A solid salvation procedure is what I developed to write my 15-novel low fantasy about spirit-filled living in these last days. A good friend of mine is beta-reading them, after the fact. He asked me a question that I feel I need to share with all of you.
Here’s where the conversation started.

“There is something about this notion of born again within Saga norms that is nagging at me, too rote.  A sense that if Lars had a rebirth experience different than the ‘norm’ it wouldn’t be acceptable to gallery management.  (or Jesus)  I say that because I experienced it differently, and I venture to suggest many others have too, probably as many different ways as there are individuals.”

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This is really a black and white scenario. If you are born again, you can’t hide it or fake it. The Holy Spirit will let the believers around you know the truth. For the Saga, the Lord made sure that all the people involved were solidly born again. I realize that is not normal. And that’s sad. The saga is about what would happen if the Lord had a project he needed to be done, and it required that everyone involved be born again and spirit-filled. This was necessary because the Great Snatch was coming soon.

There are a couple of things going on here. First, and most important, we are running up against the deadline for all of this. I needed a solid salvation procedure that was clear and easily understood (because there were going to be a lot of them) that would work in a very constricted time frame. With that covered, as I’ve written in several places recently, we can’t die. What we call death, is actually losing the opportunity to change our mind about where we want to go: with God or against Him.

The strange thing about this deadline is that we do not get to choose when or how it happens. Often, it happens suddenly, and we live with the consequences. The lengthy gradual turning toward the Lord will not happen any more. We don’t have enough time for that at this point in time. That is a basic assumption for all the books in the Saga.

Mankind as a whole will experience this soon. The trumpet will blow, those of us who hear it will be gone and with the Lord and our loved ones who knew Jesus. Those who don’t hear it, or don’t recognize it, will go through the final seven years as written out in Revelation. During that time, as hellacious as it is, everyone will have the chance to make that final decision. But it will be immensely more difficult to choose Jesus—close to impossible.

The basic reasoning behind the style I chose for people to be reborn, filled with the Holy Spirit, and recreated is based on what I see as the two unavoidable necessities of salvation. I realize that the style I chose is very unusual. But it will work, if you try it. The Lord told me I could use it, and that He would back it up. 

This is the solid salvation procedure

• The reality check: Repentance is the baseline. So, I started by having someone (often Jesus directly) tell the person to ask the Holy Spirit to “show me all of my sin”, quietly, out loud. The sin is seen and experienced internally, between you and Jesus. Most of the variations in the salvation experience come from people who very gradually come to a complete repentance. Basically, rebirth comes as the result of realizing the reality about ourselves. We are nasty sinners focused on ourselves and our own personal benefit. More than that, many of us have pet sins which we definitely do not want to give up. Asking the Holy Spirit to show us all our sin at once is radical, but it makes the repentance real and complete. We need to become broken before the Lord. The general experience up until now is that this can, and usual does, take a long time with wild variations. That would not work within this endtime scenario.
• Talking directly with the Lord: The other salvation requirement is to have a conversational, personal relationship with Jesus. This is why I put all these conversions in a place where they had to talk with Jesus directly, asking Him what to do, and when to do it. By asking Jesus directly for forgiveness, and directly giving Him permission to come live inside and get things cleaned up, a solid beginning to that necessary relationship is begun. The resulting worship is realistically shared. Again this is not the normal procedure. But if you have the faith, the Lord will make it work for you. Just ask Him, “Jesus, will you please talk with me.”

As far as I can tell, these are the two absolute requirements for salvation. Everything else is optional. In my case a couple days later after I gave my life to the Lord, Dad suggested that I get a legal pad and write down all of my sin that I was aware of. As I recall, I filled five 8.5×14 sheets, two columns, as quick as I could write. Looking back, I’m sure the Holy Spirit helped me remember all that I got written down. Everything I wrote was often just a sample of a whole type of sin I had done. It was cathartic. But now I’m assuming, because the Lord has graciously healed that memory so that is what I remember. The specifics are mainly gone. It changed my life. Of course, Jesus had to keep it in faith. Everything is by faith.

Tied into it all was the general concept that I had lost all my rights. I had no rights any more. He was King, and I served Him. As I have come to know Him, He has been kind, gentle, and loving with me. I certainly never deserved that.

I realize that this is not common. But I needed a solid salvation procedure. Like I said, the Lord said He would back it up if you try it.