Christianity is not a religion but it is a personal relationship with Christ. When a person becomes a Christian, he or she will tell you that he or she has accepted Jesus Christ as his or her personal Savior. At the moment of conversion, when a person calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ that person is instantaneously saved from the wrath of God. A person has to be saved before he or she can have a personal relationship with God.
Adam and Eve the first human beings on earth were created perfect and had a personal relationship with God in the Garden of Eden. They walked with Him in the garden and talked directly to Him. When they sinned the fellowship, they had with God was broken. Sin separates and disconnects us from a holy God. God knew that humankind needed to have fellowship with their Maker, and so He sent His only begotten Son Jesus Christ to be the Saviour of the world. Jesus died on the cross to pay for our sins so that whoever believes in Him should not perish but be saved and have eternal life. Through Christ we have a saving, personal relationship with God.
When a person gets saved, that person is born again spiritually. The Holy Spirit gives every believer a new life in Christ. A true believer has the Holy Spirit indwelling in him or her. First Corinthians 6:19 says, "Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God?" (NLT).
One of the things that happens when you have a personal relationship with God is that your mind will be transformed. You will have the mind of Christ. First Corinthians 1:16 says, "But we can understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ" (NLT). When you have the mind of Christ you will become Christlike. That's what happens to a true believer. "When you get saved and are surrendered to Him-when you are walking in the Spirit, filled with the Spirit-you're going to find out that you have the mind of Christ," explains Adrian Rogers in What Every Christian Ought to Know Day by Day.
Back in the mid 1980s, when I was the Executive Director for the Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada, the Native New Life Church in Moose Factory, Ontario, invited me to speak at a Christmas banquet. My parents were Pentecostal, and they attended this small Pentecostal church on the island. I remember the Native New Life Church was planning to have a potluck meal first before the worship service started. I knew everybody there so I felt quite at home in their church.
I went to this Christmas banquet as the invited guest speaker, and I have never forgotten it. The Native people who came were well known to me. and I remember they were older than me. I remember these people and their names like George and Marianne Blueboy, George and Sophia Quachegan, George and Elizabeth Cheechoo, Oliver and Alice Small, John and Helen Shanush and of course my parents, George and Minnie Jolly. There were other people there.
Anyway, they had their Christmas banquet and the thing I appreciated most about their special event was that they were all sober. I remembered the kind of lifestyle they used to live before they became Christians. They used to drink a lot and they would often come to our house on the weekends to drink and have a party. That's the kind of lifestyle these people lived. I noticed their lives were completely changed when they became born again Christians.
They had the mind of Christ and their lives were completely changed. Some of them have died now, but some of the people I mentioned are still alive today. Those who have survived are still walking and living for the Lord today. The thing I like about these old-timers is that they had the old-time religion. When they accepted the Lord, they never turned back on God. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, "This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!" (NLT). I have seen many Native people get saved in my ministry and their lifestyle has been completely changed because of Christ. They quit some of their bad habits, which include drinking, smoking, gambling, swearing, stealing and cheating. Married couples become faithful to each another, and they now concentrate in bringing up their children to know God.
When you have the mind of Christ you see things from God's perspective. That's why Christians are different in the world. "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect" (Romans 12:2, NLT). God speaks to you through His Word and shows you things you shouldn't do. The Holy Spirit indwells in every believer and He will convict you of sin.
First John 3:9 (NLT) says, "Those who have been born into God's family do not make a practice of sinning, because God's life is in them. So they can't keep on sinning because they are children of God."
To have a personal relationship with God means that we have to get saved first. After we get saved, then we need to develop our relationship with God. A Christian should pray without ceasing, read the Bible and join a Bible-believing church. Christians need to grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ. Make sure you have a personal relationship with God.
Joseph Jolly, a Cree Indian from Ontario, is General Director of Native Gospel Ministries of Canada. He has his M.A. and M.Div. degrees from Briercrest Bible Seminary and his Doctor of Ministry from Providence Theological Seminary.
He is also the author
of Going and Growing Through Grief. For more information see https://nativegospelministries.org
1 Adrian Rogers, What Every Christian Ought to Know Day by Day, (Nashville, Tennessee: BH Publishing Group, 2008), 218.
