To what is “follow the Lamb” a reference?

Revelation 14:4 (ESV)

4 It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb,

The verb to follow was used repeatedly in the Gospels to describe what Jesus required of his disciples and what the disciples in turn did in relation to Jesus (Matthew 4:20; Matthew 9:9; Matthew 10:38; John 8:12; John 12:26; John 21:19). He was their Master who set their course; they followed where he led. With Jesus’ ascension into heaven, however, the believers could no longer literally follow Jesus. So the epistles nowhere instruct the saints to follow. The present verse is the only verse outside the Gospels that speaks of believers following Jesus.

This could be a reference to believers' following Jesus in a suffering and death similar to his, and so also following into glory and ultimately resurrection from the dead. It could also be a reference to believers embracing in this life the leadership of their ascended Head. The latter is the more acceptable understanding, as the next question draws out.