Born Again (2)
In my writing about the new life, I say that the second
stage of the Christian life is "being baptized in the Spirit" or the
fancy term "new life".
So the first step to
becoming a Christian is:
1. The person is baptized, which means it is sealed or given
a sign that the person belongs to heaven.
2. The person received "Baptism in Spirit" from
the Lord Jesus.
3. Strive or pursue
for holiness.
As God says in:
Leviticus 20:26 - NT
“I will separate you from the other nations so that you will
be Mine. You must be holy because I am the Lord, and I am holy”.
Holy means “sacred” or the biblical term is “one who is
separated from the world”. What is meant by being separated from the world is not that we have
to go to the mountains or to the forest to be alone, that's not…really crazy.
What this means is that God will separate us from the things
or habits of the world that we used to do before becoming God's children.
These
habits include: addiction or our attachment to something, for example sex,
pornography, fornication, envy, anger, drunkenness, orgies and so on. So, God
asks us to let go of all the bonds of the world that have bind us or the fancy
term is to repent.
What is meant by
repentance is that we do not do something that we previously did. If we were
addicted to something then we ask God to help us to let it go.
For example,
addiction to cigarettes, porn movies, porn sites, pornographic magazines /
books, like lying, cheating, stealing, has another women or men's, talking
dirty, cursing, speaks recklessly, gossiping, likes to fight, free sex,
slandering, beat his wife or children and others.
Usually someone who is just baptized in the Spirit will
initially have a burning enthusiasm to serve God (in the Bible it is called
first love), even that person is willing to die for God.
From the Lord's side also gives privileges to this
born-again person, usually heaven will answer the prayers of the born-again
person quickly.
But whilst the time over the person will be further away
from God, the person would rarely pray, reads the Word or goes to services on
church.
Likewise, with the answers to the prayers offered, the more difficult
it is to answer, as if God is getting further away.
The journey of human life is the same as the life journey of
the Israelites, before entering the promised land, a person must face the
wilderness of his life.
About how long a person lives in the wilderness of his
life, actually depends on that person.
Holiness is not something that can be taken for granted.
Holiness must be endeavored with all our strength, and we must remember that as
humans, we still consist of blood (life) and flesh.
As the Bible says that "the spirit is obedient, but the
flesh is weak", so to achieve holiness we must put to death the works of
the flesh.
Putting off the works of the flesh is not an easy thing,
many Christians who are born again still find it difficult to leave their old
habits.
The Apostle Paul himself said in:
Romans 7: 22-24 - NT
"I love God's law inwardly, but I realize that in me
there is also another law that plays a role - that is, a law that is contrary
to the law recognized by my mind.
That is why I am bound by the law of sin
which plays a role in me. Now, this is my situation: I obey God's laws with my
intellect, but with my human nature I am subject to sin.
What a pity for me!
Who will save me from this body that brought me to death? Thanks be to God! He
wants to save me through Jesus Christ.”
In processing a person God will process that person slowly,
because if it is processed quickly that person will not stand it.
For example,
let’s say that you have a habit of smoking, masturbating or watching
pornographic films, God will just knock on the door of your heart and ask you
to stop the sin.
For an obedient person, he will ask God to heal or release
him from this habit/ addiction, and that person will try his utmost to avoid
this "sin".
But for a stubborn person, he unwillingly to give up the
habit/ addiction he has. Now, for people like this, usually God will beat up
after being given enough time according to God. This is the verse:
Colossians 3: 5 - NT
"Therefore, turn off in yourself everything that is
worldly, namely fornication, uncleanness, lust, evil lust and also greed, which
is the same as idolatry"
We need to know that this habit/ addiction is not an act of
Satan, but is an act of our own flesh. As I said, "flesh" is so
attached in worldly life, for example: the pleasures of life such as sex, food,
drink, orgies and others.
When a person is born again what is replaced by a new one is
the "spirit of that person", while his body is still his old body, a
body full of sin. It is this body that tries its best to endure so that the
person does not abandon his fleshly deeds.
Many people who have been born again are defeated by the
actions of this body, so that they continue to commit these "sins",
and even worse these sins are committed secretly, because they are ashamed if
people find out that they are "God's children" to do things that are
not right.
Let alone many prominent servants of God who do this.
Therefore, we often hear that there are servants of God who play with
prostitutes, don't pay taxes, homosexuals and so on.
America itself was
recently shocked by the case of "Ted Haggard", a leader of
evangelists in America, and church leaders of 14,000 congregations who
confessed their sins playing with male prostitutes and dependent on drugs.
So, brothers, if we want to follow God, we have to
completely solve the problems from within ourselves, then we serve God. Because
it hurts when we have become God's servants, but the congregation know that we
still have habits/ addictions to sin.
It is better for us to tidying up our whole life to God, and when God
says we are ready then we will serve others.
As the apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:27
"But I trained my body and completely mastered it, so
that after preaching the gospel to others, I myself would not be
rejected."
Well, it is clear what should be done after receiving
Baptism in Spirit from the Lord Jesus. Do not let us tell the gospel to other
people, and the person we teach will go to heaven, and uuh ... we will even go
to hell, because we live in falsehood.
We have to tidying up of all the "idols" that are
in our life. If we don't want to give up the things that we loved, then God
will consider us worshiping what we love. Ask the HOLY SPIRIT to enable us to
rid ourselves of these bad things.
Finally, don't forget to keep praying, read the Bible and
also attend church services. And most importantly after you are baptized in the
Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God lives in you, don't let us extinguish the
Spirit. If you can speak in tongues, do it often in your prayers,
Because speak in tongues builds your relationship with God.
Build a strong fellowship with God.
1 Thessalonians 5: 23-24 NT
"May God Himself give us prosperity, make you people
who really live specially for God.
May God protect you entirely, whether in
your spirit, soul or body, so that there will be no defects when our Lord Jesus
Christ returns. God, who has called you, will do this because He is faithful”.
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