In the Apostolic culture, we need to align ourselves to this belief system, this third one I'm sharing with you. We believe we are commissioned to disciple nations. We've been taught for so many years in the church that we're to disciple people.
And that's true because Mark 16 talks about discipling individuals, saving individuals, which is part of the gospel of the kingdom. But we need to come to an understanding and we need to come to embracing the responsibility of the great commission of discipling nations of Matthew 28, 18 through 20. And see, in order for us to disciple nations, first of all, we need to live as disciples of Christ. And disciples are witnesses.
You know, in Acts 1.8, it says, and you will be my witnesses. You know, the Holy Spirit will come upon you. And you'll be endued with power and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. That word witness literally means to be a martyr, to be a sign, to be a reflection of.
And so in other words, you know, as followers of Jesus, especially in our culture today, they can vilify you, they can persecute you. But here's the reality. When it came to all the disciples, they could not ignore them. because they were a voice and they were a living representation of Christ himself on the earth.
You know in Romans 4 18 it says, In hope against hope he believed, so that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken. So shall your descendants be. And see the promise to Abraham is this, that you're going to be a father to nations.
To Sarah was your mother of nations. And in Isaiah 9 7, It says, there is no end to the increase of the government or peace. Where the kingdom increases, peace increases.
This is what we need to know about the kingdom. Wherever there's kingdom, there's peace. And wherever there's no end to the increase of the government, there's no end to the increase of his peace.
Because that whole context talks about Christ being the Prince of Peace. So how do we disciple nations? We become peacemakers.
Matthew chapter 5 on the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are the sons of God, for they shall be called, what, peacemakers. Or blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called the sons of God.
And so we are interchangeably as sons, peacemakers, and as peacemakers, sons of God. This is how we disciple nations. We heal the nations.
The Lord spoke to me and said, Tony, how do you know, or do you know how to disciple nations? You know, I said, I don't know, Lord. How do you disciple nations? And this is what he said to me.
Once you learn how to heal a nation. you'll be given authority to disciple a nation. And so we are called to bring healing to the nations, healing to people, healing to individuals, to cities and nations. You know in Hebrews chapter 11 verse 10 it says, Abraham was looking for a city that foundations and whose architect was God. He was looking for a city with a God theme in it.
And so there's apostolic cities that God is establishing today and there's apostolic communities he's establishing today. And it's for the purpose of discipling nations, the nations of the earth. And so one of the apostolic cities we find is in Genesis 28 verse 10, where Jacob goes to the city called Luz.
It's an almond orchard. And all of a sudden, you know, he goes to sleep, puts his head on a stone, and he has a dream. And angels were ascending and descending, is what it said.
And God was there, and he didn't even know it, is what the Bible said. And he renames that city Luz, that almond orchard. Bethel or Bethel.
It's the house of God. So that city where he was once famous for nuts, it became famous for God encounters. God encounter changed the land. He changed the theme of the land. And the land itself takes on the DNA of the people that when they take ownership of the land and bring God into the equation, that the land changes.
And so how do we as disciples, disciple nations, we encounter God in the very land He's given us to. And that encounter itself will change the DNA and the factor of the land and start bringing transformation to it. We marry the land. You know, Isaiah 62 talks about that.
In other words, we have to love the place that God's placed us. And so when you marry the land, the Bible says, He will marry it also. Have you married the land that God's put you in?
The very sphere that God's put you in? The position or the title that God's given you to? Because until you marry it and come into agreement with it, He will not marry it Himself.
You're the conduit. You're the bridge between heaven and earth. And so we see David's encounter, you know, where he transitioned the land. He discipled the land.
How did he do it? He renamed it Baal-perazim. It's the God of breakthrough. Your encounter changes the landscape of your city.
You know, the spirit that's on you becomes the city that carries on that spirit. It's transformation. Your encounter with God redefines the city that you live in. And so this is how you disciple a nation, encounter God, live in intimacy, because we're an apostolic people.
Apostolic people begin with encounters with God. We believe we are commissioned to disciple nations for Jesus'inheritance.