7 Things I Didn’t Expect After Becoming A New Christian

Now that I have been a Christian for a few years, some of which were the hardest of my life; I have experienced things I never expected. That’s the thing about God, he is really great at doing the unexpected. Likewise, as I’ve continued to grow spiritually, I’ve realized there are many misconceptions or outright lies in the Christian world. God lifted the veil from my spiritual eyes and I noticed things I would of never picked up on before. Things I wish someone would’ve given me a heads-up on.

Here are the top 7 things I didn’t expect after becoming a new Christian.

1. Not Being The Same Person Anymore

When you go through life for so long carrying around certain behaviors, attitudes or assumptions you believe it is who you are at the very core. In reality, it is spiritual and influenced by sin, our flesh, and demonic spirits. It can only be dealt with by coming to the Lord and being transformed. Once God renewed my mind and heart, I began to change drastically and these were core changes. The things I thought that made me. I recall for the first 2 years of my walk thinking to myself ‘I need to get to know this new me’. Because the person I was becoming was completely new, I was reborn and renewed.

2. Feeling Like A Stranger In The World

God wasn’t kidding when He called us to be ye separate. Little by little, through the transforming of my heart, God was separating me from this world and my flesh. As this went on I felt more like a stranger. I no longer revered the things everybody else did; the folly meant to distract and dumb us down. I stopped celebrating the pagan traditions of man, no longer blindly following along because it’s expected. I quit chasing after the things of this world and started collecting up my treasures in heavenly places. Before long, I noticed how little I had in common with the average person. I still feel like a stranger to this day, but now I consider this feeling a good sign that I am pursuing the Lord and not the world.

3. Persecution and Judgments From People In Your Life

If you want everybody to look at you funny, just inform them you’re a Christian. When I first got saved, it was incredibly important for me to share my testimony with anyone and everyone who would listen. It is the same reason I created this blog. I didn’t however expect the extent of criticism, judgments and persecution that would come alongside professing the name of Jesus. Then I recalled the verse in John 15: 18-19 where Jesus said, “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you”.
After dealing with this for some time now, I’ve realized it is because the eyes and ears of non-believers are closed. Many individuals have been given over to strong delusions. 2 Thessalonians 2: 9-12 states, “The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore, God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness,”.

4. The Power of Conviction

Something that was certainly unexpected and new for me was the overwhelming feelings I would get whenever I did something I knew I shouldn’t be doing. Likewise, anytime I knew I should have done something yet, I didn’t. The conviction of the Holy Spirit would overcome me. Not in the way of condemnation. It was more like this awareness and being disappointed that I let down God whom I love so much and just want to please. A feeling of wanting to do better while considering my shortcomings as a lesson learned to avoid repeating the same mistakes. I try to avoid falling into the things that would lead to conviction in the first place, but I certainly slip up and stumble. When I do, the power of conviction leads me in a repentant heart to God. Before becoming a Christian, I rarely thought twice about what I did, said, or thought.

5. False Believers

I could of never expected the amount of false believers the Christian community had. It doesn’t matter if they believe in a false Jesus, follow an erroneous doctrine, or are just completely deceived, they are everywhere. It is the realization of how many people are false believers that make you feel like an outsider in a strange land. I noticed all the mega churches and their audience and the continual prosperity preaching and easy believing, and I realized there are far more false Christians than there are true ones. It saddens me when I see believers struggle because they don’t know the true doctrine and the power and authority we have in Christ.

6. Spiritual Warfare

Being a Christian means being on team Jesus, which makes you enemy number one to the opposing side. You will without a doubt endure spiritual warfare throughout your walk with the Lord. I read about spiritual warfare and heard it spoken of in teachings, but nothing prepared me for the reality of Spiritual warfare. To actually see it play out before your eyes through people you know and love and through complete strangers. Learning about spiritual warfare is one element, but to experience it is another. Nothing increases faith like putting on the full armor of God and swinging the sword of the spirit around and watching it have authority over all. Spiritual warfare is no walk in the park, but there is much insight in the Bible that directs us how to go about it God’s way. Spiritual warfare will open your eyes up to the very real spiritual realm that is all around us.

7. The Fight

Jesus says in John 14:15-17, “If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever — the Spirit of truth. Being a genuine believer in Christ means to follow His commands. Following His ways means to resist, or fight against what you normally would do. I would be so bold to claim that being a true follower of Christ means you are in an endless fight. You are fighting against the desires of the flesh daily, mentally, emotionally and physically. Your fighting against the ways of the world, the lies, and the programming. Likewise, you are fighting in the spirit and against spiritual forces. When your spiritual eyes are opened, you begin to understand concepts like legal rights, open doors and spiritual warfare. The Holy Spirit will not only teach you of these things, but He will give you what you need to endure. As Christian’s we are fighting for the truth that is God’s Word and this can come in many forms. Ask God to reveal to you how you can fight for the truth of God’s Word. For myself, I run this website and take any opportunity to share my testimony on this site and guest posting on other platforms and working with other Christian writers on e-books. All of which are ways God has led me to stand up and fight for the truth.