A disciple of Christ is a learner and a follower of Christ. All disciples are repentant believers but not all believers are disciples. He who truly believes in Him, submits to Him in discipleship.
To be a disciple, a person must repent of his sin and then give up his all.
"Look!" Peter replied. "We have left everything and followed you. So, what will we get?"(Mat 19.27)
Give up your property & possessions: Embrace the life of simplicity. Simplicity means be content or cheerful with the basic things of life. Simplicity does not mean poverty. Being poor is not God’s will. it is God’s will to meet your basic needs. Basic needs are shelter, food, water, clothing etc. Basic needs are not a fancy house, expensive food, designers clothing, private jet or luxurious cars etc. To become a disciple of Christ, you must sell your riches and give the money to the poor and settle on the basic things of life. The word of Christ to the rich young ruler is the same for all who want to follow him. Jesus told him:
If you want to be perfect, go and sell what you own and give the money to the destitute, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come back and follow me (Mat 19.21)
Until you give away your earthly riches, you cannot follow the LORD. The rich do not follow him. It is very difficult for them to follow him or enter the kingdom of God.
Human Relationships must be secondary: You must love the Lord God more than you love any human being. If a repentant person wants to be a disciple, he must wholeheartedly seek to please God more than anyone in his family. For the sake of God, he must be ready to reject his family if need arises.
The one who loves his father or mother more than me isn't worthy of me, and the one who loves a son or daughter more than me isn't worthy of me. The one who doesn't take up his cross and follow me isn't worthy of me (Mat 10.37-38)
Total Submission: You must become a child. Except you become a child, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Only children follow the Lord. Only children can learn from the Lord. Self-confidence, self-reliance, self-righteousness must be completely dealt away with. There should be no element of self-reliance in your heart. Be a sheep (they always follow the shepherd) and a not a goat (they always go their own way). Every sheep listens to and obeys his master. Do not give up your possessions, only to go on the journey alone, without the Lord as your Shepherd, Master and teacher. It will be wasted effort. Pray that the Lord will enable you have child-like heart of humility. The race is not for the strong but the weak. The race is not for the “wise” but the humble. The humble and the weak receive divine strength to walk the hard road.
When Jesus saw this, he became furious and told them, "Let the little children come to me, and stop keeping them away, because the kingdom of God belongs to people like these. I tell you with certainty, whoever doesn't receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it. Then after he had hugged the children, he tenderly blessed them as he laid his hands on them (Mar 10.14-16).
Deny yourself: You must deny yourself. Your dreams, pleasures, comforts, careers and even your life must be laid down at the altar. You must be ready to give up your life in the face of persecution. You must stop living to satisfy your natural desires and begin to satisfy God.
If anyone wants to follow me, he must deny himself, pick up his cross, and follow me continually. Whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it, because what profit will a person have if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? Or what can a person give in exchange for his life? (Mat 16.24-26)
A disciple is a cross carrier. He carries a cross of self-denial. The yoke of self-denial is less weighty than the yoke of sin.
Every disciple carries a cross; the cross of total renunciation. Before you become of disciple, you must calculate the cost, and assess if you will be able to reach the end.
Now large crowds were traveling with Jesus. He turned and told them.
"If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, as well as his own life, he can't be my disciple. Whoever doesn't carry his cross and follow me can't be my disciple.
"Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. He will first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough money to finish it, won't he? Otherwise, if he lays a foundation and can't finish the building, everyone who watches will begin to ridicule him and say, 'This person started a building but couldn't finish it. Or suppose a king is going to war against another king. He will first sit down and consider whether with 10,000 men he can fight the one coming against him with 20,000 men, won't he? If he can't, he will send a delegation to ask for terms of peace while the other king is still far away.
In the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions" (Luk 14.25-33)
The call to discipleship is for all repentant believers (Mat 28.18-20).