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Understanding New Birth - Part 11

Luke 24:49 “Behold, I send the Promise of My Father upon you; but tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on high”. NKJV

I want to share with you how to live the victorious life in Christ. You must be empowered by God to be able to experience victory over sinful habits. From our opening verse, Jesus warned His disciples about setting out without receiving power. While He spoke with them, He breathe the Holy Spirit over them but they were yet to be baptized with the same Holy Spirit (John 20:22).

At new birth, God’s Spirit comes and dwells in our bodies. But there’s His ministry in us and through us that can only be effected after He has come upon us (filled us with power from on high).

John 7:39 “But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified”.

John 14:16 “And I’ll pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever – 17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Hi, for He dwells with you and will be in you”.

The promise of the Spirit is for the Church (Body of Christ) and not the world. These verses are referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit. An unregenerate man is regarded as the world in the bible; at new birth, he/she receives the Spirit and qualifies as a member of the Body of Christ (the Church). Now, he/she needs power to function in this new life he/she has received. This power only comes after he/she is baptized with the same Spirit.

A new creation that is yet to be baptized with the Holy Spirit will struggle with many things. There’s power in our will and determination. If this power was enough to lead the glorious life in Christ, Jesus would have said so. However, He warned His disciples about going into the world without being endued with power from on high.

The righteousness (right standing before God) we have in Christ is a gift. This righteousness is the sure foundation. We lay upon this foundation our obedience to the moral laws of God. God knows that in order for His children to succeed in obeying Him, they need help. His Spirit is that help.

As a new creation, I have struggled with ungodly habits and addictions. Things I’m not proud of. I struggled to be free from some these unholy acts by my will power. All these while, I had received power through the Spirit’s baptism. But I didn’t know how to engage this power for victory.

It is one thing to receive power and it is another thing to engage that power for results. The Spirit in you is your Helper; He’s the greater One that gives you the advantage in life. He sees everything about your life. He’s willing to help you all the way. But you must know how to engage His help. You must know that victory over the world doesn’t come easy.

We are admonished to watch and pray. What that means is that after praying, be sensitive to the leading of the Spirit of God. Dedicate as much time to watching as to praying. If you believe He has heard, then wait earnestly for His answers. He will show you how to break the power of the devil over every ungodly addictions and habits (trust me on that).

If you are at peace with how your life is, trust me, God’s Spirit won’t interfere. Like I said in the previous part, He’s the Helper and not the controller. I do not know what area of your life you are ashamed of as a new creation. I sure know how you can come out of every shameful place. That help is in the person of the Holy Spirit (the Helper). The things He will teach you and bring to your remembrance is in the Word of God. That is His tool; a very effective tool.

We receive the initial baptism of the Spirit by faith. Recognize Jesus as the baptizer and ask Him to baptize you. When you have done this in prayer, believe that you have been baptized because you have. Jesus is always ready to fill members of His body with the Spirit of God. If you are not yet filled with Him, you can go ahead now and receive Him in fullness.

We will share more on the leading of the Spirit in Part 12. Thank you for your time and enjoy God’s blessings.

Understanding New Birth - Part 8

Romans 5:19 “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous”. NKJV

We can’t fully understand the gift of salvation and righteousness until we are able to comprehend the Love of God towards us through Jesus Christ. In Romans 3:24-26, we are made to understand that our justification is free because of God’s grace through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, and God did this to demonstrate His righteousness in this present age.

In light of these scriptures, we can conclude that God’s love is a force that pulls creation to Him. God will stop at nothing to demonstrate His love to His creation. And this love He demonstrated again through the coming of His Son Jesus to the earth.

Now, to all who accept and identify with this love through Jesus Christ, the gift of right standing before God is given. Righteousness in this instance means having a right standing before the Almighty God. And this right standing isn’t something man could achieve for himself through any human effort.

In this series, we have established that man’s nature changed when he ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The fruit of that tree changed the nature of man. Man died spiritually because the sin nature in the tree affected his relationship with his creator. God promised a restoration in Gen 3:15 when He said that the Seed of man will bruise the head of Satan. We know that Satan was the one who enticed and seduced man into eating of the forbidden fruit.

The Seed there was referring to Jesus Christ the Son of Man. He was the only one with the ability and power to resolve this impasse. That had always been the plan from the beginning. Jesus Christ is the Lamb of God slain before the foundations of the earth was put in place.

In preparation for the sacrifice of the Lamb of God, God taught the Jewish man how to atone for his sins with the sacrifice of the blood of animals (bulls and goats). This ritual was instituted so that man will understand and come to terms with the significance of the sacrifice of the Lamb of God.

It was this sacrifice that brought about a reconciliation and man was restored back to having a right standing before his creator, The Almighty God. We (first fruits) have been reconciled back to God through Jesus Christ. So, we are made righteous because we have received God’s gift of righteousness.

2 Corinth 5:21 “For He made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin (had no sin nature from Adam because of His immaculate conception) to be sin (became the sin offering offered to God) for us, that we might become the righteousness (have a right standing) of God in Him (Jesus)”. Paraphrased

Jesus became sin for man because the sin offering the Priest offered took the place of man under the Jewish law. The animal presented as sin offering was a substitute for man. It died in the place of man and its blood atoned for man’s transgression.

So righteousness is now the nature of new creations. Every man that has been regenerated (born again) has received the nature of the Son of God. So, as Christ is, so are we now. No more are new creations children of darkness. We are now children of light. Col 1:12-13 has it best. It says that God qualified us to share in the inheritance of saints in the light, because He delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.

Aren’t you glad that you are a child of light? In God, there’s no darkness at all. For He’s the God who calls light out of darkness (2 Corinth 4:6). Jesus said in John 3:19-20 that everyone who practices evil loves darkness and hates light because they want their deeds to be shrouded in darkness. But as for us children of light, we are to let our lights so shine before men that they will be left with no other option than to glorify our God who is in the Heavens.

We would share more on righteousness in part 9. Thank you for your time as you enjoy God’s blessings.