What does it mean to live like a believer? What is the normal Christian life? Christianity is not a private matter. Many people keep their faith a private matter and that is 100% in contradiction to God’s idea of Christianity. Your faith is not a private matter, at all. It’s something which should impact and influence those around you. There are no undercover agents in the kingdom. If you’re living like an undercover agent, then you’re not living like a Christian.
Let’s say that you’ve been working somewhere for a couple of months, or even years. It should never happen that, after being there and interacting with people for a long period of time, someone finds out that you’re a Christian and they almost have a heart attack because they would have never guessed! It’s a poor testimony if someone who has known you for a long time falls off their chair if they suddenly find out that you’re a Christian! Imagine they say something like, “Wow! I’ve been praying for you because I didn’t think you were a Christian!”
I’m not saying that we should go around and tell everybody “I’m a Christian… I’m a Christian…” I’m just saying we should live our lives in a way which influences people. We should live our lives in such a way that people know there’s something different about us and soon enough they find out that the difference is Jesus!
Matthew 5:13-16 New King James Version (NKJV)
13 “You are the salt of the earth… 14 “You are the light of the world… 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.
The world should see how we live and what we do and it points to God and brings Him glory! We are salt and we are light; we are agents of change! Salt seasons; it adds flavour and taste to a tasteless world. We preserve the world – you know why the world isn’t completely falling apart? It’s because the church is still here! We Christians are still here! We are the light of the world. We are here to get rid of darkness – that’s one of our Kingdom assignments: to expand the Kingdom of God on this earth bye by shining our light so that darkness must flee. Darkness is seeking to control people and yet we should be going around and sharing the good news of Jesus with people so that they submit to Jesus; they submit to the light, and as we reach more people the light increases in the world! That’s living like a believer; living the normal Christian life! Being a person of influence who makes a difference in the world! 2 Corinthians 5:20 says that we are ambassadors of Christ. Living like a believer means that we’re living as ambassadors of Christ; we are representing Him wherever we are, wherever we go and whatever work we do. We represent Him and His interests. We’re not just representing God but we’re also representing His interests, His opinions and His view on things. All too often Christians are presenting their own view when we should only be presenting God’s view.
If you embrace what I’m talking about you’re going to start to live like a believer and it’s going to set you on fire and cause you to live a life of satisfaction and fulfilment because this is what you were created for. There are two main areas where we need to live like believers and that is in the area of character and then in the area of operation or action; in the area of our nature and our ability. People should look at us and see Jesus; firstly in who we are and then in the way we live. Praise God for grace! I love grace and I love ministering on grace. There is always grace but it’s a poor testimony if we’re always having to tell people that to do what we say and not what we do. Yes, thank God for His grace but it’s not a good witness if we’re not growing to the place where grace isn’t just a get-out-of-jail-free-card. We’ve got to live start living in a place where grace is really something that has and is setting us free and is enabling us to live like Jesus!
Titus 2:11-12 New King James Version (NKJV)
For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, 12 teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age
Grace doesn’t just forgive you of your sins and pardon you of all your wrongs but grace enables you and teaches you; grace helps you to be able to live a good life – to live a life like Jesus! A life which is pure, holy and brings glory to God! I’m sure we all agree we want to live like that but sometimes we struggle to live like that. Thank God for His grace, but let’s not live continuously pull out the grace card because we keep failing and let us pull out the grace card and say, “Hey, I’m an overcomer, because of Grace! I am someone living holy and in victory, because grace has empowered me to do it!” Amen!