Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life. Philippians 2:14-16

I visited with a sweet lady last night who grew up in church, loves the Lord, hosts a house church in her home, but was still struggling with overwhelming feelings of fear and condemnation as she tries to serve the Lord. She lamented that the churches in her area were “powerless to help people like her.” In many ways she had no more freedom in her life than the unsaved men and women in her community.

If we are honest, many believers today are saved but remain in bondage to sin, addiction, shame, fear, and a host of other hindrances to their walk. The truth is that other than church attendance, a large percentage of believers look just like the people they work with or go to school with who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them. Divorce rates in the church rival divorce rates in the culture at large. Christian teens seem to have little power over the cultural pressure to drink, experiment with drugs, or to be sexually active. A significant number of believers live on antidepressants, tolerate marriages dominated by anger and rage, live with bitterness toward the past, and are crippled by an overpowering sense of unworthiness and rejection.

I’m not scolding these brothers and sisters for not being “the Christians they should be” because I have struggled with many of those issues as well. These believers are desperately looking for freedom, but in many cases have not been shown by their churches how to access the freedom that Jesus promises.

A gospel that only gets us to a place of forgiveness but that does not radically free us and change us so that we stand out in contrast to our culture is not the gospel of the kingdom that Jesus preached. Paul pointed to this truth in the text from Philippians quoted above. Stars stand out in stark contrast to the darkness. Jesus himself declared that his followers were to be the light of the world. Those who wear the name of Christ should stand out in the crowd by their sheer “differentness.”

Jesus spoke of being “born again” not as figurative language for trying harder or simply starting over with a clean sheet, but as a reality where something real and essential has been altered in everyone who comes to him. Scripture tells us that before Jesus came into our lives we were dead in our trespasses and sins and living under the dominion of darkness. We were in bondage to sin whether we knew it or not. Satan literally owned us. But in Christ, all things become new.

When the Holy Spirit takes up residence within us, an incredible potential for radical change is released. The door to our prison cell is unlocked and opened wide. The question is whether we will walk through that door into a radically new life or voluntarily stay in our familiar environment. Many Christians stay because they are unaware of the destiny and power Christ offers to them to set them free and transform their lives.

One of Satan’s favorite strategies is to convince a believer that he or she is the same person they always were and will always be even after coming to Christ. If he can’t keep us from accepting Jesus then the next best thing is to convince us that we will only experience the power and blessings of heaven after our funeral. Until then, we will simply struggle and do the best we can while out life plays out like a sad country song. That is not what Jesus had in mind on the cross.

After coming to Christ, the essential difference between those with the Spirit of Christ living in them and those without the Spirit should soon become apparent, not as a reflection of our efforts but as a reflection of the power of God working in us. The fact that so many believers blend in perfectly with the world around them reveals that something is amiss. Speaking of Jesus, John tells us, “In him was life and that life was the light of men” (John 1:4). There was a measure and quality of life in Jesus that was unmistakable. It stood out and drew men to him. With Christ in us, we should exude the same life. That life comes through the power that heals and sets men free (Isa.61:1-4) and the power than transforms us into the image of Christ. A powerless gospel will not take us there.

Last night we ministered the baptism of the Spirit to the lady I had visited with. We cast out spirits of fear and condemnation in the name of Jesus. For the first time in a very long time she felt totally at peace and the thoughts of condemnation were silent. I am confident that radical transformation for her is in her near future.

Whenever Jesus and his followers preached the gospel, they immediately healed the sick, cast our demons, cleansed the lepers, and so forth. That power was not just a demonstration that they were speaking for God, but it was also necessary for those accepting Christ to be released to meet their full potential in Him. Much of the church is reclaiming the power of the Holy Spirit but that realization has not made it to every church or every believer. My hope is that a time will come soon in which no one will have to say that the churches in his or her town seem powerless to help, “for the kingdom of God does not consist in words but in power” (1 Cor. 4:20).