ARE YOU A REAL CHRISTIAN?
Today in many churches in America & even around the world, the popular teaching that’s been espoused in a nutshell is God got a blessing waiting for you. & the idea is your blessing is released to you in some way after confessing your heart’s desire to God, or given to you after you have sowed a large financial seed into God’s kingdom, or either you receive your blessing after the storm of trouble is over in your life. Which some professing Christians believe this to mean a person will receive a new level of anointing to manage/handle these new blessings. Usually, these newfound blessings consist of a new car, a better paying job, more money in the bank, a new husband/wife, & of course the list can go on. This belief also spills over into the gospel music that’s sung in many churches today & even played on the radio. For instance, one song that was recently popular was “Go Get Your Blessing” by Mary Mary. The idea behind the song that captured the hearts & ears of millions of listeners was after we have paid our dues in life as a Christian we have now ascended to the next level of faith in which you have the authority to go get your blessing – hence it's your time. Another popular gospel song I often hear in churches is “we’re blessed in the city, we’re blessed in the field, etc. in which the creator of this song borrowed the scripture found in Deuteronomy 28:3 which states 3 “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
The common thread I see in many sermons & gospel music is God will give a person who professes Christ as Lord & savior access to draw these material blessings from him. Lastly & the most shocking thing I have come to notice is that many churches & individuals are given the gospel of salvation in the form of receiving a promised blessing & overcoming his/her personal pain. I recently visited a church that gleefully told a story through a video format of a man (who is now a member of their church) giving his life to Jesus Christ. The storyline was he wanted a better life for his wife & kids & decided to move them away from the bad city & impoverished crime-infested neighborhood they were living in & relocated here to Texas, got involved with a great pastor/church & began his new journey in Christ, along with providing a better lifestyle for his family. Now I will admit the story/cinema photography was well put together & it was truly heartfelt to see this man making a positive change for himself & his family. The only thing that concerned me though was the video never mentioned this man coming to Christ by repentance of his sin & feeling a deep sorrow & brokenness for offending a Holy God & his excitement about the Holy Spirit living inside of him. Nor did I hear any mention of the gratefulness of escaping hell & the blessed hope of eternal life.
Which leads me back to the reason why I am writing this blog post? So you may be asking what does this have to do with the question are you a real Christian? Well, to give a clear understanding I want to set the proper foundation to build on. I want to present a term some of you may have or haven’t heard called “regeneration”. This word is so vital to the Christian life & whether or not a professing Christian is saved. For starters, another word for regeneration is a rebirth from which we get the phrase “born again”. Being born again is parallel to regeneration. Simply put regeneration is God making a person spiritually alive, a new creation, as a result of faith in Jesus Christ. The reason regeneration is necessary is that before salvation we are not God’s children. To back this up John 1:12-13 states “ But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God".
This spiritual reality correlates to what I call the butterfly effect. An example would be how a caterpillar changes into a butterfly. & how that same transformation takes place in the life of a truly regenerated person in Christ. The biblical word for this type of process is called sanctification. Sanctification is simply a state of separation unto God. All believers enter into this state when they are born of God. To truly extract the meaning of the butterfly effect I borrowed a short synopsis from a blogger named Jim Allen on how the butterfly process works he states.
“The marvel of metamorphosis was not understood until the twentieth century. Life for the monarch butterfly begins as a tiny egg. In a few days, the larva emerges from its soft shell and crawls about eating its way through nearby leaves. The tiny larva grows quickly, reemerging a little changed each time its outer skin sheds. And then one day before its last shedding the toddler monarch attaches to the underside of a branch, encases itself within a protective substance, and waits for the "real" change to begin. Watching a larva wrap itself in a cocoon is pretty amazing in itself. But what happens next in the suspended cocoon is profound. Within its tightly wrapped sheath, the worm-like monarch begins to change. Its cells turn off, one-by-one. The larva slowly dissolves from its former worm-like state into an unrecognizable, gooey substance and dies. But, within the goo is the promise of life and change and struggle. Sleeping cells within the goo (present from birth) turn on and begin to build a new creature unlike the former. The change from an earthbound worm to a heaven-bound butterfly is nothing less than the creation of a new creature. Nothing from the old is part of the new”. (end quote)
Simply put the larva goes through a metamorphosis by changing from the old way of life into a new way of living. The spiritual analogy for the regenerated Christian is this; what was once appealing & necessary desire in this world is no longer desirable for our new life. We have new desires, new hope & a future. We become more concerned about heavenly things rather than earthly things. To back this up Ephesians 4:21-24 states “ if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, 23 and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
The problem I tend to see with many professing Christians is their desire to obtain more temporal worldly things. (aka blessings) Don't get me wrong there is nothing wrong with having nice material things in life. But during your witness for Christ, those types of things take a major back seat when discussing Christ. The topic of our conversation should be centered around repentance of sin, having a pure heart, eternal life, sanctification, hating false doctrine that dishonors God, witnessing to the lost, warning others about going to hell without Jesus, hating my sins, etc. But instead what’s being heard by many churches & professing Christians are temporal worldly things like more money & fame, grand lifestyle, physical health, cars, new wife/husband, a bigger better newer house, new lucrative business deals, etc. Some people may ask well don’t God give you the desires of your heart? & the way I would answer that question is yes & no. Jeremiah 17.9 states “The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? This simply means if our hearts have not been regenerated along with being sanctified we will always ask blessings from God that are centered around our fleshly desires. Furthermore, the heart is so corrupt & deceitful that our motives are unclear even to ourselves.
But during the sanctification process of the Holy Spirit, God will plant his desires into our hearts. This then begins to turn our hearts & minds away from worldly material things. To back this up 1 Colossians 3:2 states “ Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.” In closing, I want to say sanctification is a true work of the Holy Spirit in all true born-again believer's life & this change can take a lifetime. But the really important question to ask is that your heart’s desire?