They are Upside Down Christians

Even though it has been twenty-five years since I first personally encountered the reality of the Lord Jesus Christ, I have never in all that time ceased to be fascinated at the level of degrees He has gone to in getting me to accept His truth about the freedom and liberty that now belongs to me as a result of my turning to Him and receiving Him as Savior of my soul and Lord of my life.  Prior to the lead-up to this encounter my thoughts and opinions as to what freedom was, were those of my society, “This is my life, I will do whatever I like with it and nobody will tell me what I can and cannot do.” 

Early on in my first church experience as a born again Christian, I was blessed by the words of someone who said that the world thinks it’s right-side up and hasn’t one clue that it is, in fact, upside down.  Along with perhaps another hundred or so other Christian people, I too was one to nod my head and express my, “amen” at his statement.  The Holy Spirit had been showing me that the world system was based on a lie and because I was very much part of that system, my whole life too was based on the same thing.  I was also blessed by the Lord to learn that any lie I held on to was always going to be a stumbling block to experiencing true freedom & liberty.

As time has marched on over those years, there has been no greater pleasure than to sit quietly before God each day and allow him to search my heart according to Psalm 139:23-24.  I well remember the first time I did that.  I sat in silence with much apprehension as I was about to ask the Lord.  But before I even began, I can still hear His gracious voice telling me to, “Relax.”  I was not expecting to hear that.  As a result, doubts quickly came.  Then I heard Him again, “Relax.”  I knew about Romans 8:1-2 “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.”  At least, I knew in my head, but not in my heart.

So far as I can tell, most Christians know those particular verses very well.  Preachers are fond of preaching or teaching them and Christians are fond of quoting them.  Yet for all that, it seems to me many Christians struggle to believe those words.  The previous Chapter tells us that death is the only way out from sin – a death we’ve already died to in Christ.  The Holy Spirit takes it for granted that we have finished with the law of sin and death and He also takes it for granted that we are to be living in Romans Chapter 8 and beyond.  But for most Christians, it’s as though they are saying, “That’s not true.”

They don’t verbalize that, but it is how they act when they then go about trying to live in another manner they think pleases God.  This happens either by embracing added doctrines and conditions to those verses, or, by getting caught up in all sorts of religious activity that makes them feel better and more deserving in the receiving of such promises.  This is a tragedy.  Firstly so, because the Holy Spirit will have nothing to do with such deception – and secondly – the Holy Spirit will never bless a lie.  If Christians do not live and act on God’s word as truth, then they are living a lie by default.  They are upside down Christians.  They restrict God’s blessings to themselves!

1 John 2:21 tells us, “No lie is of the truth.”  If we live as though we don’t really believe God’s promises to be truth, we become not only food for Satan the devil as he chews us up and spits us out on a daily basis,  but we also become tools of Satan the devil!  And therein lies the biggest problem existing in religious man’s institutionalized church system, today.  The problem is not simply one of people lacking faith, it is that they are living under the control of a lying spirit and don’t even know it.  They (including leaders) talk about freedom and liberty, they write and sing songs about it, they write books and Bible studies about it, but in reality – they are not living in freedom and liberty.

They are living like the Galatians in the New Testament book of the same name.  The Galatians knew about the proclaimed message of freedom and liberty in Christ, they had experienced it for themselves.  But they got seduced by “spiritual” men, who not only were caught up in religious bondage themselves, but they made it their aim to impose the same upon that church by getting them to follow their rules, doctrines and holy day observances etc.  The natural outcome of accepting lies, whether we know them as that or not, is to have us making our own silly little laws, rules and observances etc, which now not only breeds self-righteousness, but it puts us back under religious law.

It is very popular in Christian-speak to hear something like, “the devil doesn’t worry about unbelievers, he’s already got them where he wants them.”  True.  He has.  But he’s also got multitudes of Christians where he wants them too.  As the father of lies, he has all those who are under the control of the lying spirit.  Something else the Lord has shown me over the years … those Christians who are baptized into the Holy Spirit come in for some special attention from Satan.  He loves to play God with our conscience.  And, he’ll use everything at his disposal for this.  His arsenal is unlimited – especially as he tries to imitate the voice of the Holy Spirit.  

For such an onslaught he will use our own mind and mouth and he will most certainly use the minds and mouths of others – good people, bad people, religious people, non-religious people, pastors, elders…..You name it, he’s done it.  I have lost count of the times I have had to go running to the Lord to clear up as to who’s voice is speaking Psalm 61:3; Proverbs 18:10.  It is no different today.  This is why I started this post by saying I am fascinated by the level of degrees the Lord has gone to in speaking to me about the subject of freedom and liberty.

And He has given me some glorious answers over the years – every one of them focusing on His finished work.  If there has been conviction of sin, the cross is the place where the Lord reminds me it already is, and His blood is what I am to plead after my acknowledgement of it.  If it is condemnation, Romans 8:1-2 is my reminder and powerful victorious weapon for use in spiritual warfare, used in conjunction with the invocation of the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.  There is no other pathway to true freedom and liberty. Only through these acts can a Christian even begin to experience and proclaim the on-going glorious liberty of the children of God Romans 8:21.

It is my firm conviction that multitudes of God’s people are not really seeking nor hearing from the Lord for themselves.  They go to church, they have great fellowship with others, they hear the word of God as the pastor brings it, they enjoy talking about the things of God, but they are failing to enter into the most Holy Place for themselves Hebrews 10:19, and it is costing them dearly.  God never intended His people to hear His word second-hand at the expense of not hearing it first-hand.  That is not authentic, New Testament, New Covenant Christianity.  New Covenant Christianity is birthed out of not only relationship, but also fellowship with God.  We must know Him and the power of His resurrection for ourselves.

Some church leaders fail to emphasize the absolute importance of their people seeking the Lord for themselves through the Scriptures, because they rather like the thought and practice of people coming to them for everything spiritual.  It makes them feel needed.  Other leaders lay total emphasis on a partial truth which says nearly all Scripture was written to and for groups of people, not individuals.  They teach their people to approach the Bible this way.  They use controlling techniques expressing words like, “Instead of saying what’s God saying to me, we need to ask, what is God saying to us?”  Those words sound reasonable, but they are misleading, therefore, deceptive.

If God meant the Scriptures to be received only in that manner, none of us would ever personally know Him or the sound of His voice for ourselves.  The Bible, being the word of God, is the only the place where one can experience that on-going reality.  My knowledge of freedom and liberty comes from nowhere but that book.  My experience of freedom and liberty comes from no-one but the Lord of that book!  Nobody else has the divine authority nor the divine power to grant me my freedom and liberty.  The embracing of this truth qualifies me as a right-side up Christian.  To ignore it or reject it is to hold on to a lie.  If that’s the case, I’m an upside down Christian.  No wonder there’s a stumbling block to freedom and liberty in the church system today. “And I will walk about at liberty, for I seek Your precepts.” Psalm 119:45. “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with the yoke of bondage.” Galatians 5:1.