
God may show you something. An image or a circumstance or person’s face may come to mind. That may be God’s invitation to pray about that or reach out to that person. Or God may say something to you. You might think of a Bible passage, His Spirit may speak to your spirit in a still small voice or a thought may pop in your mind. These may be God’s directions for your life. Pray about it and ask Him how you are to respond.
And remember that God has already spoken to you through the Bible. That’s what the direction IN - Take In God’s Word is all about. The most important way that God speaks to us is through the Bible. To know God’s will, then, we need to know God’s Word. Having said that, the Bible itself clearly tells us that God also speaks to His people through inner thoughts, a still small voice, hunches, visions and dreams and all manner of communications that are geared to the individual He is addressing. These communications, of course, are never on the same level as the Bible and they must be tested against what is written in the Bible and in community. But to be Biblical, it’s important to regularly pause and invite God so speak to us and to do this with the expectation that He will communicate to us and that we will obey Him. Once again, to hear is to obey.
John 10:27
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.
Isaiah 30:21
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, "This is the way; walk in it.”
Acts 8:26-35
Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Go south to the road—the desert road—that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” So he started out, and on his way he met an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official in charge of all the treasury of the Kandake (which means “queen of the Ethiopians”). This man had gone to Jerusalem to worship, and on his way home was sitting in his chariot reading the Book of Isaiah the prophet. The Spirit told Philip, “Go to that chariot and stay near it.”
Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
“How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him.
This is the passage of Scripture the eunuch was reading:
“He was led like a sheep to the slaughter,
and as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
so he did not open his mouth.
In his humiliation he was deprived of justice.
Who can speak of his descendants?
For his life was taken from the earth.”The eunuch asked Philip, “Tell me, please, who is the prophet talking about, himself or someone else?” Then Philip began with that very passage of Scripture and told him the good news about Jesus.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
Have you ever watched an Olympic skier at the top of the slope visualizing their race? You’ll see them swaying and moving through the course before hitting the slope.
That’s the idea behind, GO - Go Through Your Day.
The idea is that after you are done praying and before you rush into your day, spend some time anticipating where your day is going and ask God to walk with you through it. Obviously, there will be many things you can’t anticipate. But on most days, we have a pretty good idea of what the day holds, such as, assignments for school or appointments for work or responsibilities at home. So before you spring out of the starting gate and start heading down the hill, pray through your day with the Lord. Then hit the slopes with confidence knowing that God will be with you the whole way down.
Joshua 1:9
Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.
Psalm 23
The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk
through the darkest valley,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely your goodness and love will follow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
forever.Galatians 5:25
Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Lord, I hear You saying to me …
Now, with Your help I will …
OUT - Pray Out Your Requests
Lord, I pray for …
STOP - Stop, Look and Listen
Lord, what do You want to show me or say to me?
GO - Go Through Your Day
Lord, I pray for Your help as I anticipate these events today …
We’ve wrapped up Week 2 of Follow the Way and hopefully you have a good handle on the Daily Directions. Once again, you will meet with your discipleship huddle to discuss your experience and share what you have learned from it and what God has been saying to you.
We hope your huddle will continue to the second map called Follow The Way - Map 2 - The Story. In this Map, you’ll look at the Story of the Bible from Creation to Completion. Do you know this Story? Have you personally embraced this Story? Could you share this Story with someone else? This is a 6 week journey.