I don't know about you but I had to really sit and think about this for a while.  I have run into so many people that say they are believers and according to a recent Gallup poll 46% of Americans say they are believers.  I doubt this number to be true and in fact I bet the number is much higher.  After all, Satan is a believer!  Yes that's right, James 2:19 says "You believe there is one God, do you? You are doing quite well. And yet the demons believe and shudder."

So many churches today are offering the "say the prayer and you too can be saved" without offering any counsel beyond the "fire insurance".  What does believing have to do with entering heaven?  Satan believes, do you think he will be there?  Absolutely not.  So what differentiates a believer from a follower?  After all what is a Christian?  It isn't being born in the United States, or having parents who are Christians, or even that you go to church every weekend.  Paul gives us a wonderful definition in Philippians 3 of what a Christian looks like:

"For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh"

He calls true Christians “the real circumcision”, i.e. the true covenant people of God. Then he gives three characteristics of Christians in verse 3. He says true Christians are those who:

1) Worship in the Spirit of God
2) Glory in Christ Jesus
3) And put no confidence in the flesh (or self)

Do those sound like things Satan is doing?  How about you?  Are these things definitions of your walk with Him?  Merely believing in Christ will not get you saved.  I am certainly not talking about works or trying to add to or take away from, I am simply asking us to examine our lives and truly ask yourself, "Am I a believer or a true follower of Jesus Christ?"  Following requires full trust in the one leading.  Following requires full submission to the one leading as well as the laws established by Him.  I did not say that we had to be perfect because we have all fallen short of these laws and that is what we call sin.  We do not become sinless once we begin following Christ, we however are given the ability to not stay in habitual sin through the Holy Spirit. 

Unfortunately many on that day of judgment will hear, "I never knew you, depart from Me."  Many will say, "but Lord I did all these things in Your name."  Will He say to you on that day, "well done good and faithful servant?"  Do you KNOW Him today or do you know OF Him?  There are eternal consequences to that  question.  To KNOW God is to have an intimate relationship with Him and live your life as a FOLLOWER of Jesus Christ not merely a believer in Him. 

Have you fully submitted your mind, your will and your emotions to God?  Are you diligently seeking after what He wants for your life or are you chasing the American dream in hopes of somehow being fulfilled? 

Ask God to reveal your true heart to you today and ask Him to reveal Himself to you as well.  He says that if anyone seeks Him they will find Him and if anyone asks Him to come into their lives He will enter them and make them a new creation.  But it doesn't stop there, you have been Born Again and at that very moment new life begins.  From that moment on you must follow Christ and grow in your knowledge of Him and become like Him. 

Where are you today?  Are you a believer or a follower?