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Now, what does that mean to be born again?
My Friends, there was a man from the Jews, a ruler and he came to Jesus in the night - we read about that in John 3:1.
"Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews - this man came to Him by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with Him.'
Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly I say unto you,unless one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.'
Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?'
And Jesus said, 'Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.'"
This "Spirit" is a capital "S" which denotes the Holy Spirit.
My Friends, to be born again happens when we invite Jesus into our life as our King and as our Lord. Because then the Spirit of God comes - God is Spirit, and if you invite Him into your heart, into your life, He comes in, and His Spirit comes and lives in your spirit.
He forgives you of all past sin, He cleanses you, He makes you new inside, and you are instantaneously reborn inside.
If you accept Jesus with your heart, if you say: "Lord, I need You," and you repent of sin, My Friend, He comes in immediately, and He cleanses you, He adopts you, a sinner.
Whatever you are, wherever you've come from, He adopts you into the family of God, and He puts the new birth inside of you.
The Spirit of God comes and enters you, comes into you because you have invited Him in.
A new birth has taken place, and immeditately you experience the joy of having met up with the Living God.
Something happens inside of you, and you just know that Jesus is real.
My Friend, that is the new birth.
You get a glimpse of heaven, you get a glimpse of Jesus Christ, of the peace that He gives.
But that is only the start, because you need to be born of the Spirit and of water, because His Spirit comes and enters your spirit to stay. He will not leave you, because He says: "I'm with you always, until the end." But then you need to obey Him. Then you need to get into that
relationship with Him.
He started the relationship - you said,"Lord, I want you, I need you,"
ane He accepts you. He adopts you as a child of God.
His Spirit enters you, but now you've got to start obeying Him.
If you love Him, My Friend, you will obey Him.
Many people say they believe in Jesus, but they don't obey Him.
Jesus said - "If you love Me, do what I tell you."
My Friend, if you truly love Jesus, then from that moment onwards that you've met Him, you start obeying Him.
You obey His Spirit in you, because immediately His Spirit will show you what is wrong around you or what is wrong in you.
Because Jesus said: "Go sin no more."
The moment you meet with God, you realize what a vile sinner you are, what you've been, and you want to be clean and holy like He's holy.
You can only be in His presence if you are clean and holy!
But if you sin, then that sin comes in between you and God.
Many people are born again, but the life just stops there because they refuse to go on with God. They refuse to keep on following Jesus Christ.
The majority of them walk away. They say, no, this is tough, it's not for me, or they become religious.
Now, being religious is not following Jesus Christ.
What you need is a relationship with Jesus.
In the first place, you obey Him - He says to repent of your sin and be baptized for the washing off of your sin.
Go read Matthew 28:19.
He sent His disciples with the great commission, He said - "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to all nations, baptizing them, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, teaching them to obey all the I commanded you."
A disciple is a follower, My Friend. A disciple is not just a believer.
A believer is a person who believes in Jesus and he obeys Him.
If you belive in Jesus, then you obey Him.
Otherwise, you're not interested in Him, you just know about Him, you believe, but it's not for you so you go away.
Very few Christians grow into maturity - They are maybe born again, and the Spirit of God comes into them, cleanses them of all iniquity, but then they go back to their former sins and they are lost.
Now, the Spirit of God inside of you will light a fire in you, My Friend.
Because suddenly your conscience will become very much alive, and you will immediately know when you're doing wrong. But if you keep on ignoring the Holy Spirit of God inside of you, then He will no longer
speak to you, My Friend.
Because He loves you, He will carry on and carry on to nudge you, to convict you, but many people just don't want to listen to that.
My Friend, if you're serious with Jesus, then He will guide you all the way.
But very few people are serious with Jesus.
Now, there are Christian who say: "Why is everything going wrong in my life? Since I met up with Jesus, everything is going wrong."
My Friend, it is because Jesus wants to change you into His likeness, He wants to make you fit for the Kingdom of Heaven.
He has adopted you as a wild person, as a sinner, as a vile sinner, and He wants you to become obedient to Him so that you can be suitable for the Household of God, the Kingdom of God. And these Christian babies, these people who have just accepted Jesus, they go away, they become
religious, they become educated.
They've had an experience with the Living God, He's accepted them and they've had the joy of salvation, and then they turn away and they
become Scribed and Pharisees and hypocrites. They start reading the Scriptures and become Scripture wise.
But they got no relationship with Jesus, neither do they pray.
They don't listen to His voice - He says, "My sheep know My voice and they listen to Me, they follow Me." My Friend, unless you've got a relationship with Jesus where you truly love Jesus and you're in that close relationship with Him every moment, then you're not
follow Him and you're not growing spiritually. Spiritually you grow NOT by education, but by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and your spiritual
relationship with Jesus, and it shows in your deeds. A person who follows Jesus stops sinning immediately!
People immediately say, man, what happened to you? You changed! - You don't drink no more, you don't cuss no more, you're a different person.
That is when you've truly met up with Jesus and when you have taken the new birth further and are growing as a Christian.
A Christian is a holy man, he's a saint, a holy woman, a Christian is a Child of God, and a Child of God does not sin, he's got nothing to do with sin! He runs away from it!
He's not interested in the things of the world, he's interested in God!
Jesus takes first priority in everything, that's all that is on his mind.
If you're really born again, My Friend, and growing in Christ to become a mature Christain, a mature follower of Jesus, then you are seeking Jesus all the time in prayer, your mind is on Him.
Your spirit is connected with Him, you're focused on Him, and He reveals Himself to you, because you've become obedient from the heart.
That is what it means to be born again. It's not this thing of I've accepted Jesus, now I can go back to my former lifestyle -
NO, My Friend!
If you've accepted Jesus and you're born again, and you want to carry that through until eternity, go into the Kingdom of God, then you've got
to follow Jesus. You've got to build that relationship, and it's got
to become stronger and stronger every day. You become a saint, a holy man in everything that you do, what you say, all your reactions, everything you submit to God and Jesus Christ is the Lord of your life!
Not yourself anymore - you serve Christ, you serve Him, you love Jesus, and because of that, you become like Him, you love everybody
around you. You become an ambassador for Jesus Christ because His Spirit lives in you and through you, then the new birth has truly flourished and grown into a full-grown disciple and follower of Jesus Christ with the family likeness of Jesus. Unfortunately, very few Christians grow into
maturity - the majority of them die as babes. They are still born - it is very sad.
My Friend, have you grown in Christ?
Have you grown in knowledge of Jesus?
I'm not talking about Bible knowledge, I'm talking about do you know Jesus, do you know His voice, do you follow Him, do you love Him?
Is He the most important person in your life? Are you truly - are you truly growing in Christ?
May Jesus Bless You.
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