deeperplaceworship - Discipleship Begins With Beholding

Discipleship Begins With Beholding

"we become what we behold"

by Raimer Rojas

The Knowledge Of God • Discipleship • The What, How And Why Of Beholding • All Spiritual Practices Can Be Beholding • The Windows Through Which We Behold God

One of the most important truths in discipleship is this: Simply being around Jesus is not the same as being transformed by Him. In the Gospels, many people saw Jesus. They heard His teaching, witnessed His miracles, and experienced His power. Yet not all were changed. Judas is the clearest example. He walked with Jesus for three years, but his heart was never truly formed into Christlikeness. This reveals something essential: Beholding is more than exposure. It is not just seeing or hearing—it is a posture of the heart that receives, trusts, and responds.

What Discipleship Really Is

Discipleship is often misunderstood. Some think it is mainly about gaining knowledge, practicing disciplines, or improving behavior. While these things matter, they are not the core. At its heart, discipleship is about transformation—becoming more like Jesus.

But this raises an important question: How can we become like someone we do not truly see or know? The answer is found in Scripture: “We all… beholding the glory of the Lord… are being transformed into the same image.” (2 Corinthians 3:18) Transformation happens through beholding.

From Exposure to Beholding

Many people in the Gospels had exposure to Jesus:

they listened to His teaching
watched His miracles
followed Him in crowds

But exposure alone did not change them. The disciples who were transformed did something deeper. They:

received His words
trusted Him
allowed Him to confront their hearts
followed Him with their lives

Beholding happens when observation becomes surrender.

Why Beholding Leads to Transformation

When we truly behold Jesus, something powerful happens inside us. We begin to see His beauty—His character, His love, His wisdom. And as we see Him more clearly, we become fascinated by Him. This fascination matters more than we often realize. We do not become like Jesus through pressure alone. We become like Him because our hearts are captivated by Him. As we delight in Him, we begin to love what He loves, desire what He desires, and naturally move toward His ways. Fascination leads to imitation. And imitation, over time, leads to transformation.

What True Beholding Looks Like

Beholding is not a single spiritual activity—it is a way of engaging with God in everything. It is what turns:

Bible reading into encounter
prayer into communion
worship into delight
obedience into joyful participation

It is a kind of attentive, relational seeing. But for beholding to lead to transformation, something must happen inside us.

The Heart Posture That Leads to Transformation

1. A Soft and Honest Heart — Jesus often said, “Whoever has ears to hear, let them hear.” Many heard Him, but not all received Him. A soft heart admits weakness, welcomes correction, and remains teachable. Peter failed often, but he stayed open. Judas, by contrast, allowed hidden sin and divided loyalties to harden his heart. Transformation begins with honesty before God.

2. Receiving, Not Just Admiring — It is possible to admire Jesus without following Him. True beholding asks:

What is Jesus showing me about God?
What is He showing me about myself?
What is He inviting me to change?

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Beholding becomes transformation when we receive His words and let them reshape our lives.

3. Trust and Attachment — Jesus did not just teach—He invited people to follow Him. “My sheep hear my voice… and they follow me.” (John 10:27) Transformation happens in relationship. As we trust Him and stay connected to Him, we begin to absorb His ways—how He thinks, how He responds, how He lives. Judas stayed physically close, but his heart was attached elsewhere. Beholding requires relational trust.

4. Remembering and Meditating — Revelation must be stewarded. Every time we see something of God—through Scripture, prayer, or life—it is an invitation to linger. We grow when we revisit what God has shown us, meditate on His character and reflect on His actions. The Holy Spirit helps us remember and deepen what we have seen. This is how truth moves from our minds into our hearts.

5. Obedience in Real Life — Beholding becomes transformation through practice. Jesus continually invited His disciples to act:

forgive others
pray
serve
trust God in difficulty

As we obey, what we have seen becomes who we are becoming. Obedience turns revelation into embodied character.

The Pattern of Transformation

Over time, a clear pattern takes shape. This process doesn’t happen instantly—it unfolds slowly, over a lifetime, as Christ is formed in us (Galatians 4:19):

Behold – we see God’s beauty, truth, and character

"One thing I have asked from the Lord, that I shall seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord and to meditate in His temple." Psalm 27:4 NASB2020
"I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory." - Psalm 63:2 NIV
"Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth." - Psalm 46:8 ESV
"My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you." - Job 42:5 NIV
"Open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of your law." - Psalm 119:18 NIV
"And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." - 2 Corinthians 3:18 ESV

Remember & Meditate – we dwell on what He has revealed
- "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you." - John 14:26 ESV
- "Blessed is the man [whose]... delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers." - Psalm 1:1-3 ESV
- "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." - Joshua 1:8 NIV
- "But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do." - James 1:22-26 NIV
- "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you... With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth." - Psalm 119:11,13 NIV
- "I will remember the deeds of the Lord; yes, I will remember your wonders of old. I will ponder all your work, and meditate on your mighty deeds." - Psalm 77:11-12 ESV
- "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates." - Deuteronomy 6:6-9 ESV
- "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you..." - Deuteronomy 6:17-18a ESV
Respond & Obey – we align our lives with what we have seen
- "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do." - James 1:22-26 NIV
- "Keep this Book of the Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do everything written in it. Then you will be prosperous and successful." - Joshua 1:8 NIV
- "Now this is the commandment—the statutes and the rules—that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you, that you may do them in the land to which you are going over, to possess it, that you may fear the Lord your God, you and your son and your son's son, by keeping all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you, all the days of your life, and that your days may be long."Hear therefore, O Israel, and be careful to do them, that it may go well with you, and that you may multiply greatly, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you, in a land flowing with milk and honey. - Deuteronomy 6:1-3 ESV
- "You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you. And you shall do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you..." - Deuteronomy 6:17-18a ESV
- "And the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are this day." - Deuteronomy 6:24 ESV
Become – we are gradually formed into Christlikeness
- One thing I have desired of the Lord, that will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to BEHOLD the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple." - Psalm 27:4
- "And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. " - 2 Corinthians 3:18
- And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose. For those God foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those He predestined, He also called; those He called, He also justified; those He justified, He also glorified." - Romans 8:28-30
- "My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you." - Galatians 4:19
- "But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator." - Colossians 3:8-10
- "Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. All who have this hope in Him purify themselves, just as He is pure." - 1 John 3:2-3

The Invitation

Beholding is not just another spiritual practice. It is the center of discipleship. It is the posture that turns every moment into an opportunity to encounter God. Every time we pause, reflect, and give attention to who God is and what He is doing, we are stepping into this invitation. And over time, something beautiful happens: Our desires shift, our hearts awaken, and our lives begin to align with His. Because this is the promise: “We all… beholding the glory of the Lord… are being transformed into the same image.” (2 Corinthians 3:18)

A Simple Way to Remember

We become what we behold. So the question of discipleship is not only, What am I doing? But: What am I seeing? What am I focusing on? What am I beholding? Because over time… Beholding leads to fascination > Fascination leads to imitation > Imitation leads to transformation. And transformation is the goal: to become like Christ.

What Happens When We Do Not Behold

When we stop beholding God, something else takes His place. Our hearts grow dull. We lose sensitivity to His presence. We begin to be shaped by lesser things—comfort, success, approval, control. Even when God is working, we may not see it. Without beholding truth fades, desires drift and idols take root. We do not remain neutral—we are always being formed by what we focus on.

Paul David Tripp describes it this way in his book, AWE

"But don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. For if you listen to the word and don’t obey, it is like glancing at your face in a mirror. You see yourself, walk away, and FORGET what you look like. But if you look carefully into the perfect law that sets you free, and if you do what it says and don’t FORGET what you heard, then God will bless you for doing it." - James 1:22-25 NLT

Romans 1:18-25 & 28-32

18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who SUPPRESS the truth by their wickedness, 19 since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. 20 For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

24 Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. 25 They EXCHANGED the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen...

28 Furthermore, just as they did NOT think it worthwhile to RETAIN the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; 31 they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. 32 Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

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