Are you sure you're saved?

Did anything REALLY happen when you prayed that prayer? You're still the same person. There's nothing new about you. All this talk about being a new creation is false and you know it. You still look the same, you have the same name and despite the fact that you have changed some of your habits, you are the same person you were before you started praying.

This probably sounds familiar to all of us. This is Satan's fall back defense when all else fails. When he can't tempt us enough to fail, he rolls this lie out to make us feel like we are unnecessarily missing out on some fun. When we are disappointed by some lack or setback, he whispers this in our ears to make us doubt our own resolve. When we are frightened or tempted to be frightened, he uses this lie make us doubt the promises we are clinging to. This is something he uses on all of us because it is so effective at making us doubt our authority or get confused about our rights.

Doubt and confusion can stifle our walk. It can completely cripple us. We must be totally convinced that something REALLY happened when we got saved. We need to be fully persuaded that we are a new creation; that we are different from the person who got saved. We need to be convinced of this because we need to know we have the authority of Christ if we are going to wield it. If we aren't convinced we have His authority, we won't wield it effectively.

The truth is something REALLY did happen when we got saved. Some of us can remember a flood of peace flowing over us like nothing we've ever felt before. There have been many nights that I've had to relive that moment just to encourage myself. At the moment we honestly surrendered our lives, Heaven became our eternal destiny. The old man we once were was erased from the annals of time and all of Heaven recognized us as Children of the King. At that very moment, we became so much more than Satan ever was and he knows it. And now that we no longer serve his purpose, he must eliminate or neutralize us. He can't slay us without us giving him an opening and we enjoy a cordon of protection so elimination is unlikely. The only thing left to do with us is neutralizing us.

Convincing us that we are not really saved serves nicely as good reason to not get too carried away with this new-found fervor for God. Convincing us that this new fascination with Jesus is just another fad does a fine job of stealing our zeal. This lie creates doubt and confusion which makes us hesitant about walking boldly in our authority. This has the effect of neutralizing us. If we are not walking confidently in our authority as Sons of the Most High, then we are not advancing the Kingdom. We essentially become a non-factor. That's what Satan calls "mission accomplished." He can't steal our eternal salvation from us but he has greatly diminished our ability to reach other who have not laid hold of their eternal salvation yet. Worse than that, he's planted the seeds of condemnation and will be beating us up with accusations of being "luke-warm" in a very short time. Given enough time and opportunity to execute this plan, and he'll have us depressed and desperate. Not long after that, we become a cliche, yet another Christian that's started off with Jesus and is now some boring, religious, judgmental jerk that no one wants to be around. Let's not be fooled into thinking it's coincidental how frequently this pattern gets repeated. And it all starts with making us doubt the validity of our salvation.

This should be the first thing we set out to teach new Christians. We need to know that according to God, we really are a new creation and we have rights and privileges as believers that we didn't have before. Imagine how different our lives would be if we started off good but got progressively better instead of what typically happens. The typical cycle starts with a huge upheaval of our lives fueled by new-found joy for all things concerning Jesus. Then with time, the fervor weakens and eventually abates completely. Now all of our friends who were watching us to see something genuinely miraculous see us waxing lame. Now we've lost our credibility too and have made Satan's job easier. Imagine if instead of that scenario playing out repeatedly, we knew right away how much power and authority was at our disposal?!What if we were more acquainted with our authority. We'd waste a lot less time stumbling around ineffectively in the fight for souls. This is an easy fix. We need to change the initiation process.

The popular and trendy way to introduce new believers to their new life places an unhealthy emphasis on what Jesus is going to do for them. I think the emphasis needs to be on what God can now do through them. If a proper amount of training went into adjusting this, I think we'd see a whole new kind of revival. If each new crop was made aware of the fact that they now possess Heaven's gun, badge and credit card, we'd see a lot fewer Christians falling back into old habits. We'd see a lot fewer moral failures and repeated cycles of straying and returning. We'd see a lot fewer new believers struggling with the debate about whether they are really saved or not. They'd be too busy watching the enemy flee from the lives of their loved ones. They'd be too preoccupied with winning battles to be wasting time wondering about how saved they are. They'd me manufacturing all the evidence they need to be convinced of their new life and station.

It's pretty hard to convince someone they're not a soldier when they're holding a weapon and winning a battle. What can settle the debate once and for all in our minds about being saved? How about looking across the battlefield and seeing Jesus lead the charge in the same direction we're marching. As for me, if you were to ask me if I'm sure I'm saved, my response is this: I'm pretty sure I am but maybe you should ask that shrieking and shriveled up demon in front of me what he thinks. I'm as saved as I'm gonna get and now it's time to start acting like it.