Shirley
1 Corinthians 13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me.
Hebrews 5 – 13: 14 Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil.
So, who is a powerless (cosmetic /recreational/ Convenient Christian) Christian? Well this is a Christian who refers to themselves as “saved”; who goes to church and even reads their bible and has a cute bible verse sticker on their car, but does not really believe in the power of God, prayer or even in the power they wield if they agree with God and His word. This is a person who is not willing to pay the price- to lay it all down on the line- in order to experience the best God has for them. Basically, someone who loves to play Christianity and not necessarily to live it.
Mind you there is a time for everything, and so there is a time to be what I like to call a “baby Christian”. This occurs when you first get saved. I remember when I first got saved back in in 2003. There was this immediate closeness to God. I felt like I was floating on air and walking in the clouds, literally like I was living in lala land. I would constantly be singing hymns and be on a high that would not end, it was pure and wonderful. It was as if for a while a host of angels surrounded me and heaven felt close to me like never before. I do not think that I can even quite put my experience into words. All I wanted to do was spend time with God, and it felt so organic and easy, there was no struggle. Notably, all these was not because of any effort on my part. Nevertheless, like everything else this season also comes to an end. You cannot remain in this baby stage forever because eventually we must all grow up, and be responsible plus intentional about a personal relationship with God. As a post-baby Christian, it now becomes your role to grow and nurture your relationship with God. Hence, it is for you to delve into the word whether you feel like it or not; to know the word and agree on it with God, and to proceed to speak it over your life, and as a result charge boldly into the world and to conquer it, and declare that God is the king of kings.
However, it is almost as if most of us remain in the baby stage of Christianity even after the grace period is over, and so, we continue to expect to be fed like a child. We continue to expect God to do everything for us, and for it to cost us absolutely nothing. We refuse to make time to spend in God’s presence; to know and speak His word and promises over our life, and as a result do not live to see the power and promises of God in our life. We never get to dare into the unknown and to find out who we truly are in Christ Jesus, and never reach our fullest potential and fulfil the purpose God created us for. Basically, we refuse to grow up and make God the foundation of our life. Therefore, although we are saved and chosen by God even before we were conceived, and are even saved we go on to live a very ordinary life with no impact whatsoever, and hence become what I like to call “powerless Christians”. Imagine staying in baby class even when you are an adult, in this state although it may be comfortable life has a way of being stale and repetitive. Further, we wrongly believe that it cost us nothing, yet in the long run costs us everything.
The best example of this in the bible is the story of the Israelites in the book of Numbers. After wandering in the desert for 40 years, the Lord was ready to lead them into something new, but they were very comfortable in the desert. We see as God instructs Moses to send a leader from each ancestral tribe to explore the land of Canaan (the promised land), which he was giving to them (Numbers 13: 1). Nevertheless, this is the report they brought back after scouting Canaan (Numbers 13: 26, 30 and 31):
26 They came back to Moses and Aaron and the whole Israelite community at Kadesh in the Desert of Paran. There they reported to them and to the whole assembly and showed them the fruit of the land. 27 They gave Moses this account: “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. 28 But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there. 29 The Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan.”
30 Then Caleb silenced the people before Moses and said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”
31 But the men who had gone up with him said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.” 32 And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored. They said, “The land we explored devours those living in it. All the people we saw there are of great size. 33 We saw the Nephilim there (the descendants of Anak come from the Nephilim). We seemed like grasshoppers in our own eyes, and we looked the same to them.”
The rest of Israel instead of standing on the promise of God that Canaan was theirs, they choose to believe the discouraging report. Maybe they were fearful of the unknown but their choice meant that they refused to claim God’s promise over there life and instead chose to remain in the dessert, the land of “just enough”. This was probably facilitated by the fact that they failed to look back and remember God’s faithfulness in the past. God had saved the Israelites from a life of slavery, and after in the desert they had witnessed ground breaking miracle after miracle (psalms 105: 39-41), but for some reason they could not trust that the same God who would give them the promised land (Canaan). Hence, they grumbled and rebelled against the purpose and blessing God had for them (Numbers 14:1-9). They were willing to remain in the desert as long as they did not have to go out in faith and completely trust God in a new and unknown land. As a result, of their disobedience and lack of faith, although the Lord forgave them, they were banished to forever remain in the desert and to never see the promised land. Indeed, all those who believed the bad report died in the desert and only their children; plus, Caleb and Joshua who brought a good report after spying Canaan lived to see and prosper in the promised land. (Numbers 14:21-35)
Reading this story in the bible is very disheartening for me especially because I can clearly see myself in this passage. Aren’t the Israelites like those of us who got saved and have seen God’s faithfulness, but refuse to take on our purpose and to claim or agree with God on all the promises in the good book. Those of us who chose to be comfortable and to be baby Christians, and to willingly stay in the dessert because we do not want to shake up the apple cart? Christians who live like God has not promised them anything, like God does not rule the universe. The bible has so many promises, promises about peace, joy, good health, success, but we never claim this promises for our lives. We never step out in faith in agreement with God and claim this promises given to us in the bible, and so we accept to live an okay, average, mediocre, maybe toxic and even dysfunctional life because it is safe, and we believe that it cost us nothing, but it actually costs us everything.
So yes, you must decide what type of Christian you will be, a powerless Christian who will stay in baby class or a grown Christian who will claim all God’s promises and not only see but thrive in the promised land. A lot of us are willingly living the life of a powerless Christian and as a result are living lives that are less than what God intends for us. Choose instead to grow up in your faith. Grown Christians know who God is, they know his word, they speak his word and promises over their lives and agree with God even though on the physical it may seem impossible. They spend time with God, they pray, they are willing and open to growth and to the prodding of the holy spirit, and importantly they not only dare into the promised land but go on to conquer and thrive in it. Where do you stand?