Experiencing life in all its fullness

I must confess that writing this blog is a challenge. The reason for this is very simple. When a person decides to come to the truth, repent his sins and surrender his life to Jesus, there is no standard answer to how he will experience this important step. For some, making the decision to follow Jesus can be like the start of a pregnancy. The life is already there; however, it takes some time before that life becomes visible to others. Some can have a long ‘pregnancy’, for others it can be a matter of seconds. Others may even experience salvation and baptism in the Spirit in one instant moment.

We have a tendency to compare ourselves with one another. In light of what I just have written, it is dangerous if I drop to the conclusion that there must be something wrong with me because I have not experienced the new life in the same way as someone I compare myself with.

We have three wonderful children. They are three individualists. Physically they don’t look alike, emotionally and spiritually they are different – and their views on different matters may in many cases be so different that outsiders would be surprised that they share the same DNA. I don’t think any of them will consider the other two as less or more normal or alive, than they are themselves. Nor do they doubt who their parents are. Of course, if I asked any of them to proofread this, knowing them and their sense of humour, all of them would come back protesting and say: “I am the one who is right!”

If the life in Christ is life it all its fullness, it includes all the variations of life and experiences as well.

So how then do I know that I am a Christian?

It is about believing and receiving Jesus as Lord and Saviour into your life:

Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.
John 1:12

Receiving Jesus includes repenting sin and receiving forgiveness (1). 

This is confirmed by confession:

If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.
Romans 10:9-10

When this in place, life has started and step by step it will lead to inner conviction and assurance.

‘Manna’ for today:

I want to live life in all its fullness

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(1) 1 John 1:9