Just about every life-or-death question has a very plain and easily demonstrated answer. For example someone might ask Are these strange berries safe to eat? If someone eats the berries and suffers nothing worse than some blue stains on his teeth, then everyone around him will conclude the berries are safe. If someone eats some strange berries, keels over dead, and it is known that his wife did not whop him on the head with a big stick because he ate strange berries, then everyone around him will conclude the berries are deadly.
Simple. But here is a question that is not so plain or easily demonstrated: How do I know the way I live pleases God? Another way of putting it would be Are there "signs of life" that distinguish eternal life? The world is divided on this point; even the Christian world, which this book addresses, serves up a variety of opinions on the matter.
I have been giving a lot of care and attention to this question for some years. Ever since I began studying to be a pastor I have been giving whatever time I could to find some answers. This book holds the answers I found, it is up to you to decide if I got it right.
You should know that I did not write this book from the lofty perch of a detached academic. I am in the trenches where there is dust and smoke and noise. I find it hard to make impartial observations about things that have eternal consequences for people I love and shepherd. Am I right in assuming you may not be impartial yourself? You might take offense at the things I propose are not "signs of life" because you had put weight on them. Or you may be disappointed that I do not condemn things you think deserve censure.
I must confess that I could have taken a much easier road than I did when writing this book. I could have taken the "all or nothing road;" either all that has been identified with a move of God's Spirit in these times is good and should be embraced, or none of it is good and it should be shunned. The road I took is a harder road: that of a friend of everything good about the move of God in our times, and to actually delight in it; and at the same time seeing there have been evil and destructive works of the enemy in the mix, and to sincerely oppose them. I propose that you will never get anywhere in God's kingdom until you take the same road.
It is a great mystery that God's church should be a mix of so much that is good and so much that is bad. Those of us who are Christians are even more puzzled when we look at our own hearts and see the obvious work of God (his saving grace, his image written on our hearts, his indwelling Spirit) cohabiting with so much that is wrong (hardness, lukewarmness, sinfulness). These troubling observations fall under the "Strange, But True" heading, but they are neither new nor rare.
All through the ages, when there have been times of revival and renewal of faith in God, there has also been false religions and heresies on the rise. When God has raised up genuine saints there has also been a flowering of hypocrisy. That's the way it was in Josiah's time when there was a great turning to God, but for many it was only a show. It was the same way in John the Baptist's time when there was a great outpouring of the Spirit of God that only proved to be a temporary comfort to the people. Anybody familiar with the story of Jesus knows that multitudes were drawn to his ministry and teaching, but only a few withstood the shock of his arrest and crucifixion. A great harvest occurred in his years of ministry but the wheat was mixed with a great deal of chaff. After the resurrected Christ ascended to heaven the number of believers was only 120. The testimony of Jesus and the apostles is clear in this matter: In times of great reviving of religion that occur from time to time, like it is for fruit trees in the spring, there is more blossom than fruit, and there is more young fruit in the start than there is mature fruit in the end.
It would be a mistake to think that we are doomed to experience this condition forever. There will never be complete purity in the church in this world, but there is the promise of a time of much greater purity in the church than has been seen in the past. The one very good reason why is this: God will give light to his people so they can tell the difference between true faith and fake faith. In Malachi 3:3 Jesus is prophesied as being one who will refine and purify his servants, and the prophecy continues in verse 18 saying, "And you will again see the distinction between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not."
Though we have hope of a better day in the church, presently there is much damage done by the enemy through this mix of fake faith and true faith. From the beginnings of the Christian church it has been his first weapon against times of renewed life in our gatherings. It wasn't persecution from Jerusalem or Rome that concerned the apostles, they knew it was the false sheep and false shepherds that did the greatest mischief to the infant church. All through history there have been times of awakening in the body of Christ and each time they have been quenched and spoiled by the wiles of a cunning serpent who beguiles and cajoles us away from a simple trust in Christ.
When a time of new life comes to the church there are people within the church and outside it who will oppose that life through ridicule, slander, whispers or other means. Pastors and leaders usually do their best to defend the church, they faithfully stand against the attacks from outside the family of faith, but they are ill-prepared where they are in the most danger. Their greatest danger is not in front of them, it comes from behind where the enemy can make a deep wound when it is least expected.
This is the way it will be in times of renewal until we learn to tell the difference between true signs of life and false, between a genuine follower of Christ and someone who makes a good show of it. When Christianity is counterfeited within the church and no one can tell the difference the consequences are often dreadfully tragic. This is the enemy's work:
One of our greatest needs in the church today is to apply ourselves to discern the true signs of life in a Christian. Until we do this our times of great revival will be unnaturally shortened by a wintery wind from the enemy. Until we do this all our renewal conferences, seminars, special meetings and solemn assemblies will do little good since we don't really know what we are looking for.
My intention is to make a small contribution to the task by attempting an
answer to that life-or-death question: How do I know the way I live pleases God?
or Are there "signs of life" that distinguish eternal life? It may be that not
everybody will be helped by what I say, some may even disagree with my
conclusions. I can accept that, but I hope all will at least allow this one
thing out of a generous heart: that I am sincere in my hope to be of some help
to the cause of Christ.