I found this definition of discipleship online, and liked this phrasing:

“Someone who follows the teachings, life, and aim of another until the person becomes like the master. Discipleship in the Christian sense is the process of making someone become like Christ. The disciple of Christ is to become like Christ in everything.”

In our lives we each endure wilderness experiences. When viewed through the lens of Heaven’s Throne Room, we may see our circumstances through our Father’s eyes and understand that the afflictions we suffer are redeemed for our good, as a component of His loving discipline. I have experientially understood that in the midst of suffering, His priority is not my comfort. His priority is my freedom. He relentlessly pursues me because “it is for freedom that He set me free.”

However, the wilderness experiences of our lives viewed through the perceptions and intellect of earthly wisdom evoke disillusionment with God and accusations regarding His character / motives. The fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil draws us into the deception that we must perform to be accepted. And when we perform, then God must bow to us and bless us. When our false expectations are unfulfilled we perceive that God is unjust and unreliable. We shake our fist at Him in defiance. We choose self instead of Him.

Our Father knows our thoughts, He knows our words before we speak them; He knows our going out and our lying down. (Psalm 139) He intimately knows our needs and faithfully provides. Likewise, He knows perfectly how to remove the wounds, insecurities and unrighteous principalities that rule in our souls. Some of these snares so entangle our hearts that their removal must be gradual. If He were to instantly extract them, the pain would kill us.

So as He loosens the dirt to expose the root, His grace is sufficient to sustain us. In His infinite Wisdom, He uses this process to discipline and train us in choosing Him instead of self. This process is called discipleship.

His desire is to share Himself with us; however, He will not share His heart with someone who is not safe; who will not receive Him. In discipleship we are changed from glory to glory into the image of our Father. This ever-deepening work allows our Father and His Son, with Holy Spirit, to make our hearts His dwelling place; allows us to receive Him in greater and greater measure so that He may manifest His glory and righteousness to all of creation.