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This book was written by Pastor Kurt R. Heisey as a tool to be given to new converts to point them in the right direction in their new relationship with the Lord. These are available for 75¢ each plus 75¢ postage, or 12 for $10 including postage by sending a check to Integrity Management, PO Box 163, Westfield, PA 16950. This page may also be saved and printed for the use of the body of Christ free of charge as long as there is no charge for the material being given out. May this be a blessing to all who read and use it. | ||||||||||
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So you have been born again! Happy Birthday! The New Birth is the most important experience that you will ever have. When you decided to make Jesus Christ the Lord of your life, your name was added to the Lamb's Book of Life (Revelation 21:27). Something happened to you that gave you the potential to be something that you never could be without Him. When you realized that you had sinned and had come short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and when you did what God told you to do in Romans 10:9,10 (believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth that Jesus Christ is alive and Lord of your life), you were saved. You sense that you are different: clean, peaceful, and joyful deep down inside your heart. Yet, you may not be sure just all that this New Birth has done and what it is all about. Well, you are not alone. In chapter three of the gospel of John, Nicodemus, a religious leader, came to Jesus by night. When Jesus told him that he needed to be born again, Nicodemus was baffled as to what Jesus meant. He did not understand what the Lord was talking about. This little booklet has been designed to help you understand what has taken place and what you can expect now that you are a born again Christian. To start with, let me explain some terminology. We Christians sometimes use a language that only we know. This language may confuse you unless you know what we are talking about. You may have heard words like "being saved," "born again," "regeneration," and "the new birth." All these words refer to the experience that one has when he realizes that he has sinned and is on the way to hell and that he needs Jesus Christ to help Him, and therefore he asks Jesus to come and be the Lord of his life. When we call on the name of Jesus, the Lord promised that we would be saved and that He would send the Holy Spirit to live in our hearts.
The greatest necessity in life is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and find eternal life. Acts 4:12 says, " . . . for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved." It is also very important when one is born again, that he have a real and abiding assurance of having received eternal life. Many are uncertain. They think that they are saved, yet they lack a full assurance to really approach God with confidence. God wants us to know that we are saved. Before we are born again, the devil tries to make us think that things are all right between us and the Lord, but after we are born again, he tries to make us think that we cannot approach God. However, in the Bible, God gives us some concrete evidences of being born again. The first evidence of being born again is an inner witness by the Holy Spirit. "The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God" (Romans 8:16). God sends His Holy Spirit to dwell in our spirit. A new relationship has been established, and there can be no mistake about it. Romans 8:15 tells us that we have received the Spirit within us which cries "Abba, Father." This is not just a matter of feelings, but an inner knowing that something has taken place in our very heart. Secondly, we know that we are born again because of what God has promised in the Bible. Romans 10:9,10 says, "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." If we believe in our heart (not our head) and make outward confession of that faith, we are saved. John 3:36 says that "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. . . ." We are not saved because we feel saved, but we are saved because we believe in our heart and confess with our mouth that we believe in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour. If God says that we are saved in His Word, then we must believe what He says and not what our feelings may tell us. In First John 3:11-14, we find the third positive assurance that we have received eternal life from God: we have a new love for other Christians that we never had before. Verse fourteen says that "We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. . . ." Love is a positive thing obtained only from God, who is the source of love. If you have received a new love for others, it is an evidence that the new birth has taken place in your heart. The fourth evidence that we have received new life from God is a new desire to obey God's commandments. In First John 4:7,8, we find that we can be certain that we know Him because we keep His commandments. We receive power to obey God when His Spirit comes to indwell us. We enter into a love relationship that is only satisfied when we do what delights the heart of God. " . . . If a man love me, he will keep my words . . ." (John 14:23). No longer do we desire to live the way we used to live, but we want to live a new life that is pleasing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowing that we are saved is not designed to be a guessing game. In First John 5:13, we find that we can know we have the life of God by what is written in His Word. The enemy will try to tell you that you are not good enough to receive God's love, yet as you look at the evidences of being a Christian, you realize that while you were a sinner God reached out and saved you. If He loved you that much when you did not love Him, how much more will His love be manifested now that you have dedicated your life to Him? Praise the Lord! All your sins have been dissolved, and God does not even remember your sins anymore (Hebrews 8:12; 10:17). You are a new creation, freshly born with a whole new life ahead of you. Just as you were born the first time, now you must grow and mature so that you can become a productive child of the Lord. This booklet will give you some basics on how to grow and mature.
What actually took place when you asked Jesus to be the Lord of your life, to forgive you of your sin, and to come into your heart and life and make you a brand new person? Nicodemus asked Jesus this same question in John 3. To explain what took place when a person is born again, Jesus explained to Nicodemus what the Bible teaches us about the makeup of man. The Scriptures teach that man is made up of three different parts: spirit, soul, and body. The soul and the body are alive when we are born into this world and are the natural (Jesus called it the fleshly) part of man. The spirit is the part of man whereby he can relate to the supernatural realm in the world. The first part of man is the body. The body is the part that we are all familiar with and is the outward fleshly appearance that others see. The body contains the five senses in which it keeps contact with the physical world around it. The second part of man's flesh is his soul. Man's soul contains three basic functions: the intellect, the will, and the emotions. The soul is the seat of our personality and is the self-conscious part of man. In our soul, we think and reason out things. We feel emotions and make decisions in our soul. It was in your soul that you decided that you would give your life to Jesus Christ. It is in our soul that we make choices, think about things, and feel things every day of our lives. The third and most neglected part of man is his spirit. This is the innermost part of man whereby he can have communion with God. God is spirit, and it is in our spirit that we can communicate with Him and that He can communicate with us. You have already sensed God communicating in your spirit when you were convicted of the fact that you were a sinner and that you needed God. That ache in your heart was the prompting of God as He communicated to you and convinced you of your need for Him. It is in the spirit of man that the Holy Spirit comes to live. In John 3:6, Jesus told Nicodemus that the part of man which is born again is his spirit, not his body. Man's body is born once when he enters this world, but to enter the kingdom of God, our spirit must experience a spiritual birth. Because our relationship with God takes place in our spirit, the spirit is called the element of God-consciousness. God dwells in the spirit; self dwells in the soul; senses dwell in the body. Since every communication of God with man occurs in the spirit, it is imperative that every believer know he has a spirit. Our spirit is not the Holy Spirit, nor is it synonymous with our soul, but it is a part of man that has three functions: conscience, intuition, and communion. Our conscience is the discerning organ that distinguishes right from wrong. Without even thinking about it, we know deep inside whether something is right or wrong. This is our conscience in operation. Intuition is how we "know" things. It involves a direct knowledge gained without outside influence of our mind, emotion, or volition. Communion is worshipping God. when you asked Jesus into your heart? Your spirit, which was dead towards God because of sin, came alive and the life of God and the Holy Spirit came into your spirit. You can now function as you were designed to function. You were like a car trying to run without an engine. You had the body without the power that you were designed to have. Now that the Holy Spirit lives in you, you have all the power of God available to help you and to empower you to live in a way that you could never live before. Just think of it: God now resides in you. The apostle Paul likened it to a valuable treasure inside an earthen pot. Such is the beauty of the life of Christ within us. Praise the Lord; the Holy Spirit now lives inside of you! This is the precious gift that has been given: the life of God now resides in you.
It will not take you too long to realize that there is something else that resides in you besides the Spirit of God. Before we are born again, we live lives that are contrary to God. We like to do what feels good to us and exactly what we want. Our soul, which contains these faculties, is still alive and well within each of us. Not only is our soul alive and well, but our fleshly desires are still within us. We still see, feel, taste, and use all of our five senses. Yet, there is no real life, peace, and joy, if we govern our lives by our fleshly desires. There is no reward for living our lives by our soul: emotion, will, and intellect. First Corinthians 3 tells us that all our works will be judged and that only those works which are done by the Spirit of Christ within us will have any reward. Many try to do things for God without letting the Spirit of God within them direct their activities. Christianity is not an intellectual exercise, but a relationship with God through our spirit. The Holy Spirit within us must be the governing factor in our lives, not our intellect, or we will find that the joy and peace of the Holy Spirit will subside. The Scriptures teach that when we are born again, it is similar to a newborn baby being born into the world, only we are spiritual babes. What that means is that our spirit, which has just received new life, must grow up, and must be strengthened if it is to do what it was designed to do. All our lives we have exercised our soul and our flesh, and they have grown very strong. They have dictated all our actions and decisions. Now that we have God within us, we must learn to exercise our spirit so that we become strong in spirit and so that our lives are governed by what God desires instead of what we desire. We must do all that we can do to strengthen our spirit and teach our mind, will, and emotions, as well as our fleshly desires to submit to the Holy Spirit that lives within our spirit.
How can we cause our spirit to become strong, and thereby become a strong Christian? What can we do to learn to be a spiritual person when all our life we have been an intellectual, fleshly, strong-willed, or emotioinal person? The following are various disciplines that strengthen the spiritual part of you and that cause the other parts of your being to learn to submit to God:
1. Prayer-- Prayer is simply talking to God. Since we can commune with God in our spirit, when we pray our spirit is exercised. You will find that at times everything will try to keep you from prayer. Your emotions will not feel like praying; your body will want to do something else, and your mind will be thinking of a million things you could do. Yet, we must learn to pray no matter what our soul might think. If we fail to pray because of how we feel, what we think, or we just do not want to pray, the soul claims lordship, and Jesus Christ is put in an inferior position. Prayer is the key to releasing the power that now resides within you. If we fail to pray we will never become a strong Christian, but we will remain a spiritual baby the rest of our lives. 2. Bible study-- First Peter 2:2 says that "As newborn babes, [you are to] desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby." The Word of God is likened to us as milk is to a baby. A baby grows when it drinks milk, so also we grow as we read and meditate on the Word of God. What a pity it would be for a baby to refuse to eat! It would never grow, and it would soon weaken and die. A baby needs to drink milk. Likewise, as a Christian, you need to learn to daily read the Bible and to apply what it says to your life. Get a daily Bible reading plan, and drink. Also, Romans 12:2 tells us that we are transformed by the renewing of our mind. How is our mind renewed? It is renewed by reading the Bible and by adjusting the way that we used to think about things. (If you want an excellent Bible reading plan, see the information inside the back of the cover.) As we learn what God says about different things, our intellect learns to submit to what God says instead of what worldly philosophies teach about life. Hence, our spirit grows strong, and our spiritual life is strengthened. 3. Obedience-- Obedience is another way that you can strengthen your spiritual life. When you refuse to do something that you now know is wrong, you are exercising your spirit, and though it may be hard, your soul and body are learning to submit to what the Lord wants you to do. If you refuse to listen to what you know God is saying, your soul and flesh will rebel, and you will find that your spiritual life is being drained. In John 4:34, Jesus said that to do the will of the Father was like meat to him. Just as milk is needed for one to grow, so also, we need to strengthen our spiritual life with the meat of obedience. The whole key of the Christian life is a love relationship with Jesus Christ. If we love Him, we will want to obey Him and to do that which pleases Him. The obedience that is natural to a loving relationship with Jesus is vital to our spiritual health. Search the Word of God and find our what is pleasing to Him, and obey all that He desires. 4. Telling others-- Now that you are saved, there are several things that you need to do according to the Word of God. If you have not yet told anyone that you have been born again, you need to tell someone. Romans 10:9,10 tells us that it is vital that we confess before men that we have been born again. It seals our salvation. When we declare to others what has happened, we are saved from a lot of trouble. We now have set the course of our life by declaring with our lips what has taken place in our heart. So don't be afraid to tell others about the wonderful things that Jesus has done. You will find that your spiritual life is strengthened as you speak about Jesus to others. In Acts 2:38-41, we find that Scripture teaches that when one is saved, he should be baptized in water as well. What is water baptism? It is a declaration that you are now dead to your old life. You are a new creation: your old life has passed away, and you are living a new life by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within you (see Romans 6:3; Colossians 2:12). We read earlier that part of our salvation experience involves confessing that Jesus Christ is our Lord. Water baptism is part of that declaration. Jesus commissioned His followers to go throughout all the earth to preach the gospel and to baptize all those that believed on Him. You need to obey the Lord by being water baptized, thus declaring to the world that you are now living for the Lord Jesus Christ and have become part of His church. 5. Fellowship-- Hebrews 10:25 tells us not to neglect to assemble together with other believers, and while we are together, we are to encourage one another. You need to find a Spirit-filled, Bible believing church so that the people there can help you grow and mature in your spiritual journey. God ordained ministers to help us grow up into maturity (Ephesians 4:11-15). To neglect church attendance is to throw aside one of God's means of making us strong in spirit. Many fall away from a vital relationship with the Lord because they refuse to attend a local church regularly and consistently. They become unproductive members of the kingdom of God as they detach themselves from a source of life which they need to grow and mature. Just as your hand must be connected to your body to be of use, so also we must be involved and connected to the local body of Christ to reach our fullest potential in God. As you begin to walk in these five important avenues of growth, you will find that your spirit will increase in strength and that your relationship with Jesus Christ will become much more intimate. Just as a newly married couple experience the joys of a honeymoon, there is tremendous joy when first saved. But, when you see a couple that has spent years getting to know each other, you realize that what the honeymooners have is shallow compared to the depth of tender love expressed by the others. God wants to bring us to a mature love, whereby we really know Him.
When Jesus was preparing to leave the disciples, He told them to do nothing but wait until He would send the promise of the Father (the Holy Spirit) to empower them to be witnesses. In Acts 2, we read of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit to empower believers, called the baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5). As the disciples waited for the empowering of the Holy Spirit, He fell upon them as Jesus had promised. Men who had miserably denied the Lord now spoke with boldness and power. Instead of being filled with fear and trembling as they were after the Lord's death, they were now as bold as lions. As one reads the book of Acts and the other New Testament writings, one finds that the gifts of the Holy Spirit, especially speaking in tongues, is given as an evidence of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The baptism of the Spirit is accompanied by speaking in tongues, or as it is referred to in First Corinthians 14, praying in the spirit. When we pray in tongues, our spirit prays, and though we may not understand the words since they are in an unknown tongue, the Lord understands. Jude 20 tells us that when we pray in the spirit, we build ourselves up in the faith. In other words, our spirit is strengthened when we pray in tongues. First Corinthians 14:4 tells us that when one prays in tongues, he builds himself up. The idea is that of a spiritual weight lifter building up spiritual muscles by praying in the spirit. In the same chapter but in verse two, the Bible says that if we speak in an unknown tongue, we speak mysteries to God in the spirit. Romans 8:26,27 shows us that we can pray the perfect will of God for a situation when we pray in a language that even we do not understand. Don't be misled, however, into believing that all the baptism of the Holy Spirit amounts to is speaking in tongues. The book of Acts is not restricted to accounts of speaking in toungues, but it talks about men and women who were inspired and anointed to turn their world upside down. These Spirit-filled people were used to perform miracles, to heal the sick, and to preach with power. The disciples encouraged new believers to receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit as well (Acts 8:14-17), so that they could change their world in the same manner as the disciples were doing. How can you receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit? Simply believe that God wants to baptize you with His Holy Spirit. Once you have asked for the baptism of the Holy Spirit then begin to thank Jesus and begin to praise Him for His power. As you begin to praise the Lord and thank Him, the Spirit of God will well up within you, and as the Scripture says rivers will flow from your innermost being (your spirit). In Acts 2:39, Peter said, "For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call." That promise includes you! Ask the Lord to fill you with His Spirit today! All this is just the beginning of a wonderful life of learning to walk with God and learning respond to His voice deep within your being. Praise the Lord! As a newborn Christian, you have the potential of becoming one of God's precious jewels and the ability to develop a supernatural life that was totally impossible without the Holy Spirit dwelling within you. Begin to incorporate the basic principles of God's Word that have been outlined in this booklet into you life. God wants us to go on to maturity, not to just remain a babe in Christ. Don't be satisfied with just being saved. Salvation is just the introduction to a life of service and to a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. I want you to be able to hear the Lord say, "Well done, thou good and faithful servant" when you enter into heaven. I don't want you to come short of any of the good things that the Lord has planned for your life. This is why I wanted you to have this booklet. If you will apply yourself and ask for God's help, you will be able to be an effective, productive Christian and have many rewards in eternity with the Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you.
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