DISCIPLESHIP AND THE WORD ORDAINED IN JOHN 15
In this chapter Jesus gives His most intimate and final instructions to His disciples and there are many important principles for discipleship in this chapter. But He begins to wrap it up in John 15:16 when He uses a very powerful word “ordained.” In this verse He said that they had not chosen Him, this was His plan to use us to multiply disciples, it was His plan that He had pre-ordained, pre-decided that we should go forth and bring fruit and that our fruit should remain.
The next verse He reminds them of the simplest command for discipleship, to love one another. But that word ordained is a very powerful word in the Bible, it’s the same word used to show that the position of everything in the world and the universe has an exact place or position. If the sun was any closer to the earth no life could survive. If the earth was any farther from the sun then life could not survive here. The word ordained is used in relation to position of planets, countries, the oceans, everything in the universe was pre-determined exactly where it should be in order for life to propagate and continue to grow and multiply.
This is the word that He uses for us, that when we are leading people to Christ, and multiplying disciples then we are exactly in the place we should be. Exactly where God wants us to be so that new life can be born into the kingdom of God and multiply.