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Many of us came into the church fleeing a life of sin and seeking to turn to a life of righteousness. However many years down the line not much has changed except that we are frequent church goers, avid bible and Christian-book readers, church workers and ordained ministers.

When we felt the need to turn from sin, we came to church where we are told to recite the sinner’s prayer. Once we’ve said this prayer, the church tells us that we’re saved because we have believed in our heart and confessed with our mouth that Jesus is Lord and Saviour. From this point our sins are wiped clean and all is well. Here is where the problem starts. This is the point where the new convert should have continued his journey to God which he began when the spirit of God started to convict him of sin before he came to church. It is not the beginning that we have been lied to that it is. At this time the new convert already knows that he wants to turn away from sin. But he doesn’t know nor understand the full implication of his desire for godliness.

The arrest

Unfortunately for most of us, we are never allowed to personally meet and stay with God so that He can introduce us to His own requirements for inheriting His kingdom. Instead the new convert is arrested on his way to God and set on a path of supposed guidance by the pastor. He goes through a standard baptism class, joins a standard workers training group and is very soon a ‘committed’ worker. Because this new convert has just come supposedly to Christ, he is told that it is pastor who has the vision from God and so he submits himself to pastor’s Sunday-Sunday interpretation of the scriptures.

The new convert is guided by the pastor on how and when to pray, fast, and how to receive God’s blessings. The heart condition of this new convert is not on the agenda anymore. The journey that he started that was supposed to lead him to holiness, righteousness and a personal relationship with God has been cut short. The inner remorse and repulsion towards the world that caused him to begin to seek God is doused as plentiful church activity takes over. He has been told that all is well when the congregation clapped as he said the sinner’s prayer. From this point he stops thinking of himself as a sinner in need of the Saviour, and he is told that he is saved and in need to God’s blessings. This is the beginning of the end of the salvation walk that this new ‘convert’ started. He had started on a one-on-one journey, contemplating the evil of sin in his heart, the holy spirit of God pricking and prodding; now all that he has is the voice of men telling him that he is already saved. He is kept busy going and coming from church, praying for fish, fasting for bread and using God as his problem solving magic wand. According to Jesus, years later, he is worse of that when he first started feeling the strings of godliness pulling at his heart pulling him away from sin – Matt23:13,15.

To Christ we must go

Even Jesus did not keep his disciples subject to Him for long. Before he went to the cross he had sent out the seventy-two, and after 3 years he left them all and sent the Holy Spirit. Not today, the pastor has taken the place of the Holy Spirit and it is as he directs that congregants follow. Shame! On our way to God, we were arrested by pastor and his church and have been serving there ever since. The Pastor should have told us told us to repent, turn away from sin and the way this world, love God with all our hearts and, go and tell others about the kingdom. As we went with God’s Holy Spirit still tugging at our hearts and guiding us, we would have gone to Jesus ourselves who would have himself explained that to gain eternal life we would have to lose this life. We would have stopped at this point and considered the implication and made a true decision to follow or to return to the world. The Pastor has held us captive for long enough and we are afraid to leave his church. It is time to truly personally know God and let the Holy Spirit do the his work and lead us to our Father in heaven. Jesus came to set the captives free; are you free?