Everything depends on this one thing:
Do you have the Spirit of God in you? Are you born again? Has God changed you?
Born again means God has changed you. Has that happened to you? Have you been made by God to be different from the person you once were? This is what it means to be born again.
If you are born again, you have the Spirit of God, for you are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God when you are born again.
Eph. 1:13 In Whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
No one can follow the Spirit of God unless he has the Spirit of God in him.
So many people go to church and try to be spiritual without having the Spirit of God in them. They copy other people who seem religious.
This will never work.
Jude v. 17-19 But, beloved, remember ye the words which were spoken before of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; How that they told you there should be mockers (copiers) in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts. These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.
Do you have the Spirit of God in you? Are you really born again? Are you changed from that person you once were?
Those who are born again have a personal experience with God. God changes them from that which they once were. It is not that you learn to do differently by reading the Bible. You have done nothing to justify salvation when you are born again. You are born again through the mercy of God, by the will of God. God simply revealed Himself to you and gave you HIS Spirit.
Changed by God reveals those who are born again by God.
Have you been changed by God? Or have you just always been religious, going to church? If this has never happened to you, I urge you to beg God for HIS mercy.
John 3:7 Jesus says: Ye must be born again.
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Pam Padgett tells this story:
When I was a sophomore in high school one of the boys in my class was killed in a motorcycle accident.
For the first time, I realized that someone my age could die.
This terrified me, for somehow I knew very strongly that if I died, I would go to hell.
For the first time, I realized that someone my age could die.
This terrified me, for somehow I knew very strongly that if I died, I would go to hell.
Although
I had been raised in the Catholic church, I knew that the various
rituals we were taught in the Catholic church would not keep me from
going to hell.
I knew that my only hope was God. We
had been taught in the Catholic church that there is God the Father,
His Son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, but I wasn't sure which one to pray
to about this. So I began my prayer by saying "I know there is the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but I don't know which one to pray
to, so please get this prayer to the right one." Then I went on to ask
that if there was any way for me to be saved from going to hell, to
please do that.
I didn't know what God would do with this prayer, but I knew that HE was the only one who could help me. Not long after this, I became aware that there was something different in me. The only way I knew to describe it was that "there was now something of God in me", but I didn't know any more than that.
I also found that I had a strong desire to read the Bible. One day while reading in the Bible I saw I Corinthians 6:19-20 ...
What?
know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in
you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? I knew that my only hope was God.
I didn't know what God would do with this prayer, but I knew that HE was the only one who could help me.
I also found that I had a strong desire to read the Bible.
For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God's.
***
Comments by Joan Boney:
I was born again, sealed with the Spirit of God, given the Spirit of God to live in me and guide me.
An example of the difference in me before I was born again:
This year, I recorded on TV some of the Oscar winning movies presented on TCM. I had seen these before and recalled I liked them. But when I tried watching these, I found I didn't like them. Then I realized I saw these movies before I was born again. Those things we once enjoyed, we no longer enjoy for we now see the sin in this world.
***
Pam Padgett tells of her Aunt Eunice:
My great-aunt, Aunt Eunice, had gone to the Baptist church, I think all of her life. As an adult she was very active in the Baptist church, even cleaning the church each week. I'm sure everyone in our family had no doubt that Aunt Eunice was a Christian.
When she was in her 80's, there was a large family reunion. At one point during the gathering, Aunt Eunice got up and announced with great joy and excitement that she was now born again! She said she had always thought she was born again, but she now knew that she hadn't been born again until recently.
I was sitting next to Aunt Eunice's oldest daughter. She leaned over to me and said "I don't know why Mother is saying this. She just recently started talking like this. But she has always been a Christian. Everyone knows how she has worked at the church and done whatever needed to be done for years."
This daughter obviously didn't understand being born again, but it caused me to rejoice to hear what Aunt Eunice said.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
***
After you are born again, you are sealed by God with HIS Spirit. (Eph. 1)
This means you now have the Holy Spirit living in you to show you the will of God and to guide you and teach you. HE does that by bringing thoughts to our mind to show us God's way for us to go in the issues that pertain to this life.
Now you can follow God for you have the HOLY Spirit in you and you follow HIM, doing as HE shows you.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth. HE is the comforter. Also HE is our helper. For from time to time, HE will bring a thought to our mind to help us as we struggle with a problem of this life. When HE brings such to our mind we can know this is the way of God for us in the matter at hand for the Holy Spirit searches the heart of God to reveal to us the will of God for us.
I Corinthians 2
2 For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and HIM crucified.
3 And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
4 And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:
7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
***
Jesus says:
John 5:30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.
After we are born again and have the Holy Spirit living in us, we, too, like Jesus, hear from God and follow what HE shows us by His Spirit.
John 14:16 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, HE shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
John 16:13 Howbeit when HE, the Spirit of truth, is come, HE will guide you into all truth: for HE shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever HE shall hear (from God), that shall HE speak: and HE will shew you things to come.
Those persons who are born again, changed, by God, have the Spirit of God living in them to help them, to comfort them, to teach them in the ways of God.
But you cannot follow the Spirit of God unless you have the Spirit of God living in you.
John 3:7 Jesus says: "Ye must be born again."
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