Reflections On Living A Christian Life

By Wayne Johnston

The author has written this book to offer knowledge given to him by God through his Holy Spirit and through many years of personal prayer, education and study to anyone everywhere. The book attempts to discuss the process a Christian follows from when he becomes a believer to when they die and are resurrected to eternal life. The book also discu

• Language: English
• Publisher: author
• Release date: Jan 29, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645164401

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Introduction

First of all, this book is not meant to be any kind of scholarly achievement. I am writing this book for people that are either considering the Christian way, or are struggling within it. It is my hope that in sharing my thoughts and experiences, you will find common ground. By this I mean I hope this book will strengthen your faith by understanding that the true Christian way is not becoming Super Christians per se, but to understand that Christ develops us in our Christian life through our weaknesses and our darkness by leading us with his Holy Spirit. This won’t make any sense to most of you, because you have not started an actual relationship with him.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught us by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words (1Corinthians 2:10-14, NIV).

I was baptized with the Holy Spirit at 17, and the path I have taken with Christ was not what I imagined. I suppose I figured I would fairly quickly become a ‘super Christian’ and a real champion for Christ (at least in my mind). Instead I was led by the Lord into my depravity and through what has been described as a ‘desert’, a ‘dark night’ or spiritual boot camp. My faith, which when first I accepted the kingdom of God in my heart, has been slowly deepened and solidified.

I have read many books by Christian authors and have been left wanting for discussion on the struggle many of us have to deal with as we discover our own personal depravity and attempt to become a being with the spiritual character that would be most pleasing to God. Many Christians have become expert at convincing themselves and others that they are ‘Christian experts’ perhaps even ‘masters’. I tell you now I am a sinner who would be hopelessly lost if it wasn’t for the loving compassionate drill instructor (ha) I have acknowledged and worshipped as God and slowly come to know as Jesus my brother, Master and friend.

My name is Wayne. I am an American-borne senior citizen. Gosh I dislike that term (senior)…. No, I gladly embrace the wisdom that comes with age but I am at odds with feeling older. But let me give just a little history: I was borne in Washington, D.C. and grew up mainly in Falls Church, Virginia. Outwardly I had a blessed life. I grew up on 35 acres and we considered it a gentleman’s farm. Meaning we had animals at the whim of my father. Horses, cows, goats, chickens, pigs, a mule and even peacocks. We had several different types of horses but wound up with the majestic Tennessee Walkers. We were small scale but we had a few we trained and showed.  From our farm we were 20 minutes driving time from the White House. I literally had the best of both worlds. As a teenager, I grew up in the world of hippies. We used to take the tractor to the hippie hang out spots so we could cop pot or etc. The 60’s was an intriguing time. Life was exciting, as we busted through traditional social living concepts and explored alternative perspectives. It was this door opening that God used to steer me towards Christ. I’ll develop this perspective later. Suffice it to say that I became extremely interested in spiritual things, which started my search for reality, or universal truth. I studied all the major religions, and was unknowingly being led by the Holy Spirit through developing spiritual instincts. After an exhausting search I opened the Bible and God through his Spirit revealed to me Here I Am! I was seventeen when this event caused me to decide to accept Jesus Christ as my Lord. I was further blessed to immediately receive his Holy Spirit. I was given the gift of enlightenment, knowledge and discernment.

It has taken me a lifetime to write this book. I have had various levels of drive towards doing this in my past, but I feel that now it (and I) has come of age. I have been through a very long period of what I like to call my personal ‘dark night’. I struggled through a business failure, a failed marriage and the death of my mother that almost tipped me over a ledge. I struggled with addiction because of these events for a long time. Yet I kept fighting to keep my head above the waters. I got a Bachelor of Science in Religion and a Minor in Psychology in order to convince the world I had credibility. I didn’t learn much, God’s Spirit taught me well, but I did learn many things of value. Such as forms of scholarly communication. I will always thank Liberty University for their role in helping me.

I have one single purpose in writing this. Well, upon reflection that is not true. I have two purposes. Foremost I hope you read this and gain more hope and faith in your walk with the Lord. With this I also hope you become more honest with your personal depravity (I'll explain this in detail later) and in general gain more confidence as a child of God. The Christian world is constantly under attack by satanic forces and one of his goals is to make that world very confusing and difficult to grasp its truth. The other purpose for this book is personal. I need more confidence in my relationship with Christ as well!

Ministering to others is a great way to strengthen your relationship with Christ. It’s important to give back what you've received, but not until you have matured somewhat as a Christian. Too many people become a believer and then start preaching. It is great to give a witness as to your salvation experience. It’s understandable to discover the highest, greatest truth about the universe and to have great zeal to share your discovery. It’s dangerous to attempt to be an expert as to what it all means. When you are born again, touched by the very Spirit of God, part of you screams to share it with the world. But it can be reckless youthful ambition to set out to give the world the ‘good news’. Remember Luke in Star Wars when he first embraced the force? He stumbled and was foolish. He had to ‘focus/train’, to use discipline, to mature into a ‘Jedi’. It is similar in Christianity. It is better to take your time, building a solid foundation, because the world is a hostile place to true Christians. And your heart will suffer.

When a famous, rich or worldly-wise man expounds his vision;

Listeners call it a great truth

When a small, meek man shows his vision

The listeners call it his opinion.

One more important thing. One hard concept for Christian writers, especially in apologetics, is to understand that using scripture to ‘back up’ what you’re saying or to prove your points is kind of fruitless, and I want to acknowledge that. If you don’t believe in God, you don’t believe in the bible. What truth does a non-believer attach to biblical quotes? I understand this.  I use scripture I guess to say hey, I didn’t just dream this up, there is a few big shots that back me up! I know I am not proving anything, and I don’t want to. All I can do is reflect on things, state things, then hope a non-believer is on the path of innocent searching for universal truth. If they are, they will discover that words in this book are stepping stones for your path to discover reality at its deepest level, universal truth. In actuality it’s not the words that have particular value, it’s the meanings conveyed. If God deems you worthy, you will receive the wisdom contained therein. If not, then you will be buried in the muck and mire of the world’s deepest depravity, unbelief. How does God deem you worthy? I believe he weighs your search and determines whether you are an honest sojourner on the journey ‘to know’. It doesn’t matter what your current state of human condition is. You may hate the concept of a Christian God. At this stage all he cares about is whether or not you are open to learning. He doesn’t condemn stubbornness. But remember this: God can instantly read the very depths of your heart and know whether or not you are open. You can fool yourself, but not God. So, two things to note here. God won’t spend any effort on closed minds. And if he abhors anything, it’s hypocrisy. Now a prequalification: YOU MUST BE SINCERE!

Ask and it will be given to you, seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, he who seeks finds, and to him that knocks the door will be opened (Matt. 7:7-8, NIV). Christianity is the greatest mystery ever conceived. Religion is considered by most to boring, unimportant, almost whimsical imaginations of the mind. It is treated like a social phenomenon. But what if it’s all true? Just imagine the abode of God. Much is described in Revelation, which gives us hints of God’s plan for our future. Just imagine one city that measures 1600x1600x1600-MILES. Yeah, I said miles. This is one city that is described in the Bible that God will build. Most exciting of all, the Bible says we will directly interact with God. How exciting is that? We will have resurrected bodies and I believe the Bible hints that our glorified bodies will have exceptional capabilities. We know Jesus could change his glorified body at will; He could disappear and reappear in different places. I believe we will have the same capabilities. Imagine, in our glorified bodies, we do not have to breathe. Our bodies can’t be damaged in any way. What if we could tele-transport instantly anywhere in the universe. We could stand on the sun… These are just a hint of things that I believe are in store for us. Many of us are totally enamored by sci-fi movies. And the world of magic. Why? It’s part of our soul’s yearning to do fantastic things. I believe, as our souls came from God, that we have very deep, deeper than subconscious, memories of heaven and angels. A place that in my mind is of another dimension. But perhaps that memory gives us that deep yearning to have marvelous capabilities.

Personal Witness

I’m different. I embarked on a journey of self-exploration that has led me to discover many things about myself. Some really good, and some not so good. This I’ll discuss later.  I’ve studied people all my life. I find them fascinating. God in his magnificent power created such a hugely complex universe. He did something similar when he created the human mind, or more poignant, the human soul. I love discovering the various intricacies of people. People are complex, yet many times they follow simple patterns. What truly amazes me is how so many people deny the existence of God, when the complexity of the universe screams for an intelligent creator.

When I was seventeen, I was immersed in the ‘hippie’ world. I mean I was all about exploring different lifestyles and ideas, different than the 50’s traditional Anglo Saxon upper middle-class social behaviors I was adapted to (and sometimes struggled with). I started to notice some of my friends whom were exploring spiritual worlds and were exhibiting strange behavior. They started to speak about things in life like they had discovered some secret universal wisdom or something. I grabbed onto the spiritual curiosity floating around and became very interested in this new, unique ‘way’. It seemed as though they were somehow connected to something in life that gave them knowledge. Mind you I was not totally susceptible to ‘whatever came my way’. But I recognized something that my instincts screamed. ‘this is real’! The best decision I may ever make was to follow those instincts. What I didn’t quite understand was I had embarked on a quest for universal truth. There was no particular religious beliefs or life perspectives being analyzed and, or discussed, just good old down to earth (really, heaven) wisdom. How does a blind person get around? He feels his way. That’s what I was doing. I sent my trust out to the unknown and never considered I could be hurt. I was like an innocent child not caring about the possible dangers. What I didn’t know was I was embarking on this search for truth with the correct sidekick, faith. Yes, the faith of an infant, an innocent child, to be sure. I was sending an invitation to God and didn’t even know it.

What was this beginning faith in? At the time not much. Perhaps it was just in the acceptance of what little truth I was perceiving at that point. Or perhaps it’s more accurate in saying that my faith was ready to be given to whatever truth I discovered. If you’re not willing to believe in revelations from God you cannot perceive and accept them. Without faith it is impossible for us to know Him or love Him. Faith is the starting point in our spiritual journey. We must begin with God: believing that he exists, believing that He cares, and believing that His love is real (Hindson, 2003, p. 18). Maybe my conscious focus wasn’t on God directly, but I was searching for truth, and that is the essence of God. Little did I know but God’s Spirit took notice and very gently started to lead me on what had become a personal quest, to figure out just what this universe was all about. What started as a desire fueled into a passion that my mother, God bless her, became very concerned about. I was changing, almost overnight, from a party animal (I was throwing huge parties on my farm with upwards of 500+ people coming every weekend, sometimes twice a weekend) to a library rat, surrounded at my home desk with dozens of books on world religions. I studied practically every religion on the planet. Except one, because I already had knowledge of that one, having grown up as a Christian. Or so I thought…

In actuality, I knew nothing about Christianity, I just thought the unknown was more exciting to discover than to just believe what some old pastor was dictating to me, I guess. And, yes, I found many things in those other religions that I considered truth,