I want to bring this topic to the forefront to hopefully enlighten all who read this message to what the Bible says a real Christian is or isn’t. For many years I had the understanding that I was a Christian, but my life’s priorities and struggles were telling my heart otherwise.
The Zondervan Bible Dictionary says the word Christian comes directly from the Greek word Χριστίανος (Christianos). The Latin suffix “ianos” on this word was widely used throughout the Roman Empire of that time to designate a slave to the person’s name it was compounded onto (to designate an owner’s slave). What this says to us is that during the time of the apostles, to be called a Christian was to be understood that you were a slave to Christ.
Romans 6:22 NIV says “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.”
1 Peter 2:16 NIV says “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.”
Eph 6:5-8 NIV says “Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is on you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.”
The apostles wrote of themselves as servants (slaves) of Christ. In their letters they indicated for us to follow their example. In doing so we would become faithful to Christ, totally submissive to His Lordship, and totally trusting in His Spirit for guidance and our every need.
Romans 1:1 NKJV says “Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God.”
James 1:1 NKJV says “James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ”
2 Peter 1:1 NKJV says “Simon Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ. To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”
There are many, many more scriptures throughout the Bible indicating God is calling us to be totally committed servants (slaves) of Christ. There are other words the Bible uses to describe a real Christian; one is to be called a disciple. There are requirements to being called a disciple also.
Luke 14:26-27 NLT says “If you want to be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison—your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters—yes, even your own life. Otherwise, you cannot be my disciple. And if you do not carry your own cross and follow me, you cannot be my disciple.”
Luke 14:33 NIV says “In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.”
Somehow in this age we live in, we have simplified and degraded what being a Christian is. The current understanding of a Christian has been simplified to a person who only needs to understand their salvation is based on believing that Jesus died on the cross for his sins, and that Jesus was bodily resurrected. The devil understands and believes this also and he wants people to keep believing this. The devil doesn’t want people to look past this simplified deceptive concept. The devil knows total submission and obedience to our God is also required. The devil would rather keep people dependent on themselves or things. If anyone trusts their salvation only on this simplified concept, they might have a rude awakening at their judgment before Jesus Christ.
A real biblical based Christian is a person believing, trusting, and loving Jesus with all their heart, soul, and mind. A true Christian will not allow themselves to be entangled with any of the worldly pleasures of this world. For they know to be a friend to the world is to be an enemy of God. Christians enjoy the blessing of their needs being met, but know that if they receive their enjoyment from worldly pleasures instead of God’s grace, they are in a sinful state. A true Christian will be living his life is such a way that every thought, decision, and action he does should be to the glory of God.
What determines whether a person is a true Christian is really a matter of the heart. To become a true Christian a person must accept wholeheartedly Jesus as his/her Lord and Savior. If anyone accepts Jesus less than wholeheartedly, that person can still rejoice because Christ’s seed has been planted and is growing in them, but that seed has not matured and they are not yet a true biblical based Christian. To be a true Christian one must accept Jesus as his/her Lord. This means a person must make a decision to submit all of their self as a living sacrifice to God. This is a total submission to His authority and rule over you. This submission cannot be partial. A person cannot submit part of their life to Him and want to keep other parts under their control. He wants all of you. God is still a jealous God. Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments”. Jesus demands us to give all of ourselves to Him with what Jesus calls the first and greatest commandment:
Matt 22:37-38 NIV says “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment”
It is only after we do the first and greatest commandment that we can produce any good and Godly fruit by doing the second commandment Jesus gave:
Matt 22:39-40 NIV says “And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
When we first truly accept Jesus as Lord and Savior with our whole heart, we will probably not be able to automatically do everything we have committed ourselves to do in Christ. This is where the Holy Spirit continues the sanctification process in us. The Spirit will continue to renew our minds to control our bodies to become more like Christ in increasing measure as time goes forward. We must look to the Spirit to finish the purification process and do all the Godly works through us. We have no power to do anything apart from the Spirit of God. If we are a true Christian, the process of learning to crawl, walk, and run in the Spirit can happen fairly fast since a true Christian’s heart is not restrictive to the work of the Spirit.
I would like to take this time to tell some of my personal story. What I mainly want to share with all of you is that over 25 years from the beginning of my walk with God, I was only giving parts of myself to God. I didn't have enough faith to give all of me. My faith had to be built up at each phase to allow myself to give more of myself to Jesus. To make a long story short, through those 25 years I sliced off more of my life and gave it to God, slice by slice as time went on. At the end of the 25 years, when I had sliced off the last of my heart and soul and gave it to God, He did a miracle in my life. I now understand that at that point He baptized me with the Holy Spirit to make me ready for service to His Kingdom. At that point, I was no longer looking out for my own selfish needs, but for the needs of others. God was able to flip my heart’s desires from selfishness to truly loving others with not my love, but with God's love flowing through me. Since then God has enlightened me with His truth through His word and Spirit. So much so that I cannot hold it in, but have to share it with anyone willing to listen.
May God bless you through the truth.
God’s servant - Michael Reid
Showing posts with label slave to God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label slave to God. Show all posts
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Only Souls With Pure Hearts Will Enter Heaven
God has promised that when we are born again we are given a new heart.
Ezek 36:25-26 - I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
God says all of our sinful nature is gone and we are a new creation in Him.
2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; the old has gone, the new has come!
When we are truly born again we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to His righteousness.
Rom 6:18 - You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Jesus says he has set us totally free from the bondage of the sinful nature.
John 8:36 - So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We must understand that for most of us that call ourselves Christians, we are not really born again yet. Most of us are in the pregnancy stage and we are getting ready to be born again. When God’s grace has purged all of the sinful nature out of our heart and soul, He will give us a new heart filled with only His love and all of our sinful nature will be gone. Then we will truly be able to love God and others like He commands us to.
To be born again, we have to humble ourselves by letting go of all of our pride and selfishness and give every bit of our soul to Him. Only then can anyone come to Him with the faith as a child to be reborn.
God is patient and gives us our whole life to let Him transform us into a pure spiritual being. Only after our heart is made pure, holy, and righteous by God are we acceptable for the gift of eternal life with Him. How long do you think you have left? Remember this is a process for most of us and usually takes some time.
For anyone that has been taught and believes that this total regeneration is not possible, please understand you have been deceived, for the Bible clearly indicates this entire sanctification is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not only possible; it is required for anyone to have eternal life with God. Our soul must be purged of any sinful nature because God will not allow any unholy thing into His eternal kingdom.
John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
I tell you this even though it might be hard to hear, because a lot of us have stopped searching for God’s real truth. We have become complacent with our walk with God because we think we are eternally saved already. We have to stop listening to preachers that are telling us what we want to hear and search for the real truth. God says if we will search, we will find. So I sincerely ask you to search God’s Holy Word. Don’t go to books other than the Bible. Most books other than the Bible will mislead you in some way. The whole truth is in God’s Word. Let God talk to you through His scriptures.
God Bless,
Mike Reid
Ezek 36:25-26 - I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.
God says all of our sinful nature is gone and we are a new creation in Him.
2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; the old has gone, the new has come!
When we are truly born again we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to His righteousness.
Rom 6:18 - You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Jesus says he has set us totally free from the bondage of the sinful nature.
John 8:36 - So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
We must understand that for most of us that call ourselves Christians, we are not really born again yet. Most of us are in the pregnancy stage and we are getting ready to be born again. When God’s grace has purged all of the sinful nature out of our heart and soul, He will give us a new heart filled with only His love and all of our sinful nature will be gone. Then we will truly be able to love God and others like He commands us to.
To be born again, we have to humble ourselves by letting go of all of our pride and selfishness and give every bit of our soul to Him. Only then can anyone come to Him with the faith as a child to be reborn.
God is patient and gives us our whole life to let Him transform us into a pure spiritual being. Only after our heart is made pure, holy, and righteous by God are we acceptable for the gift of eternal life with Him. How long do you think you have left? Remember this is a process for most of us and usually takes some time.
For anyone that has been taught and believes that this total regeneration is not possible, please understand you have been deceived, for the Bible clearly indicates this entire sanctification is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not only possible; it is required for anyone to have eternal life with God. Our soul must be purged of any sinful nature because God will not allow any unholy thing into His eternal kingdom.
John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."
I tell you this even though it might be hard to hear, because a lot of us have stopped searching for God’s real truth. We have become complacent with our walk with God because we think we are eternally saved already. We have to stop listening to preachers that are telling us what we want to hear and search for the real truth. God says if we will search, we will find. So I sincerely ask you to search God’s Holy Word. Don’t go to books other than the Bible. Most books other than the Bible will mislead you in some way. The whole truth is in God’s Word. Let God talk to you through His scriptures.
God Bless,
Mike Reid
Becoming a Christian is a process
As I write these messages, I am very concerned that these Biblical truths are not being accepted as God’s truth like they were in the days of Christ’s apostles. The Gospel of Christ has been so watered down that most people can no longer accept the true Biblical truth because they have been taught and believe another truth (really deception) and believing it for many years, in most cases for generations. Back in the day of the apostles, people believed in part because of the miracles they saw the apostles and other Spirit filled believers do. So I’m praying for a miracle from God that would open up the eyes and ears of our current day church leaders and all the Christians around the world. A real revival back to God’s truth is needed.
As I was recently giving a message at a church service, I said “In the Old Testament, God worked most of His miracles in plain view of His people so they would believe, but in the New Testament, God works most of His miracles on the inside of man so each one of us will believe by feeling Him and His power on the inside of us”. This made me realize that there is a miracle I can talk about to help you realize what I am saying is the truth. It is the miracle that has happened in my life. How God has completely regenerated the sinful man in me into being Christ like. Everything I have written in my previous writings has happened to me and is so alive in me that I cannot hold it in; I have to proclaim this to anyone that will listen. I know this sounds prideful to some people, but this was not of my doing, it was only of God’s power. He has done it all. I want to tell you that I am a nobody, again I say I am a nobody that God has raised up to do His will through His Spirit. So if he was willing to use me, a nobody, He can do this for anybody willing to submit to His Lordship. This is what God has called all Christian to become and do.
In getting back to the process of becoming a Christian, we must know what the final result is, and that is becoming a real or true Christian. As stated in my previous writings a true Biblical Christian is totally devoted and sold out to God. He/she has committed everything that they hold valuable and has sacrificed it to God’s glory and work. A true Christian is a willing slave to God’s will. He/she is no longer having any selfish desires, but only loving desires toward God first and then to all people. A true Christian is always working at bringing others to a true relationship with God (making disciples). He/she loves God with all their heart, soul, and mind. True Christians know the only way to God’s eternal kingdom is through Christ, so they are fervently proclaiming the Gospel with the gifts they have been given. They know that people that are receiving a deception instead of the true Gospel is devastating to those people God loves. It is a spiritual life and death situation with eternal consequences. True Christians are not friends with the world, lovers of money, lovers of things, or lovers of themselves. True Christians always think of others needs above themselves. They are praising God the Father and Jesus continuously through out their day.
So, now knowing what a Christian is, we must admit that most of us aren’t at this holy or sanctified point at the time of our first acceptance of Christ. We must be made holy and perfected to being Christ like through a process call “sanctification”. Our society has been called the microwave society; we want everything to happen right now, no waiting, instant gratification. This is not how God usually works or what we can usually be able to do. When we first accept Christ as our savior, we usually can’t accept Him as total Lord of our life. The Bible says we must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The savior part is easy to accept because we are looking forward to receiving eternal life, but God’s Lordship of our life is required to be a true Christian and to really have eternal salvation. Lordship of our life is what most of us will not relinquish to anyone, even God. Some churches only preach and teach of Jesus being our Savior and not having to have total Lordship over our lives. This is a big and devastating deception. If Jesus is not allowed to have total control or Lordship over every part of a person’s life, there is no salvation for that person until he/she does. This is the reason God always puts the word Lord before Savior in the Bible.
This sanctification process to become a true Christian (born again) can take many years, sometime most of our life. Some people only come to this right before they die. Some people, even though they are in this process, never come to the point of becoming a true Christian and are lost to the devil because of their unwillingness to submit to Jesus’ total Lordship over their lives.
How long it takes to become a true Christian (born again) is totally dependent on our amount of faith in God and how much baggage we’ve have picked up in our life that we have to get rid of or let go of. When we are a child, especially in a Christian home, we have no baggage or only a little baggage to get rid of and when our parents tell us about Jesus through gospel messages and stories, we can easily have the faith to come to Jesus as Lord and Savior, because we believe what ever our parents tell us because we totally trust them. This is why Jesus says we must come to Him as a child.
If we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior as a child, we still have to persevere at keeping Him as our Lord and Savior. If we don’t, we must then get back to that point of submission or we still might be lost.
When we come to Christ as an adult, we already have a lot of sinful baggage. By this time we have already learned we cannot trust anyone, including God. We have learned to be very selfish through our sinful nature controlling us. The older we are when we come to Christ, the more excess sinful baggage we have to get rid of. All this selfish baggage that has been wound up into our life has to be unwound and this takes time and the power of God Holy Spirit to do it. This baggage must be gotten rid of by the process of sanctification and repenting. The flight to God’s eternal heaven does not carry any sinful baggage. We must let go of all this baggage before we board the flight. If we stay bound to our sinful baggage, we will not be allowed on the flight to heaven, but we will be picked up with the multitudes and thrown into the fiery bottomless pit, baggage and all.
May God’s grace be with you – Michael Reid
As I was recently giving a message at a church service, I said “In the Old Testament, God worked most of His miracles in plain view of His people so they would believe, but in the New Testament, God works most of His miracles on the inside of man so each one of us will believe by feeling Him and His power on the inside of us”. This made me realize that there is a miracle I can talk about to help you realize what I am saying is the truth. It is the miracle that has happened in my life. How God has completely regenerated the sinful man in me into being Christ like. Everything I have written in my previous writings has happened to me and is so alive in me that I cannot hold it in; I have to proclaim this to anyone that will listen. I know this sounds prideful to some people, but this was not of my doing, it was only of God’s power. He has done it all. I want to tell you that I am a nobody, again I say I am a nobody that God has raised up to do His will through His Spirit. So if he was willing to use me, a nobody, He can do this for anybody willing to submit to His Lordship. This is what God has called all Christian to become and do.
In getting back to the process of becoming a Christian, we must know what the final result is, and that is becoming a real or true Christian. As stated in my previous writings a true Biblical Christian is totally devoted and sold out to God. He/she has committed everything that they hold valuable and has sacrificed it to God’s glory and work. A true Christian is a willing slave to God’s will. He/she is no longer having any selfish desires, but only loving desires toward God first and then to all people. A true Christian is always working at bringing others to a true relationship with God (making disciples). He/she loves God with all their heart, soul, and mind. True Christians know the only way to God’s eternal kingdom is through Christ, so they are fervently proclaiming the Gospel with the gifts they have been given. They know that people that are receiving a deception instead of the true Gospel is devastating to those people God loves. It is a spiritual life and death situation with eternal consequences. True Christians are not friends with the world, lovers of money, lovers of things, or lovers of themselves. True Christians always think of others needs above themselves. They are praising God the Father and Jesus continuously through out their day.
So, now knowing what a Christian is, we must admit that most of us aren’t at this holy or sanctified point at the time of our first acceptance of Christ. We must be made holy and perfected to being Christ like through a process call “sanctification”. Our society has been called the microwave society; we want everything to happen right now, no waiting, instant gratification. This is not how God usually works or what we can usually be able to do. When we first accept Christ as our savior, we usually can’t accept Him as total Lord of our life. The Bible says we must accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior. The savior part is easy to accept because we are looking forward to receiving eternal life, but God’s Lordship of our life is required to be a true Christian and to really have eternal salvation. Lordship of our life is what most of us will not relinquish to anyone, even God. Some churches only preach and teach of Jesus being our Savior and not having to have total Lordship over our lives. This is a big and devastating deception. If Jesus is not allowed to have total control or Lordship over every part of a person’s life, there is no salvation for that person until he/she does. This is the reason God always puts the word Lord before Savior in the Bible.
This sanctification process to become a true Christian (born again) can take many years, sometime most of our life. Some people only come to this right before they die. Some people, even though they are in this process, never come to the point of becoming a true Christian and are lost to the devil because of their unwillingness to submit to Jesus’ total Lordship over their lives.
How long it takes to become a true Christian (born again) is totally dependent on our amount of faith in God and how much baggage we’ve have picked up in our life that we have to get rid of or let go of. When we are a child, especially in a Christian home, we have no baggage or only a little baggage to get rid of and when our parents tell us about Jesus through gospel messages and stories, we can easily have the faith to come to Jesus as Lord and Savior, because we believe what ever our parents tell us because we totally trust them. This is why Jesus says we must come to Him as a child.
If we accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior as a child, we still have to persevere at keeping Him as our Lord and Savior. If we don’t, we must then get back to that point of submission or we still might be lost.
When we come to Christ as an adult, we already have a lot of sinful baggage. By this time we have already learned we cannot trust anyone, including God. We have learned to be very selfish through our sinful nature controlling us. The older we are when we come to Christ, the more excess sinful baggage we have to get rid of. All this selfish baggage that has been wound up into our life has to be unwound and this takes time and the power of God Holy Spirit to do it. This baggage must be gotten rid of by the process of sanctification and repenting. The flight to God’s eternal heaven does not carry any sinful baggage. We must let go of all this baggage before we board the flight. If we stay bound to our sinful baggage, we will not be allowed on the flight to heaven, but we will be picked up with the multitudes and thrown into the fiery bottomless pit, baggage and all.
May God’s grace be with you – Michael Reid
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