As I mature in my walk with the Lord, I am beginning to see the burden that the Lord has placed upon my shoulders. I am seeing so many people receiving salvation and being baptized, only then to go about their earthly lives. They are essentially stuck in baptism. For many reasons known and unknown they do not understand that life has taken a 360° change. This beginning, or this becoming a “new creation” in Christ, has not become recognizable to the new Christian. Therefore, they do not understand who they are or the potential they have in being a child of God. This is the unfortunate core of the Christian Salvation experience we often see today in the church, and the devil loves it!
We will encounter many delays and challenges in our walk with the Lord because we are not of the world and at salvation, we have chosen to leave the corruption of the world behind and look toward our new life. This encompasses that we begin to take an initiative, be diligent or shall I say, “go to work.” It was God who called us to salvation. We supernaturally answered the call. That was the beginning of our faith. There was something there that changed within us. Perhaps it was a hunger or a knowing that there was something more. Maybe it was an escape from pain, strife, or anything else that the world had thrown at us. Whatever it was, the choice was made to change or start the transformation process.
After reading the book Living as Salt and Light by Derek Prince, my eyes have opened to the importance of transition in the life of the believer. The burden placed upon my heart is from the Lord showing me the lack of or shall I say the tragedy of the gap. When I say gap, I am referring to the in-between place of getting saved through Christ followed by baptism and then only to be stagnant. This is where either delay is caused by unseen evil forces, or the powers and principalities of God are working in the life of the believer. Is this a choice? Have the saved really turned their backs on the corruption of the world, or have they not yet learned compliance to be able to accomplish greater things? What is the missing link? Because of lack of understanding, we can become fruitless and turn back to what we know best, the natural world. This is what weighs me down. This is what breaks my heart. I feel that I have a deepened responsibility to walk with new believers as an example, showing them that through Christ they have been restored to the original position God has marked them for. I too was where the lost are at one time in my life. I have a testimony of the goodness of God that I can share, and I am sure others like myself can also testify to what transformation looks like when we choose to get to know God in a personal intimate way. I believe that this is part of my assignment on earth.
Delays are inevitable, but it is the hunger to push through salvation and begin to really get to know God in a more intimate personal way through prayer, reading scripture and listening to God that truly changes us, making us hunger for more and becoming the salt of the world. In all of this we can receive all that God has for us. But it takes the initiative and a continual attempt to work on the qualities God has for us. These characteristics that God supplies us with will allow us to obtain the promises of the Lord. Only then will we be able to leave the corruption of the world while dominating the forces of evil that are contained within it. Abundant life starts at baptism, and my prayer is that men and women would begin to dream and envision the inner workings of the kingdom of heaven. Delays are inevitable, but there is victory for all Christians who are in the gap!