Module 2

Two vital questions bring additional clarity to the design of this module. During the first semester, the question each person is asked to address is, “Who am I?” (being). During the second, the question is, “What does God want me to do?” (doing). Together, these questions address one of the most important theological and practical issues of our day: “What does it mean to be human, to be made in the image of God?”

Module Two Objectives

There are five established objectives for Module Two:

1. 1. To present the third person of the Godhead, the Holy Spirit, as He is revealed in the Bible, that believers may know Him in all of His glory and submit to Him in every area of their lives;
   2. To help believers understand what it means that the Holy Spirit “mediates the personal presence and ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ;”³
   3. To encourage believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit moment by moment;
   4. To help believers discover and use their spiritual gifts for the expansion and edification of God’s kingdom; and
   5. To help believers find and fulfill God’s unique purpose for their lives.

Recommended Yearly Schedule

By meeting once per week, Module Two may be completed in 33 weeks, 63% of the 52 weeks each of us has been given each year. This schedule assumes a nine-month calendar and, historically, is a proven pattern for learning and growth, beginning in September and extending through May of the following year. During this period, one break occurs in the fall, two at Christmas, and one in the spring. The summers are available for further development and growth opportunities.

This pattern for discipleship should be amended according to national or local concerns.

Orientation

In Module Two, the Orientation is almost the same as in Module One and should be reviewed at the beginning of the year during the first week. The six areas of focus are designed to continue to prepare believers for the process of personal transformation into the image of Jesus Christ. Additional spiritual disciplines should be added to the ones practiced in Module One. The following topics will be discussed during the first week:

1. 1. God’s Word. During this session, believers will be reminded of the importance of hearing, reading, studying, memorizing, and meditating on God’s Word.
   2. Spiritual Disciplines. Practicing the spiritual disciplines during one’s spiritual pilgrimage is a vital aspect of learning to walk with Christ. In Module Two, additional disciplines will be introduced and added to those already being practiced.
   3. Accountability. For too many people, the word accountability has, unfortunately, become synonymous with pressure, fear, and shame. During this session, authentic biblical accountability will be discussed, reviewed, and shown to be the true help and joy it was intended to be for believers who long to be in relationship with others who can assist them as they make their journey to the Celestial City (heaven).
   4. Fellowship. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a significant book called Life Together, in which he discussed the richness of Christian fellowship. Noting that God’s people are “held together solely in Jesus Christ,” he acknowledges the privilege believers have “to live in visible fellowship with other Christians.” An important part of the discipling process is encouraging believers to love one another from the heart.
   5. Prayer. During this part of the Orientation, believers will be reminded to devote themselves to prayer, including praise and adoration, thanksgiving, confession, intercession, and petition. Prayer is one of the means of grace and is necessary for life transformation in Christ.
   6. Evangelism. Once the Samaritan woman had encountered Jesus at the well, she invited the people of her own city to “Come, see a man, who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?” God used her just after her conversion to lead many to the Savior: “And from that city many of the Samaritans believed in Him because of the word of the woman” (John 4:29,39). It is important to begin encouraging and training believers to share their faith with others – from the very beginning of their relationship with Christ.

The First Semester of Module Two

Building on the foundation of Module One, then, the first half or semester of Module Two emphasizes the person and work of the Holy Spirit, the importance of walking in the Spirit moment by moment, and spiritual gifts. Pastor and theologian John R.W. Stott acknowledged our great need for submitting to the Holy Spirit when he wrote: “We are ashamed of the general worldliness of the Church and disturbed by its weakness. Moreover, many of us are oppressed by our own personal failures in Christian life and ministry. We are conscious that we fall short both of the experience of the early Church and of the plain promises of God in his Word. We are thankful indeed for what God has done and is doing, and we do not want to denigrate his grace by minimizing it. But we hunger and thirst for more.”⁴ No matter how mature, it is necessary for us “to keep coming, to keep drinking, because we keep thirsting.”⁵

Six Foundational Truths

The first semester of Module Two is built upon six foundational truths:

1. 1. God has inspired and preserved the Scriptures by which He has revealed to us what He wants us to know and understand about spiritual gifts.
   2. Though there is much that we do not understand about the workings of the Holy Spirit and the gifts He gives (John 3:8), God invites us to search the Scriptures and to seek Him in prayer for new insights and power that will enable us to faithfully serve Him.
   3. Every member of the body of Christ is important, and everyone’s gifts are needed in order for the body to function properly. Charles Spurgeon, the great nineteenth-century English preacher, spoke about the unity of the body when he referred to Christians as “living stones in the heavenly temple perfectly joined together with the vermilion (vivid red) cement of Christ’s blood.”
   4. Once you discover, develop, and use your own spiritual gifts, you will be better equipped to help other Christians discover their gifts.
   5. We bring pleasure to God and glorify Him when we discover and use our gifts under the direction and power of the Holy Spirit.
   6. Spiritual gifts are literally (in the Greek language) “grace gifts,” freely bestowed by His grace upon unworthy sinners who have been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ and made worthy by His righteousness alone. This truth, once fully acknowledged and embraced, will help us all to labor in the kingdom with true humility.

The Holy Spirit & His Gifts

From weeks 2 through 16 (15 weeks), believers working their way through Module Two will study The Holy Spirit & His Gifts: Essential Truths for Christians Who Long to be Faithful Stewards of the Gifts and Talents Entrusted to Them by God by John Musselman. This work contains seven sections:

1. 1. Section 1: The Person and Work of the Holy Spirit
   2. Section 2: Understanding Spiritual Gifts
   3. Section 3: The Gifts of the Spirit
   4. Section 4: Discerning Your Gifts
   5. Section 5: Common Questions About Spiritual Gifts
   6. Section 6: Putting Your Gifts to Work
   7. Section 7: Appendix (selected bibliography)

The Course Orientation at the beginning of the manual provides an orientation to the study, guidelines for participants, and a study schedule for the fifteen-week semester.

Supplementary Reading for the First Semester

John R.W. Stott’s classic work, The Baptism & Fullness of the Holy Spirit is an excellent resource for understanding what is meant by the terms “baptism” and “the filling of the Holy Spirit,” vitally important truths which every believer needs to learn and practice. In addition to his careful exegesis of the biblical texts, he includes, at the end of the book, three practical exhortations for God’s people.

The second supplementary reading (which is optional, but highly recommended) is Keep in Step with the Spirit by J.I. Packer. In this thorough study of the Holy Spirit, he warns that we should not “glibly assume that because we know something of the Spirit’s work in our own lives, therefore we know all that matters about the Spirit himself…”⁶   He encourages believers to pursue a deeper knowledge of the Spirit when he writes, “because God is gracious, he may also deepen our life in the Spirit even when our ideas about this life are nonexistent or quite wrong, provided only that we are truly and wholeheartedly seeking his face and wanting to come closer to him.”⁷ This book will answer questions not addressed by John Stott and impart truths which will guide you for the rest of your life as you seek to be conformed to the image of Christ.

The Second Semester of Module Two

After addressing the question, “Who am I?” believers are encouraged to begin the journey of capturing God’s vision and mission for their lives and determining how they may best serve Him with the gifts, talents, and abilities which He has given to them. During these seventeen weeks, each person will consider ancient and modern ideas on purposeful living as well as entertain the stories of men and women, both Christian and non-Christians, who have modeled right and wrong paths of living life under the reign of King Jesus.

Os Guinness clarifies the road to maturity in this area of our lives when he writes: “As we human beings rise to the call of our Creator, we become subcreators, entering into our own creativity, artistry, and entrepreneurship as made in his image – thus adding to the rich fruitfulness of the universe. Answering the call of our Creator is therefore ‘the ultimate why’ for living, the highest source of purpose in human existence, because it literally transforms us into ‘entrepreneurs of life.’”⁸

Two Classic Works on Life Purpose

Speaker of international renown and esteemed social critic, Os Guinness (DPhil, Oxford), has written what many consider to be the best book ever written on the subject of life purpose. While many have been greatly helped by other works on this subject, we highly recommend the following two books, the first of which is destined to be a classic in its field:

1. The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life. As the dust jacket of the book makes clear, Guinness’ work “sets out the principles for all who seek their life’s central purpose.” It answers, among others, the following questions: How do I discover my calling? What does it have to do with identity and personal growth? Is calling only a spiritual idea or does it cover secular life too? How does calling affect work, career, and ideas of success? Does calling make a difference when we are unemployed or retired?
2. Entrepreneurs of Life: Faith and the Venture of Purposeful Living. Weaving history, Scripture, biography, literature, philosophy, and experience, Os Guinness demonstrates how calling worked in the lives of those who have gone before us. By sharing their thoughts and experiences, Guinness “will help you approach your own life as the ultimate entrepreneurial opportunity.”

Summary

Module Two is specifically designed for any believer who desires to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ, a follower of His words and His ways. The primary goal is to help each person grow to maturity in Christ by building a strong biblical foundation that will endure to the end of his or her life. The curriculum is built on several classic works – the best in their fields – in order to foster personal transformation and develop ministry skills for fulfilling the Great Commandment (Mt. 22:37-40), the Great Commission (Mt. 28:18-20), and the Cultural Mandate (Gen. 1:28).

Where these works are unavailable, prayerfully consider substituting other significant books and essays that would be instrumental in establishing a biblical foundation and in shaping the lives of believers into the image of Christ.

¹ Os Guinness, The Call: Finding and Fulfilling the Central Purpose of Your Life (Nashville: Word Publishing, 1998), p. 1.

² Ibid.

³ J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit (Old Tappan, New Jersey: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1984), p. 10.

⁴ John R.W. Stott, The Baptism & Fullness of the Holy Spirit (Downers Grove, Illinois: InterVarsity Press, 1964), pp. 7-8.

⁵ Ibid., p. 33.

⁶ Ibid., p. 18.

⁷ Ibid., p. 19.

⁸ Os Guinness, Entrepreneurs of Life: Faith and the Venture of Purposeful Living (Colorado Springs: NavPress, 2001), p. 16.