Part 2 of 2
The primary step in creating your own spiritual identity is being born again. Every man and woman must personally receive the free gift of salvation. Very often in Christian homes I believe that young people come to accept the fact that they are saved because of the environment that their parents have provided. They fully understand the biblical requirements for salvation, and even believe that Jesus is the only way to get to Heaven. However, they have never submitted to true Holy Spirit conviction. I remember asking Jesus to save me when I was six years old, but the motivation for that action was pleasing my mother. I had to come to the point when the Holy Spirit showed me that I was on my way to Hell. I am not trying to persuade anyone to doubt their salvation, but I do want the reader to make sure that the assurance you have of your salvation comes from a personal relationship with the Holy Spirit. Like Romans 8:16, does the Holy Spirit reassure you that you are a child of God, or does that reassurance come from some external resource? If it comes from anywhere else than from your heart, it is not your own experience.
The next major area that you must take possession of to establish your own spiritual identity is the spiritual counsel that you are willing to trust. God gives us certain spiritual counsel that we do not have the option of choosing our own. Our parents are to be honored in all circumstances, and our pastors are divinely appointed men who watch for our souls. While we should heed the teaching taught by these individuals, these individuals do not need to be the only source of help that we approach. There are certain principles that we must understand in this area. Any example we choose to follow should be a spiritual example. Worldly mentors will lead you to be a worldly person. Make sure that the person you look to for advice has had proven success in the area in which you are looking for leadership. This will honestly eliminate most of your peers of the same age. But the point is that you can search out and follow who you choose. Proverbs 11:14 tells us that there is safety in following spiritual leadership, and the more leadership you find to follow the safer you can be.
The final area that we can make our own path in is the goals we desire to accomplish. There is no saved believer who can be limited by another Christian regarding what he or she could do for God. Our potential is individual. It is possible to do more for God in your life than has ever been accomplished in any other person. You could see more people saved in one day than Peter did on the day of Pentecost. You could have more influence on the world than Paul the missionary. The problem is that we limit ourselves by thinking that we have less potential than others around us. 2 Corinthians 10:12 tells us that comparing our potential to the potential of others makes us unwise. We have an open invitation to be freed from social limitation and be exactly what God wants us to be.
The truth is that living in the shadow of someone else is ultimately unfulfilling. Most young people have a hard time making the transition into a mature adult. If we take a careful look at most youth groups, we see that the number of teenagers who graduate from high school and go on to serve the Lord is significantly less than the number of teenagers who start out with the youth group. I feel that the reason this happens is that those teenagers are not effectively taught how to take Christianity and make it personal. We all need to make sure that being a servant of Jesus Christ is more than something that we profess, it is something we possess.
David Vickers
Missionary to Thailand
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