“For I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believes; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16
During this COVID-19 shutdown I have been able to spend a lot of time in the word, meditation, reading, writing, and just listening for God to speak. Often, we find ourselves petitioning God again and again, never taking the time to listen to what the Spirit is saying in response to our cries.
While reading one day, I sensed Holy Spirit whisper into my inner man and say, “what kind of a believer are you? Consider these four kinds of believers:
1.A Bail Out Believer.
This kind of a believer only comes to Jesus when they need to be bailed out of a problem. They only call on Him when they are jammed up, in trouble or need a miracle. This kind of a believer has the intercessors or the pastors on speed dial; but they never want to have anything to do with God or with the church when their lives are running smoothly.
This kind of a believer will get very angry if you call attention to any sin in their lives. They hate the message of repentance and will complain all day long that the church is full of hypocrites and lack love. They will accuse you of being judgmental and bigoted if you ever talk to them about where they stand with God.
I will be the first to admit there are some really mean people who call themselves “Christians”; but true Christians are known by the love they have for ALL humanity, and they love people enough to be concerned about their relationship with Jesus. A true believer is willing to confront you and not sugar coat the Gospel just to keep you as a friend.
Please listen to me: not everyone who challenges you is out to destroy you. A true friend will challenge you because they believe in you and want to see you accomplish all the Kingdom of God desires to do through you on this earth. God is calling us from a bail-out mindset because He wants us to have a living relationship with His Son Jesus!
2.A Stimulus Believer.
A stimulus believer will live from service to service; from revival to revival or conference to conference. They are always looking for an emotional touch. Looking for a new revelation but they have not done anything with the last revelation God gave to them. Oftentimes these kinds of believers will never be connected to a local church to become grounded in their faith because they are living with unchecked emotions. When they begin to “feel” something is wrong in this church, they will jump and run somewhere else. They have never matured in their faith to discern the difference between being led by Holy Spirit and being controlled by their emotions.
A Stimulus believer is one who loves only one style of music or one style of teaching or preaching. They have never learned to embrace anyone outside the stream of ministry or the church denomination they are a part of.
One of the greatest truths my spiritual father taught me was: “son you have to learn to eat the meat and spit out the bones.”
3.Searching believer.
A searching believer is one that knows in their heart that Jesus is Lord, but they have never had a true public declaration of faith. The say they love Jesus, but He is basically on their “to do list” and they never can seem to get around to making a full commitment to Him to be the Lord and Master of their lives.
4.All in son or daughter of God.
The “ALL IN” phrase actually originated in poker when one of the players bets all him money on a single hand of cards. It has become the rally cry of many sports teams, telling their fans and each other we are totally committed, sold out, holding nothing back, we are in this to win it all!
This should really be the normal attitude for a believer of Jesus Christ. But because we have eaten and drank and settled for a watered-down religious life, when we meet someone who is “ALL IN” we think they are goofy, weird, and they have gone a little overboard with Jesus.
There is one major thing this pandemic has done for me. It has reminded me that the government can’t save you, medical science can’t save you, the sports and entertainment gods can’t save and protect you; even the church can’t save you. Only Jesus can save, heal, deliver and set you free.
I’m determined to live the rest of my days “ALL IN”.
Visit http://revivalnow.org/media for the audio version of the May 2020 Newsletter.
