A leadership training model that Jesus used is teach – train – try – trust. When we look at Jesus’ time with his disciples, it was not just them being with him so they could eventually continue the ministry after Jesus finished his earthly assignment. When you take a closer look at their time together, Jesus taught them, trained them, then tried them, after which he could trust them.
A particular scripture came to mind of the first recorded instance of Jesus sending his disciples out to minister (Matthew 10; Mark 6; Luke 9). Jesus had been teaching and training them and in this instance, he tries them. The disciples were given an assignment and when they went out they did nothing more and nothing less than what Jesus instructed them to do. The trying was not so much if they were going to say word for word what he told them to preach but if they were going to stay in alignment with his directives surrounding their going out. No doubt, there were encounters that may have appealed to the disciples as an opportunity; but I believe they measured anything they encountered along their way of carrying out their assignment against the directives of Jesus. That they operated in their trying phase after the order of their training phase, Jesus was eventually able to trust them with the responsibility of spreading the gospel to all nations. It was like that was their “faithful over a few things [he] will make you ruler over many things” moment.
I yet ponder the “what if.” What if they had not stayed within the confines of Jesus’ directives during their trying phase? What if they thought if they just took this one item with them or if they just did this one thing it wouldn’t hurt anything? What if….? The answer to all my what if’s came back that it was not about Jesus restricting them on what to take, where to go, what to say, or where to stay. It was about their discipline to be obedient to Jesus’ commands and directives. Their going through this trying phase of operating under Jesus’ ministry directives in the few days they went out to those local cities would be the foundation of their operating under Jesus’ ministry directives for the remainder of their life as they traveled from country to country.
I encourage you to remain on the path of what has been established and after the directions under which you serve. The training and trying phase is preparing you for the trusting phase.