Okay They're Saved, Now What? (an excerpt from "It's Not About You" vol.2)

Though many have been equipped to minister the Word and bring souls into the kingdom, churches are falling short in responsibility toward those who are newly saved. Many churches are not growing despite the number of people who are giving their hearts to Christ. Perhaps they are not growing because they have not learned how to accommodate the people when they come through their door. Thus, inevitably they lose them. Accommodating new Christians is being in the position to receive them in love and training them up.

People are being saved, but because they have no Word foundation to stand upon, they eventually fall away. The Word of God says, When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first . . . " (Matthew 12:43-45). The last thing this Scripture says is, That will be the experience of this evil generation (NLT). This Scripture details the life of a newborn Christian in this generation who is left on his own. It is far better not to get a person saved than to get him saved and then leave him. It is best to have someone else bring him to the Lord who is willing to be accountable to this person and to God in order to help build this person spiritually. Otherwise, that persons life can end up far worse than it was before he got saved. On numerous occasions, I have seen Christians go out to witness the Word to people only to return proudly smiling from ear to ear because they just helped get a few people saved. Yet, where are they? Were they invited to the house of God, or given any instruction or assistance in immediately finding a Christian mentor? Were they led to a Spirit filled pastor who can feed them the Word? Did they receive any Scripture or literature to read pertaining to the Word of God? What instructions were given now that they are saved? Christians will boast about the number of people they helped get saved, but asked the whereabouts of these newly saved individuals and no one knows.

If left alone, it will not take very long for a new Christian to compare his life to the life he lived in the world and say to himself, I must have been a fool; my prior life was way better than Christianity. The Word says that when the enemy who used to be the tenant of the house returns, he finds that the place has been swept clean and garnished. He also notices that the house is empty. The house is empty because the Word of God has not filled it yet. It is easier for spirits to enter an empty house than one that is full of the Word of God. Therefore, only becoming saved is not enough. A person saved, yet empty of the Word of God will eventually gravitate back to a life in the world. The house becomes filled so-to-speak when the person receives the Word of God into his heart and does not depart from it. Without the teaching of the Word of God, how does the new Christian know about spiritual food, which is the Word of God? How does he know about the baptism of the Holy Ghost? Without the baptism of the Holy Ghost, the new Christian is powerless.

The disciples were empowered when Jesus was with them. When Jesus ascended to Heaven He sent them the Comforter who was the Holy Spirit so that they may be empowered and enlightened, for the Holy Spirit reveals and teaches about Christ. The Word says in Ephesians to put on the Armor of God and wear it at all times. Anyone without the filling of the Holy Ghost, yet have confessed Jesus as Lord, will nevertheless take a beating throughout his Christian walk because the armor of God is of the Holy Spirit. You cannot put on what you do not have. The armor of God is your protection against the wiles of the devil. Wearing the armor does not mean you wont have battles. Obviously, you will have battles. This is why you need the armor of God. With His armor, no weapons formed can prosper against you (Isaiah 54:17). Nothing by any means can harm you (Luke 10:19). No evil can come upon you neither shall sickness come near your dwelling (Psalm 91:10). A person can be born again, but without being discipled and trained up, he will suffer from spiritual malnutrition. He will lack the necessary spiritual nourishment of the Word of God, which consists of spiritual milk but ultimately and most importantly, spiritual meat. If no one leads him to Jesus through the Word of God in discipleship, he will never excel in spiritual wisdom and understanding. Without such help, he may very well end up miserably lost.

The Word says that the spirit goes to find seven other spirits whose worse than the first and returns with them. Why would a spirit go and return to the house with seven worse spirits rather than just enter himself? Evil hates order. The Word says that the house was swept, and garnished. A garnished home is a home that has order. When one becomes saved his heart is now in order and positioned to receive the things of God, for God has given him a new heart. An evil spirit cannot handle order, so it returns in numbers to thwart order. Having no defense, the new Christian eventually slides back into the world from which he came forgetting all about his salvation, and his life becomes worse than it was before he was saved. The same thing occurs to Christians who have been in the Word of God, yet chose to depart from it by neglecting their prayer life and setting down the Bible refusing to pick it back up. Christians who have been consistently and persistently in the Word of God, who have a relationship with God, can immediately feel the difference in their spirit when they have removed themselves from His presence even for a single day.

Christians are either moving forward in God or they are gravitating backwards. There is no such thing as an idle place in the kingdom of God. Those knowing and having the Word in them who then move away from the Word can literally feel themselves backsliding. The further removed we allow ourselves to become, the further removed we can discern ourselves being from God and the less power we have of His anointing to overcome the enemy. The less power we have, the harder the fight to get back into the presence of God. Satan does not just willingly let his victims go; it is his intent to enslave them in sin. Once a person is enslaved in sin, he is much less inclined to discern his distanced relationship with God. In other words, sinning becomes easier and without remorse. This is why God continuously beckons His people to stay with Him. It is much better not to leave Him in the first place. Though He graces us with His power to overcome obstacles in our lives, some people nevertheless give in because they removed themselves from His Word. When we remove ourselves from His Word, we cast down our confidence or faith in Him and operate in our own self-confidence or righteousness. Without faith, we are like a sitting duck for the opposition.

As Christians, we are heaven bound, but if not properly trained up and discipled, our lives on earth can be a type of hell despite the fact that Jesus took back the crown from Satan and has given us the spiritual power to have authority, dominion and heavenly treasures on earth. Before a baby Christian can defend himself against the enemy, he first needs to be trained up and discipled. He must be taught the significance of seeking God, for God is his shield of protection in every area of his life. Only then can a person render the enemy ineffective regardless of the number of spirits that may return with it to take up residence.

A Transparent Moment of My Experience

Jesus gave us the commission to teach and preach the good news. As He trained up twelve disciples, we too are to train up new Christians. It is our responsibility to protect these children in Christ and train them up so that they too can train others and so on. In my own experience for instance, after I confessed Jesus as my Lord and Savior, I had an incredible, yet temporary peace. I became very zealous, but I was very ignorant. I became zealous in the continuance of what I had been doing as a sinner believing that because I was now saved, all would be well. I felt justified in every sinful thing I did. I thought the many sins that I was doing were automatically exonerated because I was saved. A person may not really understand that he is living in sin until a Christian shows him a comparison between his sinful life and that of Christianity. Until he can see the difference, he may continue in his sinful ways even though he believes he has given his heart to Christ. When he sees Christ in you as you endeavor to live a holy life, he is then able to make a comparison and ultimately begin to question his life through conviction. This is where the person becomes vulnerable to hear the Word of God. A vast majority of the newly saved do not progress in their Christian walk, but revert to their sinful lives because they are not being shown the Christian way of life. I once heard a pastor say, dont ever expect to see Jesus in me because I am just a man. That may have seemed like a noble or honorable thing to say, but he obviously lacked in understanding concerning why we must live our lives holy unto God. When you live your life in such a manner, Christ can then be seen in you. It is what gives an unbeliever an inclination to hear the good news. They desire to have that special peace and joy that they see in you. If Christ cannot be seen in the Christian man or woman, then how can that man or woman ever expect to usher others toward the Kingdom of God? The pastor did not believe that Christ could be seen in him, yet he believed that he was actually turning people to the Lord. The power of God in you is what touches the person, bringing about conviction and a change in that persons heart toward Christ. The Holy Spirit causes the conversion of the person toward Christ, not the man. How is the Holy Spirit able to do this unless His presence is seen in the ways and manners of the Christian?

Christians are perhaps out witnessing the Word, but many are not necessarily interested in forming relationships with those they are attempting to get saved. One Saturday morning, I rode my bike to a track and field meet held at Michigan State University and there were two evangelists there shouting Scripture from the Bible. Their zeal was apparent, but they were condemning every person that walked by. They literally argued with people, called them sinners, and told them that they would burn in hell. They bible whipped people with Scripture yet expected them to drop to their knees and confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I heard some people who were very offended say, If thats what being a Christian is about, then I want nothing to do with Christianity. There was no love or compassion in either of the evangelists voices. In fact, they spoke nothing about salvation, the love of Christ, nor even welcomed people simply to ask questions. Their tone was argumentative and condescending even to those who admitted that they were in fact Christians. Can you imagine what this scene must have looked like through the eyes of a sinner? If people cannot see Christ in you, then what should propel them to want to give their lives to Christ or live their lives holy before God?

There is a huge distinction between conviction and condemnation. Conviction is to look at oneself through a comparison of that which is holy. Conviction is like a mirror of truth that we can look into and see the righteousness of God. It gives us a true picture of whom and what we really are in comparison to His righteousness. Because we hate what we see in ourselves through such a reflection, we desire to change. We strongly desire to become like the reflection of Christ in the mirror. Thus, there is a compelling urge to call upon Jesus. If the sinner has hope, a Christian can lead him to the door of salvation because the Christian is (or should be) the reflection of Christ. What gives the sinner hope is the Christian who endeavors to live his life in holiness. Living a life of holiness is in essence giving the right away to God where He becomes the motivator of your choices, movements, and thoughts. God is magnified in the Christian, but the person who is the Christian becomes reduced. John the Baptist understood this. He said that Jesus must increase, yet he himself must decrease (John 3:30).

Condemnation, on the other hand, is like the opposite of conviction. What are the odds that a student will excel in learning and skill if his teacher constantly condemns him by calling him dumb and stupid? Preaching condemnation bars people from seeing the salvation of God. You cannot preach condemnation to people who have never heard the gospel and yet have an expectation that they will come to their senses and confess Jesus as their Lord and Savior. If sinners initially dont believe or trust in God, what are the odds that they will believe in an eternal damnation? You cannot preach condemnation to people who dont understand that God loves them and desires them. The only message they will hear is that God is a tyrant who will utterly destroy them with fire if they dont comply with the commandments being preached. It is impossible to preach condemnation, yet introduce the unconditional love of God. We need to be that mirrored reflection of Christ in order to show the unconditional love of God. Condemnation pulls people down; God desires to lift and build them up.

Because there were no Christian examples around me during the time I was saved, I unfortunately did not have such an experience of evaluating or comparing my life to that of a Christians. Therefore, it actually never occurred to me to question my life. I considered myself a newborn Christian, but I was clueless about everything concerning Christianity. Initially, no one told me anything about what it meant to be a Christian. I got saved at a business convention seminar over a weekend in Chicago during a special Sunday morning worship serviceso I thought. The service was for the benefit of seminar attendees who would normally go to church on Sunday morning. I had not attended a church service since my youth. I only went that particular Sunday as a courtesy gesture toward some of my friends who had also attended the seminar. They told me that there would be a free breakfast buffet, so I thought, hey, what the heck free food! By the time I left that convention later that evening, I was right back in the world. In the following months, I had not thought even once to pick up a Bible nor had I even remotely considered going to church. Of course, now I realize that what really happened that day had nothing to do with the establishment of a new relationship with God. I was caught up in the emotional excitement and sensationalism of the worship service just as many people are in church services around the country.

The skin-deep anointing I experienced during the service did not penetrate my heart, so nothing I had heard nor experienced really stuck. My experience had everything to do with what was going on around me with the people. I had not called out to God. I didnt really experience His presence, as so many others did, for my focus was on the people. I was concerned about what they would think of me if I were to call out to God or let myself go and really experience His presence. I didn't want to lose my "coolness" or composure. Therefore, I held on to my dignified astuteness and business-like professional manner and held myself back from basking in the presence of God. I actually believed that I must have been the only person in the room that day with any real sense. To me, it seemed as if everyone else had gone crazy and I was much too decorous to carry on in such a manner. Because no changes took effect in my heart, there were no changes in my life. Yet, I thought the issue of my salvation was over because I repeated the sinners prayer, and was thus saved. I tried to short cut my entry into the kingdom of heaven and thought that I had actually succeeded. Now, please dont misunderstand. I am not saying that in order for me to have become a true born again Christian that day, I had to "act" like everyone else. The point I am making is that I had denied the presence of God to penetrate my heart. Not understanding, I still believed that I was saved because I nevertheless went through the motions of going to the altar and repeating the words of the minister. Now, I could continue doing what I had been doing in the world and all would be well.

No one instructed me that I needed to read the Word. In fact, I had no clue what the Word even was. I remember one of the first times I visited a church after salvation and the pastor kept using that term the Word. Every other thing out of his mouth was the Word. The Word thisthe Word that. I actually became frustrated because I was expecting him to explain to the congregation what the Word was and to my dissatisfaction he never did, at lest not to my understanding at the time. I thought there was some kind of inner church secret going around in the sanctuary called the Word and everybody knew what it was, except me. I didnt know that the pastor was talking about the Bible. Certainly, I could not comprehend the meaning behind Jesus being the Word. How could a person be a word? I was very ignorant. I grew up Baptist (no pun against the Baptist), but I left that church at a very young age with very little knowledge about anything concerning spiritual issues. After passing years, even what I did learn was a struggle to remember. To my recollection, I had never heard anyone refer to the Bible as the Word, so I had no clue what this pastor was talking about whenever he referred to the Word. I didnt understand that I needed to renew my mind. When I repeated after the preacher what he called the sinners prayer, I thought that was the renewing of my mind. I didnt understand righteousness, that it was a gift from God. I didnt know that I was a spirit living in a body that possessed a soul. I thought I was a body with a soul that possessed a spirit. No one bothered telling me the necessity of going to church, so I never went. I knew nothing about giving or that sowing and reaping was a form of Gods system of operation. No one spoke anything to me about faith, love, or calling those things, which are not as though it were. I knew hardly anything at all about God, Jesus, or the Holy Spiritthat is, other than what I had seen in the movies, or could vaguely remember from my childhood church. At the time of that seminar, I was deeply involved in new age and tampering with things along the lines of Satanism. I was into psychic phenomenon, channeling, and taro card reading, which I did often for my friends and myself. I even believed and attempted to persuade others that there was no heaven or hell, and in the midst of this, I believed that I was saved. Gods mercy endures forever. He had such mercy on me.

By the grace of God, I attended another convention a couple years later in Toledo, Ohio and a known Christian musical artist gave a sermon about eagles and how God designed us to be like them enabling us to soar high with Him. What he spoke concerning Gods unconditional love toward us captivated me. I felt a strong compulsion that day to call upon the Lord and for the first time in my life, I felt the sweetest presence of God beyond description. I gave my life to Jesus that day, and this time something definitely changed inside of me. I knew at that moment that I would never be the same. Still, I left that place with no direction or instruction on what to do now that I was saved, and that is when my life took a turn for what seemed to be the absolute worst. Not understanding or having the inclination to consider what God wanted for me, I was still determined to do my own thing. I stumbled around for several years in misery before I found my way to a church that finally led me into discipleship. Those agonizing years seemed like the longest years of my life. I had experienced many disappointments, setbacks and fears in my life prior to Christianity, but nothing would compare to what came upon me after I was saved. I am not mentioning these things to scare the new born in Christ. I am merely using myself as an example to show what can go wrong in a baby Christians life when he is left unattended and unlearned.

After salvation, but before I had learned anything about Christianity, my life became literally turned inside out. I had gone through a very ugly separation and divorce. I was no longer in my childrens life as I had been before resulting from that divorce, which broke my heart into pieces. I lost my home and all that was dear to me. My finances were utterly destroyed. I became so broke that my broke was broke. I lost practically everything I owned. The bank eventually repossessed my car and my van, which in a single night they came and took them both. I lived an hour away from where I worked, so I was now stranded to get to my job. The utility companies eventually shut off the power in the apartment I lived in, which in addition had no phone or cable. These services were terminated prior because I could no longer afford them. I cannot express the pain of having to explain to my three-year-old daughter and my two-year-old son why there may have been no heat or electric power in the dead of winter during their bi-weekend visits. Most times, we had no transportation to go anywhere, and there was no one to turn to for help. I made decent money at my job, but I never saw the money. Between my debt load, and child support that I now paid, the money was gone before it ever got into my hands. I was not eligible for government financial assistance because they said my income was too high. The system didnt care about what went out in cost and expenses, it was only concerned about the gross amount the computer data said I made. I had fallen through the proverbial crack in the system. Never before had I experienced such depression and feelings of hopelessness. My only way out was God, but I had not yet learned how to trust God. In fact, I was convinced that I was cursed by God. There was no mentor in my life during this time nor friends or fellow Christian brothers and sisters in Christ that I could have turned to. Even if there were, I would not have known how to turn to them. It seemed very sudden that these things came upon me, though many were in the making for quite sometime before they actually manifested in my life. Later I realized that many of the horrible things I experienced were identical to the things I had spoken about in advance through ignorance. I didnt know that you could be hung by your tongue. In other words, I didnt understand that your every word is seed. I was mostly reaping a harvest I had planted myself. Have you ever noticed how pessimistic people always seem to be surrounded by negativity? To a large degree, that was me. I became so accustomed to disappointments, failures, and setbacks in my life that I could only see my life through this sort of lens. My life became the equivalent of what I believed and spoke from my heart.

Eventually I was evicted from my apartment, and the only thing that barred the many creditors from garnishing my wages was my paying child support. However, they still managed to get my tax returns. They even got around to zapping my checking account as well, which opened up an entirely different bottle of wax. The financial fiasco of creditors attempting to wiping out my checking account created a domino effect of bounced checks, which plunged me even deeper into debt of several hundreds of dollars in penalties and fees from returned checks, in addition to the tens of thousands of dollars of delinquent credit card and loan debts. In the midst of all of this, I fearfully tithed because religion had taught me that if I tithed God would take care of all my financial worries, but if I didnt I would be cursed. I walked in confusion over this matter because even though I was tithing my financial circumstances continued to get worse. Instead of paying my rent, I tithed. Instead of paying my bills, I tithed. They told me that God required His tenth regardless of everything and I believed them. Regardless of my tithe, my life still seemed as though it was cursed. I was also ignorant about faith for no one had taught me anything about it, so I did not know how to acquire it.

Creditors would send their credit collection representatives to knock at my door with court judgment papers that allowed them to repossess my possessions unless I could come up with their money. On occasion, the County Sheriff would also knock at my door with subpoenas for me to appear in court because I was being sued by creditors. I walked in constant anxiety and feared going to work because I never knew if my proprietor would have my personal belongings thrown out to the curb by the time I arrived home from work. I had fallen so far behind in rent that it mounted to thousands of dollars, which I did not have. The thought of opening my mailbox even cause me great anxiety, depression, and stress because I could not bear the thought of the bills, court papers, eviction hearings, and shut-off notices that I knew would line the interior of the box. I hated answering my door whenever the bell rang because I feared it would be a subpoena deliverer or sheriff to evict me out of my home. I actually relished the idea of not having a phone because the creditors couldnt call, though they bombarded me at my job.

Ironically, prior to my being saved, all seemed so well in my life. I didnt have these problems prior to salvation. Though I kicked and screamed at God about my circumstances, and how great my life was before I got saved, it didnt occur to me that even though everything seemed well in my life as a sinner, my ultimate destination was far worse than any of the problems I faced as a Christian. Before I came to Christ, my final destination was the eternal lake of fire because I didnt belong to God. Imagine living a life of hell, then eventually dieing and experiencing an eternal hell that is far worse than any agony you could have dreamed of experiencing on earth. This was the road I was on before salvation. This revelation actually caused me to reconsider my Christianity and perception of problems in life from a new perspective. The Apostle Paul was so ecstatic about Jesus and the thought of heaven that he considered his troubles a small price for such a grand prize. Perhaps he also called his afflictions light afflictions because he was comparing such distresses to the abode of hell and eternal fire. The difference between Paul and myself however, was that I didnt have the faith that Paul had. I considered my afflictions hell on earth, but even this was better than eternal damnation. In other words, I was so messed up in my Christian thinking that I believed that the condition of my life was the extent of Christianity. At that time, my only comfort was that at least I would not spend an eternity in hell.

These mentioned afflictions and many others came upon me after I gave my life to Jesus. When I was in the world, I had more money coming in than was going out. I was financially secure without concerns about any lack. My life was easy. I partied, did the bar scene, dated different women, indulged in just about any worldly lust and pleasure I chose. I could buy pretty much what I wanted and do what I wanted. Perhaps the first time I got excited about God while in Chicago, the devil wasnt too concerned because there was no change in my heart or my lifestyle. I was doing all the things the enemy wanted me to do anyway. The second time around however, something happened inside of me. I was not able to explain it, but I knew my life would never be the same. Shortly thereafter, it seemed that one disaster after another began to strike. My life did in fact change, but I understand now that it had to. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God with worldly baggage. The junk has to go. I didnt know that God had a plan for my life, which I was to carry out a mission. I never knew that He had plans and purposes for all of our lives. If we are not taught this, then when the hard times come, which God will use as an opportunity to rid you of your worldly junk, such as self-righteousness, conceit, pride, selfishness, unforgiveness, worldly lust, anger and bitternessjust to mention a fewwe will assume that God, for whatever reason, is punishing us. How does the baby Christian understand that God actually loves him by pruning things out of his life that serves to hurt or hinder him if no one bothers showing him this through teaching and discipleship?

I was a new creature in Christ, yet no one taught me anything about authority so I did not know that I had it. I knew nothing about spiritual warfarethat there was a devil and demons out there that wanted to destroy my life and even kill me. I was fighting back the best I knew how, but I was not realizing that what was coming against me wasnt flesh and blood. I thought my problems resulted from various people in my life representing creditors, attorneys and courts, my job, ex-spouse, or anyone else who I felt hindered me in areas of my life. I spent many days very angry with God because I could not understand how He could allow these things to happen to mebeing a Christian and all. I realize today of course that God never placed these burdens on me. He makes our burdens light. Today I can understand how He was actually loving me and carrying me through my pain and suffering. My heart was hardened while in the world and even though God gave me a new heart when I confessed and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior, my mind was still set on who I use to be in the world. God had to allow, in His divine way, things to occur in my life, which were always based on my erroneousness decisions, to help soften me up toward Him. It is imperative to renew our minds to Christ because the flesh does not know or understand that your spirit is saved. Your flesh has to be informed of such a thing. Left alone, it will continue to operate just as it did before your salvation.

The devil was working overtime trying to convince me that Christianity didnt work, that it was nothing but pain and misery, but I thank God for the teaching and discipleship I eventually received through my pastor and spirit filled mentors and counselors. From the holy men and women that God placed in my life, I was able to build a solid foundation upon the Word of God. As the foundation increased in its solidity, I learned to press in seeking God diligently for His truth, which even today I have not ceased in asking Him. The more the Word became established in me, the more I was able to build upon that solid foundation. The Bible speaks of two particular foundations:

Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it (Matthew 7:24-27).

Christians, depending upon being trained up, will either build their foundation upon a rock or in the sand. Newborn believers need to hear the Word of God. My life came crashing down because initially I was not reading the Word, or trying to establish a relationship with Christ. I was not seeking His wisdom and understanding. I was too busy trying to figure out how to do things on my own based on how things were done in the world. I neglected to put my trust in God. The foundation I built my house upon shifted when the winds, storms, rain and floods came. These elements so-to-speak, were the oppositions in my life that represented human opinions, doctrines of man, fears, and doubts that I chose to allow to controlled me. Because I built my house upon the foundation of sand instead of Jesus, my house eventually felland great was the fall of it.

End.