Pray in Honesty

When someone deeply loves Christ, He will have all the fruit of the Spirit, the evidence will be clear.

Galatians 5:22-23 "22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law."

When someone only claims to be a Christian but has not been born again, we will see a conspicuous lack of these character qualities. There will be manipulation, using others, lack of joy, impatience, lack of self control, faithlessness to the Word, lacking integrity in the use of the Scriptures, restlessness and merely superficial love. Lack of empathy and concern for others is missing. These people are not free in their spirit, they are guarded to the point of lacking a personality, working so hard to hide the real them that they quench any personality creativity.

One can have much knowledge about the Bible, attend a Bible college, pass out tracks occasionally, all the while absent is the Holy Spirit and missing is the fruit.

The joy of the Lord is evident in those who love Christ, each one who possesses Him, will bear witness with every other Holy Spirit empowered believer. These people are free to be honest, express themselves openly, even their own flaws. Truth is more important to them than appearances.

Romans 8:16 "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:"

Matthew 7:16-18 "16 You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit."

If you do not seem to click with someone who claims to be a Christian, then they may not be born again. I have met godly believers, there was no question of their salvation, it was obvious to another believer. There was an immediate spiritual connection.

Then there are the times when you meet someone who claims to be a Christian, but there is a sense of foreboding, you can't put your finger on it, you don't make the judgement that they are not saved, but something is clearly wrong. Your spirit does not connect with theirs and they are very uncomfortable in your presence. We do not immediately judge that person as unsaved, but over time, you begin to see the lack of commitment to Christ, even embarrassment at the mention of Him or His Word, we may be in the presence of an pretender.

New believers have fervor for the Lord, they can't get enough of the Word of God and enjoy speaking about Him more than anything else. When someone has been a Christian for a long period of time and has regressed in their excitement about Christ, we may be looking at a non-believer, as soon as we see this, we need to start praying for their salvation.

Christ will guide us in our discernings, He will tell us what to pray and the things to say when we encounter those who claim salvation but lack the fruit, God did say we would recognize them. We need to be honest about what we see, if we deny things that we see to avoid wrong judgments we will not pray what is needed.