To Be a Christian
To be a Christian is not what many people think. Being a Christian has nothing to do with the mindless ritual of religion but everything to do with knowing God through Christ and living in fellowship with Him and others who choose to follow Him. It is not a religious experience filled with regulations and programmed protocol but a supernatural life in which Christ comes to dwell inside of us and inspire the process of transforming us into His image (Col 1:27; John 14:20; 1 Cor 3:15; 2 Cor 3;18).
First of all the early followers of Christ didn’t even call themselves Christians. They preferred to refer to their experience as “the way” (Acts 9:2; 19:9) because they experienced a new way of life in Christ who called himself “the way” (John 14:6). It was simply a way of life living in fellowship with Christ and His people.
Jesus met with the Pharisee, Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews who came to Him with all of his Jewish understanding of what it meant to follow God. Jesus replied to Him “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” John 3:3). He elaborated with the same thought: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit” (3:5, 6).
This expression “born again” could be translated “born from above” implying a rebirth conceived from heaven through the work of the Holy Spirit. Jesus spoke here of a supernatural life whereby a person is reborn in his spirit into a completely new life experience.
Paul says of this experience: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come” (2 Cor 5:17). A supernatural change takes place whereby a person is a completely new created spiritual being filled with the Spirit of God. It is a matter of knowing God and having a personal, living experience of Him with His people (John 17:3).
So genuine Christians are actually aliens on planet earth in its present condition which is under the illegal control of the god of this world system. The earth belongs to the Lord and all who will inherit it (Ps 24;1; 1 Cor 10:26; Matt 5:5). It does not belong to the hordes of demons who possess it because of man’s sin against the Creator.
We are commissioned with the task of loving Him and His children and revealing the kingdom of God and its King to the kingdom of the world. Our love and unity were meant to display the nature of God to the sons and daughters of of men. Satan and his minions have cultivated religion, including the Christian religion, to distract the followers of Christ from their divine mission. Religion is what man makes of God but genuine Christianity is what God makes of man. We have reversed the process and are paying the price.
At this point in history, in this place we call America, we are a colossal failure in our mission. We have bought into Satan’s lie that human cleverness and ingenuity are a substitute for the power, enlightenment and guidance of the Holy Spirit. It is a life led by the Spirit not be theologians (Rom 8:14). We have built human edifices reaching to the sky like Nimrod did in Babel. We are divided by doctrinal issues, enticed by the world’s lusts, majoring in minor issues while neglecting the issue of God and His kingdom. We are like the Pharisees to whom Jesus said, “You strain at a gnat and swallow camel “(Matt 23:24).
The theme of my message at this point in my life is the need to return to the simplicity and purity in our devotion to Christ (2 Cor 11:3). I have written a book presenting my case entitled The Coming Divine Reset of the Body of Christ for those interested in exploring further. It is can be found on Amazon and many other places.
I have no desire to sell books but have in my heart like Jeremiah “. . . a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot prevail” ( Jer 20:9). Whether it be through words on pages or spoken into the air, this is my message and that of many other faithful Christ followers — it is time for a reset at the hands of God that will guide the body of Christ, the church, back to its place of glory.
