To begin with, many, not all, but many of those who confess their faith in Christ and then enter into what is suppose to be a unified community of believers tend to have little joy in their hearts, no peace in their minds, and more or less are no different than the ordinary educated citizen who takes no interest in Christianity. Why?
While there can be numerous answers I believe the root can be traced back to identity. Do we as Christ followers find our identity in Christ or in the world? One might say, “Well because I accept Christ doesn’t that mean I find my identity in Him?” Simply put, no. If only you knew my life up until 2 months ago you would understand why I can confidently say, “no.” You can accept Christ but still live as a spiritual orphan. And why is this? Experience.
Experience of our glorious Father is the driving force behind all sanctified relationships between man and God. Herein lies the problem, many Christ followers lack the personal experience with our Father. Christ even understood the importance of experiencing God, so in Luke we read about Jesus sending out His disciples with nothing so to force dependency upon God. And through the journey the disciples experienced God and formed personal intimate relationships with Abba, they understood in their hearts they are sons of God, loved, saints, and whole. The orphan heart was crushed and replaced with spiritual son-ship.
Imagine growing up but never experiencing your Earthly father. You were told you have a father but you never played catch with him, never went on vacation with him, never got to cry on his shoulder, or hear him personally say, “I love you.” Instead, the only experience you had with him was the occasional Sunday phone call throughout the year, especially on Easter and Christmas. You would by no means feel like a son but an orphan that is not accepted. And it is only a matter of time until you begin to believe there is no father, that there never was a father.
Look in Matthew 4. The Devil attacks the identity of Christ. The Devil says, “If you are a son of God…” then do x, y, and z. Christ didn’t have to prove anything for He knew He was an approved son of God, not broken in the eyes of the Father but whole. And what happened before His identity was questioned? He went out into the desert for 40 days and nights with absolutely nothing in order to experience His Abba and form and intimate personal relationship, to solidify Hid identity.
I know back home on a college campus that one of the most pressing issues with campus ministries and the Church as a whole is:
“Why are so many between the ages of 18 and 28 leaving the Church?
What are we doing wrong?”
Pastors, teachers, elders, we are not letting our brothers and sisters in Christ experience God! So many of us tell our brothers and sister to, “Attend this Bible conference,” or “Take this course,” or “Buy this book.” My friends, what we need is not more instructions; we’ve been instructed to death! The Church back home is experiencing the World more than God so of course they will choose the World, their identity is rooted in the World. God loves to be longed for, yet we have let the bride become content with complacency so they never experience the wonder that is God. Pastors, send out your flock amongst wolves, let them experience their Dad, or else they will leave the Church because the compassionate hearts of all the Psalmists, Saints, and Apostles who longed after their Abba will be but a fairy tale.
