Martine
No. It’s a MIRACLE that we have come to God. And yet we have been on quite a journey…
We talk more about our background in our testimonies, see our Episodes, specifically “Martine’s New Age to Jesus Testimony” and “Katharina’s New Age to Jesus Testimony”.
For me (Martine), I grew up in an atheist society that like most of us know is rewarding us for hustling, striving, moving, and staying busy.
I was the only one in my class of 30 during secondary school at 16 that opted out of Christian confirmation. Even though I admire that little girl in me that had the courage to stand up against the crowd and not get baptized because I didn’t believe, I also see how that little girl took too much of the world on her shouldr.
Growing up, I didn’t want nothing to do with God, because I simply didn’t believe and didn’t want to just get confirmation because everyone else did it. I leaned a lot on my own “Self” and power, and this grew slowly but surely into my biggest trauma response: Perfectionism. That of identifying my work ethic and performance with my value.
“Success comes to those who work their ass off” was the quote I followed. This was my religion, pretty much, all the way through my school years. I became my own God and worldly authority became the Judge for how I was doing.
I got the best grades, but at what cost? I was close to losing my health. This was what inspired me to travel the world after high school, honestly because I needed a “Gap Year” as they call it, to reground myself after that crazy work-your-ass-off-era.
Travelling broadened my horizon. I got to see beyond the veil of the materialistic, surface level world that I had grown to know. To appreciate the little things. Be in nature. Establish a connection with myself. Find autonomy.
Through travelling and going on a personal growth journey, I was able to “Bloom Beyond Perfectionism”, which inspired me to start coaching others in overcoming the tug of the material and earthly life as well. My first niche as a coach was helping people overcome perfectionism because I identified this as the main trap blocking people from their creative power. I didn’t know it at the time, but perfectionism is also blocking people from God because perfectionism is rooted in the belief that everything’s on their shoulders.
But I went way too far with the personal development and lost completely touch with everything earthly. In New Age I didn’t have any moral or ethical compass to guide from, because it was all about doing what “I wanted” and what “I felt” like doing. It became all about expanding my consciousness, ascending to some greater level, aligning utterly and completely with some higher self, and I lost contact with society, family, and even my own body. All of that to the point of literally moving across the world to Mexico and after two months having an accident because I was so dissociated from my body that I quite frankly was about to ascend fully to God.
By God’s mercy and grace, here I am. Still. And I received the Holy Spirit, which spoke to me about “Community”. Also words like contemplate, connection, contribution, conversations, and so on, came to me as I came to Christ. This is the calling, He said, to walk the narrow path.
Now, it is not yet I, but Christ through me. I am here to stand in the Gap before God and With God… He is with us in the beginning and in the end, and in the in-between, in the gap. The true miracle is being able to see this and know this to the depths of the soul.
Our invitation to you is that, if you come across someone who is a Christian and who also has had a Christian upbringing… Consider this. You might make the assumption that, “It’s easy for them to be Christian, because they grew up as Christian.” Or you might think, “It’s no wonder that they then are Christian.” It is the impure mind that comes up with these linear reasonings. But, the moment that we become a member of the family is when we choose to become a member of the family. What is linear is then no longer applicable. You live in a nonlinear reality when you choose the path of Christ. Supernatural revelation can come to anyone whether they’ve grown up in a Christian home or not. Doesn’t matter to God! He can reach anyone, anytime, anywhere.
It doesn’t matter whether you grew up as a Christian or not. Everyone has to get to a place where they make their own stand with God. This comes with confrontation, maturing, and realization. Maturation from a spiritual point of view IS actually sanctification. It’s being made more holy, more perfect in the image of God. Maturation IS about receiving a new heart of flesh and letting go of the heart of stone.
I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. — Ezekiel 36:26
It’s less about being a “Christian” and more about Walking the Way of the Mystery. Remember, the first Christians weren’t called Christians. They called themselves “Walkers of the Way.” And it was people who looked at them and saw they were walking different, treating people like Christ, that they looked like Christ — these were the people that began calling these “Walkers of the Way” Christians. It even says in Scripture…
“But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory,” — 1 Corinthians 2:7
“having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself,” — Ephesians 1:9
“the mystery which has been hidden from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints. To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” — Colossians 1:26-27
“Let a man so consider us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” — 1 Corinthians 4:1
“Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed—” — 1 Corinthians 15:51
As we can tell, the word “Mystery” are all throughout the Bible, saying something about the journey you embark on when you commit to being a “Walker of the Way,” a “Christian” that put your faith in the One direction of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Let those who hear, hear.
A biblical mystery is something that God must reveal for one to understand. It is not something right on the surface that anybody looking into Revelation can stumble across and quickly understand. William Barclay's The Letters to the Corinthians says: "The Greek word musterion means something whose meaning is hidden from those who have not been initiated, but crystal clear to those who have" (p. 26).