Strangers
I remember growing up that as a family, we moved a lot. When I was six and had barely started my first year of school, my dad moved us from our home in Tennessee to a little town in south Florida. I felt like such a stranger in that place. You can imagine how odd my first day of school was.
Going from Tennessee to south Florida was a real culture shift. This same thing was true for every new school I attended due to multiple moves once we left South Florida to return to Tennessee. With each new location, I felt out of place.
The idea of feeling as if one doesn’t fit in is nothing new to people who have experienced major moves in life. I would imagine you know exactly what I am talking about.
This sense of not fitting in is real and a way of life for someone in Christ still alive in this world. It makes sense to me since Jesus himself knew what this was like when He was here on this earth.
John 8:23 And He said to them, “You are from beneath; I am from above. You are of this world; I am not of this world.
John 18:36 Jesus answered, “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here.”
When I was without Christ and living in sin as part of this world, I felt like a stranger and out of place around someone who knew Christ. Once I came to know Christ and was baptized in the Holy Spirit, I felt like a stranger to the world.
1Peter 2:9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; 10 who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
Galatians 6:15 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
It is essential to realize that in Christ, we were made into a brand new species. We are now something that did not before exist. Jesus did not merely remodel our life. He replaced it. That means we are of supernatural origins and no longer simply natural and indigenous to this world.
This very supernatural work of God has made us strangers to this world. We are like aliens or someone weird to someone in love with this world. We are not citizens of the Kingdom of God because we joined a club and sought to be like those already a part of it. We must be supernaturally born again to be part of His kingdom. There is no other way. Being supernaturally born again automatically sets us apart because it transforms us and changes us from within.
Just think of the 120 Jewish men and women in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. They were just as Jewish as any other Jew at the time. They were born Jewish like all others present. But when the Holy Spirit baptized them with fire from heaven to set them apart as born-again citizens of heaven, they became strange to the Jewish people they had so long been a part of. This is why it needs to be understood that just being moral is not what sets us apart in the way God desires. There are many groups out there that are not a part of the kingdom but are moral in their behavior. We could easily be mistaken as part of one of those groups if we think our morality is all that is meant to set us apart.
The distinguishing feature that sets apart a kingdom people is their supernatural DNA. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in their life. It is the Holy Spirit that makes us different from all others. God uses the life and light of the Spirit to make us His lights in this dark world.
This is why being born again and baptized in the Holy Spirit is unique and vital. It makes us heavenly citizens who are just here for a short time. It is why we are called ambassadors for Christ. This world is not our home, and while we are here, we are meant to manifest the glorious reality of the benefit of being a citizen of heaven. We are not supposed to be normal according to how this world thinks and operates or as dead religious ideologies would insist. We are born again and are now to walk according to the Spirit, and that makes us strangers to all who are against such an idea.
So be strengthened in your inner man today by the might of His Spirit and enjoy being a light for Him in a strange world that you know is not your home.
