Dead Beat Christians – Having the Form, but Not the Power

Don’t Be a DBC

What do I mean by being a deadbeat Christian (DBC)?  It is a person who claims to be a Christian, but has no power or evidence of God’s life operating in them.  They have the form, but no power.  They are alive in body and soul, but lack the operation of God’s life in them.

Now some of these folks are actually born-again.  However, they follow form and tradition that makes void the Word of God in their lives.  They are what I call, unbelieving-believers.  They are all talk, but no action.  And when they do act, it’s based on the natural and the possible, not the supernatural and the impossible. Alive, but dead, DBC’s go through life aimless and purposeless.  They live a routine life as predictable as the sunrise and sunset.  There is no WOW happening in or with them. This is sad!

I was a DBC.  I loved God and served the Lord to the best of my ability.  We had a pretty good Master-slave relationship.  I never seemed to measure up to what I thought God was expecting of me.  My days were filled with God-activity, but void of His presence and power.  I was living based on my perception of God and not based upon a revelation of Him.

Sure, I studied the Word, but it was based on ideas and my view of who I thought He was.  I was expecting God to be a certain way.  I placed Him in a box and expected Him to stay there!  My view of the Word was natural.  Truths clearly written in plain sight were hidden and veiled because my concepts kept me from seeing them.

Take for example, tongues.  An “unknown tongue” is a gift of the Spirit and available to EVERY believer.  However, I was taught that that was a “childish gift” and something to be avoided at all cost.  It was mocked among those I grew up with spiritually.  I never sought to speak in tongues and quite frankly was afraid of the whole idea.  Now could a person with that attitude ever experience the gift to tongues?  NO!

As I begin really seeking the Lord beginning around 2007-2008, I was open to anything.  My life was powerless and did not match what I was seeing in the Bible.  I was mad and fed up.  I watched Daystar and TBN all the time seeking for answers.  As a result, I was introduced to some amazing ministries:  Mike Murdock, Kenneth Copeland, Andrew Wommack, Steve Gray, Gary Keesee, and a few others.  However, these ministries had the most impact on my life.

One thing I noticed.  The tongue speakers had EVIDENCE of the miraculous happening in their lives.  No one associated with me from 1973 to that point in my life demonstrated anything supernatural.  The more I studied and exposed myself to the supernatural, the more I wanted its manifestation in my life.  I was sick and tire of being a DBC.  I wanted to have life and have it in abundance just as Jesus PROMISED!

I heard about praying in the spirit.  What is that I thought?  Whatever it is, I wanted it!  My pastor, Gary Keesee, preached on it and His life demonstrated what I wanted in mine.  This wonderful gift was in plain sight since I started reading the Bible in 1973, yet I never saw it or experienced its power.  I was beginning to see that praying in the Spirit was a secret entry point into the supernatural.  DBC’s don’t like the idea praying in tongues, but this deadbeat Christian wanted to live again and was willing to receive the gift.  This gift was in me all the time.  It was installed within my spirit by the Holy Spirit when I was born again.  I just needed, by faith, to start using this gift.  I am not sure of the exact date or time, but I began to practice praying in the spirit.  In the beginning, it was like stammering lips as portrayed in Isaiah 28:11 and 33:19.

Today, I am praying in the spirit more and more.  I love it and satan (I won’t glorify the creep with a capital letter) doesn’t!  I will tell you more about the experience some other time.  The purpose of this writing is to address the deadbeat mentality in the church and to hopefully awaken a desire to be released from the living dead into a life of abundance.

I have prayed for people and they were healed!  As a deadbeat Christian I could not do that!  I have increased my wealth to levels I never could have as a DBC.  I have seen people fall out under the power of the Holy Spirit and I have as well.  I have seen people I know healed of incurable diseases.  I myself have been healed several times and live in divine health.  How is all this possible?  How did this all happen?

It all started for me with hunger.  Hunger for truth.  Hunger for God Himself.  As I sought God for more, He gave me more because He said that seekers find.  Doors are open to knockers.  Answers come to the sincere askers.  God will do exactly what He said IF we trust His Word.  You have to be willing to leave your safe and comfortable zone to experience all that God has for you.

Speaking of trust.  As I sought the Lord, He had to deal with trust issues in me.  I thought I trusted Him, but after several months of dialog with the Lord He showed me that I didn’t trust Him.  Once I confessed that I did not trust Him, life began for me.  I began to live again.  The Word was opened and revelation came.

There is no secret that God does not want to reveal to us.  There is no promise that He wants to withhold from us.  The only blockage is how we perceive God and the wall we built to keep Him out…walls of traditions and doctrines of men.  Religion is a DBC creator.  Religion binds people and blinds them from truth.  Religion drains power and desire out of people.  Religion holds people in bondage as slaves to its cause.  Religion wears people out with good, but lifeless works.

Are you tired?  Have you had enough of being a DBC?  Do you want to live again?  Do you want God to show up in your life?  Do you want to experience the power of the Holy Spirit surging through your veins?  Do you want to be healed?  Do you want to experience the power of creating wealth?  Do you want to give life to others?  Do you want to make a difference?  Well, my friend, you can!

I was a DBC and now I am living again and so can you.  It all starts with asking, seeking and knocking.  It starts with an open heart.  It starts with questioning everything you have been taught and comparing it to the Word of God.  It starts with trust.

One thing I did was I bought a new Bible with NO NOTES or COMMENTARY.  Like the Apostle Paul I “went away” to get revelation from the Lord Himself.  I read the Bible with new eyes and an open heart.  I can tell you first hand, that God will show up when you desire Him.  The book of Hebrews says that God rewards those that seek Him…and reward them He does.  As I prayed over His Word, revelation came as a flash of light and impregnated by soul with the revelation of Himself.  Today I am a different man.  I have changed and am changing into the image of the One I have grown to trust with my life.

God is no respecter of persons. What He did and is doing for me, He will do for you.  The question is: “Isn’t it time to stop being a DBC and live again?”

I pray this article sparked a hunger in you for more of Him and has caused questions to arise in your hearts.  For I know that seekers will be rewarded.  God bless you on your new journey to walking among the living believing-believers who are changing the world by the power of God in them.

 

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