Let me explain....
This goes so FAR BEYOND saying a few intellectual words acknowledging Christ in some formal invitation to accept the Gospel (although we all start there)! This is receiving the Word and the Spirit deep within and producing fruit! Matt.13:8 This IS the born again experience and what it does!
In other words this is "Spirit to spirit" (God in communion with our inner man talking), and not "head knowledge" stuff I'm speaking of.
Only as Jesus reveals Himself in LOVE (through the Spirit) is the individual THEN capable of really understanding the Awesome Love that went to the cross for him, realizing that this same LOVE and LOVER is now also very much alive and seated as Lord on the throne of Glory.
A lot of people "HEAR Outwardly" the Love that God has for them (John 3 :16) but few "HEAR Inwardly" with the kind of faith that replies with Love that reponds to Him through obedience and yielding in turn.
This is not some "intellectual" experience, that can be explained - This is a "spiritual" experience, that cannot be explained!!!
"I WAS DEAD BUT NOW AM ALIVE! I LIVE!" (Rev.1:18)
Here is the Christian's "Living Hope": That as Christ was resurrected from the dead, then we too; being crucified with Him and raised to new life in Him through faith, then we will also become resurrected from these decaying and dying bodies and live with Him in glory in new bodies!
I can only liken those who are born again as being those who have first sat down and weighed the costs to the best of their knowledge (i.e. according to the Word of God they each received when they first believed).
What this amounts to is our gathering of all that is us and in us and all that is around us: Self, wife, husband, kids, house, security, fame, ambitions, future dreams, etc. and seeing ***IF*** He is WORTH setting it ALL aside for.
THAT is what is being examined!!! THAT is the question!!!... "What is He worth???"
God knows the heart!!! He knows what each one of us will decide, according to the Love we have in return for Him (or lack of it!).
The question God asks each of us is whether or not we are willing to set it all aside and offer it all to Him (thus killing it), if that's what it means and takes in order to lay hold of the Kingdom that He is offering???" (Remember Luke 22:42?)
Hear again His words...
and again....
These are some serious statements of Truth, as is this...
Jesus spells it all out clearly. We need no interpreter to Hear what He is saying!!!
Many are going around today saying they are saved, and, "Once Saved Always Saved", yet many of them live like the world does, in greed, avarice, lust and in love with much of what the world has to offer them.
Many may call themselves "Christian", but at the same time they deny and defy Jesus' words.... and no "Born again" Christian that I know of can continue on doing so, KNOWING full well that they are hurting the One they love above all else!!!
And so I have brought you full circle...
"Faith!" The kind that responds to Him outwardly (with the will and the body) as well as inwardly (with the mind and the heart).
Faith goes beyond just a hearing of the Gospel (Good News) of Jesus Christ. It goes right to the Heart of that Gospel....
John 14:
Those words of His say it all! (Bottom Line!)
The same is true today!
***IF*** we do Love Him then that leaves us no other options remaining or contrary choices to make - not really - because "Love" (as a fire ablaze in our heart for Him) that is made alive through a Faith brought on through the Word received in a heart that has been renewed by the Spirit, will do whatever it takes in order to come ALL THE WAY to Him and His throne and lay hold of the King and of the Kingdom. (Luke 13:24)
When He becomes to us the Perfect Pearl and Great Treasure beyond comparison is the day when we will; without hesitation, sell it all... a day when our Love for Him will Flame up and He and He alone will become the single pure desire of our hearts - and that is, "To Please Him - no matter the cost to ourself"!!! "To please Him", is all that matters!!! THAT is what Life is all about!
In turn (for our "Waking up to and Loving the Truth") He (The Truth Himself!) will shower us with a Love so real and perfect, one that is only meant for a son of His, a Love so meltingly powerful, so absolutely pure and all knowing of our every hurt and being, and perfectly holy that His Love will kill us (the old man), squeeze us and change us (into the new man) forever!!! And we will NEVER be the same ever again!!! (At least I don't see how - not when you've found and have been found by and set free by The Truth!)
THAT is what it means to be supernaturally Filled with the Love of God (for God is Love!), the moment that both the Father and the Son come into our hearts and make Their heavenly abode with us!!!
THAT is what "Conversion" to Christ means. He makes "disciples and followers" of Himself!
This is MORE than just believing that He is the Savior... this is "Knowing Him personally as He is and always was: in Spirit and in Truth", period. (After all, MANY Religions also claim to believe that He is the Savior - yet they continually deny His finished work and words.)
So, deciding to become a "Christian" involves much more than just an "intellectual" understanding of Christ being our Blessed Savior and of us being the sinners who desperately need saving, (although this is the necessary groundwork of our faith), it must also involve the kind of Love (a new-found spiritual one) that can and will go... ALL THE WAY to the end (no matter what) to be with Him, through the keeping of His words in our hearts!!!
Ask... "What good is it to have the foundation all laid out if we don't intend to build upon it and put a roof over it???" That was never in God's plan. His plan is to both save us AND cure us! The cure is found in the "new" birth!
I pray this letter will cause you (if you have not done so already) to sit down and weigh all the costs - examine your faith, check out your love for Him - and see if you really are worthy of Him and His words and know that you are Alive and Living The One And Only Christian Life".
Sometimes (more than I like to admit) I find myself not living up to what I know my God expects of me. I am not proud of this, but sad, ever beating this unwilling body into submission to my new man and thus the Lord's words. He expects "Fruit": "Love, Peace, Joy, etc." from all of us, and we have no excuses for not living up to and producing what He wants. He gave us the means (The Holy Spirit and The Word of God) through Christ to be a blessing to Him in word as well as in deed, and glorify Him and His name.
If it weren't for His Grace I'd go the way of the dodo! I absolutely know it, because I've seen what's in man (in myself) and how rebelliously evil it all is!!! Yet, none of this gives me the least excuse to sin.
The one thing about "Conversion" is that it causes us to WANT TO Love the Lord with all our mind, heart and soul and DO what "HE" says. That doesn't mean we always do what He says - it means that our WANTING TO do as He says should always be like a fire for Him burning hot in our hearts. Because it shows that we are indeed His, and that we do indeed Love and Worship Him truly for who He is and what He has done and says, and NEVER-EVER for any selfish reasons....
I Jn 4:
I Jn 2:
Hebrews 3:6:
May the Lord bless you and keep you In His Love, Through His Grace, By His Truth, amen!
Contrary to today's popular belief, "Conversion", or, "The Born Again experience" is so far beyond the intellectual grasp of men who haven't been that it's as far as night is from day. It is beyond any and all words, because "THE LORD" is beyond any and all words!!!
When someone is truly "Born Again" they KNOW it as they never knew anything before. This is something that can only be "known", and known in "immediately", and not over the course of years, It can never be learned or taught! Either one has Him (1 John 5:12a); and know that they do, or they don't (1 John 5:12b).
They are "Saved" and they KNOW it! (They no longer have to do anything to try and save themselves.)
They are "New Creatures in Christ", and they know it! 2 Cor.5:17 (They are changed, made anew, and so is their way of looking at everything.)
They have been "Changed and given a new heart, by receiving Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior", and they KNOW it! (Now they are able to see and to understand "spiritual things" with the same heart and mind that was in Jesus.)
It is upon the hearing of His death for "me" (personally) and my being made to realize the Awesome Love for me that was involved at the cross, along with the recognition (i.e. the Spiritual revelation) of His resurrection from the dead that the believer becomes readied to be emptied of (to be purged of) his old self (i.e. "old man")!
These are the ones who have "Heard the Call" and have taken The Call in to examine the costs of that call and if they have the sufficient guts - "Love", to follow up on it to the very end and go "all the way"!?
These are the ones who have decided to "Obey" The Call because the Love that was shown them by God is greater than all the loves they will ever know!
Matt 16:
24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.
26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?
Matt 10:
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
Matt 6:
24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
(For more insight on this read "My Story") ...This is my story
Their "Jesus" is a "fair weather friend", one they presume to have as a personal insurance policy and use to get what "they" want, all the while soaking in all of the lustful pleasures of this life and its many sin offerings, as if they are immune
It can't be done!!! To deny Jesus is to deny His words. His sheep do not (John 10:27).
Only an "apostate" (one who never followed up on their faith - John 8:31-32) or an "unbeliever" (one who never did Love the Lord nor respect the words of Christ) can do such a thing, proving that they are removed from Christ and that their conscience is seared and dead!!!
On the one hand I am saying that there is absolutely not one thing we can do to save ourselves! (and we can't, because "Jesus" alone is responsible for doing ALL of that)... Salvation is a miracle!
Yet on the other hand I am saying that "we" must also do something to arrive at and maintain so great a salvation!
And what might that be?
23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
And as I said before... "God knows hearts" (We can't fool Him). :)
To claim to be saved without ever being "touched" (i.e. not receiving the Grace necessary to overcome sin, self and the world) is comparable to the sinner who can't stop sinning simply because he is a sinner by birth. Therefore, he is only doing that which comes naturally.
This is the kind of bondage to sin that I speak of and that MUST be broken!!! This is what "being converted to Christ" does and means!
ONE ADDED NOTE.......
15 Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God.
16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.
17 Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear
3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.