Come Ye After Me

Mark 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.

Mark 3:13-15 And he goeth up into a mountain, and calleth unto him whom he would: and they came unto him. ¹⁴ And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, ¹⁵ And to have power to heal sicknesses, and to cast out devils:

Song of Songs 7:10-13 I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me. ¹¹ Come, my beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. ¹² Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth: there will I give thee my loves. ¹³ The mandrakes give a smell, and at our gates are all manner of pleasant fruits, new and old, which I have laid up for thee, O my beloved.

The first call of Yeshua is to come and be with Him.  The relationship with Him is the most important part of our Christian life and ministry.  Without relationship with Him, we really have nothing to offer.  He is the vine we are the branches.  We must stay connected into the vine as the source of life and sustenance to have anything of lasting value to share. 

We see in the verses in Mark that Yeshua called the disciples to come and be with Him. Then He sent them forth.  He called for them to come after Him and He would make them to become fishers of men.  The onus was on Yeshua to prepare them for the work of sharing the Kingdom of God as kingdom ambassadors. That preparation came in time spent with Yeshua in everyday life, as well as watching Him minister, and participating with Him in ministry. Then he sent them out. 

In the passage from the Song of Songs we see that the call is also to come. Actually much of that book is about coming to Yeshua and growing in an intimate relationship with Him.  As already stated that is the relationship with Yeshua is essential.  Then going forth is done together. The going forth is into the harvest field of the unsaved.  The going forth is also to the villages, the places where there are believers dwell in fellowship.  In the villages there is ministry to the needs of those who are already believers. All ministry is done co-laboring with the Godhead. Yeshua only did what He saw the Father doing.  We need to learn to operate in the same way to be effective.  We function in this earth realm as ambassadors of the Kingdom realm.

It all has to start with “come” and then being sent out. Being sent is another key.  To just go of our own accord is not good.  We must look to Yeshua to send us in the right time to the right place.  As we are being sent we are going out to co-labor with Yeshua under the direction and anointing of Father and Holy Spirit.