“John baptized into a changed life” (Mark 1:1-2, The Message).

When we were baptized, we turned our old life in for a kingdom life.

New life, new place.

We were instantly changed. Our future was redirected Heavenward. The old life vanished, to be remembered no more.

We were born again.

Our addresses changed and we became kingdom residents.

My daughter recently went through a rough patch at the close of her first year away from home. She realized that for the entire year she’s been at college, she hasn’t made one friend. She’s homesick for what was familiar. High school friends were the best and she wonders if she will ever have those kinds of relationships again.

When we got down to causes and conditions, she admitted that people in college don’t respond to her quirkiness the way people in high school did. She was popular in high school. She was confident in her social circles. But people in college don’t find her funny or special. People in college don’t make her feel audacious and awesome.

Her kingdom was changed.

I feel her pain. I recently moved from a small town to the city. Not only did I change jobs, but God changed my entire career path. Daily I fumble around in my new world and can’t perform one task on autopilot. 

My kingdom was changed.

New birth is a lot like that. We don’t realize at first that we’ve been changed. It happens instantly in the spiritual realm. But we are still seeing with natural eyes, and nothing looks different. Nothing feels different. Many times, nothing is different in the natural realm. Our bodies are the same. Our habits remain. Our flaws and imperfections continue to cloud our lives. Our thoughts even remain the same for a while.

My daughter has experienced all the phases of college life now. The excitement has faded, and life has happened. Because her heart is shaken, questions like “who am I and what am I doing and am I on the right track” are all bubbling to the surface. The truth of college life is being revealed – that once the passion is gone, the commitment must carry her. This is her new kingdom and the rules and recipes for success have changed.

When we are born again, it takes our flesh a while to get the message. We have been delivered into a new kingdom where what was normal in our natural life is no longer effective in spiritual life. We don’t know how to navigate. We don’t know who we are. We don’t know what we are doing and are confused by the actions of those who’ve been here longer than us. We feel like we don’t fit in and long for instruction.

God has answered our cry for help by giving us the Bible. It is our war manual. It is our daily instruction. The blood of Jesus has set us free, the Holy Spirit has empowered us, and the Word of God changes us. The Word of God is where we build our relationship with the Father and being delivered from the kingdom of darkness where we were once citizens into the kingdom of light uproots every rule and norm that we know.

William Boothe, founder of the Salvation Army said, “The chief danger that confronts the coming century will be religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God, heaven without hell.”

But a Christian without his Bible is a vulnerable target for the enemy’s fiery arrow.

Sister, when you confessed Jesus as Lord, you were instantly delivered into a new world – just like that. You may not be able to see the evidence right now in the natural and you may not feel changed, but that is the very nature of faith. You’ve been delivered from the natural realm where we depend on what we see and have been born again into the kingdom where faith is your new eyes. I know you don’t know how to see. I didn’t either. I know everything is different and you don’t understand the rules. I didn’t either.

And for many years after my new birth, I lived as a defeated Christian.

But then, I opened the Book.

Make no mistake about it; your faith has saved you, set you free, and made you whole. But you still got work to do.

I dare you today to step into the light of God’s glorious Word. Read it when you don’t have time. Read it when you don’t feel like it. Read it when it doesn’t make sense. Read it when it’s the last thing you want to do. Because if faith is your new eyes, the Bible is your new set of keys.

I can see through my windshield with glasses, but with keys, I can race down the highway.

You were made to live abundant. You were made to live free.

You win.

Meet God in His Word to find out how.