I remember very well when I walked into an army recruiter's office and signed up for the army. I was just seventeen years old and had no idea of what it would take to become a soldier. It was like when some people go to church, but never really make a commitment to become a Christian. I went through all of the paperwork and questioning and thought I wanted to join the army. It all sounded so good. I could get all my medical benefits, all of my paid vacations, I would travel to different parts of the world and the army would furnish everything I needed in life as long as I was in the army.
The day I traveled to the induction center in St. Louis, Missouri, I was still a civilian even though I had already made the decision to join the army. Once I raised my hand and took the oath, I became a soldier. I still though, had no idea what that really meant.
I remember the day I took an oath to serve Jesus. I was still an outsider until I asked the Lord to come into my life, and I became a Christian. All of the benefits of the new covenant became mine. All of the promises God made through His covenant came with my oath.
I didn't have to wait for all of the things the army promised me. The very second I took the oath, I was a soldier. There were many things I needed to learn about my new life. I was now no longer able to do only what I wanted to do because someone else was in charge of my life.
My old civilian clothes were no longer acceptable in my new life. My new family in the army consisted of a bunch of other people just like me. None of us knew what we were doing. A drill instructor was placed in charge of teaching us. We had many things to learn that never would have occurred to us before. We had a chain of command we had to know along with an assigned number issued to us. We had to learn discipline like we'd never experienced before. None of these things made me a soldier. I became a soldier when I took the oath. These other things were teaching and illustrating what I was now.
At the very moment when I asked Jesus to be my Lord, I became a Christian. I really didn't know how to be a Christian any more than I knew how to be a soldier. I didn't become a Christian after I learned everything about Christianity, just like I didn't become a soldier only after learning how to be one.
The moment you accepted Jesus as your Lord, you became a Christian. You had now received forgiveness for all of your sins and you had been made righteous and in right standing with God. You now had a new family you never had before being saved. When you accepted Jesus, you received your healing, your forgiveness, your new inheritance, you became a joint-heir with Christ and a joint-heir of God, you were given His Name and He sent angels to minister to the heirs of salvation. Everything about you became new. "Old things had passed away and behold, all things are new and all things are of God" for you. I was a Christian, but I had to learn how to live like a Christian.
I had to learn to live like a soldier once I became one. I was already a soldier, but I didn't know how to walk as a soldier without training. Jesus said that, "In this world you will have tribulations." So, I had to learn how to handle tribulations. Just because I made mistakes didn't mean I wasn't a Christian. It only meant that I was learning to walk in my newness of life.
I had a drill instructor who taught me how to walk in my new identity as a soldier. He taught me how to handle a weapon. He even taught me how to march like a soldier. He taught me how to pitch a tent and to dig a trench around it so rain wouldn't run into it. He showed me the ropes to the infiltration course and the best way to maneuver it. After a period of time, all of us in boot camp were no longer a rag tag bunch of different people from different parts of the U.S. We now resembled what we had already become.
As Christians, we have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit to teach us. We have the five fold ministry as our drill sergeants. As we begin listen to our teachers and have our minds renewed by God's truth, we begin walking, talking and looking like what we'd already been made to be. You are no more a Christian after you learn than you are when you first receive Jesus. The only difference is that now you begin growing into this newness of life.
No one starts out knowing everything about who you are in any walk of life. Even in the natural life, we start out as a man child. You will always be a man child, but you only know how to walk like one in your later years. We must learn how to do what we already are. You were born a human being. Nothing changes in your life except you finally fine out how human beings live.
I was a soldier the day I took the oath. I was still a soldier the day I was discharged from the army. My entire identity was the same, except now I knew how to be one. I was a Christian from the moment Jesus became my Lord. Everything Jesus promised was already mine. I am no more a Christian now, as a pastor, than I was the day I got born again. Now, though, after listening to my Guide (the Holy Spirit), I can walk in my new identity.
Don't be frustrated with your Christian walk. It's exactly the same process you went through in any other walk of your life. We must listen and learn how to walk in our newness of life. The Holy Spirit will teach us everything we need to know and tell us how to do it. Like everything else, thought, it takes time.
Simply because you make a mistake, doesn't mean you're not a Christian. It's like falling when you're ten months old didn't mean you weren't human. You were born human. We all have to learn as we go and we all learn at different rates.
You are a Christian who is made in the Image of your Father. You've already been granted every grace and mercy needed to maintain that Christianity. Failure doesn't mean defeat. It only means that you're still learning.
All of the men who joined the army with me and went through boot camp with me, were as awkward as I was. When I was discharged and was clearing post, I saw a whole new bunch of soldiers just coming in. I knew what they didn't know. I knew they'd be like me when they were discharged. What I saw when I looked out at these kids, was soldiers and I knew they'd be alright.
I learned and took on the mind of a soldier. My life wasn't my own anymore. By taking a simple oath, I turned my life over to another person and was committed to learning how to become a good soldier from my teachers. I did the same thing when I made an oath to Jesus. My life was no longer my own and I would have to allow Him to teach me how to be that which He called me to be.
My mind had to be renewed like it did when I was a soldier. I had to learn to think like a soldier. It was totally foreign to me, but as I listened, I learned. When I got born again, I had to learn and open my mind to doing what my Instructor tells me to do. I had to renew my mind to think like Jesus would have me think. I didn't have to be a Christian, I already was a Christian. I just needed to learn what a Christian does.
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