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We must be born again to follow Jesus and have eternal life.
Our sinful nature needs to die and we need to be REBORN of the Spirit of God.
We must LAY DOWN our OLD SINFUL SELF before we can take on the NEW SELF that is born of God.
The old SELF is selfish and sinful and only cares about pleasure and self gratification at whatever cost. The NEW SELF cares for Jesus and the kingdom of God.
We lay down the OLD SELF by REPENTING, turning AWAY from our old lifestyle and we embrace Jesus to DO what is pleasing to Him. We plead forgiveness from Jesus and BREAK with sin and the things that displease Jesus and we TAKE ON the NEW SELF that is born of the Spirit of God.
We have to BURY the OLD SELF through water baptism. The old self is BURIED UNDER THE WATER and we EMERGE FROM THE WATER clothed with the NEW SELF. It is a deed of OBEDIENCE and a PUBLIC CONFESSION that we have taken on the image of Jesus Christ, we are now following Him.
Jesus promised the baptism in the Holy Spirit to those who OBEY Him, who REPENT and are BAPTIZED IN WATER.
Jesus fulfilled that promise on the day of Pentecost as we read in Acts 1 & 2. and ever since ALL those who FOLLOW AND OBEY HIM are baptized in the Holy Spirit WITH SPEAKING OF TONGUES.
WE NEED the Holy Spirit baptism as Jesus also commanded His disciples. "He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “you heard of from Me; 5for John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.”
Jesus said: "you WILL RECEIVE POWER when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses" Acts 1:4,5,8) This happened on the day of Pentecost: Acts 2.1-36
We read in Acts 2:38, "Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39“For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.”
After being baptized SEEK, PRAY AND WAIT ON JESUS FOR the BAPTISM IN THE HOLY SPIRIT.
That is what it means to be born again but THEN the HARD WORK STARTS and that is why we need the Holy Spirit. We must be led by the Holy Spirit, Jesus IN US. He gives us the POWER to endure IF we STAY with HIM, LISTEN and OBEY until the END. It is all about our relationship WITH Jesus, THROUGH the HOLY SPIRIT. HE will guide us into all truth IF we KEEP ON FOLLOWING HIM.
Our relationship with Jesus is built through PRAYER and OBEDIENCE TO HIM.
Jesus will speak to us in our spirit that has been united with His Spirit because we have been born again. He will remind us also of the words that Jesus spoke when He walked as a man, those words are recorded in the gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. Those are the words of eternal life for those who OBEY them. We must READ those words and OBEY His Spirit who will speak IN US. That is how we follow Jesus.
We will be His witnesses if we follow Him. We will also be rejected and persecuted just like the first followers of Jesus but those who ENDURE UNTIL THE END will have the prize of eternal life.
What if this happened to me but because of the persecution and tribulation I chose to fall back and compromise following God by hardening my heart and not forgiving someone who hurt me. Can I come to repentance again and or is it impossible for me to turn back to Jesus? (Hebrews 4:4-6)
ReplyDeleteForgive and you will be forgiven. Run back to Jesus, repent, He has no pleasure in the death of a sinner but rather that he repent and live. Jesus never left you friend, you left Him. Hurry back.
ReplyDeleteJesus bless you.
So it is still possible for Jesus to save me (soften my heart again) and grant me repentance to turn back to Him from serving sin? I ask the Lord for deliverance but my soul keeps on getting taken over more and more by the tormentors. When I agreed to compromise His word (Exodus 20:2-3) and chose to harden my heart again, I gave the devil a legal right over me (my soul) whereby the tormentors can oppress me and eat away at my soul and rule my life and keep me in their chains. I need Jesus by His spirit to break these chains off my heart again and turn me back to serving HIM. I think Hebrews 6:4-6 applies to me and the Lord won't soften my heart again. I am starting to think I am like Esau who sold his birthright and did not find a place for repentance (Hebrews 12:15-17). My heart is in darkness and does not want to turn to the light (I need the grace of God to turn me back to him as I can't seem to change my heart and break these chains off of it). It has been about 9.5 years since I agreed to compromise God's word/spirit and go back under the law of sin and over time the tormentors have taken over my soul more and more. I was under the law of grace and HE gave me a new heart and spirit but I chose to not believe His word about forgiveness but rather my own understanding (that a person who hurts me/does me wrong must repent towards me first before I forgive him). I hardened my heart to not feel the pain, I became numb and unfeeling in my heart because I didn't know how to deal with the pain. I should have had faith and moved forward instead of letting fear take over an cower away in self-preservation.
ReplyDelete