THE RIB THAT BECAME A DISCIPLE: Understanding God’s Pattern of Formation (PART 2)

“And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept…”

Before God could take the rib, Adam had to be put to sleep. Not a light nap. Not a momentary rest. But a deep sleep. A sleep so profound that Adam had no awareness of what was happening, no ability to control the process, and no opportunity to resist or negotiate. He was completely unconscious, completely vulnerable, and completely surrendered to the will of God. And it was only in that state – only when Adam had relinquished all control – that God could perform the surgery necessary to bring forth the woman.

This is the another prerequisite for true discipleship: SURRENDER. You cannot be made into a disciple while you are still clinging to control. You cannot be formed while you are still insisting on maintaining your own agenda, your own timeline, your own understanding of how things should go.

Discipleship requires a deep sleep. It requires a season where God puts you in a place where you have no choice but to trust Him completely, where you cannot see what He is doing, where you cannot manipulate the outcome, where you have to let go and let Him work.

And that is terrifying. Because deep sleep means vulnerability. It means loss of control. It means trusting that the One who is operating on you knows what He is doing, even when you cannot see His hand, even when you cannot understand His purpose, even when the process feels like it is taking something from you rather than giving something to you.

When Jesus called Peter, James, and John to follow Him, He was calling them into a deep sleep. Not a literal unconsciousness, but a metaphorical one – a season where they would have to surrender their understanding, their ambitions, their control, and trust Him completely.

Peter had to let go of his identity as a fisherman. Matthew had to let go of his security as a tax collector. James and John had to let go of their dreams of sitting at the right and left hand of Jesus in His kingdom. They had to die to who they were in order to become who He was making them. And that death – that surrender, that deep sleep – was not optional. It was essential. Because God cannot take a rib from someone who is still fighting to stay awake, still clinging to their old life, and still resisting the surgery.

The deep sleep is where God removes what must go in order to create what must come. And most people never make it past this stage of discipleship. They want to be formed, but they do not want to surrender. They want to be shaped, but they do not want to let go. They want to be used by God, but they refuse to die to themselves.

And so they remain awake, clutching their ribs, protecting their comfort, guarding their control, and wondering why they never experience the transformation they long for.

Listen, transformation does not happen to people who are awake and in control. It happens to people who have surrendered so completely that God can do whatever He needs to do without their interference.

Are you willing to be put to sleep? Are you willing to let God perform surgery on your life without you dictating the terms? Are you willing to enter a season where you cannot see what He is doing, where you have to trust Him in the dark, where you have to let go of what you thought was essential so that He can take from you what He needs to create something new? Because if you are not willing to surrender, you will never be truly discipled.

Why God Removes Before He Creates?

“… and he took one of his ribs…”

God did not create Eve and then give Adam a rib to commemorate the moment. He took the rib first, and then He created Eve from it. The taking preceded the creating. The removal came before the formation. The subtraction happened before the addition. And this is one of the most painful, most misunderstood, and most necessary truths of discipleship: God takes before He gives. He removes before He releases. He subtracts before He adds.

Adam did not wake up with an extra rib. He woke up with one less. There was a space where something used to be. There was an absence where there had once been presence. And that absence, that removal, was not a punishment. It was a prerequisite.

God needed something from Adam in order to create something for Adam. He needed the rib in order to form the woman. And if Adam had refused to give up the rib, if he had clung to it, if he had said, “No, God, I need all my ribs. I cannot afford to lose even one,” then Eve would never have been created. Adam would have remained alone. The purpose would have remained unfulfilled. The mission would have remained incomplete. All because he was unwilling to let God take what God needed to take.

“From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.” John 6: 66

This is where most disciples quit. They sign up for the blessings but refuse the subtractions. They want the woman but will not give up the rib. They want the ministry but will not surrender the career. They want the calling but will not release the comfort. They want the anointing but will not endure the breaking. They want the fullness but refuse the emptying. And so they spend their entire lives waiting for God to add to them, not realizing that God is waiting for them to let Him subtract from them. Because He cannot create what He intends to create until He takes what He needs to take.

Discipleship costs something. It requires the giving up of what you hold dear so that God can create something greater. And if you are not willing to let Him take, you cannot receive what He wants to give.

What is the rib God is asking you to surrender? What is the thing you are clutching, protecting, and refusing to let go of because you are afraid that losing it will diminish you? What is the comfort, the relationship, the ambition, the identity, the security that God is saying, “I need that. Not to punish you, but to create something through you that you cannot yet see”?

Beloved, it may be the rib you are holding unto is the very thing God needs to form the next season of your life, the next phase of your ministry, or the next level of your calling. And if you refuse to surrender it, you will remain incomplete, wondering why the promise has not manifested, not realizing that you are blocking the very blessing you are praying for by refusing to release what God is asking for.

Written by: Sunday Adeoye