WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN

WE MUST BE BORN AGAIN

                When Jesus came up out of the Jordan River, the Holy Spirit landed upon Him in the form of a dove. This the Holy Spirit did for John’s sake, for the Lord had told him: “He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the one who baptizes with the Holy Spirit. John 1:33

                Jesus was born with the fullness of the godhead dwelling in Him in bodily form. Col. 2:9. But now, at the Jordon River, the Holy Spirit was anointing Him for His ministry with what we would call the baptism of the Holy Spirit.: “So the baptism of the Holy Spirit is an occupational equipping for service, for as Jesus said to His disciples: “John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” And then He went on to say: You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…”

                For every Christian then, there are two separate encounters with the Holy Spirit. Firstly, when we receive Jesus Christ as our personal Savior and are baptized into Him, we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is the very presence of Jesus Christ in our lives by which we will begin to bear the fruit of the Spirit and our lives will be transformed into His image.

                Our second encounter with the Holy Spirit is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit for the equipping of the saints for service. Paul tells us that among the gifts that are given by the Holy Spirit, there are apostles, prophets, teachers, miracles, gifts of healing, helps, administrations and various kinds of tongues.

                There was a tangible sign given by which the apostles knew if their converts had received the baptism of the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost everyone upon whom the fire fell, spoke in tongues and so the disciples consequently looked for this sign upon the converts to know if they had been equipped by the Holy Spirit for service in the church and in the world.

                There is an example of this in Acts 10:45-47 where it says: “All the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out upon the Gentiles also, for they were hearing them speaking with tongues and exalting God. Then Peter answered: “Surely no one can refuse the water for these to be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit JUST AS WE DID, can he?”

                Now of course there are other places where Paul says that not everyone receives the same gift, but my point is this: Every Christian must receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In other words, they must be anointed from on high in order to carry out their divine calling in this world. Natural talent may indicate what the Lord will anoint you to do, since God knows each person individually. He equips you with natural talents which when you give them to Him He anoints you with power to operate in your gift supernaturally. That is to say, with our talents we can impress people, but only the Holy Spirit can rescue a sin-sick soul and bring him to the foot of the cross to receive salvation.

                It is this power of the Holy Spirit that the church so desperately needs to pray for with all earnestness. We have a daunting task. There are 7 billion people most of which are not truly born again Christians and we are going to need a great deal more supernatural power to bring in the harvest than we are seeing operating in most churches today.

                Convincing people of a right set of doctrines will not equip the saints for service. That is mental agreement and mental agreement is not tantamount to salvation. WE must believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. We must be born again supernaturally, we must bear the fruit of the Spirit supernaturally and we must receive power to witness supernaturally. And it is the church’s loss of the recognition of the supernatural that has rendered it largely powerless.

                Jesus set the pattern for us with His disciples. His disciples had been baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus ministered to His disciples throughout His 3 ½ year ministry and while Jesus was filled with and baptized with the Holy Spirit, he could not pass this on to His disciples until after His death and resurrection. (It was His blood atonement for our sins that made the Holy Spirit’s indwelling possible) He put His Holy Spirit ON them to do miracles and He put His Holy Spirit ON the 70 when he sent them out, but the Holy Spirit could not come INTO them without the shed blood of Jesus. This is important, so pay close attention.

                After His resurrection from the dead and after having presented Himself to the Father as the first fruits of a great harvest to come, he returned to meet with His disciples and He said to them:     “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” John 20:21, 22

                As a side note here, this text is living proof that when God breathed the breath of life into Adam’s nostrils, he may have breathed air into him as in CPR, but more importantly, God breathed His Spirit into Him so that inert body made of clay became a living soul. Adam was created as a Spirit filled man (It is the Spirit that gives life. John 6:63) and it was that Spirit that Adam and Eve lost when they sold out to Satan and it was that Spirit that Jesus, our second Adam came to restore.

                This is why we must be born again. We must receive the Spirit of God into our lives to become sons and daughters of God. God’s DNA is in His Spirit and just as Mary received the Holy Spirit and gave birth to the Son of God, so the Holy Spirit comes upon us and we become sons and daughters of God.

                So Jesus breathed this” spiritual DNA, this seed of the Spirit upon His disciples and they also became sons of God whereby Jesus was not ashamed to call them brethren. How little do we recognize today the significance and the infinite scope of being born again? We treat it so lightly that many Christians presume that they are born again simply because they joined the right church or accepted the right doctrine or keep the right day or celebrate the right feasts… but all of that is what Paul called “rubbish” compared to having the actual Spirit and presence of Christ motivating and animating him and making us sons and daughters of God.

                So Jesus breathed on His disciples and said: “Receive the Holy Spirit.” And we think, “Wow! I wish I could have been there on that day with the disciples… but wait a minute. Jesus was not done with them yet.

                In Acts chapter one, in spite of the fact that Jesus had breathed on them and given them the Holy Spirit, Jesus had more to offer them in parting: “And gathering them together , He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, “Which,” He said, “You heard from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now… and you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses…”  Acts 1:4, 5,8a

                So there the pattern for the church is set. When we come to Christ and we receive Him by faith as our Savior and Lord, we are baptized into Him in water, and we receive the gift of the Holy Spirit by which we receive the spiritual DNA of God and we become His children. Then we tarry in Jerusalem so to speak and pray for the baptism of the Holy Spirit to equip us with power to do Jesus’ work in the world.               (Everything Jesus did was supernatural requiring supernatural power and if we are to follow in His footsteps and do His works in the world, we must be supernaturally equipped as well.) We must receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit and as the book of Acts shows us, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, ever since the fire came on the day of Pentecost is passed on by the laying on of hands.

                Most denominations today avoid the supernatural elements of the Holy Spirit like the plague. They are afraid of them and avoid them at all costs, even calling them the works of the devil.

                The Pharisees accused Jesus of casting out demons by the power of Satan and that is blaspheme against the Holy Spirit. And yet you can get on the internet and hear any number of preachers warning that tongues is of the devil and I don’t know how that is going to go for them in the judgment, but blaspheme against the Holy Spirit is one sin that can’t be forgiven.

                “Truly I say to you, all sins shall be forgiven the sons of men, and whatever blasphemies they utter; but whoever blasphemes against the Holy Spirit never has forgiveness, but is guilty of an eternal sin.” Mark 3:28, 29. This is a serious thing my friends and while I know that the devil has a counterfeit for everything and witches speak in tongues as well, a truly born again, God fearing and obedient child of God will never receive the Spirit of Satan. Jesus promised that. (Mt. 7:10, Luke 11:11)

                Satan has all kinds of counterfeits   and one of his biggest ones is in creating “Christian” religions that have a form of godliness, but deny the power. They deny the supernatural aspects of being a Christian and so they may act like Christians but they are not truly animated by the Spirit of Christ; nor do they do any of the supernatural works that Jesus commanded us to do. It is all form and ritual for them.

                So you may think that I am trying to argue some point of doctrine here, but I am not. Friends, we are entering into the final dispensation if you will. We are entering the time of the great shaking and the harvest, the separating of wheat and tares. The time of the Gentiles is coming to a close. (Romans 11:25) The Gospel of the Kingdom must be preached in the entire world, but we don’t really have the Gospel of the Kingdom. Jesus preached the Gospel of the Kingdom and He demonstrated its powers. In other words, He demonstrated the supernatural aspects of the Gospel of the Kingdom by which we will win the masses to Christ. In fact we have built entire Christian religions that feel quite comfortable living without the supernatural aspects of the Gospel of the Kingdom. Some not only lack the power, but they deny it and preach against it.

                Many pray for the latter rain to come so that the last great harvest may come in and yet many of these same people deny any sign that the Holy Spirit may have been activated in their lives. How is the Holy Spirit going to break through those kinds of barriers?

                It is not our particular brand of doctrine that is going to bring in the harvest, nor is it the Sabbath, or the Feast days, or any other rituals that we may carry out. Those things obedient Christians do because they are obedient, but the Gospel of the kingdom that must be preached as a witness to all nations before the end can come is a supernatural Gospel with signs following. Jesus demonstrated it and then He said: “Truly, truly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go to the Father. And whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” John 14:12, 13

                Whenever Jesus started a sentence with “Truly, truly, or Verily, verily He was being emphatic about it. He was, in essence, saying: “Pay attention, this is important, It is essential… you can’t be my follower without this.”

                One of those emphatic statements was about being born again, another was about doing His works, Another was about denying self and taking up our cross and following him, and another was about receiving those who preach the Gospel as if receiving Him. You might benefit from looking up all of the sentences that Jesus started with a Verily, verily (Or Truly, truly) to see what He was emphatic about. Use a Strong’s or another concordance and just look them up and meditate on them. Is it not important as followers of Christ that we know what He was emphatic about?

                It is very important at this time in history, if we want to be the final generation, to listen closely to all that Jesus said, to receive all that He had to give and to walk in the supernatural baptism of the Holy Spirit and to stop pretending that we can fulfill the great commission by the works of the flesh.

                How often I have asked the Lord, “How can we preach the gospel effectively if we don’t have your power.” If you or I could heal everyone we touched, would we not quickly gather a crowd? No Madison Avenue advertisement , no expensive TV ads… just start healing the blind, the deaf, the lame and those with major diseases and we would soon have to find a bigger sidewalk to preach on and we would probably get thrown in jail for disturbing the peace, but then we would heal the prisoners in the jail and revival would break out in jail and when that was done an angel would come and walk us out in the middle of the night and transport us like Philip to some other location for ministry.

                It is coming folks, but we need to pray for it and align ourselves with it and seek God for it with all of our hearts. We are commissioned to make disciples, not mere converts, and disciples do the works of their Master.

                Prepare our hearts Lord for what you desire so deeply to do through your remnant people.

                There is someone reading this today that needs to take that step of full surrender to the Lord. This is something that the Lord spoke into my heart when I first awoke this morning. So if you are that person, your  appointed time is now.