What is a Born Again Believer?

Prior to our salvation, we had a body and soul, but our spirit was dead in sin. As a Born Again Believer our spirit is now alive and contains the Spirit of God. We can enjoy constant quiet time within our spirit, regardless of what is occurring in our body or soul. With this regular fellowship, our soul abides in a state of peace, which causes our body to remain in better health and vitality.

This does not happen before we are Born Again. In God’s presence, we refresh our soul. Even if He remains silent, we enjoy the companionable silence of His friendship and lordship in our life. Regardless of our circumstances, we live in serenity in our spirit. As we focus on our connection with Christ in our spirit, He heals the negative feelings of our body and soul.

We look at life from a spiritual rather than an earthly viewpoint. We love Christ immensely; our soul draws nourishment from His existence in our life. His Word comes alive in our mind, His presence comforts our fears and His love pours over us like a waterfall as we keep our mind focused on Him (Isaiah 26:3). We do not need to see Him with our eyes, because we hear him with our inner ear (Matthew 11:14).

We feel His Spirit within us (Colossians 1:27). We float through life as the Spirit of God stirs the waters. We flow with the ebb and current of God’s will. People see God’s life-changing power within us. So many turn a deaf ear or blind eye, preferring to believe Satan’s lies. Others want our same experience, so we travail in birth pains with them. We desire to win people to Christ, so they can live in the love of God with us.

Prayer:

Father God, You are the author and finisher of our salvation. Jesus made this possible by His sacrifice on Calvary’s cross, and Your Spirit drew us to Your precious heart. Thank You for loving us, caring for us and helping us in our doubts and fears. We look to You to provide our daily bread and to lead us away from every temptation, which might bring dishonor to Your name.

Thought for the Day:

Taste and see that the Lord is good. – Psalm 34:9

 

The Power of a Spiritual Life

Jesus suffered agony in the garden when He felt the weight of our sin on His shoulders. Jesus, who knew no sin, mercifully gave His life to pay for us the penalty of our sins (2 Corinthians 5:21). He went all the way to the cross, because He came to earth with one purpose: to surrender His life for our salvation. God has a unique purpose for each one of us, as well (Ephesians 2:10).

Only through the death of our carnal nature do we learn the secret of living our life through our rebirth in Christ Jesus. Like Paul, we die to the world, Satan’s temptations and our human will and flesh daily (1 Corinthians 15:31). This way God’s Spirit can live His life through us. We wait on God, and He works out His intentions in us moment by moment throughout our life.

We owe Jesus all glory and honor for giving us our spiritual life. We are rooted and grounded in Him by faith (Colossians 2:7). Jesus gave us the perfect example of how to live on this earth. Even at an early age, He focused on God’s Kingdom (Luke 2:46). He trusted in, depended upon and lived and died by trusting in our Father. We can follow in His footsteps.

God’s fullness in our life will take us deeper and deeper into the power and wonder of His spiritual realm. As we cast our soul on Him and abandon our self completely to His love, He who lived in total surrender to our Father will impart His nature to us (2 Peter 1:4). We live our life in the power of the resurrected Lord who dwells within us.

Prayer:

Father God, thank You so much for preparing the perfect sacrifice for our sins by coming in the form of a person and dying on Calvary’s cross in our place. The fact that You raised Christ from the dead and to His throne in glory gives us so much hope and faith to know that You will bring us up from the grave and into Your glorious presence.

Thought for the Day:

To have the love, peace and joy we crave in our life, we simply surrender wholeheartedly to God. – Matthew 10:39

Our Focus during the Disheartening Uncertainty of Life

Life has a way of throwing at us some unexpected, and sometimes horrific circumstances. We go to the doctor and the last thing we expect to hear is cancer. We call our parents and we find out one of them does not have long to live. The school calls and our child never arrived from the bus. At times like these, we feel insecure and fearful. We find our self thrown off center by this confusion and the looming catastrophe.

Our normal peaceful existence spins out of control. Each compartment of our life, which we meticulously created to provide us with security and a safe haven, suddenly tilts out of control. We hectically, yet unsuccessfully, try to manage the disruptive people and events in our life in an attempt to make us feel safe again. But this never helps. In fact, it usually increases our anxiety, when these people react to the turmoil our panic creates in their lives.

The only true help for us comes when we fix our eyes on Jesus (Hebrews 12:2). He spent considerable time each day in prayer (Mark 1:35). He did only what He saw our Father do (John 5:19). He lived in the moment and did not worry about tomorrow (Matthew 6:33-35). He made sure to center his goals on the will of God for His life. He walked in the Spirit. This is how we too withstand the disheartening uncertainty of life.

 

God already clothed us with garments of salvation and arrayed us in robes of righteousness, which are even finer than those worn at a wedding (Isaiah 61:10). He gave us the words of the prayer that never fails: "Father, not my will, but yours be done" (Luke 22:42-43). When we surrender our will to His, then God can provide us with everything we need, even things we did not even realize that we wanted.

 

Prayer:

Father God, we are never comfortable when the fishbowl of our life gets turned upside down. We despise all of the demands and expectations other people have for us. We take one precarious step after another on the tightrope of life. Help us to focus on the equilibrium You give us to live each moment that we live, rather than focusing on the spinning details of our negative circumstances.

Thought for the Day:

When we trust God more and strive less, serenity seeps into every area of our life, no matter how the circumstances play out around us.

A Separated Life

 

God gave His Church, His Bride, His Holy Habitation, the dynamite power of His Spirit who dwells within us. There is nothing that we cannot do. If we rely on our human resources, we will fail more often than not. If we walk in the Spirit, we will not need the lusts of the flesh to make us happy (Galatians 5:16-25). If we begin walking in the Spirit and then give up, we will live a miserable life.

Many Christians have no idea that at Salvation, the Holy Spirit comes to live in us (1 Corinthians 6:19). It is not a separate experience. We have the fullness of the Spirit dwelling in us from the moment that we believe only on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. We have daily fillings of His Spirit (Ephesians 5:18), but He is resident within us from the point of our salvation.

We do not want to grieve the Holy Spirit by entertaining sin in our life (Ephesians 4:30). We can occupy our time with religious activity, control our flesh and our sinful desires and meditate on God’s Word continually, but if our spirit is still dead in sin, none of this human activity reaps any benefit for us other than a more peaceful life on this earth.

All of our efforts reap no eternal reward for us because they are all done in the flesh. We give our human will the place of the Holy Spirit in our life (1 Corinthians 3:1). Let’s give up everything we hold dear in the natural world, which stands between our Living Lord and us, and walk in God’s Spirit each moment of the day. What we think we will lose will be returned to us in a way, which is a million times better.

Prayer:

Father God, help us not to attempt to perfect our self in the flesh, rather than submitting our will and our life to Your Spirit. We do not want to fail You in this life and end up reaping hell in the process. We prefer to serve You wholeheartedly and to give You the praise and the glory for all of the works, which Your Spirit leads us to accomplish for You.

Thought for the Day:

We gain no return on what we sacrifice in the flesh. So let’s lay down our human will, character, wisdom and efforts, and fully embrace the thoughts and works of Christ instead.

Our Faith Overcomes the World

Gold is a precious metal that will perish, even though it is refined by fire. Our faith has much more value than all the gold, silver or platinum in this world. Because God promised us before the beginning of time, we have the faith and hope to know that God has given us eternal life (Titus 1:2).

One component of our faith is to have faith without doubting (Matthew 21:21). Most people do not realize this, and not doubting is almost impossible to comply with. In frustration, Jesus reprimanded people, like Peter, for his doubt as He pulled him up out of the sea (Matthew 14:31). He also commended people for having faith without doubting (Matthew 15:28). God will always help our unbelief (Mark 9:23-25).

As we live one moment at a time, our faith grows. We place our faith in the fact that Jesus rose from the dead; because if He is still dead, then our preaching is useless. We are also false witnesses about God, since we testify that He raised Jesus from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14-15). Jesus’ resurrection builds up our faith to know that He also forgives our sins and raises us from the dead as well (1 Corinthians 15:16-17).

Our faith enables us to build up the Kingdom of God. Prompted by our love for Him, we do the works, which He called us to do (Ephesians 2:10). Our hope in Him inspires our endurance in this sin-cursed world (1 Thessalonians 1:3). Everyone born again by the Spirit of God will overcome this world by our absolute faith in Christ in us (1 John 5:4).

God opens our eyes to see the spiritual realm of life. He turns us from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to His Kingdom of power. We flee from temptation and practice holiness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness (1 Timothy 6:11). When our faith in Christ is proven genuine, it results in our praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed (1 Peter 1:7).

Prayer:

Father God, we receive from You the forgiveness of all of our sins. You place us in the ranks of those who are sanctified by faith in Christ alone (Acts 26:18). You give us faith in tribulation and persecution and help us to encourage others in their distress (1 Thessalonians 3:7). Help us also to stand firm in our faith and to work with one another with joy (2 Corinthians 1:24).

Thought for the Day:

Our faith does not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power. – 1 Corinthians 2:5

Spiritual Ebb and Flow

 

God loves us even while we are still sinners, but He calls us to walk away from our sinful thoughts, words and deeds. Any goodness we attain by our human effort does not impress Him (Ephesians 2:8-9). We are a new person only because of Jesus’ work on Calvary’s cross (2 Corinthians 5:17). We only have two choices. We either believe for salvation or we fail to believe and condemn our self to Hell (John 3:18).

God’s Spirit conforms us through sanctification into the image of Christ (Romans 8:29). He exchanges our humanity for God’s divine nature and His spiritual fruit (2 Peter 1:4; Galatians 5:22-23). We are an extension of the ministry of Christ on this earth. His sinless perfection enables us to live freely from sin and Satan’s temptations, as we depend on Him for our perfection.

God walks with us through life and sticks closer than a brother (Proverbs 18:24). Do not wait to cry out to God only in times of helplessness; commune with God every moment of every day. When the intimacy of our communion ebbs, our only recourse is to draw closer to Him, not to walk further away. Satan will lie and tell us it was better back in the world. Don’t forget your past vulnerability without God.

The only time discouragement and disappointment enter our life is when we are trusting in our own strength or looking forward to the fulfillment of our own goals and aspirations, rather than relying on the Lord’s strength and anticipating His plans (2 Corinthians 1:21). God comforts us during times of grief and loss (Matthew 5:4). He gives us His desires in our heart (Psalm 37:4). He guides us by Christ’s life within us (Romans 5:10).

Prayer:

Father God, our relationship with sin ceased to exist once we came to love You with our whole heart (Luke 10:27). We are no longer separated from You, but we live in constant fellowship with You every moment of every day. Satan still uses sin to tempt us away from a life in union with Christ. We may fall into a momentary indiscretion, but we thank You that we no longer live in a lifestyle of sin (Romans 6:7,12,14).

Thought for the Day:

God’s grace frees us to walk in holiness by the power of the Holy Spirit within us.

A Place of Repentance

 

Once we hear the gospel of Christ, a deliberate rejection of God’s path of righteousness will lead to our earthly sorrow and eternal ruin. God is sovereign and He will not be mocked (Acts 4:24). We see no value in the spiritual side of life, but live only for physical and emotional pleasures.

We focus on gratifying the body and we seek to find a soul mate with which to spend our life. We end up switching partners endlessly because no one meets our expectations. We show contempt for the abundance of God’s kindness, patience and tolerance of us, when we do not realize that God’s kindness is intended to bring us to this place of repentance (Romans 2:4).

However, if we come to realize that we are wrong and we cannot save our self. We enter God’s throne room and we repair our relationship with God through godly sorrow and contrition; we reap eternal life and earthly joys, which know no bounds. God provides all of our needs according to His glorious riches (Philippians 4:19).

He is our soul mate and He sticks closer to us than a brother (Proverbs 17:17, 18:24). He does not consider us his servants, but His friends (John 15:15). He fills our hearts with His love to overflowing and we share His love with everyone He brings our way. The fruit of His Spirit replaces the negative attributes in our soul, and we live in peace and freedom.

God blesses us abundantly, so that we have whatever we need at all times (2 Corinthians 9:8). This allows us to be faithful in the work of His Kingdom. The peace of God, which defies explanation, protects us emotionally and mentally, because Christ lives within us (Philippians 4:7).

Prayer:

Father God, with Your love within us and surrounding us we can come to a place of repentance and enjoy the bounty of Your blessings. Even when negative aspects of life try to overwhelm us, You are there to pull us up. You may not deliver us from the trial, but You give us the Rock of Christ to stand upon to weather every storm. There is nothing this earth can do to separate us from Your love.

Thought for the Day:

As we rely on the direction of God’s Spirit, we live a peaceful and abundant life.