[07]

V Indicates Scripture or other reference inserted at the end of this chapter.

 

Chapter 7           Born again – of the Spirit – 
    into the Kingdom of God.

 

What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost who is in you, whom ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
         1^st Corinthians 6:19

So who won the battle for your immortal soul? Heaven? Or hell?

If hell won – if the devil still has control of your eternal destiny – then you need to go back to the battlefield, cry out to God for His mercy, and listen again for the still small voice of His Holy Spirit. But if Heaven won – if you prayed that Jesus would come into your heart and save you from hell – then you need to understand what has happened to you since that moment.

The moment you chose Jesus, He totally changed your life. You can never again be what you used to be. You are born again! Just as you can never go back into your mother’s womb, you can never fall back into the world – because you are safely and eternally in the Spiritual Kingdom of God.V1

In addition to having a new life, you now have the Spirit of God living in you. The world cannot see, let alone understand, any of this V2; but you can know, by the Word of God, that you are born again and that the Holy Spirit does dwell within you. The Word of God assures us:

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 right-eousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10:9-10

Do you believe Jesus is risen from the dead and is now alive in Heaven? Did you cry out to Jesus and ask Him to be your Lord as well as your Savior? Then you are saved! – and there is no need for you to ever question your salvation from this moment on. And just as the Word of God assures you that you are saved, it also assures you that the Holy Spirit is living in you right now, ready and able to lead you into a life that is pleasing to the God who saved you:

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye (who are born again) are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. And if Christ be in you (by His Spirit), the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

Romans 8:8-10

If you are born again, then you do have the Holy Spirit, and there is a difference between you and the people of the world. The Bible puts all that beyond question. The only questions left for you to face now are: Will you keep behaving like the people of the world? Or will you allow the Holy Spirit of God to make a difference in your life? 

You cannot answer this question today, or in any one day. You have to “walk out” your answer as you walk, as a citizen of Heaven, through this ever-unbelieving and often-hostile world.

Throughout the Bible, the Holy Spirit is pictured as life-giving water V3, as empowering fire V4, or as the classic symbol of God’s delegated authority here on earth, oil V5. Every time the Spirit is poured out from Heaven – whether He is poured into one person or upon an entire nation – that outpouring is what we call an anointing of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus sends His Spirit to dwell in a believer, that indwelling is the initial anointing of the Spirit in the life of that believer. (This is not to be confused with the baptism in the Spirit; we’ll explain that anointing in a later chapter.) This initial anointing allows you to pray in the will of God V6 ... to declare the Word of God V7 ... and to use your natural gifts, such as carpentry or cooking or encouragement, in the service of the Kingdom. All this is what Jesus was referring to when He said, in John 15:5,

 

I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.

No matter how much muscle or talent or intellect you may have, if you do not allow the Holy Spirit to anoint your natural abilities for God’s purposes, you can do nothing that will be of the least value in the Kingdom of God.  

Yes, you must allow the Spirit to use your (God-given) gifts for the glory of God. And it’s going to be a life-long struggle for you – because your muscles and talents and intellect will never stop insisting, “We can do whatever God needs to get done. Just turn us loose, and you’ll see!”

You’ll see plenty – but not what your flesh said you’d see. You’ll see that Jesus was right – You can do nothing! You’ll see that if you really want to serve the Lord who saved you, you’ll have to walk every step of your life at the Spirit’s side. The Apostle Paul puts it this way

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
                        Galatians 5:16,17

If you choose to walk in the Spirit or the flesh, then ye cannot do the things that ye would do, almost without thinking, if you had made the opposite choice. If you stay tuned in to the Spirit at every step of your walk through this world, you will not be able to give in to the lusts of your flesh – the Spirit will not allow it. But if, on the other hand, you insist on tuning in to the things of this world that pamper your flesh, then you will not be able to walk as a man or woman of God in this world – because you will no longer have the guiding and sustaining power of the Holy Spirit who dwells within you.

No, the Holy Spirit will not leave you if you abandon Him for the “delights” of the flesh. Jesus sent Him to you to stay for good. It’s just that the flame of His anointing will ... slowly ... and quietly ... go ... out.

Our prayer for you is that you will always be alert to the still small voice of the One who called you to eternal life in Christ. That you will never tune back in to the never-ending naggings of the world, the flesh and the devil. That you will never quench the Holy Spirit of God.

The Apostle Paul warns us, in 1^st Thessalonians 5:19: Quench not the Spirit.

Quench not the One whose anointing shines in you, and shows other people the difference between the kingdom of darkness and the life of Christ!

Quench not the Holy Spirit of God – for the hope that Jesus gave to His followers in this world, and to the world through His followers, can only come to us through the Holy Spirit.

Shortly before He went to die on the Cross, Jesus told His disciples (and us!):

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatso-ever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall show it unto you.

John 16:12-15

Jesus has many things to say to you. He has encouragement for you. He has moment-by moment guidance for you. He has personal relationships for you to enter in to. But you will never receive any of that unless you hear it; and you will only hear it through the Holy Spirit of God.

 

V1  Romans 8:38 

For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

 

V2  1st Corinthians 2:14 

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.

 

V3  John 7:37 

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

 

The Scripture Jesus quoted is Isaiah 44:3 

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:

 

V4  Acts 2:1-4 

And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

 

V5  Psalm 23  A Psalm of David.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.