Could there be something missing from your salvation experience?
I suspect many secretly wonder if there could be something missing from their original conversion experience but are too embarrassed to ask any questions. I fully understand that there is no exact formula for becoming a Christian. I think that is the reason why so many pastors and Christian leaders shy away from this topic. I also fully understand that becoming saved is both an initial experience of accepting the free gift of salvation by faith and then a lifetime of growing up in that faith. Everyone is at different levels. Ephesians 4:15a teaches us: “But speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him.”(NKJV)
I think most of us agree that sometimes the church can be in a slumbering place. Ephesians 5:14, states “Awake you who sleep, arise from the dead, and Christ will give you light!”(NKJV) Even genuine Christians sometimes, for whatever reason, stop practicing their faith and slip into spiritual slumber. The truth is that during the last couple of hundred years there have been many gifted men of God who were called to “preach to the choir”. These men known as revivalists proclaimed messages that were designed to try to stir up sleeping saints to once again seek the Lord with all of their heart, all of their soul, and all of their mind, which is what Jesus taught the religious scribes was the greatest commandment. Matthew 22:37
That being said, I do have a concern that some people have been initially led through a “sinner’s prayer” in a rushed way. Maybe it happened at the end of a church service, where the common practice is to have people say a “repeat after me” prayer without giving them time to develop a deep understanding of what they were praying. Or perhaps others had a personal encounter with another Christian, who though well meaning, merely told them “Oh yeah, just ask Jesus in your heart and you’re good man!” The wonderful news is that there are simple practical ways to do a self-examination of your own spiritual life and see if you are truly “born again.” The simplest and most basic test is that you should have had notable change in your life for the good over time if you have accepted Christ. If you did not then no further tests are needed. It never hurt anyone to pray a solid conversion prayer again.
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Paul discusses this very topic in 2nd Corinthians 13:5; “Examine yourselves, as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you? Unless indeed you are disqualified.” (NKJV) The New Living paraphrase concludes the verse this way, “If not, you have failed the test of genuine faith.”
It was not uncommon for the famous revivalists such as Jonathan Edwards, George Whitfield and Charles Finney of the 1800’s to be tomatoed by angry people who did not want their condition to be evaluated. The truth is some people become blinded by a certain way of life, which includes their own perception of their spiritual condition. When someone comes along under an anointing of the Holy Spirit and starts exposing what is in their hearts through their sermons it can produce anger instead of repentance. Please understand, a lukewarm believer often fights personal revival just as much as a sinner may fight becoming a Christian to begin with.”
If a person states to me that they do not seem to know the Lord the way others do, I ask them about their experience when they first became a Christian. I ask them if going to church seems like drudgery? If they say “Yes”, I then ask them if they ever feel like they are just going through the motions or if they would admit to sensing that they are trying to “fake it until they make it?” If they say yes to that, I say, “Oh my dear friend, there is something wonderful which is so lacking in your life. Being ‘born again’ should grow into an awesome personal relationship between you and Jesus, and if it hasn’t, then yes, I believe something was missing the first time you prayed to meet Him.” I have them spend some time with me and take them through each step involved in surrendering their life to Christ. I also carefully explain to them that there is a reason Jesus said in John 3:3 “except a man be ‘born again’ he shall not see the Kingdom of God”. I tell them that being ‘born again’ is both an initial experience in which you commit to a process of dying to your old sin nature by faith and then a lifelong process of surrendering yourself to serve the living God. Being born again is being born into your new life as a member of the Family of God.
It may be helpful to read a parable that starts with a man praying for change. He said, “Father, please change me in Jesus name”, and the Father answers, “My son, before you can have change you must have repentance and that repentance will lead you to godly sorrow. In that period of godly sorry you will shed many tears, but before you will have godly sorrow you must be willing to hear the truth. However, my son before you can hear the truth, you will need to be in a place of humility. Most importantly my son in order for you to get to the place of true humility you must see yourself compared to Jesus Christ”
It is never too late to start brand new with Jesus. The past no longer matters. Find a place of prayer, open up your heart, ask Him to forgive you of your sins and for the first time ask Him in whole-heartedly. Having Him truly living in your heart will make you know you are born again as He begins to transform you from the inside out each day.
Rev Nolan J Harkness is the President and CEO of Nolan Harkness Evangelistic Ministries Inc. since 1985. He spent most of his adult life working in youth ministry. He also felt the calling of Evangelist/Revivalist and traveled as the door was open holding evangelistic meetings in churches throughout the Northeast. His website is www.verticalsound.org.
