Addison Bevere doesn’t want to be labeled by our culture as a “Christian.” The Bible refers to believers as “saints,” and that’s the term he prefers to be identified with.
The COO of Messenger International, an organization that impacts millions of people for Christ in more than 150 countries through its various initiatives, and the son of John and Lisa Bevere, he wants believers to know that they are saints, a term many have mistakenly reserved for the so-called “halo-wearing elite.”
The word “saint” appears 60 times in the King James Version of the Bible, including Romans 8:27, which says, “And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.”
“Saints” is also the word the apostle Paul mainly used to identify believers.
“I have not liked calling myself a Christian for probably 20 years,” Bevere told Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of Greenelines on the Charisma Podcast Network. “And that’s a dangerous thing to say in the kingdom, right?”
“It’s like, ‘This is a Christian podcast.’ “I work for a Christian organization.’ I do not like labels, I do not like stigmas. I do not like the stereotypes that have attached themselves to what it is to be a Christian.
“I’m not ashamed of Jesus. I believe He’s the one person that got this whole humanity thing. Look at how Paul used the word. He said that this is how your life should look. He was writing to the people who were ‘unholy.’ He wrote to the saints in Corinth and the Philippian saints. So, it was a proclamation of identity that would reshape their destiny.”
For more of Addison Bevere’s thoughts on your spiritual identity, listen to the entire podcast.
