The #1 Way to Tell if You’ve Become a Lukewarm Christian
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A Lukewarm Christian’s Swan Song is the Grace Message
I’ll get straight to the point: the root of many problems escalating in the lives of believers worldwide is unbelief. It’s a spirit. It’s a spirit who is besties with every lukewarm Christian you know. How do I know this? Well, simple really: when you don’t know God (because you’re not committed to receiving understanding of Him through His Word) you’re not a Christian, you’re a fraud and an imitator of those who are. Impostor. And He’s sent me here to set you straight about it so you don’t die before your time, going, “Lord! Lord!” at the judgment to only receive the reply, “I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:22-24)
That being said, let’s refresh our memories on what the founding scripture of this three part series is so we can break down what the Lord gave to me:
14 And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive:
15 For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Matthew 13:14-15 KJV
So in How to Know Your Calling From God (In One Simple Step), we took a trip through these two scriptures to reveal that hidden in the original root words of the text were definitions that showed us what the purpose in life for every woman of God is. In this next chapter, our personal bible study is going to expose where in the Word of God our Father has promised us victory over the spirit of unbelief and why this is directly related to the revelation received in part one. It’s also the #1 way you can discern whether or not you’ve become a lukewarm christian. You’re gonna be shocked, my dear friend, because it exposes how so many of us were trained by the modern church to use the grace message as a weapon against correction and adherence to what’s written in the Word of God. This includes me. It’s a lesson that humbled me deeply.
You know what time it is: let’s dive in.
Why Is It Important to Know if You’re a Lukewarm Christian?
So, the spirit of unbelief is active. Its main goal isn’t so much to get you not to read the Bible. Slothfulness will do that. Procrastination will cover that, or maybe arrogance and pride have that completely in hand. The spirit of unbelief operates a little differently than the aforementioned: it’s a deceiver of men, meaning when you hear the Word, this spirit wants you to think it doesn’t apply to you. This is how it gets you to cross over into lukewarm Christian territory.
Quick Example: “The law is done away with, we’re not under the law because of grace in Christ Jesus! ◡̈”
Let me breathe.
Where does it say this? Ask yourself, honey: where. Give me one scripture where it says this? Have we been so deceived by the alleged authority of the false bishops and pastors and ministers of the synagogue of satan that we take their word for it and don’t seek out understanding for ourselves?
17 “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.
18 For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.
19 Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.
Matthew 5:17-19 ESV
Don’t trip, I about screamed when I read this. It’s okay, really, because I felt lied to just like you. I mean, I don’t know about you but relaxing the commandments to me sounds a lot like compromise.
When I read this, it really highlighted how these doctrines of demons up in the church have us worshipping ourselves so much that we’re blind to what’s right there in our faces. Grace is GREAT, don’t get me wrong about it… but the erasure of the law is what Christ repeatedly told us that He was not here to do. He told us exactly what He was here for: to give the Word of God to us straight, no chaser, without the deception the Pharisees and Sadducees were exceptionally talented in utilizing. It kept the Church bound under false doctrine and their 600+ additional laws so that they could be better manipulated and taken advantage of. (We really broke this down in the How to Get Closer to God series, which you can start reading here.)
So let’s see… when we take a look at Matthew 5:17 in the Blue Letter Bible App, we clearly see the word “fulfill” in both the ESV and KJV versions. Enter the Strong’s Concordance. We see a profound message when breaking down this word fulfill in its Greek origin “plēroō”: ‘to fulfil, i.e. to cause God's will (as made known in the law) to be obeyed as it should be, and God's promises (given through the prophets) to receive fulfilment’ [1].
Pause. Because of Ephesians 2:15 you may think Paul taught about Mosaic law being done away with. No. This is what the spirit of unbelief wants lukewarm Christians to believe. Paul states clearly that Christ is our peace. This is where even more scripture tells us to keep our minds and our hearts fastened on the Word of God:
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.
Isaiah 26:3 ESV
6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6-7 ESV
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:1 ESV
Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.
Psalm 119:165 ESV
Now, we have two scriptures from both the New and Old Testaments here for a reason: peace was written in Hebrew in two of them, and in Greek in the others. In the Hebrew, as seen in Isaiah and Psalms (written by two prophets, mind you, those being Isaiah and King David) the word for peace is shalom or “šālôm.” A powerful definition for this is, according to the Strong’s, “peace, friendship with God especially in covenant relationship.” In the Greek, as spoken by the Apostle Paul in Philippians and Romans, we have the word “eirēnē” which shows us a few great definitions, two of which I’ll cover here.
WE’RE NOT CALLED TO TAKE PAGAN HOLIDAYS AND CELEBRATE THEM WITH CHRISTIAN LIP SERVICE & THINK GOD’S OKAY WITH IT
One writes “of the Messiah's peace,” which we know is the Word of God because Christ became flesh, so therefore this peace comes from God’s Word. [2] We also know this because right beneath this first definition, it expounds on it a bit more and goes deeper to say, “the way that leads to peace (salvation),” showing us that Christ, who is both the Word of God and The Way (John 14:6) is the One who leads to salvation [3]. But don’t stop there. No. Then, right under this, we see, “of Christianity, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so fearing nothing from God and content with its earthly lot, of whatsoever sort that is” [4].
Let’s break this down.
Colossians 2:13-17 NIV is often misconstrued (by said spirit of unbelief) to mean we can do what we want. Not true.
13 When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins,
14 having canceled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross.
15 And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Colossians 2:13-17 NIV
These. Were. Gentiles. G e n t i l e s. Coming into the covenant with God, they were now observing these things utterly surrounded by people in a culture they’d left behind for Christ. A people who were still worshipping pagan idols and participating in demon worship. Can you imagine the pressure from their former community to become lukewarm christians by celebrating pagan rituals like they were used to instead of learning how to observe the New Moon celebrations or resting on the Sabbath? Maybe, like so many of us, they were tempted to work on the sabbath for that overtime pay instead of spending that time with the Lord like we’re called to do. So he explains, Paul, what Christ did on the cross in verses 13-15: He provided a means or a way for God to make them alive, forgive their sins, and cancel the legal debt and condemnation that was over them by going to the cross. Demonic powers that once had authority over them didn’t anymore, because faith in what He did at the cross and faith in who He is (as explained in Romans 5:1) gives us peace with God and salvation.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 6:23 KJV
If the law is done away with, why do saints need to be at peace with God through Christ? Why did Paul tell the Colossians not to mind people judging them for their new behaviors of observing biblical feasts and adhering to biblical dietary laws? Let’s see: when we look at the word judge in Colossians 2:16, the very first definition in the Strong’s Concordance means, “to separate, put asunder.” According to the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary, the word asunder means, “into pieces; apart.” Paul’s saying don’t let these demon worshippers tear you apart and rip you into pieces for obeying God’s law because they are a shadow or representation of what you have in Christ.
We take communion in remembrance of what we have in Christ, don't we?
We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God.
2 Corinthians 5:20 NIV
How is taking communion in remembrance of what Christ did any different than keeping the feast days (which God said we would keep forever, mind you) in remembrance of other things He did for us? Other shadows of Christ? Answer that, my friend. Really think about it. Why can’t we be content with this? How is it easier for you to debate whether or not some unholy day like Halloween is something Christians can celebrate but you don’t even know when Yom Kippur is? New Years Eve celebrations are rooted in pagan rituals dedicated to Janus and Christmas traditions are clearrrllllyy described in Jeremiah 10:1-4 NIV as things we should not do because GOD HIMSELF IS DIRECTLY SAYING TO HIS PEOPLE NOT TO observe them. So when we redirect back to Colossians 2, Paul is telling these new believers to represent Christ with their observances as we’re told to do in God’s law, And reiterated in 2 Corinthians, he’s saying the exact same thing to the church of Corinth.
And guess what? These letters being the Word of God? This is exactly what God is also saying directly to us.
He’s not saying use trees cut down and covered with silver and gold tinsel to represent our worship and honor for Christ. No, not when Jeremiah strictly prohibits us from taking pagan practices and using them as rituals to honor God. Decking the halls with holly? Just like burning sage, it’s tied to protection spells and Beltane. Kissing under the mistletoe? A pagan Yuletide fertility ritual. Christmas wreaths? Same thing. That’s not honoring God. It isn’t. It’s mixture and it’s worthless (Jeremiah 10:3 NIV). God doesn’t care about your tree and He definitely doesn’t care about where your heart is when conducting this heathen ritual you’ve slapped Christ onto. Even some witches have statues of Jesus or saints on their altars when conducting seances, ask me how I know. No, what God cares about is that we are ambassadors or representatives of Him in the earth and furthermore? Yeah, furthermore, that we are reconciled to Him.
HOW DO WE BECOME RECONCILED TO GOD?
How do we do that? It’s the real question, my friend. The answer takes us to Leviticus 23 (What? Old Testament law??) because this is where God breaks down the holy feasts mentioned in Colossians 2:16 by Paul.
When God gets to the requirements of the Day of Atonement (or Yom Kippur, Numbers 29:7-11), we see in verse 27-28 that to atone for sin in your life, you gather with other believers, afflict or humble yourself before God, and you give up an offering to God.
26 The Lord said to Moses,
27 “The tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. Hold a sacred assembly and deny yourselves, and present a food offering to the Lord.
Leviticus 23:26-27 KJV
Now watch this:
Jesus called out with a loud voice, “Father, into your hands I commit my spirit.” When he had said this, he breathed his last.
Luke 23:46 NIV
8 When he said above, “You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings” (these are offered according to the law),
9 then he added, “Behold, I have come to do your will.” He does away with the first in order to establish the second.
10 And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
Hebrews 10:8-10 ESV
I put the second one in the ESV so this would be crystal clear to you, my friend. Here we see, in plain English, what was actually done away with. We don’t need 10,000 rams anymore. To atone or reconcile with God (which the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary says is to, “to make people become friends again after an argument or a disagreement”), God still requires a sacrifice. The offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings were done away with because He desires us to be justified by faith in Christ being the end all be all offering. Christ is therefore fulfilling the law. He’s fulfilling, as our offering on the cross, the requirements of Old Testament law for us, to be reconciled back to God. THIS is what grace is.
When you keep His laws and commandments and feast days, His feasts being a part of the law, know that the grace of God afforded to us is that when we break covenant or disagree with God, we can come back to right agreement by one thing:
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:9 KJV
Guess what? Saved here means, “to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment” [5].
This is what the spirit of unbelief doesn’t want you to get. God said these feasts are forever (Leviticus 23:14, 21, 41). Does forever mean to you what it means to me? Because forever means f o r e v e r. These demons don’t want you to be set free, beloved, so they speak through the mouths of lukewarm believers who don’t care about an intimate relationship with God in the first place (let’s be clear, you already know this to be true when you look at how they act and what they tolerate in their lives) and they just wanna sliiiideee into heaven doing the bare minimum. You know them. You know them, honey. These lukewarm Christians are the very ones who are dancing and swearing on TikTok because they’re lip-syncing along to the latest TikTok trend from their FYP or they’re wearing provocative clothing on weekdays but dressing modestly for church folk like they didn’t see them wearing that skirt on their TikTok that was so short they could barely sit down bend over without their hoohaas all out for the world to see. Then (and this is my favorite part) they have the audacity to call you judgmental and point to that scripture verse in their Instagram bio when you call them out in love, because you don’t want them to burn. And they point to that irrelevant bio scripture as a grace covering for why it’s okay for them to post tweets of their drunken shenanigans, share their IG stories celebrating the day they’re moving in with their boyfriends to “save money,” and the YouTube vlogs where they’re dressed like a sexy nurse at a Halloween party.
“Well, God knows my heart.”
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Jeremiah 17:9 KJV
I’ve been there. This isn’t the pot calling the kettle black, I have been the kettle, honey. That heart he’s talking about in Jeremiah? Yeah, that’s me, that’s my heart. I’ll own that. That’s why I recognize it in you. You can’t trunk or treat me in your church parking lot because you’re afraid your kids are gonna feel left out and different from the kids at school who are trick or treating in their devil and witch costumes. The deception here is that it’s your compromise with allowing them to get candy in their Spider-Man costume or the angel costume that’s ushering them right out of reconciliation with God and into the wages of sin, which is death. You. Youuuuu, honey. That’s on you.
We already covered in Colossians 2:16 that the very first definition of asunder is to be separated, and yet when it’s time to be separate you’re making excuses for this lame ritual and this demonic altar and that satanic covenant instead of obeying the law the way God wrote it. It was GOD who said in Leviticus 23, it was GOD who said, “Behold, I have come to do your will” in Hebrews 10. And if it was God, manifested in the flesh as Christ Jesus, who said that in Hebrews 10 and we are made alive in Him by doing what He did and honoring what He did, come on, my friend! Come. Onnnnnnn. You’re not doing God’s will by letting the doctrines of demons steer you onto the highway of hell with their deception. And who’s riding on the back of deception? Oh yeah, the spirit of unbelief.
THE SPIRIT OF UNBELIEF’S SOLE MISSION IS TO TRAP YOU IN REBELLION DISGUISED AS THE GRACE MESSAGE
Satan. Wants. You. To. Believe. God. Is. A. Liar. So he deploys the spirit of unbelief to accomplish this. That’s one of his biggest plays on the battlefield, we saw it as his first move in the Garden (Genesis 3:1). He wants you to honor rebellion against God disguised as grace. We know this as compromise. It’s the illusion of having safety and security with God when you’re simply molding God into an image that suits your particular wicked lifestyle. Into an idol. It’s genie God and New Age Christ. And like I said at the beginning of this post? The spirit of unbelief is a deceiver. It must be rooted out for Christ to flourish in your heart. You’ve got to know His laws to apply it, and if you think these laws only apply to the Jews?
26 So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith,
27 for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.
28 There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
29 If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Galatians 3:26-29 NIV
So lemme set the scene for you. Let’s break this down just real quick before I let you go: you’re the adopted child of a family who has a biological child (your fictional older brother, for the sake of this “parable” if you will), and it’s his birthday. There’s a party. In a loving and abundant home where you are both equal, do you think Dad will tell you that you can’t have cake because it’s just for big brother? He, brother dear, might be getting celebrated, and the cake might have his name on it, but it’s being shared with you and you’re allowed to feast with the family joyfully. The day isn’t about you, but you still get to participate. (Following me?)
This is what it means to be adopted in. This is what Paul mentions in Romans 1:16. He bridges this message in Ephesians 2:13-18 NIV by explaining that hey, you weren’t a part of the family but nowww both Jew and Gentile get to go to Dad and eat cake. But if you are in Dad’s house, and in this family, you’ve got to think logically and understand there are rules in every home. Just because you’re adopted in doesn’t mean only big brother does the chores. No, he may have some responsibilities specific to him (like taking out the trash is his and washing dishes is yours) but you both are required to clean house. He might get different gifts, for example, on his birthday than you. He’s the first born. He’s older than you. Those gifts are relevant to that identity and calling on his life.
Children, as most parents know, have unique needs and responsibilities. Their skill sets related to their callings are revealed as they mature in Christ Jesus. It might have become obvious to you that one child (for parents of multiples) is more artistic than the athletic one. It’s the same way that an evangelist may not be excited about a gift best given to a prophet in the family. The evangelist, or big brother, would get this gift best suited for the younger prophet sibling and think, “How am I… what am I even supposed to do with this?” Same when we look at ourselves as members of the Body of Christ: the arm isn’t going to need what the leg does on its walk with God. The nose doesn’t know how to beat like the heart, but it does know how best to breathe. Understand this. God has a purpose for you, but in His house, you obey His rules. And without that obedience to those rules or God’s law and faith in what He said (and that He meant what He said, like when He used that word f o r e v e r) it is impossible to please Him (Hebrews 11:6).
Being Separated from Lukewarm Christianity is the First Step to Reconciliation with God
Understand this: Deception is deep, my friend God has a purpose for you, but in His house, you obey His rules. Compromising on what’s written in the Word of God is the #1 way to know you’ve become a lukewarm Christian. We’re gonna mess up. We’re not gonna be able to keep it all all the time, but it’s the faith and belief in what He said and doing our best to honor what He said that is what He’s after. It’s the decision to no longer compromise on what’s written in the Word of God that shows you’re no longer in lukewarm territory. Because He’s given us the Blood of Jesus to reconcile us back to Him when we mess up and you’re willing to utilize that instead of actively live in sin.
The spirit of unbelief is in direct opposition of this truth. It’s like a linebacker waiting to tackle you to the ground with, “Hey, God said this is okay ◡̈” when you know darn well that God is eyeing you from the sidelines going, “You better not.” You better not! Because you know better. Because, when you have your bible open and aren’t just using it as a prop on your social media (oops!) but are actually studying it and meditating on what it means and diving deep into it for yourself, you know you better not. You know that demon is nothing but a liar speaking to that devilishly wicked sin nature just waiting to be fed and nourished with disobedience.
God doesn’t have these rules because He’s no fun. He has these because He knows that when you commit to the opposite, your life is unfulfilled and you’re susceptible to all these other things that just make you… I mean, do you honestly know anyone who feels better when they lie to their loved ones, when they’re sleeping with multiple people in one day, when they’re so drunk they can barely stand, and when they’ve gambled away their paycheck when they are barely making it paycheck to paycheck every two weeks?? Do you? God’s Word is designed to help us overcome the things that make us feel helpless, lost, foolish, unwanted, and like failures in this world. And in part three of our series, we’re going to rest in one of the greatest tools He’s given us in our arsenal to overcome that heinous demon whose only desire is to separate us from a loving God and the truth found in His precious Word.
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CITATIONS
“Plēroō, V. (C.iii.).” Blue Letter Bible, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Strong's G4137, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4137/kjv/tr/0-1/. Accessed 30 April 2024.
“Eirēnē, N. (IV.)” Blue Letter Bible, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Strong’s G1515, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1515/kjv/tr/0-1/. Accessed 30 April 2024.
“Eirēnē, N. (IV.A.)” Blue Letter Bible, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Strong’s G1515, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1515/kjv/tr/0-1/. Accessed 30 April 2024.
“Eirēnē, N. (V.)” Blue Letter Bible, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Strong’s G1515, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g1515/kjv/tr/0-1/. Accessed 30 April 2024.
“Sōzō, V. (B.a.)” Blue Letter Bible, Thayer’s Greek Lexicon, Strong’s G4982, https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g4982/kjv/tr/0-1/. Accessed 30 April 2024.
Hey, I’m Chase! I’m so excited you’re here, because diving deeper in the Word of God is right where you belong!
