My salvation experience and some lessons so far.
It’s been five years since I got saved. Five years ago, in August, the summer before I started uni, I encountered the Person of Jesus and my life changed forever.
Before that summer, I had some level of curiosity about God. To be specific, I believed God is real, but I struggled to understand salvation and why Jesus had to die for our sins. I remember a time in high school when my Bible teacher asked us to write a short essay about a question we had regarding the Bible, and I wrote that I didn't understand why I needed to be saved and what I needed to be saved from. I also remember going to this teacher after class one day to directly ask him this question. That day in 2016, God saw a girl with a growing desire to know Him who simply needed to be pointed to the word, taught the gospel, and properly introduced to the love of Christ.
In 2017, I came to the realization, by the help of the Holy Spirit, that God is not just a God who wants to be sung to on Sundays and prayed to whenever we need something. Instead, He wants to be known, genuinely known. He wants to be served, completely served. He wants to be our everything, with nothing else competing for our devotion and attention. I was graciously undone by this reality five years ago one evening and my life truly started because I discovered what it meant to live. A question I remember asking myself that evening was, "If you believe that God is real, why do you live your life like He is not?" I started to get acquainted with God by studying the Bible and speaking with Him, and that was when I encountered the gospel and put my faith in Jesus.
In this blogpost, I’ll be sharing with you five of the biggest lessons God has taught me, and the ones I’m still learning, in these five years of walking with Him. If you already believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus and are saved, I pray that this serves as a reminder that Jesus is worth a life lived completely for Him. If you’re yet to believe in Jesus as your Saviour and Lord, I pray this serves as an introduction to the reality that was purchased for you on the cross and to the freedom that can be yours in Christ Jesus.
Lesson #1: Pruning is a process
There’s this joke on social media where people say they skip songs that say things like, “I want to be tried by fire” because life is already hard as it is. Those jokes are quite funny, but the truth is, whether or not you sing those songs, you’ll still experience pruning as a believer. In agriculture, pruning is the cutting away of unwanted parts of a plant for more fruitful growth and shaping. Plants are usually pruned to remove crossed and damaged branches which will stress the plant and affect its growth.
Pruning is not a negative thing. It can be uncomfortable sometimes, yes, but it is good and necessary. I have learnt to see things through this lens: God is my Father and He is a good Father, so I am always in safe hands. He knows what He's doing and His desire for me is that I live fully in my new identity as His child. While it is completely true that we are new creatures in Christ the moment we believe in His death and resurrection, and we have the fruit of the Spirit, the inward transformation of our character doesn't happen in a day. It is a process.
I lived my previous life for years, over sixteen years. During those years, mindsets were shaped, habits were built, and lifestyles were created. These are things that the Holy Spirit began to help me unlearn when I became a new man in Christ through the word, prayer, and experiences that required the application of things learnt in the word and in prayer.
In the very early years of my Christian journey, one thing I struggled to do was to be patient with myself as I unlearnt certain things. God had to teach me to be patient with myself by reminding me that I do not need to earn His approval or affection because He already approves of me and He deeply loves me. The Holy Spirit is doing a great work in me, and this work is a process. As long as I continue to daily behold Jesus, I’ll continue to become more and more like Him. I cannot become more like who I do not behold.
Lesson #2 - God sees it all and He can be trusted
This lesson is one God really taught me in the fourth year of my Christian journey. Each year has had its own trials, but the fourth year brought trials that required a whole lot of faith. Coincidentally (not really a coincidence because God is too intentional), I was also studying the stories of some people of faith in the Old Testament during that time. Abraham, Moses, Jacob. Joseph.
Two things stood out to me about God's love during that study. One of them was in Exodus 2:23-24, before God sends Moses to Egypt: The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labour; and they cried out; and their cry for help because of the difficult labour ascended to God. And God heard their groaning; and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob; and God saw the Israelites; and God knew.
The second was in Genesis 16:13, when Hagar was visited by the angel of the Lord: So she named the Lord who spoke to her: "You are El-Roi," for she said, "In this place, have I actually seen the One who sees me?"
These two verses have served, and continue to serve, as reminders that God sees me. He. Sees. Me. He doesn't only see, He heals what He sees. He comes right in the middle of what He sees and He binds up, comforts, speaks, and sets free. Because He cares, He does something about what He sees, just like He did something about the Israelites' condition by rescuing them and also about Hagar's situation by visiting her when she felt used, abandoned, and overlooked. These stories have built my faith in God by reminding me that He can be trusted. Every year, every month, every hour, and every second, He can be trusted.
Another verse that sealed this truth in my heart is Romans 8:32, which says, "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" God has fulfilled our greatest need of salvation with His greatest provision of His Son, so why would He not provide for us according to His own will?
"The Person who can be trusted the most with our lives is in charge, so why do we worry?" – Kiisi A.
Lesson #3 - Cherish the fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Growing up in a pentecostal church, there was a popular benediction we used to say: “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the Sweet Fellowship of the Holy Ghost be with us now and forever. Amen.” But I didn’t even know who the Holy Spirit was or what fellowship with Him looked like until I got saved. Then, I began to learn that He is an actual Person and He is not just a name you mention when you’re praying “Holy Ghost fire” prayers. Colour me shocked.
As I studied the Bible, I started learning about the Holy Spirit. I also began to learn about how He dwells in believers to help us through His wisdom, convictions, assurance, leadings, corrections, clarity, and so on. I stopped seeing Him as a distant Person I cannot relate with, and I began to see Him as my closest friend. I love the Holy Spirit so much, and daily, I'm so grateful for His friendship. He lives in everyone who believes in the death and resurrection of Jesus, never to leave us because we have been sealed with Him.
Lesson #4 - A godly community is God’s very excellent idea
I won’t be where I am today, spiritually, mentally, and physically without the godly community God has surrounded me with in the form of my friends, fellowships, and my local church. I am a firm believer in the fact that we were never meant to do this life with Jesus in isolation.
As someone who has experienced church hurt, I understand that church hurt may discourage some people from finding a godly community and lead them to start seeking to “know God by themselves.” However, Ephesians 4:11-16 tells us that the church is God's will for our spiritual growth. By all means, have a personal relationship with God, He wants you to. However, this doesn't replace the importance of belonging to a local church for your spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing.
If you are hesitant about entrusting your heart and yourself in a Christian community, speak to God about it. Let Him lead you to a local church that is safe and let Him also help you let go of any fears and worries that may be discouraging you from finding a godly community. Trust me, your Christian journey will be better with a godly community that is guiding and cheering you on.
Lesson #5 - My life belongs wholly to Jesus
In the last few years, I have been learning what this statement truly means. What it really means to live a life fully devoted to the cause and agenda of Christ. What my main purpose on earth is, which is knowing Jesus Christ and making Him known to the world. This is the main thing. The most important thing. Not amassing wealth for ourselves, not getting to the top of our careers so we feel some sort of pride and accomplishment, but knowing the One who made us and telling others about Him.
In the midst of all the misconceptions about who God is, God is asking His children, “Who do you say I am?,” just like He asked His disciples. And when we respond with who His word says that He is, He tells us, “Go and tell the world.” Peter was able to answer Jesus' question accurately because He had spent ample time with Him. Before we can go and tell the world, we must first sit at Jesus’ feet and fellowship with Him like Mary did in Luke 10. There is a fragrance that we carry as people who have been with Jesus that is discernible, just like people were able to discern that Peter and John had been with Jesus in Acts 4:13.
At the end of the day, we cannot accurately and boldly speak about who we haven’t spent the time to get to know. God desires our service and He loves our service, but He doesn’t want us to idolize service by giving it more priority than our personal fellowship with Him. God wants our friendship, so we must spend time with Him in prayer and His word to know Him intimately. This way, we begin to imitate His love, kindness, and boldness, and we begin to speak His heart more accurately because we have learnt His desires. And our world is better because of this.
One of the biggest lessons I have learnt so far is that the gospel is not for a select few Christians to carry on their heads so people can hail them and call them 'pastors' or 'serious Christians.' Every single one of us who are sons and daughters of God have been given this ministry of reconciliation, and we must submit ourselves to the way that God wants to spread His message through us. Daily.
I think about Romans 10:14-15 often: "How then shall they call on Him whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the gospel of peace, who bring glad tidings of good things!"
As believers, we have all been sent by God to preach this gospel of peace, so we have to get to work. Lives are dependent on it.
Bonus Lesson: Those who seek the Lord find Him
This is the testimony of my whole life. A verse in the Bible I discovered that has fuelled my faith in the fact that those who seek God find Him is Jeremiah 29:12-13, "Then you will call upon Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all your heart."
The same faithful God who made this statement then is the same faithful God I serve today. His word is still true and I have too many stories of my experiences with God from seeking Him with a willing and a hungry heart. God responds to our hunger. He honours it. Stay hungry, the Bread of Life is also our Shepherd and He is ever-willing to feed His sheep.
Five Alive, An Eternity to Go
Sometimes, I can't believe this is my reality; daily living for Jesus, living the life He paid for on the cross. One day, I was randomly thinking about where I am now and I remember asking myself, "Who would have thought?" And God responded to me. He said, "I knew." And it was a big reminder that this was God's plan for me all along. When Jesus died on the cross, He knew there'll be a girl about two thousand years later that would be in dire need of a Saviour. On the cross, I was graciously considered.
Now, I belong to Jesus. Purchased by His blood and adopted into His family. Basking in the joy of salvation, never to be snatched out of His safe hands. Eternally redeemed and alive in Christ.
Five years alive, forever to go.
"And you, being dead in your trespasses and uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all your trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross."
Colossians 2:13-14
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