“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven. Many will say to Me on that day [when I judge them], ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, and driven out demons in Your name, and done many miracles in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them publicly, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me [you are banished from My presence], you who act wickedly [disregarding My commands]
Matthew 7 v 21-23
For many years I have subconsciously ignored this verse and others in the mistaken belief that if someone believes in Jesus and says the prayer of salvation, that they are eternally saved. Now, I do believe that the only way to be saved is to trust in Jesus, to believe and confess that He is Lord. There is nothing we can do to earn our salvation. Romans 10 v 9 says that "if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved". So we know that his is how we are saved. But we hear preachers calling people to the prayer of salvation, and we see it in Christian books and magazines, and then.....what? Is that enough? Jesus' words from Matthew as stated above seem to indicate that there will be people who call Him Lord (so they must be "saved") and even those who prophesy, and drive out demons and perform miracles who will not be entering eternity with Him. I find this reality very sobering.
I just want to pause a second and say before we continue with this that there are some things that God has put in my heart that are difficult to share, but they have to be shared because I personally don't want to be one of those people who Jesus tells to depart, and I don't want anyone else to be that person either. My heart's desire is that the Body of Christ shine forth as the spotless bride He calls us to be. So I write these words to myself, as well as anyone who reads them.
I just want to pause a second and say before we continue with this that there are some things that God has put in my heart that are difficult to share, but they have to be shared because I personally don't want to be one of those people who Jesus tells to depart, and I don't want anyone else to be that person either. My heart's desire is that the Body of Christ shine forth as the spotless bride He calls us to be. So I write these words to myself, as well as anyone who reads them.
There's more to the prayer of salvation than many preachers and evangelists are telling people about. Evangelists are very good at evangelising, but then when it comes to building up the church and equipping the saved into discipleship, there's a real hole. There's a massive lack of teaching on the next steps because we clearly have this startling warning from Jesus here that is rarely preached on. What does that "depart from me" mean? In all honesty, I'm not 100% sure. I've wrestled with whether it means departing from His presence forever into the lake of fire, or whether there's some kind of hierarchy in heaven that renders some to live in more constant communion with Him, and some who aren't. I go back and forth and still wrestle with the issue but I believe God will answer me soon. Either way, I'm not happy with either of these possibilities. My hope is in Jesus, and I want to be with Him always. I never want to hear "depart from me". The very thought makes me shudder in the core of my being.
So where's the gap? We are called to be transformed, to renew our minds - Romans 12 v 2: Do not be conformed to this world (this age), [fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs], but be transformed (changed) by the [entire] renewal of your mind [by its new ideals and its new attitude], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what is the good and acceptable and perfect will of God, even the thing which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His sight for you]. We are told that as we are salt and light in this world, and that even though we are here in this world, we are actually "citizens of heaven" (Philippians 3 v 20). We are called peculiar people in 1 Peter, and peculiar people tend to stand out from the rest. People who don't conform to the world stand out from it. There's something that should happen after we accept Jesus as our Lord that starts to make us stand out. 2 Corinthians 5 v 17 says Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come! As a believer in Christ, we are a new creation, a new creature! All the old stuff has passed away - but what is that? It's the sin and self-serving nature that operate in the world and that operated in us before we put on Christ's nature. The problem is no one tells us how to do this. We might be told to "renew our minds" but then there's very little preaching on how to do this. And I believe that this is the key to a transformed life. Without having a transformed life, we're just a person who said a prayer. We may take hold of some of the other promises of God, we may lay hands on the sick and they recover; we may even operate in the gifts of prophesy, but overall, inside, we'll be the same as the world. There's something that has to happen to cause us to be different and a change has to take place. There's a clear distinction in the verse of Matthew between those who do the Will of the Father and those who don't do the Will of the Father, yet still do things like operate in the gifts of the Spirit. Is the Will of the Father something different to prophesying and doing miracles? Clearly it is. This distinction is the difference between being cast away from Jesus, or being welcomed to Him at the day of the Judgement Seat of Christ. Now for me, this is worth careful study because I call Him Lord and I can't imagine on that day being told to depart from Him.
We are beings made of 3 parts: Spirit, soul and body. Our spirit can be saved immediately- that's justification, when we accept Jesus as Lord. Our souls are in the process - that's called sanctification and that is done by renewing our minds, and making daily decisions to walk in love. Our whole lives depend on this process. I'll come back to this in a moment. Our bodies, well they're not going to be saved as such - we'll get a new body. That's glorification (see Romans 8). The thing is though, unlike when we make a decision to accept Jesus as our saviour and our spirits are instantly re-connected with God, we have a choice about the middle bit, the soul transformation. Our souls and our spirits are connected, but we have this very difficult area called "self". We also have a really weak area called our minds, which is a bit like a battleground. Here we are at war within ourselves, often combating the desires of the flesh with the callings of God. The enemy will attack us in our minds too because our thoughts are very powerful. Once a thought starts producing emotions, then that emotion will start producing actions. So if our thoughts are contrary to God's word, then our whole soul will be infiltrated with emotions contrary to God's word, and then actions will soon follow. This is why renewing the mind is SO important. If we don't renew our mind, we'll be thinking the same old thoughts we always have, and our souls and bodies will be full of worldly stuff. Whatever goes in, that is what comes out. But if we are thinking God thoughts, then our emotions will be Godly, and our actions will be Godly.
How do we do this? 2 Cor 10 v 5 and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ. It's a process and it takes time. But it all begins here. Be filled up with Jesus, His love, His patience - the fruit of the Spirit- and that is what will flow from you. Fill yourself with worldly stuff - deceit, pride, anger, violence, gossip - and that's what will flow out of us.
Our "self" will always be at war with God's ways. Even Paul struggled with it, so we're in good company: Romans 7 v 15 For I do not understand my own actions [I am baffled, bewildered]. I do not practice or accomplish what I wish, but I do the very thing that I loathe [which my moral instinct condemns]
So Paul struggled with it too, and it will be an ongoing issue whilst we're here on this earth. The process is continual, we crucify our flesh daily. I think this is the difference between those whom He welcomes into Heaven, and those He says "depart from me". We will always drift back to evil if we don't have the daily infilling of Jesus.
You've probably guessed that the water represents what goes into us. Jesus said in Matthew 6 v 22 - The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light, 23 but if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. What goes into us is what gets into our souls through our eyes and our ears. We must be really careful about what enters our souls as Jesus Himself warns us that our whole body can become full of darkness. There's a lot of dark stuff out there these days, just take what's on TV these days. Many programs contain bad language, blasphemy, lots of violence, sex and general content that is contrary to God's Kingdom. When we're bingeing continually on a diet of this sort of stuff, what are our insides looking like? Take a vase of water as an analogy for the soul - put a drop of poison in the water for every swear word, and every act of violence you watch. Put a slug of acid in the water each time you view something of the occult on TV or in a book.
If you only pick up your Bible once in the week, and only pray on Sunday morning, see how your water looks in a week. See how your flowers are faring. Our souls are similar, but just because we can't see our souls, and because we can put on a show to the world, doesn't mean we aren't in as bad a state as those flowers.
The vase analogy isn't the greatest, but it serves a purpose. The more of God that goes in, the more God will shine forth from us. We'll have flowers in abundance flourishing with enough to give away. I'm not trying to sound "super spiritual" or "holier than thou", but I feel we are in an age where you can't tell the Christians from the non-Christians. Christians are the same as everyone else...myself included; we're conformed to the world and there's little setting us apart from non-believers. Copious Christians are living in sin, swearing, blaspheming, lying, gossiping.....and worse! Although with God, there really aren't degrees of sin.
The key is to be daily doing this. If the apostle Paul struggled, then now much more are we going to? You don't just bath or shower once a week to be clean, so it is with our souls. Every day there's a need to be renewing our minds by taking heed of what goes in. By eating a fruit salad once a week on Sunday morning, but eating a hamburger and fries for lunch and dinner every day, your body isn't going to be healthy. One good meal a week won't sustain you. Just like one dose of God each week on a Sunday won't sustain you through the week.
I realise this is a long one but I urge you, take some time to study and pray about this area for yourself. Search the scriptures and seek God in this area. This will be my priority these coming months. I don't want to be anything less than what Jesus has called me to, and when I stand before my King, I am desperate to hear the words "Well done, good and faithful servant". The only way to hear that is to do all He commands, and to heed His words carefully.
I like to think of it this way: If I am a vase, my purpose is to hold beautiful flowers. Now, to let those flowers flourish, they need to sit in clean water. If we put in dirty water, the flowers will die quickly. We can put in clean water, but if we leave it, it will get stale and start to smell. If we leave the water, it will get contaminated with bacteria and dirt. Or we can add dirty water, and that makes it even worse. Or we can add clean, fresh living water then we can keep it topped up every day with fresh living water.
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