OK. You've prayed. You've believed. Now what do you do?
As an intercessor, you are obeying God by recognizing a problem and
setting about to correct that problem. Often this correction involves
first of all, leading that lost person to Jesus, which of course,
includes the necessity for them to pray that prayer we've all prayed.
We
call it the Sinner's prayer and Thank God we have that prayer. Formal
or
informal, public or private, that prayer gets us reborn whether the
devil likes it or not. Often that rebirth is somewhat painful. Being
torn away from the dark cocoon where you've been is usually traumatic.
You've learned to be comfortable. You've even managed to change your
position (with some effort), and the sights and sounds and position are
familiar,. You get born again and all of a sudden there's a bigger,
brighter, busier world than you ever thought was possible. For those of
us who have been born again for any time at all, we may have forgotten
how big the new world of the Kingdom of God seems. For the new
believer,
however, all of the sights and sounds and experiences which we learn to
expect from God are very intimidating at first.
So our new believer has been born again, usually right in the middle
of a desperate situation, often right in the middle of a situation
which, as an adult in the world, she has brought on herself. This is
somewhat like trying to deliver a baby thousands of miles away from the
nearest hospital, in the middle of a storm, without a shelter. And in
cases like that, there's no specialist around. I'm talking about your
calm and collected neighborhood pastor, who has been to a fancy school
to learn how to deliver these baby Christians without dropping them on
their heads. But God has chosen you to do the job. So you deliver the
baby, but how do you handle the storm? How do you feed that baby
without
choking her on the steak you like - that is - the strong meat of the
Word of God? God has a plan for just such occasions. He calls it
preparation and intercession.
He has told us, even before Jesus died for us, that he needed someone
to stand in the gap. You look around, desperately seeking out a good
gap
stander. Then find out you've been volunteered. You are in the gap! But
somehow, with God's help, you find out you can stand there and shield
that new baby Christian with your love and your compassion, with your
faith and your words.
Then we feed the baby with the milk of the Word. NOT - THUS SAYETH
THE LORD - we teach that baby about its new parent, just what every new
baby needs to learn. We teach that brand new baby Christian, whether 8
or 80, how much God loves her. We teach about the intimacy of God's
love, about the peace and goodness and protection embodied in that
love.
We teach, sometimes through heart-felt song, sometimes through
sweet-tasting scripture, how good it is to trust in Jesus. Just as
Jesus
would carefully lift and shield a little child within his arms, he
gently holds and reassures this new Christian within His Word.
So we've established Jesus in the life of our Born-Again Believer.
We've demonstrated to our new baby that there is shelter from the storm
(self-created or circumstantial). We've conveyed, through our firm
gentleness, with the annointing of the Holy Spirit, by our actions and
by our tenderness, the unfailing love of Jesus Christ. We have
nourished
this new Christian with the milk of God's Word, not expecting her to
immediately understand how perfect and fulfilling and strengthening
this
"milk" is, only sharing the belief that she will learn its
life-changing, powerful, enhancing, substance.
Very often, part of the storm into which our new believer is born is
a personal crisis which is a result of a life based on the system of
the
world, rather than on God's Word. Satan teaches the world that we can't
depend on anyone or anything but ourselves, which as believers know, is
the same as building your house on sand. No one, not the strongest man,
not the most self-willed woman, can overcome everything by himself or
herself. Without God in our lives, we are dependant on science for
healing, on the economy for prosperity, on psychiatry for peace, on
government resources for protection, on ungodly people to raise and
teach our children, on chance for good things to happen, on physical
desire to choose our life-long companion. Without being born-again, as
Jesus taught us, we depend on church attendance for salvation, on good
works for righteousness and on our own perception of God for eternal
life.
Praise God, our newborn believer no longer has to be a part of all
that, but just like a baby will continue to draw its knees up in the
fetal position just as it did in the womb, the new believer will
continue to act just as she did before she was born again. When she
hurts, she'll complain about it. When she is frightened, she will
casually speak of death. When she is tempted, she will accept that
temptation. When she is angry, she will speak hatred against her
brother. When she is simply conversing, she will continue to use the
Lord's name in vain. When she is offended, she will not forgive. When
she suffers from a disease, she will turn to doctors and science as her
only hope.
Just as a newborn baby needs to learn to turn over, walk, talk, feed
herself, become potty trained, our newborn believer needs to learn to
trust in God, open her Bible and read God's Word for herself, pray,
obey
God, honor God, and seek His face by enjoying His presence. Our newborn
believer needs to learn about faith in God, that God's will for her is
a
plan for her life which she could never imagine and which is better
than
she could ever plan for herself. Many believers have experienced
miracles of healing as they learn these things. Many believers who may
have been in bondage to drugs or cigarettes or ungodly sexual desire
have been miraculously delivered from these bondages as they learn and
practice God's commandments and statutes. Jesus simplified all of God's
commandments into one, "Love one another as I have loved you." And you
enjoy the process of watching her come to depend on the promise of this
commandment.
So you have believed, you have prayed, you have taught. Now you must
step back and let God complete the work in His new believer. You must
trust in God to work with His Word as His new baby Christian rolls over
for the first time, as she learns to sit up, becoming strengthened by
the Word she has heard, as she learns to feed herself by opening the
Bible and becoming more and more familiar with the Word as it is
written, as she learns to watch what she says and what she does simply
because she knows God loves her and she wants to honor Him, as she
learns to speak to God through sincere, heart-felt, cleansing, joyous
prayer, as she gives up the things of world simply because they no
longer have any importance compared to the gifts that God is giving.
You
must trust in God to pick her up when she falls, to teach her, through
the Words He speaks to her, how to avoid Worldly hazards, how to
forgive
others because she knows how wonderful it feels when he forgives her,
how to speak so that she can proudly admit to every word she has
uttered. You must let God teach her, gently and firmly, how wonderful
it
is to trust in Jesus.
By the Holy Spirit
Merrellee Moore 6/16/98
