In order to understand fully what eternal life is, it is helpful to understand what it is not. Eternal life is not living forever. Everyone lives forever in either heaven or hell. Also, eternal life is not living forever in the blessings of heaven as opposed to being tormented in hell. John 3:36 and 5:24 show that eternal life is a present tense possession of the believer.

In John 17:3, Jesus defines eternal life as knowing God the Father and Jesus Christ. This word "know" is speaking of intimacy instead of mere intellectual knowledge; therefore, eternal life is having an intimate, personal relationship with God the Father and Jesus the Son.

According to John 3:16, this intimacy with God is what salvation is all about. Forgiveness of our sins is not the point of salvation: intimacy with the Father is. Of course, Jesus did die to purchase forgiveness for our sins because unforgiven sins blocked us from intimacy with God. Sin was an obstacle that stood between God and us. It had to be dealt with and it was. Anyone who views salvation as only forgiveness of sins, and stops there, is missing out on eternal life.

Forgiveness of sins is an essential step to relationship with God that cannot be bypassed, but it is not eternal life. Jesus didn't die for us out of pity for our impending doom; He died for us out of love for us (Jn. 3:16)-a love that once again longed to have that intimate communion with man that He had originally created him for (Gen. 3:8; Rev. 4:11).

Here is a radical statement: The Lord never told us to make converts. He called us to make disciples. It is not true that some people are called just to get their sins forgiven and others to become disciples. Being a disciple is God's plan for every Christian. There is only one instance in all the New Testament where the believers are called Christians (Acts 11:26). The name that is attached to those who truly believed in Jesus, mentioned 569 times in the New Testament, is "disciple" or "disciples." The Lord intended for us to produce disciples.

One of the main reasons so many Christians aren't living victorious lives is that becoming a disciple was never their goal. They believed on Jesus so their sins would be forgiven. That's it. They are just hoping to hold on and squeak into heaven.

Every member of the body of Christ should be a walking billboard for Jesus. They should be able to reproduce their faith and not just hire others to do it for them.

Consider this: If an individual led 1,000 people each year into the born-again experience, but didn't disciple them, then at the end of 16-and-a-half years, there would be 16,500 Christians through his efforts. If that same person only led one person to the Lord every six months, but then discipled him towards maturity so he could make other disciples, at the end of 16-and-a-half years, there would be more than 6.9 billion people who were believers. That's more than the population of the entire world!

This tape is a teaching by Don Krow that contains testimonies of the hands-on use of this 48-lesson Discipleship/Evangelism Program designed by Andrew Wommack Ministries and Colorado Bible College. This program has been proven to work and is easy to use. It supplies the necessary tools for anyone with the desire to disciple another person. It can be effectively used in cell groups, Bible studies, reaching the lost, new believers class, mid-week church services, altar call follow-up, evangelistic crusade follow-up, outreaches in the mission field, prison ministries, and to develop church growth as well as to disciple your neighbors and friends. Learn more about this new discipling tool that will help you obey Jesus' command of the Great Commission.