One of the fastest methods to lose friends is to surrender completely to God.
Once you take spiritual matters seriously - giving up all your idols, taking your eyes off the things of this world, turning to Christ with all your heart and being hungry for Him -, suddenly he becomes "a religious fanatic". Soon you will experience the worst rejection of your life.
Why this change?
When you were a lukewarm Christian, you did not bother anyone; Not even the devil. He was neither very sinful nor very holy. He was simply one of so many mediocre believers, and his
Life was calm and without difficulties. The people accepted it. But then you changed. He became hungry for Christ, and he could no longer take the things of God lightly. He repented and turned to the Lord with all his heart. Their idols of money collapsed, the fame, pleasure, sports ... everything that could be more important to you than Christ.
He began to search in the Word of God. He stopped looking for material possessions and became obsessed with looking for Christ. He entered a new dimension of discernment and began to see in the church things that had never bothered him before. He began to hear in the pulpit things that broke his heart. He saw other Christians compromise as you had before, and it afflicted him. In short, his eyes were opened, he became broken and contrite in spirit, and God gave him a burden for his church.
Result? Now his friends and relatives think he is crazy. Instead of rejoicing with you or encouraging you, they ridicule you, make fun of you and call you a fanatic. They say:
"But what happened to you? We do not know you anymore. Why do not you go back to how you were before? "
If you have experienced that, do not be discouraged: you are in good company. Let's look at several faithful of the Old and New Testaments who experienced exactly what is feeling. Moses, for example, was touched by God in a wonderful way, and had in his heart an awakening in regard to the slavery of his people. Indeed, Moses was so moved
for this great revelation of liberation, which ran to tell it: "It came to his heart to visit his brothers ... He thought that his brothers would understand that God would give them freedom for his hand; but they had not understood it so "(Acts 7:23, 25).
Moses and his vision were objects of contempt. But why? Moses was the meekest man on earth, consumed with zeal for God. He was not giving them sanctimoniousness; I was acting prophetically, according to God's will. He just wanted his brothers to listen and see what God was about to do. But their spirituality was offensive.
They rejected him, saying: "Who made you as chief and judge over us? Who do you think you are?"
A few years ago, the Holy Spirit woke me up and I began to embrace God's call to holiness. I took seriously to walk in the truth of God, and his Word came alive for me.
I started seeing things that I had never seen before, and I wanted to tell them to everyone. I started to call some pastors and explain what God was telling me.
Many came to my office to see me. I opened my Bible to them, crying, and pointed out to them the glorious truths of total dedication and purity of heart. I thought that those ministers of God were going to see those truths, just like me; that they were going to be fascinated by the Word and to fall on their knees with me to pray for a new touch of
God. But instead, most of them just blinked and looked puzzled. They said things like: "Are you sure you're not going over the edge?"
or "I find that a bit heavy." The more I sought God, the less I saw them. It was like they were throwing cold water on my face. They did not want to hear anything that the Lord had shown me.
