Faith Transition

 

    When you become a Christian through faith your world begins to change.  The more discipleship training and practice you do the more your relationships will change.  You will lose some, you will find new ones, and some will be strengthened.

    How you talk is something that will change and transition to become more holy.  It starts with listening to the Holy Spirit.  He will convict your heart when you start talking in a way that disparages God or anything He created.  You are a creation of God along with everyone else, so you can no longer tear down yourself or anyone else without hurting God.  

    Rapport may be something that you will have to work on.  You may need to practice in a mirror or with a trusted friend.  Rapport is when you invest into listening to someone else speak and respond in love or kindness.  You can tell hard truths without being insulting, intentionally hurtful, or rude.  It is okay to be honest and forthright, but do not always be blunt.  Consider your words and how they impact other people.

    Conversations are not all about you.  You need to learn how to ask questions that will impact the person you are talking to.  Hopefully it is in a good way, but to have deep conversations, you need to have deep questions.  Ask for opinions, thoughts, insights, viewpoints, and reasons.  The goal is to understand someone's heart if you have any chance to reach it to get them to really hear Jesus.

    When it comes to asking about faith, you will get a confirmation, title only response, unclear about what faith is all about, or no opinion/anger.  You need to be prepared to deal with every person and their response.  If they are already a Christian, then you can basically treat it like a family reunion and a chance at a new friendship.

    If a person's faith is based off of works, then they need a perspective change.  They are close.  They probably want it, but they are missing the door of opportunity.  The majority of so called Christians are in this area or they believe they are because their family was or is.  You can't inherit faith.  It is a personal decision.  You can't earn faith.  You have to take a leap into the unknown and trust that God will catch you.  You need to be sensitive when addressing this so you do not push them further away from God, but do not shy away from the truth either.

    Sometimes people are unclear of what they believe.  You will see this in agnostic and some atheist.  You need to pray for them and be very clear about what faith is and how it connects them to God directly.  It may require more than one conversation.  Do not give up unless they tell you to never talk to them about it again.  Even if you can' talk about it, then they should be able to see you live out your faith and you still pray for them.  Don't push them until they come to you again or the Holy Spirit tells you otherwise.

     Some people will claim to have no opinion on faith, but everyone has an opinion on eternity.  You have to ask questions to discover where they really are.  Some people may come across argumentative or aggressive.  Trust that God will protect you, but remove yourself from the situation if you need to.  God is working on their heart and they are fighting Him, not you.  

    At the end of the day Jesus made it clear.  If you seek your own safety  over faith, then you will lose your life lost for eternity.  However, if you lose your life in faith, then you never have to worry about your eternal life.  It all comes down to trusting God's promises.  Faith is knowing your body will die one day, but you are willing to sacrifice it to glorify Him.  You do not have to be a martyr to be a person of faith.  You just have to be willing.

Joshua 1:6-9, Isaiah 43:18-21, Romans 8:26-30, 2 Corinthians 5:16-17, Philippians 4:6-7, Titus 3:3-7, & Hebrews 13:8-9