TRUE CONVERSIONS
It is often heard, among the most frequent questions from Christians, one that’s related to the doubt as to whether somebody was really saved. Before any theological considerations, this question usually denotes that the person with this doubt doesn't have still a real communion with God.
People who are in effective communion with the Spirit of God present within them, whom they received when of his or her Christian conversion, don't have this kind of doubt, because they know exactly their real spiritual condition. This is because everyone who really has delivered oneself to God and started to walk in His ways, is spiritually born again and his psychology is transformed, since the Spirit of God now lives in his heart, as it was once promised to Ezekiel: " And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.”. (Ez 36:27) and according to Paul's personal account: " I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me”. (Gl 2:20).
The true Christian conversion is characterized, above all by this: by the real presence of God inside us and by our communion with Him. This communion is created out of the need that we feel of knowing him, of the genuine love that we feel for Him, which can be affected, but no destroyed, and of the constant need we have of his direction and of his help in our lives. Externally, the truthful Christian is known by his works, since we are not saved only to adore God but “unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” (Eph 2:10). The tree is known by its fruits and the fruits produced by those really saved, in other words, reintegrated to the communion with God, are the fruit of the Spirit, in other words: love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness and faith (cf. Gl 5:22).
The doubt concerning the salvation condition, reflects a precarious communion with God, resulting from a fragile or shallow spirituality. The root of this problem is in the Christian conversion, which has been many times misunderstood and therefore, has led to a false attitude that hinders the true spiritual transformation. Although the process of the spiritual growth is an ongoing one, there is no doubt as for the immediate transformation operated in those who sincerely make the decision of following Christ in their lives. This attitude requires, however a pondered decision, fully aware of all its implications and it should be motivated by the sincere regret and for the firm determination of letting go of the egocentric attitudes of the past. Or, in the Lord's own words: "For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it?"
A decision of such importance should not, therefore be taken under emotional impulse or the ignorance of the Gospel, which are however the most common situations. In the passion to "win souls for God", many Christian leaders present a false idea of an "easy" and fast salvation, that it is summed up into walking to the pulpit and declaring, either in loud or low voice, the acceptance of Jesus' as his or her savior. No wonder, therefore, the high number of people that leave the church and the Christian life, in the first months after their "conversion." It should not also cause surprise the number of those who, although staying in the church and living a seeming Christian life, turn out to be actually false Christians or, lukewarm Christians that, in the best guess, are just members of one more religion, which little or nothing has to do with the authentic Christianity.
Those fake Christians are leaven that can spoil the whole church they congregate with, and because of them there’s so much distrust, prejudice and reservation among Christians. Yet the way to disclose those people’s character is not the defensive attitude or the prejudice, but on the contrary, the search of a deeper communion among the members of the church. On knowing and letting be known to each other, the true fruits yielded by each person will be evidenced to one another, and through them will be disclosed each person's true character.
There’s still a second opportunity, offered by the church, in that people can better mature the decision of purposing a life change: the baptism. In case the baptism is preceded by an appropriate preparation, in terms of the explanation as for the actual meaning of the Christian life in the present and future life, there’s a good chance of happening a true Christian conversion. However, even so, it’s common true conversions to happen only after several years after the baptism. And sometimes they happen out of the church. The chief issue however is that, without a true conversion it’s impossible to follow Christ and embrace the Gospel, to live out the Christian life and to be a part of a living church, which is really the salt of the earth and that actually makes a difference.
It is pressing, therefore, that the church stops being but a fantasy, only lived inside the temples, and start being a daily reality lived at the homes, in the workplace and in the streets. Few churches offer the new converted the necessary support for the consolidation of his or her new life. In the most crucial moment of his or her life, the new converted receives in his or her heart the seed of the Gospel, but not the necessary care so that this seed is not stepped or stolen by the birds of the enemies of our souls, or perishes for lack of humidity or be suffocated by the cares of the world. This individual and personal help is only available in a really united church, engaged in the battle against the spiritual and material powers of this world. This essential help can only happen at an authentic church, through ministries of discipleship building, of domestic groups, of visiting groups that offer spiritual and material support to the newly converted.
PRIESTHOOD
Why God doesn’t raises up, in our time, men such as Paul? The question can seem pointless, but it’s essential for us to understand what Jesus expects from his church in this generation. In the origins of Christianity, it was necessary to plant the seed of the church and for that, there were necessary individuals invested of great power, boldness and personal authority, who were deeply committed, to the root of their souls, with this mission. For that reason were chosen the apostles, one by one, for God needed it to be that way, so He could accomplish his work, at that time.
Today, however, what He needs are no great men or great historical deeds, as were the ones of the apostles. What God wants from the church today is that it be spread, but also that it be strong and that it be authentic, through each one of their members. Jesus hopes each one of us cultivate and multiply a genuine and strong seed of the tree that He first planted.
What happens today is that most of those Christian sewers are only Christians within the churches and in the conviviality with others of the same faith. Few are those who live a true Christian life, giving the largest of the testimonies: the one of their own behavior in the day by day of the businesses, of the relationships with the friends, in the workplace and with their families. Many judge that to be a Christian is just to get a church member card, to obey a series of precepts, to dedicate enough time to prayer and to the church activities, and “to do good" to other people, whenever possible. Those "Christians" don't have inside a true love of God or a least communion with his Spirit. Unfortunately, they show either in their behavior, in their opinions or in their reactions, that they are but religious people.
The most pathetic, is that when those people try to speak about the Gospel to non-Christians, all they get is being labeled either "annoying" or "fanatic." They just repeat the same decorated clichés and they pass on neither conviction nor sincerity in what they say, therefore they can’t present any convincing fact that prove the reality of God in their lives. They are Christian religious and as such, they typify, before who hear them, just one more religion, among so many. Actually, they don't have any authority to speak on behalf of Jesus. This is not to mention those who are so shy and embarrassed about their faith, they usually get along with people in their whole life span without even their closest friends at least suspect of their "religion."
If we are to draw and wish to draw other people to Christ, we need before everything to go ourselves first until Him and to confess before him that we actually, didn't meet him yet, but that we really want to know him. It’s usual to wise people to carefully ponder, before making any important decision in their lives. This happens when we’re about to get married, when we plan to move to another place or when we acquire something of value. However, most of the so-called Christians, take the decision of "accepting Jesus" in their lives without bearing the least notion of the real meaning of this attitude. How can Christ's church spread and be strengthened with this kind of members composing its body?
We need to be aware of this and to set aside a time in our lives to rethink our Christian life and our relationship with God. The growth and the invigoration of the current church depends on each Christian individually, for this we’ve been named kings and priests, we were settled with his church upon unshaken rock, until we finally get to reign with Christ. Pastor David Wilkerson, commenting Matthew 25, stresses all that urgency.
Wilkerson says when that moment arrives; those who haven’t yet done so won't have time to develop the Christ's character in their soul. They won't have time to build up their spiritual resources. He will come during the sleep and they won't be prepared. They will scream in anguish: “I am empty, dry. I wasted all my time seeking foolish things. I wasted all my life in futile things; I’ve spoiled my whole life. The Lord it is coming, and I am not ready”.
When the bridegroom closes the door, the foolish virgins were left outside, while they clamored crying: "Lord, open the door! Let us in!” But the bridegroom answered: I don't know you. That is a frightening situation. On that moment, nothing else can be said. No additional resource can be made. The Lord will declare: "the door is closed."
Here is the proof, in Christ's own words, that only the truly saved Christian will be included in his communion with the church. All who have based their lives on sin in this world, all those who have wished his name but not his love, will be thrown out. (3)
It’s essential, for a true Christian life, a real encounter with Christ. Not to pray that an angel comes, in glorious light, to break in on our sleep one night and introduce us to him. He always comes to us, when we sincerely seek him, as He one day came to me, during worship, while I intoned praises to God and had my soul fully open, with a deep thirst of God.
This encounter is essential because demonstrates, plain and unarguably, that Christ really lives; that He’s not just a historical character of great spiritual nobility and sanctity. This gives us the notion how we are loved by Him, and that He’s really offering us his hand, his comfort, his freedom.
Although the basis of a true Christian life is in faith, the faith that comes through hearing and knowing the word of God, the growth of the Christian happens through the ongoing knowledge of God in his fullness, and in this sense, I believe that a personal encounter with God is essential as a part of this knowledge.
SANCTIFICATION
The ways of God are plain and perfect. To know them, however, we need to truly look for God, with all our being. Only then they are disclosed to us, in all their clarity and fullness. The human theology is just a reference to those paths, but it cannot lead us throughout them.
The Christian sanctification always escaped my understanding and I’ve always seen it as something out of my reach, while a human being, something almost unreachable, something like an idealization or a dream of God.
I meditated in Psalms 37, that says: “Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass.”. In my understanding, I loved God and had already given him my life and I didn't understand therefore why I didn't thrive in the path of sanctification.
However, when I really started to seek God, when all my soul desired to know him, then He taught me, step by step, to walk in the sublime, but true path to sanctification. God began to disclose to me this path when I heard certain time, in my church, a song from the Christian Harp hymnbook, called In Fervent Prayer, which deeply touched me, as if God spoke directly to me. That hymn says:
"In a fervent prayer, comes your heart In the presence of God open up! But you can only get what you’re asking When everything is laid upon the altar."
When everything is placed before the Lord, And when your whole being he controls, Only, then, you shall see the power the Lord has, When everything is laid upon the Altar.
This was the first step the Lord taught me this day, our being's total delivery in his Altar. It’s not a matter of leaving all our dreams on the altar of God, but of putting our own life, all our being into his hands. Says the hymn: " And when your whole being he controls ". This implicates a true delivery, to rush entirely into the river of eternal life, which flows from the throne of the Lord, and not just to walk in it, with water up to the ankles, or up to the hips, or even up to the neck.
Our life, however, is almost entirely taken by our jobs. To forget the burdens of the work, we look for joy in leisure activities. However, in that search, our heart is invaded by desires and by the lust and, without noticing, we go on occupying its interior with countless material and carnal idols, which come and go, along with our days. The pleasure of the passions and the idolatry exclude this way, for their own sake, the presence of God in our hearts.
To yield oneself to God, to give our life to the Lord, means to open our soul to him to be restored, to receive him and to recognize him as the Lord of our lives, to give him the throne in our heart and to recognize our total dependence on his grace. It means to seek in him the joy for our spirit and the comfort for our body.
This first step cost me a lot to take. How precious are our dreams, our more intimate desires, our daily preferences, our subtle addictions! But it’s a matter of choice, it’s always up to us to choose between God and the world, between the ego and the Spirit, and despite the philosophers deny it, this choice is real and it’s as fundamental as the choice between life and death.
The second step for sanctification is the consecration. God wants us to be jars of blessings. We cannot live a really sanctified life if God cannot dwell in us and produce fruits out of our bodies and of our minds. And He cannot dwell in us if our heart is divided and we resist his Spirit. But what does this comes down to, in practical terms, anyway?
"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven”
"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
These words of Jesus are among the most neglected of the whole Gospel. A true abyss exists among hearing the teaching of God and putting it into practice. How difficult is to practice, in our daily life, these words... However it is essential that all those who have enthroned Christ in their heart, hear the Holly Ghost’s voice and obey him.
How much room in our heart and how much time, in our life, do we dedicate to God and to the world? From this balance, we can evaluate our degree of consecration to God. The best would be it was possible to dedicate a hundred percent of our time and of room in our heart to God. But we are still human, we need to work, we long to get married and to raise a family and that takes most of our lives. Yet, even of the remaining time, very little we set aside to adore and to serve God.
If we look up in our agenda, we’ll sadly check that little free time remains for God. For most maybe it is just those five or ten daily minutes of prayer in the morning and before going to bed. Others might go a little further, and make the daily Bible reading. What consecration can possibly be in this routine? Is that all one can really offer to God as the fruit of the new life He gave us? Is that all we have allowed his Grace to operate in us?
The work of the Lord is vast, but the inertia of our daily routines keeps us from doing more. The daily habits of TV and literature, the concerns with the work and the cares of the world keep us from serving God and of finding happiness and peace in his adoration. Jesus gave us the most wise life philosophy: “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well”. However, we almost always do quite the opposite. We take good care of our interests and fret about tomorrow and the day after tomorrow. Yet we hope that, at the end of our lives, we’ll be granted to enter the Kingdom of God. Why is it so difficult to live Jesus’ teachings? The truth is that a few of us Christian people are truly like good salt. We are not light for the world, but instead, we have conformed to the world.
When I was young, I had a strong distaste for all sort of routines. I didn't understand how God, the supreme Creator, could have damned his creation to a life of routine and mediocrity. Only later, after my conversion to Christianity, I understood that actually, much of the routine and mediocrity that saddle our lives is a reflex of the own human limitations and of people’s estrangement of the Creator. God is perennial and endless source of renewal, of innovation and intelligence. The forms of manifestation of the beauty and harmony of his creation are infinite and the human intelligence can badly evaluate them.
God gave us talents and talents the most various and has promised authority and power, for the ones who have faith in Christ, to accomplish everything he has accomplished and still more. However, though aware of that, we have conformed to the sad routine of our lives and to the mediocrity of our jobs. Our small world still spins around ourselves, around our living room, our workplace, our social club.
Jesus though, drives us sometimes to high sea, to the middle of the great waves, where we have to endure storms and the fury of the winds. Then, as a lightning, He appears from the darkness and calmly invites us to leave our boats, to abandon the precarious safety of our homes and take a step of daring and faith: He invites us to walk upon the waters. That is what to consecrate, essentially, is all about. To have the courage and boldness of answering the calling of God, to do the works He has prepared for us, from our mother's womb.
The third condition for our victory in the sanctification journey is fidelity. We gave our lives on the altar of God and we answered to his consecration call. But we need to be faithful to Him, every minute of our lives. This means to honor and glorify his name, above all things, above all human values and laws. It means to be upright, steady in faith and in the defense of justice and the Lord’s name. Many are the ones who were consecrated to the work of God, but have fallen. Some got to stand up again, but others have hopelessly strayed from the ways of the Lord. All of us are subject to this fall and the Scriptures say: "So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall!" Faithfulness however is the ultimate trial to all who look forward to salvation and the eternal life, and all they must overcome it.
The more we move on and produce good works for God, the stronger become the temptations and trials we are to face, and tougher the struggle, to the point of many feel like they won’t bear it and are tempted to give up. However, in all these situations, the strength God gives us far outstrips the probations force and if we are truly committed, we’ll eventually win. Paul keeps being our reference of spiritual fidelity, along all of his Christian life and for this reason God was glorified through his life, his works last and its fruits are eternal.
Faithfulness to God is a fundamental condition for salvation and sanctification of all who have decided to follow Christ's steps, starting from the very moment they took that decision. The secret of succeeding in this career is but one: Perseverance. To persevere and to obey, even when we’re bent under the weight of our cross, persevere even when we vacillate in our faith, persevere even in the dark nights of the spiritual battles and in the storms we go through, to persevere even in the face of the temptations and the offenses, of the mocking and of the contempt of the ones who don't know God. Always persevere and never to give up.
The more faithful we are, the more the Lord reveals himself to us and infuses into us strength and courage, the more we persist in his ways, the more increases our communion with the Father and the more we are filled with his love, with his peace and with his protection. Paul was surely inebriated by the Spirit of God, and he enjoyed a deep communion with Him, when he wrote, in Romans, one of the most beautiful love pledges to God I ever read:
"Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."
The Christian sanctification is the magnus opus of the spiritual life, however it is not, in any way, a result of our personal efforts, but it is a work of God, only accomplished by his grace and by the power of his Spirit. Those who set about this enterprise with firmness and earnest purposes show, increasingly in their lives, the sheer presence of God in their hearts. They become jars of blessings, more and more able to love and of generating through their works the fruit of the spirit and therefore, able to build and to support a living church.
TO LOVE AND TO SERVE
Kenneth Hagin wrote a book (2) about the need of living out the love of God, like says the Bible, in the apostles' letters, as in 1 Corinthians 13:3 and 1 John 4:8; as a basic parameter that evidences we are living in communion with God. To live out the love of God is an essential condition for us to be successful Christians and together be able to strengthen Jesus' true evangelical church. Obviously this is not easy. To love our neighbor and also our enemies is no grace we can just get from God. When we receive in us the Holly Ghost presence and we start to live according to the will of God, we receive also, through his grace, the forgiveness for our rotten past life and also the power to overcome sin. However, nor the flesh, nor the world nor the enemies of our souls will show mercy in this battle. But it’s with the sincere determination of never giving up this daily struggle against sin and looking forward to learn to love our neighbor, that we allow God to give us victory and allow his love finally to prevail in our spirit.
The Pentecostal Study Bible, an old evangelical publication, draws the following conclusion on a comment about Ephesians 4:14: “The truth of the Gospel, as presented in the NT, should be believed with charity, presented with charity and defended with a charity mood. This charity is driven firstly to Christ, afterwards to the church (v.15) and finally from one another". The order in that the commentator puts the objectives of the Christian devotion, demonstrates, although not intentionally, the mistaken order of values that guide the current evangelical church. The church, while an institution, is put above the individuals that compose it. Most certainly, the commentator referred to the church while spiritual entity and body of Christ, however, what we actually see is the cult to the denominational instituted church, as well as to its authority and the negligence in relation to the individuals that build it up.
Paul, however, in the verses 15 and 16, settled how we actually must foster the health and the growth of the true church:
"But speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.”
How shall we love Christ's church? What’s the whole made of if not of its parts? If we don't take care of each organ of the body, in an individual way, how to grant the health and the growth of the body as a whole?
We have finally come to the central point, which is: We evangelicals need to remember also of the second major commandment, and not just of the first one:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. his is the great and first commandment. And a second like unto it is this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."
We need at last to learn to know each other, to support each other and to help each other and for this we have to be in communion. Not like the children of the world get know each other and relate among them, but assuming our identity as children of God, children of a Father who really loves us, with whom we sealed a true and fundamental alliance to serve and to honor him with our lives.
It’s almost bizarre but there is more communion and friendship among religious and lay persons than among the evangelicals, in their churches. What is wrong? Shouldn’t it be exactly the opposite, being us a minority enduring a permanent war against the yoke of the world and against the spiritual ranks of the evil? The Christians should live together in a degree of exemplary communion, both in authenticity and depth. We should represent to the world an authentic community's model, united and solidary, through which could be proven that we are really loved by Christ and that we love him and serve him as well.
In time of war, the first social phenomenon to happen is the association of the oppressed minorities, forming communities for resistance and mutual help. We Christians, however, seem to move away from one another and consider the battle as a personal matter alone and not a collective mission of the Church. If in the struggle for the physical survival people mutually help each other, much more we should do the same while in the battle against the common enemies of our souls. Jesus put it clearly that whoever wants be great in his kingdom, should be the one who best serves his neighbor in this world. There’s of course a moment in that the battle is individual, consisting of tribulations and trials we must overcome only with the help of God. But even on those moments, the comfort and the mutual exhortation from our brothers and sisters in faith are of great help.
Throughout all the apostles’ letters to the ancient churches, there are three constant exhortations:
a) To be always alert against new “winds of doctrine” and against false masters
b) To struggle against sin and the works of flesh and to look forward to bring on the fruit of the Spirit in our lives
c) To love and to support each other, consoling, teaching, aiding and sharing the Christian life.
It’s time that we stop being spiritual children, stop playing Christians, and establish with Christ a real commitment to learn how to best love and serve each other.
There is no church without the Gospel. There is no Gospel without love. There is no love if it’s not whole.
Ponta Grossa, December 25th 2005
(1) Back from the Brink: A Leadership Special Report - Leadership Journal, Fall 2005
http://www.christianitytoday.com/le/2005/004/8.24.html
(2) Love. The Way to Victory
(3) Based on the article: Christian In Name Only - By David Wilkerson March 29, 2004
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