To the new believer:

After you have believed in Jesus Christ, you have become a Christian, and there is nothing you can do and nothing that anyone else can do to change this (For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord—Rom. 8:38–39). I don’t care if you start committing every sin that you can think of, from A to Z; or if you renounce Jesus Christ and embrace Satan—you cannot lose your salvation.

One thing which has changed is, God is your Father. That means, you are subject to discipline by God (For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure, because God treats you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?—Prov. 3:12 Heb. 12:6–7 ). If you fall into a cult, if you start running around doing whatever you feel like doing, you will find out in short order that God is your Father and that discipline from God is real.

What can you do to fix this? How can you get your life on track? How can you stop the hurting? Or, if you haven’t gone off on some weird tangent, what can you do at this point as a new believer? There are two things:

1)       Every time you commit a sin, you name that sin to God. It will be immediately forgiven and you will have restored fellowship with God (God is faithful and reliable [this means that God can be depended upon to do the same thing each and every time]. If we acknowledge our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we've done wrong—1John 1:9). This means, the discipline will stop (sometimes the pain will continue in order to keep you focused). You do not have to do anything but name your sin. You do not have to feel bad, you do not have to promise God that you will never do it again; you simply name it and fellowship with God is restored.

2)       Secondly, you need to grow spiritually. This does not mean that you need to start doing spiritual things (like giving money, teaching Sunday school, witnessing). In fact, most of the time, it is best for you to keep your money in your wallet and your mouth shut. You will grow spiritually by learning the Word of God (Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman who is not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth—2Tim. 2:15). You learn the Word of God through a pastor-teacher (Remember your leaders, men who spoke to you the word of God, and considering the results of their conduct, imitate their faith—Heb. 13:7). I have suggested a number of different pastor-teachers on my Links page; any one of them will be good to learn under. God does have a marvelous plan for your life. This is not some plan that is going to require you to do a lot of crap that you simply don’t want to do. This is not a plan which means that you have to start acting phoney or completely submerge your personality. What you need to do is get under the teaching of a good teacher, and then things will quite naturally fall into place. If you are near any of these teachers geographically, then you need to go to their churches. Many of them have satellite groups all over the world who meet and learn under them; that is another option. Just walking into any church is not necessarily the best choice, as most churches are filled with legalism, false teaching and even demonism (For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as Christ's apostles. And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light—2Cor. 11:13–14). A church should teach from the Bible, verse by verse; and the pastor should have a knowledge of the Greek, the Hebrew and the history of that time period. They should not constantly ask you for money; and they should not charge you for any materials that they produce in order to help your grow spiritually. It does not matter how poor you are; money should never be an issue in your church. If it is, you are in the wrong church. Once you start to grow spiritually, you will have a better idea of what your life is going to be. You are going to like what God has planned for you; I can guarantee that.