Tag Archives: sanctification

Christ’s Saints Are Barley Overcomers – Christ’s Carnal Believers Are Tribulation Wheat

02 Tuesday Jul 2019

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The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God’s trumpet blast! He’ll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they’ll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master. Oh, we’ll be walking on air! And then there will be one huge family reunion with the Master. So reassure one another with these words. – 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, MSG

…To the one who overcomes I will give access to feast on the fruit of the Tree of Life that is found in the paradise of God. – Revelation 2:7, TPT

…To everyone who is victorious I will let him feast on the hidden manna and give him a shining white stone. And written upon the white stone is inscribed his new name, known only to the one who receives it. – Revelation 2:17, TPT

To everyone who is victorious and continues to do my works to the very end I will give you authority over the nations – Revelation 2:26, TPT

And the one who experiences victory will be dressed in white robes and I will never, no never erase your name from the Book of Life. I will acknowledge your name before my Father and his angels. – Revelation 3:5, TPT

For the one who is victorious, I will make you to be a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, permanently secure. I will write on you the name of my God and the name of the city of my God—the New Jerusalem, descending from my God out of heaven. And I’ll write my own name on you. – Revelation 3:12, TPT

And to the one who conquers I will give the privilege of sitting with me on my throne, just as I conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne. – Revelation 3:21, TPT

The Bride of Christ (the collective Body of His Saints) is the prophesied Barley Harvest of Overcomers (Victorious Conquerors) – the glorified firstfruits who are raptured before the Tribulation Period begins.

The Non-overcoming Carnal Believers are the Tribulation Period’s Wheat because they resemble Tares. These Wheat believers are the ones who have not cooperated with the Holy Spirit’s sanctification process (have not allowed Him to gradually change them into the image of Christ).

Prophetically speaking, the Barley Harvest represents the first of God’s three end-time Harvests and, thus, part of the first resurrection. The Scripture refers to these saints as “overcomers.” Additionally, God’s first three feast days – Passover, Unleavened Bread, and First Fruits – spiritually represent the three stages of salvation: 1. justification (Passover), 2. sanctification (Unleavened Bread), and 3. glorification (First Fruits). Just as Jesus Christ was the first holy and saintly Barley Harvest Overcomer to be resurrected from the dead as the Barley First Fruits of the greater Barley Harvest to come, the Bride of Christ also represents the rest of the holy and saintly Barley Harvest of Overcomers.

It is written that only Christ’s holy and saintly overcomers – the spiritually mature believes who are transformed into the image of Christ – will either be resurrected from the dead as part of the first resurrection or raptured alive BOTH happening during the Pre-Tribulation Rapture. These are the saints who will rule and reign on the earth during Jesus Christ’s millennial reign. Please note that no matter if God is speaking literally or figuratively, it also is written that the Barley Overcomers (symbolizing the barley grain that always is planted AFTER the Wheat) is always harvested before the Wheat.

The natural (physical) and spiritual orders of the grain harvests are why the Wheat Harvest represents “carnal believers who today are mostly ‘Christian’ churchgoers.” These carnal believers are the end-time gathered Gentile nations. Indeed, Christ’s Gospels’ description of the gathered nations is a picture of God’s Wheat Harvest (see Matthew 25:32, Mark 13:27). It is written that all nations will come to know the Lord and serve Him.

This second harvest speaks of those believers who were justified by faith, but either they did not go through or did not submit to the Holy Spirit’s sanctification process. Many of these carnal believers will also be first resurrection believers, but just barely. They will be saved but have the smell of smoke on them. Furthermore, the alive end-time Wheat (carnal) believers will need to be shifted like wheat in order to become fully sanctified so that they can wear God’s Divine Nature and Character (be glorified). Unfortunately, they will be the beheaded Tribulation martyrs.

Carnal believers who are Wheat still have some rebellion or lawlessness in their lives that must be purged by the Fire of God (the Holy Spirit). The only way for this purging to happen is for this Wheat to be exposed to the Antichrist’s wrath during the prophesied end-time Tribulation. The believers who are part of the Wheat Harvest will be brought forth in the second resurrection (Tribulation Period’s Rapture) to be glorified “ yet so as through fire.” The apostle Paul writes:

Remember, there is only one foundation, the one already laid: Jesus Christ. Take particular care in picking out your building materials. Eventually there is going to be an inspection. If you use cheap or inferior materials, you’ll be found out. The inspection will be thorough and rigorous. You won’t get by with a thing. If your work passes inspection, fine; if it doesn’t, your part of the building will be torn out and started over. But you won’t be torn out; you’ll survive—but just barely. – 1 Corinthians 3:11-15, MSG

If Christ’s believers are not saintly overcomers – victorious over the flesh, the world, and the devil  –  they are not Christ’s Barley Bride. It is only with the aid of the Holy Spirit that saints who become overcomers are able to control their flesh, conquer the corrupt world systems, and defeat God’s enemy the Devil. Selah (pause and calmly think about that)!

NOTE: God established that three of His seven commanded appointed times (feast days) would be associated with two different grain harvests and one fruit of the vine harvest that took place annually in Israel. The barley grain ripens first around the time of First Fruits, the wheat grain ripens later around the time of Pentecost, and the grapes from the vine ripen last just prior to the feast of Tabernacles. Moreover, God established that these three crops (barley, wheat, and grapes) would also depict, spiritually speaking, three classes of people. The Barley represents the holy and saintly overcomers, the Wheat represents the carnal believers, and the Grapes mostly represent the unsaved unbelievers.

Glorification Won’t Be Cosmetic

03 Thursday Aug 2017

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Glorified Bodies Not Made Cosmetically

 

 

VERSE:

so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.

 

Ephesians 5:27

 

COUPLET:
Spotless and wrinkleless in ageless dreams
Can’t be achieved with anti-aging creams.

 

 

Anti-Aging Creams

 

 

PRAYER:

Holy Spirit, thank You for teaching us. Thank You, too, for changing us into the likeness of Christ, so we will be without spot or wrinkle, so others will see Christ in us, and so we’ll never resort to being those actors who once played three different roles: a “religious” role, a public role, and a familial role. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.

 

 

~ this blog entry is from my manuscript Daily Manna: Bible Verse, Couplet & Prayer for Each Day of the Year

Sanctified for the Mission—Preaching the Gospel, Discipling, Encouraging Fellow Believers, Glorifying God and Christ

04 Tuesday Nov 2014

Posted by in Faith and Wisdom

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GO And Make Disciples of All Nations

Now I’m returning to you.
I’m saying these things in the world’s hearing
So my people can experience
My joy completed in them.
I gave them your word;
The godless world hated them because of it,
Because they didn’t join the world’s ways,
Just as I didn’t join the world’s ways.
I’m not asking that you take them out of the world
But that you guard them from the Evil One.
They are no more defined by the world
Than I am defined by the world.
Make them holy—consecrated—with the truth;
Your word is consecrating truth.
In the same way that you gave me a mission in the world,
I give them a mission in the world.
I’m consecrating myself for their sakes
So they’ll be truth-consecrated in their mission. ~ John 17:13-19, MSG

Isn’t it wonderful that Father God’s grand design for Christ Jesus is now a good and finished work—a real, absolute, and unchangeable reality? He performed every part of the mission God had assigned to Him, and, in doing so, He pleased, praised, and glorified God. As a result, His finished work earned Him the right to return into Heaven to His Glory, to His Throne, and in His place of Honor, which is at the right hand of God.

Backing up just a little, in John 17:13-19, Christ Jesus’ mission on Earth is about to be completed, and that is why for protection purposes our Lord is turning over to our Heavenly Father His initial followers, as well as future disciples—all the believers who have received regeneration, salvation, and the Word of God—so that Father God can preserve them (keep them in perfect or purified condition—sanctify them), while they remain in this world. It is just like a good Shepherd to put the care and preservation of His sheep before His own safety and care, even though He is much aware of the immediacy of the Cross, and even though He knows the horrible death He’d have to face before He would be able to leave this world and return to the safety and purity of Heaven. It is exactly this knowledge that has Christ Jesus tenderly praying to Father God on behalf of ALL of His disciples, but specifically for His contemporary followers.

In His prayer, Christ Jesus isn’t asking Father God to translate these disciples right then and there, like in the manner of Enoch and Elijah, nor is He asking Father God to allow them to bypass earthly afflictions and sorrows by experiencing death in its common form. The Lord doesn’t pray for them to be taken out of this world right then and there, because He has GREAT work for them to do. If they were to be taken off of this Earth, there would be no one left behind to preach the Gospel of Christ so that sinners might be reborn and saved. Then too, if His present disciples were to be removed off the Earth at that time, there also would not be anyone left to encourage and edify the remaining saints (Mary the mother of Jesus, the other Mary’s, and other friends and followers of Christ Jesus, who later were in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost). Once again, Christ Jesus Himself is about to be crucified, resurrected, and raptured into Heaven. Thus, it is in His interest (for Christ Jesus’ legacy; everything He has handed down to His disciples) that His original followers should live on the Earth for a little bit longer, primarily so that, in addition to their Gospel preaching, their holy and righteous empowered and disciplined lifestyle also would be glorifying Father God and Christ Jesus, as well as witnessing to Father God’s unregenerate, unsaved chosen people and to the world’s lost souls.

Therefore, instead of praying for His disciples’ immediate removal, Christ Jesus expresses His concern for their safety and care, and by extension ours (meaning all of us who, after being reborn, saved by Grace, and justified, like the first-century disciples, would be left behind in this cold world to continue the Lord’s work). Since Christ Jesus knew that He soon would be crucified and that shortly after His resurrection would be leaving this Earth (would be raptured), He wanted to make sure that His current left-behind followers would have everything they needed to survive and thrive in this sin-sick world—a malignant world that would hate all of His followers just because they have accepted Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior, and have accepted His Word as the absolute Divine Truth.

This knowledge is why the Lord wasn’t praying that His present-day disciples, nor His 21st-century followers, never would have to know afflictions, sorrows, exclusion, rejection, storms of controversies, adversity, or that they, nor we, never would be vilified, slandered, rebuked, reviled, abandoned, forgotten, or pushed aside, and so forth. There is no doubt that Christ Jesus also knew that these listed sufferings, which He Himself experienced, would be part and parcel of the Christian experience.

So then, for the Christian experience reason, the above stated hurts and sufferings, which are NOT the Tribulation Period’s Wrath of God but rather the centuries of persecutions committed by mankind, are precisely why the Lord knew that in order for His disciples, then and now, to be able to combat this world’s Evil and avoid sinning they all would have to be sanctified so that they would be able to continue to honor His legacy—continue to be holy and righteous saints who would pass on to future generations of believers His Gospel and His discipleship (His Word, teachings, and the good works He performed), until the end of the Age of Grace. Thus, just like the first-century disciples/believers had to receive the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying power before they could be mighty witnesses for Christ Jesus—before they could begin their mission of finishing what He had begun, which is the Great Commission (cf. Acts 1:8; see also Matthew 28:16-20)—we today also must receive the Lord’s prayed for sanctification.

This Holy Spirit-assigned process is the necessary infilling (Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues) that will guarantee we eventually will become Christlike and then, like Him, will be raptured off of this Earth, when our mission here is finished. Our removal at that time will mean that we are officially in the Lord’s rest, enjoying our eternal life with Christ Jesus in Heaven, without ever having to go through the prophesied Tribulation Period.

Praise the Lord! Sanctify us, right now, Holy Spirit! AMEN.

~ from Faith and Wisdom: A Rhema Word in a Dry and Thirsty Land (2006); edited

Body, Soul, and Spirit: The Tripartite Being

23 Wednesday May 2012

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The Tripartite Being

Now may God himself, the God of peace, make you pure, belonging only to him. May your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—be kept safe and without fault when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:23, NCV

Then God said, ‘Let us make human beings in our image and likeness. And let them rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the tame animals, over all the earth, and over all the small crawling animals on the earth.’ So God created human beings in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. ~ Genesis 1:26-27, NCV

 

 

Whether we are men or women, boys or girls, each one of us is a three-in-one person. In other words, we reflect the tripartite nature of our Creator God, who is the quintessential Trinity.

Concerning our tripartite nature, each one of us has a BODY (external, physical layer responsive to humans’ touch, taste, smell, sight, hearing); a SOUL (inner, non-physical layer responsive to humans’ thoughts, beliefs, attitudes, affections, desires, emotions, memory, intellect, imagination, will, conscience), and a SPIRIT (innermost, non-physical layer, before the Fall and after regeneration, responsive to God’s Grace, Word, Faith, Love, Prayer, Forgiveness, Discipline, Correction, Repentance, Hope, Holy Spirit, Illumination, Sanctification, Glorification). Without a doubt, each one of  us has a physical part, which is our BODY, and two non-physical parts: our SOUL and our SPIRIT. 

Now, contrary to some popular opinions, the biblical Scriptures do differentiate between mankind’s living SOUL and mankind’s central SPIRIT. According to biblical Scriptures, mankind became a living SOUL after God breathed the breath of life (His Holy Spirit) into Adam, the first man (cf. Genesis 2:7). However, after Adam’s Fall, every human being’s non-physical central SPIRIT is spiritually dead, yet because of God’s Holiness, Love and Grace, He establishes a way to interact with mankind’s non-physical central SPIRIT, especially when God wants to influence, regenerate, redeem, justify, inspire, correct, discipline, teach, sanctify, and/or glorify a human being (see 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12).

Then too, based on the Babylonian Talmud, rabbinical tradition teaches that God created souls AND spirits. Rabbinical tradition also teaches that the “unborn” souls and spirits, that is, those souls and spirits that are waiting for God to unite them for the first time with their earthly bodies, live in the seventh heaven (Araboth). Lastly, rabbinical tradition teaches that the righteous souls and spirits that have been separated from their bodies also live in the seventh heaven (cf. Babylonian Talmud Chagigah 12b).

Now because too many people believe that mankind is only a physical being, and because too many people believe in the more popular bipartite view of body and spirit (a view in which the soul and spirit are understood to be the same thing), mankind, as a whole, only will be able to understand fully the triune God (see Matthew 28:19; 2 Corinthians 13:14), after each one of us better understands this Divine Truth: We are triune beings who, according to biblical Scripture, have been created in God’s Three In One image (cf. Genesis 1:26, NCV). More important, in order for us to understand fully the Christian doctrine of immortality, meaning the endless/eternal conscious existence of the human SOUL (see Romans 2:7; 1 Corinthians 15:51-54; 2 Timothy 1:10), we first must understand fully mankind’s tripartite nature.

Just as Almighty God Himself is a Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), each one of us also is a Trinity (Body, Soul, and Spirit). Of mankind’s three distinctive parts, God has the strongest affinity for mankind’s unregenerate SPIRIT. Every human being is born with a sin nature; mankind is born in bondage to sin and, thus, every unsaved person is out of fellowship with God. Because, mankind’s old sin nature is worldly, the BODY, SOUL and SPIRIT are habitually selfish, greedy, and proud. The apostle John agrees, because he writes:

These are the ways of the world: wanting to please our sinful selves, wanting the sinful things we see, and being too proud of what we have. None of these come from the Father, but all of them come from the world. (1 John 2:16, NCV) 

In other words, because mankind’s unregenerate SPIRIT is spiritually dead to God’s Divine Truths, the gates to every lost SOUL’s affections, desires, and faculties (intellect, wisdom, common sense, conscience, etc.) are not turned toward God. Consequently, everything that can tempt a human being’s lost SOUL and influence what he or she thinks, does, and/or says will enter into a lost SOUL through the BODY’s five unchecked “gateways”: eyes, ears, mouth, nose, and fingers and hands.

For the abovementioned reasons, before mankind’s unregenerate SPIRIT can receive God’s spiritual Truths  about an eternal life with God and about everything that would make the natural man and woman, boy and girl, an overcomer in this world (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:14; 1 John 5:4), God first has to regenerate mankind’s SPIRIT. Once the SPIRIT is born again from above (cf. John 3:6-8), this SPIRIT then is able to receive God’s spiritual Truths and is able to convince the BODY to die daily while convincing the SOUL to be spiritually renewed daily (cf. Romans 12:1-2).

More important, because a person’s regenerated SPIRIT affects the BODY’s five senses and the SOUL’s affections, desires, and faculties (intellect, wisdom, common sense, conscience, etc.), the now Holy Spirit illuminated born-again SPIRIT is able to check whatever comes through the BODY’s five gateways so that the SOUL ends up surrendering its affections, desires, and faculties to God’s affections, desires and faculties. The point here is that the Holy Spirit’s most important goal is not only to make a believer’s BODY, SOUL, and SPIRIT one (make all three parts immortal), just like the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One (all three Persons are eternal); but also the Holy Spirit’s job is to make every imperfect (unholy) BODY, SOUL, and SPIRIT holy (perfect), like the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit are HOLY (perfect)—like each of the three Persons of the Trinity is identified as being HOLY! This call to Holiness is the ONENESS reality Christ Jesus prays for in John 17:21.

For the above-stated reasons, Christ Jesus prays:

Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me. ~ John 17:21, NCV

It should be noted here that there is no way that human beings ever could be in GOD, in Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, if one of human beings’ three parts (Body, Soul, and Spirit) is not HOLY. Moreover, there can be no doubt that this threefold perfection (holiness) is what the apostle Paul means when he writes:

Now may God himself, the God of peace, make you pure, belonging only to him. May your whole self—spirit, soul, and body—be kept safe and without fault when our Lord Jesus Christ comes. ~ 1 Thessalonians 5:23, NCV

Thus, for Christ Jesus as well as for apostle Paul, the bottom line is: Holiness is the Oneness reality of the triune God’s nature. For sure, God’s Holiness character is fundamentally essential to His identity—essential to knowing who God really is. So because His innermost nature is Holiness, God’s Holy disposition is without a doubt the main reason why both the unity and the diversity of the triune God hold together. Put differently, Holiness is the true essence of God, for Holiness not only is the name of God but also Holiness is most characteristic of His nature. God’s Holiness, thus, defines or strengthens all of His godly attributes. For these reasons, where godly Oneness is concerned, God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are indivisible (inseparable), because they are perfectly joined together, having the exact same mindset, judgment, AND holiness (character or disposition or nature).

Furthermore, it is God Himself who calls us to Holiness, for the purpose of sharing in God’s Holiness character. Not only does the Scripture confirm that God graciously invites us to “…share in God’s nature…” (2 Peter 1:4, NCV), but also, as mentioned earlier, this sharing in God’s Holiness is the ONENESS reality that Christ Jesus prays for in John 17:21. That’s why, as God’s Holy Spirit takes each one of us through God’s progressive sanctification, or the process by which we obtain God’s kind of Holiness, so that we also will have the same kind of Oneness that is in THE Trinity, we can rest assured that our wholly sanctified (fully pure and fully Holy nature) not only means our SPIRIT and SOUL are perfected but also means God has fulfilled the promised transformation that gives us our glorified BODY’s.

In other words, the work of the sanctifying Holy Spirit is to make each born again, saved, and justified believer a Kingdom of God resident who, like Christ Jesus, epitomizes the indivisible (inseparable) Oneness reality. In view of that, just as each of the three Persons of the Trinity is identified as being HOLY, eventually each of our three distinctive parts (BODY, SOUL, and SPIRIT) also will be identified as being HOLY. Consequently, each believer’s BODY, SOUL, and SPIRIT will be perfectly joined together with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and THEY ALL will have the exact same mindset, judgment, AND holiness (character or disposition or nature). AMEN!

Resurrected From Spiritual Death To Spiritual Life

05 Saturday May 2012

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Spiritual Rebirth

Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice. ~ John 5:28, ESV

  

We know that God’s Holy Spirit is the Living Water—our constant flowing source of Divine Revelation (illuminator of God’s WORD), our constant flowing source of spiritual wisdom, knowledge, understanding, and spiritual gifts, and our constant flowing source of Christ Jesus’ power, authority, and anointing. In view of this knowledge, there should be no doubt that this Living Water additionally not only continually cleanses us from all manner of defilement but also initially makes us spiritually alive.

Even though, for the most part, we indirectly hear Christ Jesus’ voice speak to us (like from off the Bible’s pages that we read, and/or from out of the mouths of Bible teachers, preachers, and disciplers), Christ Jesus first had to speak to us, indirectly or directly, before we ever could be resurrected from out of our spiritual graves (the state of being spiritually dead to God). In actuality, according to God’s written and preached Word, our Father sovereignly decided that, after His Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit worked together to influence a positive response from us to the read or preached Word, His Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit would work together to perform a preliminary spiritual baptism in us so that we could be resurrected from spiritual death, or separation from God.

In other words, no matter when we respond favorably to either the written or the preached Word of God, the Divine Truth is that our positive response is because of God’s Grace and His Holy Spirit’s Power. That’s right! It is because of God’s Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit that God allows His Holy Spirit to influence our receptivity of the read, preached, and/or taught WORD of God, which is the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Furthermore, it is because of this initial act of God’s Grace and Power that His Grace and His Holy Spirit’s Power next work together to breathe life into us, again, only this time it is the “new” life that is being breathed into our spiritually dead human spirits. God, in essence, is regenerating sinners’ spirits—we are being born again from Heaven.

No one can feel this new birth while it is happening, and no one can do anything to make this new birth happen. Put differently, regeneration (rebirth; being born again from above) is solely the work of God’s Grace and the Power of His Holy Spirit.

Subsequently, the teamwork of God’s Grace and His Holy Spirit’s Power also involves giving us our measure of faith, as well as influencing our spiritual hearing (understanding), our spiritual receiving, and our spiritual trusting in our Lord’s voice, which is calling us, either directly or indirectly, unto repentance, salvation, discipleship, and sanctification. Now even though there has been much written about whether or not believers actually could hear Father God or Christ Jesus’ audible voice, the Divine Truth is that very soon, Christ Jesus will speak and His direct audible voice will be heard clearly by every one of His deceased disciples.

When He speaks to His deceased disciples with His direct audible voice, His voice will be calling them from their graves. He will be resurrecting all of the centuries of the dead in Christ saints from their physical graves (from the places on this Earth where their physical bodies were buried, no matter if they were buried in the ground, at sea, placed in mausoleums, or put in urns).  As it was with Lazarus who arose from his grave when Christ Jesus cried out to him with a LOUD voice, “…Lazarus, come forth…” (John 11:43), the dead in Christ will arise from their physical graves, wherever those graves might be, as soon as these dead in Christ hear their Bridegroom’s shout (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16)!

However, there still will be another resurrection. The centuries of people who have rejected Christ Jesus’ call to repentance and salvation also will be “called” out of their graves to be judged and then thrown into the Lake of Fire (cf. Revelation 20:11-15). Their fate is why every believer should use most of the time he or she has left on this Earth to pant after the Living Water (to draw closer to Christ Jesus), to pay attention to His voice, to answer  “yes, Lord,” and to do God’s Perfect Will. In other words, we never can turn a deaf ear to God’s Divine Truth or His Perfect Will, because if we do, then the next time we hear Christ Jesus’ voice might be when He says to depart from Him, because He doesn’t know us (cf. Matthew 7:21-23)!  

Being Spiritual Means First Being Born Again

23 Friday Jan 2009

Posted by in Spiritual

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Many people are familiar with the Bible’s passages that deal with Jesus explaining to Nicodemus why he must be born again, yet many of these same people are still blind about their own born-again condition. They are unaware that being redeemed and being born again are not synonymous. They also simply do not understand that being born again (regenerated) is an imperative. In other words, they fail to understand that their new birth has to be achieved before their salvation can be received.

Jesus teaches Nicodemus that, unless his human spirit is changed so that he can begin his life anew, he will not be able to enter into Heaven. To make sure that Nicodemus thoroughly understands the importance of Jesus’ born again command, Jesus adds, “…The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born again of water and the Spirit. Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven” (John 3:5-6, NLT).

Now although many theologians teach that the “water” Jesus refers to in John 3:5 is the physical birth (human beings’ first birth), which is accompanied by a flow of watery amniotic fluid, in truth, the “water” Jesus is making a reference to is the spiritual cleansing performed by the washing of the Word of God. Since the Word of God also is called the Living Water of Jesus the Christ, then Jesus the Christ is saying that God’s Holy Spirit will use the Living Water to perform the necessary regeneration that human beings must experience before God’s spiritual purification (sanctification) process can continue in them. Thus, human beings’ dead spirits first must be born again before people can become spiritual, but the only way for human beings to be born again is for them to experience the rebirth of their human spirits that only God’s Grace, which is activated by the power of His Holy Spirit, can make happen. Indeed, no man or woman can become spiritual without first experiencing the regenerating operation of the Grace of God and the power of His Holy Spirit that work together, simultaneously, in order to create humans’ new birth status.

Unfortunately, there are far too many believers, in Christian churches and ministries, who are using the term “born again” to refer to “something” that human beings do under their own strength, power, and predilection; they insist that being born again is a decision, or a commitment, or a rededication they make. However, as already stated, the new birth that Jesus the Christ speaks about is “something” that only the Grace and Power of God can make happen. Consequently, a person is not born again because he or she confesses, repents, believes and accepts, but a person confesses, repents, believes and accepts because God’s Holy Spirit already has regenerated him or her! Regeneration, then, is solely the work of God’s Grace through the power of His Holy Spirit, and not the work of men and women!

Since being born again is wholly, completely, and supremely because of God’s Holy Spirit power and His marvelous Grace, by God’s design, humans are not participating in their new birth, because nothing they do, say or think can influence their regeneration. Once their human spirits experience the new birth, then the Holy Spirit is able to convict them about their need to be aware of their sins, to accept responsibility for their sins, and to confess (agree with God about) their sin-guilt awareness (an awareness of their born in sin nature). Therefore, it is during the initial and subsequent Holy Spirit convictions that follow individuals’ born again experience that humans become active participants in God’s plan of redemption.

Once again, individuals’ active participation in their own salvation begins immediately after their spiritually dead human spirits (their spiritual hearts) have been regenerated (reborn). It is at this point in God’s redemption plan that people sincerely can confess their awareness of and accountability for their sins, confess their specific sins, repent their specific sins, confess that they believe in the Lord Jesus the Christ, and accept Him as their personal Savior. Their confessions, belief and acceptance will bring about their justification. After they have been justified by Jesus the Christ’s righteousness, which means they have been put in right standing with God, the Holy Spirit who is now inside them is able to begin to sanctify (transform) them into the image of Christ. However, if believers do not cooperate with the Holy Spirit (participate in His sanctification process), the Holy Spirit cannot mature believers’ born-again spirits and, thus, He will not be able to change the way their unregenerate (stubborn) minds think!

So, what does being spiritual really mean? To a true believer, being spiritual means being born again by the Grace of God and the mighty working power of the Holy Spirit so that the indwelling and infilling Holy Spirit can begin and conclude the sanctifying process of spiritually maturing believers in their faith. Once again, no person can become spiritual without first experiencing God’s Grace and the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit, which work in tandem.

Finally, being spiritual means that a born again, saved believer now is more concerned about the well-being of his or her soul, the Mercy and Grace of God, and the importance of eternity, as opposed to his or her carnal concerns about the pleasures of the flesh; the profits of money, fame, and material possessions; the restrictions of time; and/or the limitations of the five senses (seeing, tasting, feeling, smelling, and hearing). In essence, truly spiritual beings are those who have been reconnected to their Creator and Father God through their initial new birth and their subsequent justification. Moreover, their new birth and justification are Creator, Father God’s redemption plan experiences that permit spiritual beings not only to be able to have a Father-child relationship but also to be able to fellowship with their Father God (who is Spirit) by worshipping Him in Spirit and Truth.

Believers Returning To Their Christian Roots

10 Saturday Jan 2009

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As we walk in the fullness of the Holy Spirit’s Baptism, Christ will become increasingly significant and precious to us. Conversely, we short-circuit our rebirth’s wiring when we walk in the flesh. As a result, Christ will become less precious to us.

For sure, how much value we place in Christ will be indicative of where we are spiritually. Even though it is the Holy Spirit’s job to oversee our spiritual growth, we must cooperate with Him. Our cooperation allows Him to glorify Christ in us by maturing our spiritual lives (transforming us into Christ’s image) by moving us from one spiritual level of glory to another.

The higher the Holy Spirit takes us, the more precious Christ becomes to us, and the more we want to meditate on God’s Word. The more we meditate on His Word, the more we learn about Christ’s beauty and majesty. The more we learn about Christ’s beauty and majesty, the more we want to become like Him. Reflecting the highest level of glory in Christ (becoming Christ-like) is what Apostle Paul wanted for the Galatians, even more so now that his evangelistic efforts had become fruitless in them, because Apostle Paul’s honesty about their ungodly living made him their enemy (cf. Galatians 4:16).

As their spiritual father, Apostle Paul vowed to suffer the pains of their spiritual childbirth again and again until the Galatians remembered how they once received him, even with his failing eyesight. The Galatians once loved the Apostle Paul so much that they offered to give him their eyes so that he could see better (cf. Galatians 4:15). Thus, if the Galatians returned to their Christian roots–returned to their past love for the true Gospel the apostle taught them and their past love for him–Apostle Paul believed that the Galatians spiritually would see that the Judaizers among them were the ones who were their real enemies, for the Judaizers taught salvation by works!

Apostle Paul maintained that if the Galatians stopped trying to sanctify themselves with their human works and genuinely renewed their trust in God’s Holy Spirit, they would begin to grow again, from glory to glory. Likewise, today’s spiritually childish believes must return to their Christian roots before they can become Christ-like.   AMEN.

“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you” (Galatians 4:19, KJV; cf. 1 Corinthians 4:15).