All Christians share the same gifts.  Here are three.

One, all true believers have the same map.  Two, they have the same compass.  And three, they are on the same journey.

Their map is the written Word of God, the Bible.  It is their guide and rule in all matters of belief and behaviour.Their compass is Jesus Christ.  As a sailor navigates using the sun and the polar star, so a believer knows Christ as the one who keeps him or her on course.

Their journey is from where they are now to what God has prepared for them to enjoy for ever.  They belong to God and will dwell with him in the new heavens and earth which he will reveal when he makes all things new on the last day.

However, though believers share these in common, it is also true that their experiences are not exactly the same.  God, according to his wise purposes, takes each of his children through different circumstances and trials.  It is “through many tribulations” that we “enter the kingdom of God” (Acts xiv.22).  No matter how intense a trial may prove to be, God never lets go of those whom he loves.These things being so, care needs to be taken that you do not err.  Some err when they make the experiences of other believers a (or worse, the) rule for daily living.  Avoiding that danger, others err when they make their own experience a (or the) rule for other believers.  Sadly these are not uncommon mistakes.  And, as many wise Christians have warned, such mistakes if not corrected may lead to further errors.

Let me try to illustrate the point for you.  Having read the amazing way God transformed Saul of Tarsus as he travelled to Damascus (Acts ix), some assume that his conversion experience is to be the norm for all believers.  A consequence of such thinking is that it is presumed that those who do not hear God speaking directly to them as Paul did cannot yet be true believers.

A similar line of thinking can arise at a meeting when a vivid testimony of God’s personal dealings with an individual are described.  That each person needs to be born again by the Spirit of God is not to be doubted.  But the way God chooses to bring an individual to the experience of new life in Christ rests with God.  It is not something that any person can either dictate or effect.  Why not?  Because “salvation belongs to the Lord” (Psalm iii.8 and Jonah ii.9).  God is sovereign.  Times, events and circumstances are under his ultimate control.  He works as he pleases.

That is what a one-time slave-trader, John Newton, discovered.  Writing to his friend Thomas Haweis in 1763, he described both his descent into open rebellion against God and the way God remarkably preserved him during a fierce storm in the Atlantic Ocean in 1748.

Some assume that the storm he faced on 10 March 1748 was the moment of his conversion.  But that is not how Newton saw it.  Yes, he came to see that “on that day the Lord sent from on high, and delivered (him) out of deep waters.”  But, he went on to write, “it was not till long after (perhaps several years)”, that he “gained some clear views of the infinite righteousness and grace of Christ Jesus.”

At the time of the storm he concluded that his “sins were too great to be forgiven.”  In fact he “waited with fear and impatience to receive” what he was sure was his deserved and “inevitable doom.”  Such did not come.  Instead he “saw the hand of God” in the preservation of the damaged vessel and most of the crew.  And he “saw, beyond all probability, there was still hope.”

When he heard the news that the crew had managed to make some repairs, stem the leaks, and bale out the water with which the ship was almost swamped, Newton “began to pray.”  But, he wrote, “I could not utter the prayer of faith; I could not draw near to a reconciled God, and call him Father” as Christians do.

However, in the goodness of God, he was being drawn to Christ and faith.  He began to recall what he had been taught about the life and death of Jesus.  In particular he reminded himself that he had been informed that Jesus “died a death for sins not his own, but, … for the sake of those who in their distress should put their trust in him.”

Two questions weighed heavily upon him.  First, what evidence is there that the Scriptures (are) of Divine inspiration, and (provide) a sufficient warrant for the exercise of trust and hope in God.”  Secondly, he wanted to know “how to obtain faith?”

Newton started to read the New Testament.  He did so with care.  Soon he found a word of promise that gave him hope.  Jesus says that “the heavenly Father (will) give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke xi.13).  He also discovered that those who seek to do the will of God “will know whether the teaching” of Christ is from God” (John vii.16-17).

He prayed much.  He did so aware that God had thus far preserved him.  He came to hope that God would do more.  He knew that he “stood in need of an almighty Saviour” and that such a one he “found described in the New Testament.”  And so he came to heartily regret his past life, renounce his former profaneness, and to begin living a reformed life.

However, though a changed man, he had much to learn about “the innate evils of (his) own heart.”  He did not understand the spiritual character of God’s law and the extent of its meaning and application in the heart.    Nor did he know the thrill Christians have as they experience personal communion with God through Jesus Christ.  Furthermore, he was yet to learn the need of continual dependence upon Christ Jesus “for hourly supplies of wisdom, strength, and comfort.”  As a result, he did not consider himself to be a believer in the full sense of the word.  Such, he said, he came to be “a considerable time afterwards.”

Newton’s experience helps us.  It helps you see that it is possible to begin (1) to pray, (2) to value the Word of God, and (3) to turn from immoral and ungodly ways, and yet not have true faith in Christ.

After recovering from the near ship-wreck Newton went back to sea.  It was not long before he began to forget what God had done for him.  He declined fast, after he grew slack in waiting upon the Lord.  But God used events in his life to draw him to Christ.    Included amongst them are (1) a fever and (2) the loss of a boat and crew that Newton should have been in charge of whilst it was used to bring wood to his ship from the shore.  The only reason Newton was not in the boat was because his captain suddenly and inexplicably ordered that he was not to sail in it.

At that time of his life Newton learned two important lessons.

The first relates to what you should do.  You need to take care lest you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (Hebrews 3.13).

The second concerns your need.  Like Newton, you cannot live for God, or stand fast in the faith, “without continual fresh supplies of strength and grace from the fountain-head.”

God taught Newton that these  lessons are central to a life of faith.  Believers know that the mercies of the Lord are infinite.  They humbly depend upon God’s mercy and promises.  They rely on him to guide and guard them to the end.

EPC  2 October 2016