Christian, the Normal and the Abnormal: Which Are You?

[There was an excellent article I came upon today, relevant to all Christians. What follows is the beginnings of that article, then a "Read more..." link to the rest of the article. Please note I have no personal interest in the website but to find it a good site, as a reader. That is, "Read more..." is not pimping you to go to a website I'm personally promoting, self-promotion of any kind never my intent. My only wish is to share an excellent Christian article some others may also see as quite insightful and relevant. For the full article, scroll down on the link page to the "Edition 208" article.]

The normal and abnormal:

Introduction:

This is for a very small, limited group of believers. Most will not receive this – the Bible tells me so!

Watchman Nee, A.W Tozer and Charles Finny inspired some of these principles. “The Normal Christian Life” contains the central theme, but I’ve interpreted Nee’s work through my own applications and experiences and related them to today.

In this edition I will compare the Godly, true, normal Christian life, with today’s abnormal Christian life and the end of each as revealed in Bible prophecy.

Identity of the normal and abnormal Christian:

The Normal:

The normal Christian life is, “Not I but Messiah.”

Normal is, “I must decrease so that He can increase.”

Normal is, “I die daily, death works in me.”

Normal is, “come out from among them and be separate.”

It is normal to say, “I can of my own self do nothing.”

It is normal to “fall on this rock and be broken.” Brokenness opens us fully to God. Nothing in life remains hidden.

The normal Christian sees that “Messiah is the very essence of his life” (Colossians 3:4). Because He lives in me, I am delivered from the tiresome effort of trying to live right. (Philippians 1:21)

Deliverance from the slavery of sin becomes effortless when you see that Messiah is your life!

The old law tells you that you must be perfect, so you try, but you can’t so you carry on and carry on failing. The new law of life in Messiah tells you that you are perfect! You now rest in this wonderful knowledge as it works from inside your heart to the outside of your life.

Trying to be holy is a terrible, heavy burden. A tree doesn’t need to strive to produce fruit – it just does!

The normal Christian is one who is dead to self, the world and the demonic. Being dead to self delivers you from pride, from the fear of failure, from the fear of being rejected, from trying to be right. It delivers you from feelings of inferiority and superiority.

The normal Christian is extremely concerned about truth and walking in it. He will not dilute the truth to make it relevant to the world. His truth will be alive. He loves the truth and the truth loves him – finding its permanent home in his heart. He sees that truth is love and love is truth. He will be led by the Spirit of truth, and this will be the spark that ignites the fire of God’s love in his heart.

The normal Christian will be on the right path led by the light and love of the living God.

Psalm 16:11 “You will show me the path of life; in your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

The normal Christian will have the power of the cross working in him. He will be fiery, loving, uncompromising, sensitive to God, and callous to the devil. He will have a strange attraction about him that will draw people to God.

 The Abnormal:

The abnormal Christian believes in Messiah, but lives for himself. He increases in self- importance and pride, trying to be right with God. He doesn’t take up his cross daily, thinking that the Lord has done it for him.

The power and energy of the flesh works in him. He is not separate from the world, blurring the boundaries between the kingdom of God and the world. He has contempt for the message of brokenness and as a result doesn’t have the supernatural power of the cross in his life.

He believes in Messiah, as long as He remains in the background as a “sponsor” and doesn’t interfere.

He has no idea of the power of demonic forces in his life. He can’t see areas of demonic activity around and about him, because he has no spiritual gifts showing him. He walks spiritually unarmed, blind and unprotected, straight into havens of demons.

His “revelation” and spiritual wisdom is polluted with pride and ego. He is no different from the world and talks the talk of the world.

Malachi 2:17 “You have wearied the Lord with your words…in that you say everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them.”

He is very light on personal discipline and knows nothing of deep repentance and sorrow for sin.

He has no interest in Bible prophecy, believing “no one knows the time”. He is and will be unprepared for the coming end-time events. He will not have the discernment to see that the coming antichrist is not the Messiah!

He is filled with the sin of the world and supports the world’s ways, its heroes, celebrities, politicians and entertainers. He loves Hollywood, computer games and the like. He is materialistically orientated.

He is shallow in faith, ignorant of the major doctrines of the Bible. He believes that all people have a legitimate right to salvation. He believes in multi-faith.

He lives entirely for self- indulgence and gratification. He is amusement-mad, pagan-filled, and Spirit-less. He has no restraint within him.

The abnormal believer tries to be better and tries to apply one stupid self-motivational sermon after the next, about being loving and good. He has given himself to equally shallow shepherds and put his trust in these wolves.

He is attracted to the superficial preacher whose “anointing” is the power of manipulation and persuasion, but it’s all the energy of the flesh.

The abnormal Christian says, “It’s not love to come against modern corrupt values”!  He believes that truth is relative and must be twisted to be relevant to the present world.  

He applies truth wrongly so it becomes error, and walks hand in hand with prince of error. His truth is produced and sourced in his mind, lacking spiritual power.

The abnormal Christian has a hidden, secret life of sin, which he secretly loves.

John 3:19 “This is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.”

You will know them by their fruits, clothing, cars, homes and lifestyles. The abnormal says, “Materialism is godliness.”

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