A Christian has certain spiritual gifts over someone who is not “born again”. People often view a “born again” with suspicion like it’s a cult thing when it’s actually quite a biblical position.
“Jesus answered and said to him, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.’” (John 3:3-5, NKJV)
The problem is the way some “born agains” behave, or don’t behave, as the case may be. I don’t want to be too judgmental, but if the Bible tells you to do some things and abstain from other things, it’s not telling you the rules to be a kill joy. On the contrary, the Bible says Jesus came to not only fulfill the laws, but to free us from them. I know people who are “born again” and act no differently than they were before they got saved; you can’t be a witness of what God has done for you if you’re living the same hell on two wheels lifestyle you were prior to being saved. It’s like trying to whistle with a mouthful of peanut butter.
I do try and live a good life according to Biblical standards, knowing even on my best day, I am still a sinner and no amount of good works can ever make up for that. So I don’t try to make up for it; I simply rest in the promise of salvation being a free gift. On those days I fall flat on my face? I remember an old Fred Astaire song: “Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and start all over again!” It’s all we can do, and admittedly, on some occasions it’s a very hard thing to practice.
The more of the world you shake off from your mindset, the easier your walk does become. It’s not a perfect walk, but it’s better than the alternative of wallowing in the mud. Part of this process is learning to listen to the “voices” that whisper to you, and attempt to discern if they’re from God, or a “do not pass go, do not collect $200” satanic tripwire game. Some are easy – “go out and kill your family!” Well, that’s definitely NOT something God would tell you to do. “Go out and feed the hungry” sounds a lot more like something God would tell you to do.
Voices are a funny thing because as you get more grounded in the Christian faith, the devil has to use new techniques to sidetrack you. They’re new to you, but they’re 6,000 years old to him, and he’s had a lot of practice. God knew this would be a problem, and He communicated this to John: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but try the spirits to see if they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.” (1John 4:1, NKJV) In short, test the spirits!
I had been told out of the blue to join the Peace Corps, so I tested the spirit. First I looked at the program in depth and began to understand exactly how deeply the concept of service, charity, dignity, love, and compassion were ingrained as its core values. That sounds a lot like something God would ask me to get involved with, but it still wasn’t enough.
Again, it is easy for the voices to trick us into doing stupid things, thinking it’s for all the correct and noble reasons, so I took it one step further and asked God to confirm the voice was His twice through scripture. I learned a long time ago that before you uproot your entire life, approach the throne room of God and ask. There is nothing unfaithful or distrusting on your part to do so since you’re testing the spirit. I opened up the Bible a day later and kept encountering passages about teaching, and knowing I want to serve by teaching English, I counted that as the first confirmation.
The second confirmation came two days later at 4:30 AM; I could hear an animal scratching around in the attic and it woke me up. After I got out of bed and tried to scare it out of the house, I was unfortunately too wide awake to fall asleep immediately. I turned on a Bible commentary on the gospel of Mark, chapter two. Approximately five minutes into the commentary, the story about the paralyzed man being dropped through the roof by his friends came up. Jesus remarked about how their faith was great. “How did Jesus know their faith was great? Because they engaged in action, not just talk.” My ears perked straight up as the expositor went into what I consider my favorite book – James. I knew I had my second confirmation.
I’m very blessed to know a Christian woman of a similar spirit named Gaby. She’s a wonderful lady and the fact I can discuss things with her that otherwise would get me run out of town on a rail tells me I’m not the only one who sees strange patterns. She has been concerned I might be making a mistake, but in the end she also acted in a Christian manner: she gave her concerns to God to deal with. Under her direction, I asked God one more time to confirm the voice was His.
Later that night, I was bemoaning the requirements of the Peace Corps. “God, how am I going to make myself look good enough to the Peace Corps? I can’t come up with five years of experience when I’ve only got one and….” The thought trailed off and I heard His voice once again giving me advice: “Go to the school down the street and volunteer to work with the kids.” I considered that to be my third confirmation.
