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I’m now officially a 40 year old virgin!

No, not that type of a virgin. My wife and I have three wonderful kids who stand as a sure proof I’m not a virgin as far as physical sexuality is concerned.

However, I can safely say that at 40 I have never gone to bed with the religious system. I’m in good company and there are many others who have the same testimony. I’m glad I’m part of this particular ‘club’.

After getting saved at 20 and being a Christian for the last 20 years, I have been in what we call “full time ministry” for 19 of them. And I can safely say I have never been part of the games, intrigues and the trappings of the religious system. I started totally on my own (ok, I mean with God), in spite of the religious system, not because of it and frankly, all these years, whatever little or much I have achieved (depending on the point of view), it has been because of God’s plan and provision, not because of a religious career and the handouts of the religious system.

One of the things that caught me totally unprepared when I first became a Christian was the fact there was this whole religious system in place and it didn’t necessarily have to do with God or his purpose on the earth. Later on as a leader of a growing church often times at odds with the corrupt system, I had no choice but to interact with it. I had to come close and I see for myself how incurably sick it is. But I never became part of its loyalty program and ecosystem. Somehow I feel I am called to be one of those brothers and sisters in Christ who like to draw outside of the framework of what the established religious system “allows”. By studying history I found out people like that were called “heretics” and “troublemakers” in their day and “reformers” later on. I found out there is a cost you pay for running with God’s vision for your life. Everyone seems to have an idea what you should be doing and the pressure to conform never goes away. But it all goes back to Jesus, who is the true author and finisher of our pre-designed course. And so, my true authority to say the things I say and to do the things I do, comes from Him, not from people, whoever they might be.

The benefit of not living as a religious person in the religious system is that you become totally dependent on what God can do for you.

You see, the reason it’s hard for religious people to break free from the religious system is because the process of being in it actually makes you into something else, a distant shadow of what you could be in Christ.

I’m speaking now to preachers mostly - being free from the religious system pushes you to depend only on God, the way it should have always been in first place. “Hearing from God” is no longer a religious cliché or sermon material because it’s a lifestyle to you - you depend on hearing from Him because your very life may depend on it the next minute!

The process of walking into this raw experience where you reject the crutches of the religious system (“Brother, if you become part of our denomination, we will have you come and preach in all our churches”), is actually the process of the making of a true leader. People who live on welfare, be it government sponsored or by the religious system, have no reason to actually trust God for the essentials of life. The system comes with its prefabricate solutions, provisions and budgets to back it all up!

So being a virgin in relationship to the politics and the games of the religious system has one great benefit - you get to actually become intimate with God Himself! He’s a jealous God and he doesn’t reveal himself to someone just because he is a professional preacher. He loves to reveal himself to those who will keep themselves pure from Babylon’s seductions and will make themselves available to Jesus and His Kingdom purposes.

I refer to people like that as reformers.

BEYOND THE TERMINOLOGY

Being a reformer goes beyond calling yourself one. It become a choice of lifestyle. It almost automatically means you won’t be understood well by your own people and your own contemporaries. That’s just the way it is. It takes time to look back and judge a matter or a person properly. So it’s imperative we stick to what God shows us on the mountain, instead of trying to please everyone and everything now and today.

For He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” Heb. 8:5 (NKJV)

The word “pattern” here is: tupos, a die (as struck), i.e. (by implication) a stamp or scar; by analogy, a shape, i.e. a statue, (figuratively) style or resemblance; specially, a sampler (“type”), i.e. a model (for imitation) or instance (for warning): — en-(ex-)ample, fashion, figure, form, manner, pattern, print.

As reformers, we need to learn how to build on the foundation we have inherited from God’s apostles and prophets of the past and yet draw our strength and authority from Jesus Christ and the patterns he gives us for today. Our authority doesn’t come from religious councils, organizations, synods or the Vatican. As reformers, our authority comes from Scripture, from standing on the truth, living the truth and building based on the patterns God has given us.

God shows us the patterns, we need to make them reality on the earth. Sometime we have no models to look up to. We have to learn how to be trailblazers in a generation full of copycats.

GRACE - OUR LIFELINE AND SECRET TO SUCCESS

The secret to living the life of a reformer is grace. Grace becomes your lifeline.

“And working together with him we entreat also that you receive not the grace of God in vain.” (2 Cor. 6:1)

How do we not take God’s grace in vain? What does the apostle Paul mean by this statement?

The common understanding of ‘grace’ is ‘unmerited favor’. This a wonderful interpretation, but there’s more. I humbly submit to you how I have been understanding ‘grace’ for the last 18 years. I say the last 18, because for the first two years after I became a Christian, I can’t say that I understood very well what ‘grace’ really meant. I had to commit myself to a careful study of what grace is all about. It wasn’t until while in Bible School that the light came on. Grace means also God’s ‘ability’, his actual power and resources working in us! Now that’s revolutionary!

LITTLE PERSONAL HISTORY

When I went to Bible School in Sweden in 1991, I had been serving God already to the best of how I knew for about a year. My ministry came from my own conversion, sharing my faith with friends and strangers and starting a church from the bedroom of my apartament. Later on the church grew into the hundreds in a very short time. Our country was in the middle of a powerful revival season following the fall of the Berlin Wall and it seemed almost foolish to leave such an exciting scene for a year and sit in a class room. However, I knew this was the right thing to do. I needed a fresh impartation, basic doctrinal orientation and the affirmation of having gone through such teaching program. So my wife and I attended a year of Bible School in one of Europe’s primier revival centers - Word of Life Church in Uppsala, Sweden. It was largely considered at the time a revival hotbed and it was very controversial in Sweden itself. I so thank God for all the impartation I received there, primarily in the area of prayer and intercession. Observing the leadership of the church, I realized it may cost you a lot to be yourself and to be free in a country considered by many the gold standard of socialism. Despite having had to revise number of patterns I received from the ministry there, the basic message of being Christ-centered always remained as the sole axis of all I attempted to do in ministry later on and to this day is the most important part of the legacy this ministry left in my life.

GOD SPEAKS MOSTLY AFTER THE PREACHER IS DONE TALKING

I learned something very important while in Bible School - some of the most profound things I heard the Lord speak to me with his still, small voice were communicated to me after the preachers and the teachers got done talking. It wasn’t so much the actual teaching I received at Bible School, it was the hours I spent in prayer and study before and after Bible School, chewing on all the material, that really made use of all those classes.

From the very beginning, I set out on a journey. I wanted to understand the cross. I wanted to know all about it (I still do!). I needed it for my own edification in the faith. I loved Jesus with all my heart and was on fire to serve him. But I wanted to go beyond just the mental knowledge that he died instead of me on the cross. I knew there was something way deeper than this and I knew I didn’t have it yet.

So I set out on journey, reading as much as I could. Kenyan’s books came in handy. Kenneth Copeland had much to say about the divine exchange on the cross [for all of you Copeland critics, please do listen to some of his teachings before you continue to bash the man]. I ate and I drank Derek Prince’s teachings for months on a row. The teachers at the Bible School also spent good amount of time teaching on the cross.

But all of this wouldn’t have been enough (I think) if it wasn’t for my almost hysteric pursuit to know, at least in some degree, the depth of the central message of Jesus, which was the substitutional sacrifice on the cross.

BACK TO BASICS

I my opinion, it’s impossible to understand the cross if you don’t go back to the Old Testament and understand God’s Covenants. You need to go all the way back to Genesis 1:26-28 and understand the Covenant of Life and the Dominion Mandate to really understand the whole concept of sin, sacrificial redemption and how all this relates to us as individuals and as groups of people.

So I did. And after some months of banging on God’s door (knocking sounds way too passive to me), the floodgates opened up and light and life began to sweep away layers of confusion, religious thinking, plain old darkness, ignorance and more. I would call it “the ultimate pagan package”. We Gentiles come to Christ loaded with the “ultimate pagan package” - ancestors who worshipped the sun, the moon, the stars and themselves. Immorality, strange philosophies and religions. Darkness within and darkness without.

You see, unless you were raised with the understanding of God within the Hebrew mindset, you are a pagan. Notice I’m not saying Judaism. The purpose of everything the prophets taught was not for it to be used to create one religion or another. It was to bring understanding of who God is, who man is, how we ended up in this mess and what is the way out. That’s all. No need for any the excess baggage of Jewish or Christian traditions that have nothing to do with the revealed Word of God. There may be some value and symbolism in these traditions and by all means, feel free to remain in your cultural heritage if that’s how you feel, but it’s also important to say that there is no need to become Jewish or Christian on a cultural level. What really counts is how much light has gotten to you through the Scriptures, not if you wear of cross on your neck or a Jewish prayer shawl.

You know the basics - God created the world, man and everything else. Man fell by his own choice. The only one who could redeem man from the fall was God himself. So he comes to us in the form of a man, dies on the cross instead of us and comes back to life to become the undisputed King of Kings, inviting into his kingdom all people from all ethnic groups and from all generations. This new formation on the earth is the Church, the ecclesia of Christ, which translated means God’s Governing Body on the Earth.

The Ecclesia is to spread the knowledge of this new order, work towards shifting as many as possible out of darkness and into the Kingdom of Light and at the same time restore society according to the patterns of God. We are to be in advancing mode until he comes back to consume all things and establish the fullness of His Kingdom. We won’t be able to do so on our own. The classical Dominion Theology (known as “Kingdom Now”) goes to the extreme of teaching we need to restore the earth to become paradise by taking over society. This can never happen. We can recover much, may be even most of it, but not all. The ultimate promise of God is this:

For the earth will be filled
With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD,
As the waters cover the sea. Hab. 2:14 (NKJV)

It’s important to note this is a prophetic-poetic speech, not a corporate vision. The reason many people fail to properly understand the fulness of God’s counsel and purpose is because they read passages that are meant to be understood as a poetic-prophetic metaphor in a literal way and then applying the same mistake the other way around - reading passages that are literal and accepting them as figure of speech. We need to sum total of the various pieces of revelation the prophets and the apostles have brought to us, not just some of it. And even then, we need to be careful with our theological constructs and even more with our ideological and philosophical concepts we often like to project onto others using the Bible.

If you understand the cross, you understand that as far as God is concerned he doesn’t need yours or mine ‘righteousness’ to accept us into his new order (God’s Kingdom) and consequently in Heaven. The cross secures our forgiveness, new status and so much more. Sin is no longer a hindrance for us to fulfill God’s original plan. This meant a lot to me when I first began to study about grace. As a new convert I just couldn’t get pass the notion I had missed already 20 years of my life being without God. I couldn’t image how I was supposed to make up for all this lost time and I thought to myself - “Well, at least I can try to now live right Plan B.”

But God’s grace is enormous! And somewhere there, in those hours before or after Bible school, I was pressing in, seeking for God to show me how all this is supposed to work from now on. The first thing I had to come to grips with is that I AM LIVING OUT PLAN A! I had to free myself from my ideas and accept God’s plan as His Plan A, so to say. Let me just say this - I believe you have to work hard on screwing Plan A! Now, if you don’t understand grace, you’ll be so nervous all the time not to miss Plan A (“Plan A” meaning God’s original plan for your life, God’s best). Seriously, some people are so nervous about missing Plan A, they never enjoy the ride, they only think of the final destination. Now it’s true, there are those defining moments in life when we have to make important decision and we better make the right choices. But I still stay, as a child of God, if you seek Him on a regular basis, if you live as a true disciple and you are committed to please him, you have to work hard on screwing up Plan A!

Some actually do screw up Plan A. But still, if and when they get back on their feet and come back to God, He’s right there waiting for them with ... Plan A! Isn’t this the whole morale of the Luke 15 story about the prodigal son?

So shake off all that religiosity, fear and insecurity! God is bigger than your stupid little mistakes you thought for sure made you miss Plan A. Grace melts all this away and brings you back on course, compensating for lost time, putting back in the winner’s circle. It’s amazing how quick the first can become last and the last can become first. Think of Joseph, Daniel and Paul! Think on those things that are meant to build you up, not tear you down. Think on grace and grace will flow to you and through you!

HIS GRACE IS ABUNDANT

Grace is not only his ‘unmerited favor’. His name is Grace. He wants to live in you and to work the works of God through you. He wants you and I to let go, lean on him and allow the stream of his power to take over. That’s what grace is about! There’s so much grace available to us, it’s scary!

We then, as workers together with Him also plead with you not to receive the grace of God in vain. 2Cor. 6:1 (NKJV)

I like the way God’s Word translation puts it:

Since we are God’s coworkers, we urge you not to let God’s kindness be wasted on you. 2Cor. 6:1 (GWORD)

Check out Weymouth’s:

And you also we, as God’s fellow workers, entreat not to be found to have received His grace to no purpose. 2Cor. 6:1 (WEYMTH)

If you study the context of what Paul is saying, you will see that he was talking about a lot more than salvation. He speaks about life, about serving God.

We give no offense in anything, that our ministry may not be blamed. 2Cor. 6:3 (NKJV)

But in all things we commend ourselves as ministers of God: in much patience, in tribulations, in needs, in distresses, 2Cor. 6:4 (NKJV)

in stripes, in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in sleeplessness, in fastings; 2Cor. 6:5 (NKJV)

by purity, by knowledge, by longsuffering, by kindness, by the Holy Spirit, by sincere love, 2Cor. 6:6 (NKJV)

by the word of truth, by the power of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, 2Cor. 6:7 (NKJV)

by honor and dishonor, by evil report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 2Cor. 6:8 (NKJV)

as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold we live; as chastened, and yet not killed; 2Cor. 6:9 (NKJV)

Wow!

This is how Paul was not taking the grace of God in vain! He went well beyond the norm. He stretched himself time and again, pushing the boundaries of the acceptable and the reasonable, putting grace to work, creating hundreds of occasions where grace just had to kick in, otherwise he was going to be dead.

And then went on to give himself as an example to all of us.

How many of us live like this? How many have dared to push the limits of what they thought were capable of?

In fact Paul was so turned on to grace, he was pushing grace itself to the limits.

Now when they had gone through Phrygia and the region of Galatia, they were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. Acts 16:6 (NKJV)

After they had come to Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not permit them. Acts 16:7 (NKJV)

God HIMSELF had to step in and tell Paul - “That’s enough, my man!”

WHAT IS THE PROBLEM TODAY?

OK, you get the picture. Grace is what His power can accomplish in us if we get out of the way. Unfortunately, most Christians today are way too trapped in their ego to have ever experienced this level of grace. I’m not being critical, I’m just making an objective assessment. Most people are way too overwhelmed just taking care of themselves and possibly their family, let alone going the extra mile on behalf of someone else.

Today we read many of those verses where Paul or others describe how grace, or God’s power, worked through them. Problem is, most of the time they were in these situations because they were doing something for someone else. They were traveling, preaching and doing all they were doing from a very sincere, deep commitment to OTHERS!

Today most of us are mostly committed to ourselves and then may be to others. It’s scary but it’s true. If I begin to describe how much of what I actually doesn’t directly benefit me at all, it will scare people. People will say to me - why do you do this? Because it benefits someone else. Because I see how God wants to use someone to do certain things and there aren’t just that many who are available. It’s sad, but it’s true!

LIMITS ARE A BLESSING

To those of us who are driven to madness by the realization of how much Kingdom work there is to be done on the earth and how much grace (read ‘power’) is available in God, it behooves us also learn that there are divine limits. We all have boundaries. We need to able to hear a ‘no’ from God and we need to be able to say ‘no’ to people when it’s the right thing to do. You learn from experience. You remind yourself that before saying that ‘no’, you have said hundred times ‘yes’ when you really felt like saying ‘no’ and yet God’s grace prompted you do go ahead and push the limits. So learn how to be at peace with yourself and your limits. We all have them.

I’ve learned this - most people, when they sense someone is all about serving others, lose sense of boundaries and sooner or later they end up literally consuming all they can from that person. It’s in our nature to be selfish and unappreciative. So those of us, who are in the “business” of serving others, we need to learn how not to become addicted to it and how to say ‘no’ when we have to. It’s addictive to experience the flow of grace through you when serving others. Temporarily you become a branch in God’s great distribution network of life, hope, love and power. Words you never thought of begin to flow through you. Visions you didn’t see before appear before you in the spirit. Prophecy, power for healing and deliverance and all sorts of other provision begins to flow through you. I can go on and on.

Apostolic grace is scary! It’s multifunctional. It overflows the usual confines of religious expression and invades all areas of life - you begin to hear from God in areas such as economics, politics, business and the arts. You start to understand things you never thought possible before. Some learn foreign languages unnaturally fast or well. I have people ask me how long have I lived in the United States. I tell them - only 6 years and I’m gone half the time! I didn’t even speak the language until I was 20. But when I became a Christian, out of sheer hunger and thirst for the word of God, I read every possible Christian book worth reading in Bulgarian and I just had to continue educating myself in English. It’s amazing what happens when you apply effort to grace. It’s explosive!

I didn’t know anything about computers. I had to get me a laptop and educate myself on how to use the darn thing. Consequently, I’m now involved in a web design business you just can’t be into of you don’t understand technology.

There are so many examples I can give you from my life and from the life of others who were able to tap into the limitless capabilities of God’s super-abundant grace. Still, we have our limits. We get tired, sick, weary, frustrated, hungry, thirsty, sleepy and bored. We can only be at one place at a time. We get messed up by changing time zones and eating other culture’s foods. We get hurt, angry, depressed and lonely. We need love, affection, attention, sex and confort. We are only people in all our humanity it’s good not to forget we can’t structure our lives around the concept of God’s super-abundant grace only. We have to know our limits and compensate by properly surrounding ourselves with the right relationships, choosing where to live and how, being careful and responsible stewards of our finances, bodies and time.

How do I want to spend the next 20 years of my life as a reformer? By inspiring as many as possible to have reckless faith and yet balanced lifestyle. By preaching and teaching but much more by demonstrating God’s creative power on the earth. By raising up leaders, churches, businesses, networks, political parties, schools, TV stations, web sites, charities, foundations, miracle centers and whatever else it takes to bring about the reformation of the Church and the transformation of our world.

This is what it’s all about. Let’s go ahead and do it!

Confessions of a 40 year old virgin by George Bakalov is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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George P. Bakalov