You just prayed to receive
Jesus Christ –
“What Do I Do Now?”

Congratulations! You just made the smartest decision in your life. You have called upon Jesus for the forgiveness of your sins and the gift of eternal life. And if you have asked based your request upon His cross, and asked with sincerity and genuine faith, you can be certain that He has heard you, and that you are now a child of God.

The question arises, “What do I do now?” A good question, a very good question. If you have been born again, you instinctively realize that there is more to come. You decision to follow Christ was a real one, and it will have consequences for all the rest of your years on earth, and throughout eternity. Allow me to give you eight Biblical challenges for every new believer in Jesus Christ.

1. You must follow through. “If any man would come after Me, let him take up his cross, deny himself daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23).

Serving Christ starts with a prayer to receive Him, but it does not end there. You must make you service to Him a daily adventure! This means denying ourselves of those things He tells us are wrong, and following Him in whatever direction He takes us. This will involve a radical change of lifestyle. Anything He tells us to quit, we quit, and whatever He tells us to do we do. This is what it means to make Jesus Lord, and without this we must not pretend to be Christians. Jesus said, “Why do you call Me Lord, Lord, and do not do the things I say?” (Luke 6:46).

2. Be baptized as soon as possible. “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved, but he that believes not shall be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)

Why must I be baptized? The answer is very simple – Jesus commands it! Baptism is the faith response of the believer who has put their trust in Jesus. The Bible likes it to a burial: the old nature has been crucified with Jesus and is buried, and we are given a new nature by the Holy Spirit which delights to do the will of God. The act of baptism is an expression of our radical commitment to Jesus Christ and a public demonstration of our faith. When the apostle Paul saw a vision of the Lord Jesus, he lost his vision for a few days. When an aged disciple came to him, he prayed for him, Paul received his sight, and the Bible tells us “He arose and was baptized.” If you have given your life to Jesus, arise and be baptized. If you were sprinkled as a child, be baptized this time by immersion. The Biblical pattern is to believe first and then be baptized. You will find this experience far more meaningful, knowing that you have personally and consciously chosen Jesus for yourself this time.

3. Confess Jesus with your mouth. “If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Like baptism, the public confession of our faith is vitally important to the new Christian. To confess means to be a witness of, to tell publicly what you have seen or experienced. When most people receive Jesus, it is a very private business. Many pray quietly at home or in a church service as they sit in the congregation. And you can be sure that Jesus hears the softest cry of a seeking heart. But the time must come when our acknowledgment of Him goes beyond the confines of the quietness of our heart. We must confess Him with our mouth to others. Jesus said “Whoever confesses Me before men, him will I also confess before My Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies Me before men, him will I also deny before My Father ...” (Mathew 10:32,33).

Many make their first confession of Jesus at baptism, but you don’t have to wait until then. You can call a friend, a parent, or a neighbor and tell them the good news: “I have made Jesus Christ my Lord and Savior today! I have become a child of God.”

4. Get a Bible, and Start Reading It. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans 10:17)

When a baby is born, most mothers are thrilled. This new bundle of joy is a gift of God to them, and how they delight to hold their baby and admire the cute little face, the ten fingers and toes, and to hear the little baby sounds that come from their child’s mouth. But they must do more than admire that baby, if they are to have it around for very long. Almost immediately they have to supply that baby with food. That baby has to eat!

Just as God provides mothers with breast milk for the feeding of their babies, He has provided His new creations in Christ with a marvelous formula that is guaranteed to sustain life and promote growth. Peter tells us, “As newborn babes desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). You must start reading the Bible regularly. No reading the Bible doesn’t save you, but it will strengthen you and enable you to grow spiritually.

Find a translation that you can understand, and yet is reliable such as the NASV, the New King James Version, or the New International Version. Try to read a few chapters a day, and meditate on what you read (take time to think it over). Let God speak to you through His Word, and spiritual growth will be nearly impossible.

5. Find a Church To Attend. “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).

One of the biggest excuses for not serving the Lord is that often heard whine: “You don’t have to go to church to serve the Lord.” They may go on to say how that their are hypocrites in the church, or that they can worship God by admiring the beautiful mountains or looking at the face of their new baby and so forth.

The truth is, you do have to go to church in order to serve God. The Bible expressly commands us not to forsake assembling with other Christians. If we refuse to go to church, we are disobeying a commandment of God, and how can we claim to serve God when we consistently break one of his commandments? The Bible tells us “Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it ...” (Ephesians 5:25) If Jesus has not given up on His church, who are we to pretend to be too good for it? No, there is no perfect church, but then again, there are no perfect people either, so it works out pretty good.

What should you look for in a church? Certainly not perfection, but there are some basic requirements that your church should meet. Make sure to find a church where the pastor preaches from the Bible and lifts up Jesus. If you never hear the preacher invite people to come to Christ, something is wrong there. Better stay away. Find a church where the people worship with joy and where the Holy Spirit’s presence is experienced in the worship. If these things are present, you can overlook some of the faults you will eventually see. Churches, like people, can disappoint you, but you can no more give up on the church of Jesus, than you can people in general. God hasn’t called you to be a spiritual Lone Ranger.

6. Pray, Pray, Pray. “Then He (Jesus) spoke a parable to them, that men always ought to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1)

By prayer we keep in contact with our Heavenly Father. Prayer is the means of staying in touch with God, asking and receiving His blessings, and pouring out our hearts to Him. Just as green plants dry up without water, so Christians become spiritually dry and parched without prayer. Prayer is not an option to exercised when we have little else to do. It is an absolute necessity of our new lives, and we cannot hope to get along without it. Make the time to pray. Prayer is simply talking to God. Praise Him, tell Him your fears, ask Him for your needs and wants, and thank Him for His blessings. But by all means pray!

Just as a baby’s first cries are a sweet sound to the new parents, so prayer is a sweet sound to our Father in heaven. Prayer is an indicator that spiritual life is indeed present, and it is the means by which spiritual life is maintained and strengthened.

Satan will try to keep you so busy, your prayer life is reduced to a quick sentence or two before bedtime (if that). Don’t let it happen to you! Give God your best. Put off other things if you have to, but don’t put off pray. Blessings will come into your life because you pray. Disaster may be avoided because you prayed. Only heaven will reveal the tremendous ways your life was altered because you made time to pray.

7. Trust Christ For Deliverance From Bad Habits. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14).

One of the greatest weapons Satan uses to destroy the faith and spiritual life of a new believer, is in the area of sinful habits. When you first come to Christ you don’t realize the tremendous power of the sin. You have let sin have its way thus far and have not tried to restrain or conquer it. Now, as a new believer, you soon realize that there are areas of your life that need to change. You make great effort, only to realize that you don’t seem to have the power to change yourself. So far you are right on schedule. All this is standard fare for the new Christian.

When you get to this point, you must immediately look to Jesus. The Bible says some amazing things about what He has done for us by His death on the cross and His resurrection. We are told that we have been set free from sin (Romans 6:18), that sin shall not boss us around (Romans 6:14), and that we are to consider ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ (Romans 6:11).

You will find that victory over sinful habits comes not from resolutions, or will power, or mental struggle, but by our faith in Jesus. He has provided for our freedom and the more we meditate on His victory, and acknowledge the freedom His blood has purchased for us, the more victory we will see.

8. Don’t Add To Jesus. “Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God...” (2John 9).

If Satan cannot stop you from associating with Jesus, he will try to get you to “add to” Jesus. He will try to get you to believe that your right standing before God is based upon Jesus plus something else. For some it is Jesus plus their church (or cult). They feel that they are accepted in God’s sight because of Jesus, yes, ... but also because they go to the right church which has so much more “truth” than all the other churches.

Others trust in Jesus plus their spiritual labors. Because they knock on doors or perform some ministry, they feel that they will be accepted on that basis. My friend it is never Jesus plus, it is simply Jesus. On that great and awesome day of Judgment we will stand before our King, and those who were truly His children will gladly acknowledge to Jesus: “You and You alone have purchased my salvation by your death on the cross for my sins and your resurrection.” No matter how much you may grow, no matter how spiritual you may become, no matter how big your ministry is, you must recognize that every good thing you are or have done is all His doing. He alone is our salvation. Not our church, not our works, not our ministry, but Jesus, for “We are the circumcision (the true people of God) who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3).