This is only for those who already experience genuine born again, genuine salvation from God, genuine peace in heart. This is the next thing that need to follow to really make sure that you are not easy to backslide.
Please don't read this if you are still behaving as your flesh demand. You need to graduate from your elementary school first before you can go to the next level. Even if there is any accident, e.g you got wrong admission from the middle school by mistake, but if you can't do physic, mathematic; calculate linear equation, formula, and other stuff that necessary for middle school student, you yourself will run out from it and go back to elementary school by your own choice, will you not? You can't get your Visa unless you have your Pass first.
You will find it is very difficult to do the thing that I will explain to you without being born again, but if the Spirit of God inside you, His yoke is easy and His burden is light, living a Christian life is not burdensome. So, please make sure that you are already born again before you read it. For the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. This is the sign that you are already children of God.
1 John 3:9-10
Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loves not his brother.
1 John 5:1-2
Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone who loves the father loves his child as well. This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands.
When you really sure about your first cardinal thing (be born again), let us go deeper into perfection in Christ. This is the real food for those who want to be mature in the Lord. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so (Hebrews 6:1-3).
When you are born again, you will find that you are now walking with God. Like the newly born baby, the only thing he can do is crying and depending so much to his parents, but with time, he understand more, and begin to walk, begin to speak, begin to understand his parents, and he will be able to perceive things. Every newly born again Christian will have the same experience like this baby.
- In the first time, walking with God seem so difficult, God is still blur, not real enough, your Spirit was just quickened from dead. God still seem far away, but don't give up since He will help you too. He has given you a new heart, you will have more desire to know more about God.
- Like baby, for the first time, you can only say 'Mama, Papa', your prayers to God will be short, after 1 minutes, you don't have anything left to say, you can't talk to Him more. Don't be discourage, keep practicing it, keep talking to Him, pour out your heart onto Him.
- Like a small child learn in his kindergarden how to read, M-A-M-A = Mama, etc. For the first time, reading Bible seem so many contradictions, confusing, do not be discourage, keep reading for God will open your eyes more. When you don't understand, ask Him to teach you personally. Beware of the false teachers, always test the spirits. Don't risk your eternity by being lazy and just want to be pet by your pastors, priests, etc.
- Then you will begin to feel God closer and closer to you. You will be able to call Him, 'Abba, Father'. And you will hear He said to you, 'My son, my daughter.'
- Like a small boy in the midst of new environment, you will feel that you are a stranger in His church, you never know about Christian language (Halleluya, Syalom, sins, atonement, Lamb of God, parables, etc), Christian songs, etc. But with time, you will make new friends in His church, being in the fellowship now become so sweet, praise and worship God become the joy of your life, you are like in the big family, care each others, love each others, you can feel God's presence in His church. You love His dwelling place.
- But still, like a little children, you still can do many error that can make your parents sad, but they still love you, don't they?
God will never hate His children (but He hates children of darkness who still do as their sinful nature want to do). Don't you know the parable of the Lost Son? He asked his inheritance to his Father and went away on his own. He left his Father's house and go to the far country, did whatever he likes. Until he found himself lack of money and need to eat with pigs, he lived in the mud of thrash until he came to his senses and decided to go back to his Father. Do you know what his Father do? He accepted his son back without hesitation, he order his servants to bring the best robe and hold a party. Can you imagine that the child was so stinky, like a beggar, but the Father threw his hands around him and kissed him? That the best thing you can ever get, my friends.
If you want to know God, do not delay, do not first try to make good of yourself, do not say that 'I am the sinner of sinners, God will never forgive me. I will come to Him when my life is better than this for I am ashamed of Him' Do not ever say like that. This lost son didn't fit himself with something good first, he went back as he was, with all of his sins, and repent to his Father and ready to surrender his life to Him, even to be His slave. That's it. You need to 100% surrender, go back immediately, and ask His forgiveness, without arguments.
Devil is creating fear in your life, he doesn't want you to go back to your Father. He fabricates lies, he tells you that if you accept Jesus, you will lose your freedom, your satisfication, your sin-partner, etc. If you think like that, I won't force you. Do as you like, but let me warn you. The sins of some men are obvious, reaching the place of judgment ahead of them, the sins of others trail behind them. In the same way, good deeds are obvious, and even those that are not can not be hidden (1 Timothy 5:24-25). Some day, your sins will cost your life. Be sure of this: The wicked will not go unpunished, but those who are righteous will go free (Proverbs 11:21).
Yes, after you are born again, you are children of God, but still, like this lost son, you can go out from your Father's house, go back to your old habit (backslide). God is still always hoping you to come back, but He will respect your own freewill, He will still give you good things (inheritance), He still bless you, raise the sun for you, give you comfort, even though you never think about Him, He still love you, still patient with you until your time is up, then it is decided, you will be judged according to your own life, heaven or hell. If your time is up and you didn't receive His calling, you will be lost and got damped in hell. Just imagine if this lost son never come back to his senses, will he receive the glory of his Father back? Nope. He will die in the most miserable place.
Numbers 14:18
The LORD is slow to anger, abounding in love and forgiving sin and rebellion. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.'
God will never leave you, but you are able to leave God, to go back to your sinful nature, you are the one who disown Him, and because of that, you will end up in hell. Whenever you follow and obey your Father's will, you can be sure, that heaven is yours. Please don't twist my words. I said 'your Father', not 'your god'. Many moslems, hindus, buddhists, etc do good things in their life, but they do their god's will (little 'g' --> dead gods), not their Father's will. They are not yet children of God since they have not accepted Jesus, have not been born again. Their deeds mean no salvation. Please read my previous article first.
Salvation come from God, and is not because of your might, your beauty, your cleverness, your diligence, but because of God's grace. He sustains your life, He, with His Holy Spirit dwell inside you, He make you to be able to overcome the temptations. God's grace will help you, but there are things that can grieve Holy Spirit inside you, that can make you put God aside, no more be your number one. This is the things that need to be removed from your habit, your character:
Now the works of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, promiscuity, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, rivalry, jealously, outbursts of anger, quarrels, conflicts, factions, envy, murder, drunkenness, wild partying, and things like that. I am telling you now, as I have told you in the past, that people who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Have you overcome those things? If you still have some of them, start to worry about your heaven. Don't end up in your imaginary heaven. But, try to deal with this. How, Alvin?
You need the second touch of God, to deal with you deeper, to make sure that your life now is different from your past. You must have holiness, through sanctification, by the hands of God, by the blood of Jesus Christ.
Maybe right now, you are genuine born again Christian, but there are still some bad behaviour that you still have, like talkativeness, always want to know other people's business, angers, easily discouraged, easily disappointed, drunk, addiction, pessimist, always worry, fear, selfish, jealous, etc. This things have rooted in your heart, it is 'in your blood' and can't be dealt by being born again alone. You need more the touch of God to deal with it.
This is your second requirement: Visa
Bible said that faith is important, without faith you can't please God, without faith you will never be able to believe in God, to be justified. But Bible said more that without holiness, we won't be able to see the Lord.
Hebrews 12:14
Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
Let me tell you what written in the Bible. After Jesus chose 12 disciples, during His ministry for 3.5 years. Beside He need to do His Father's will to fulfill all the prophecies about Him, He also sanctified His disciples, John and James who still argued about who will sit in the right and the left of the Lord (they were still selfish), Peter who said that he will follow Jesus no matter what, but within a day, He had already disowned Jesus 3x (still boastful). Thomas, who was doubtful, who will never believe that Christ has risen until he put his finger to where the nails were, or Philip when Jesus fed 5000 people, he thought helplessly, no chance to give those people enough food. Jesus dealt with them personally. He sanctified them, until then He said, 'Now you are clean, though not every one of you.'
The same thing with you, after Jesus has chosen you to be His child, after you known by Him, you still have some things that will make your life not effective as Christian, that can make you to be a stumbling block for others. Some of you have critical mind, always use your own logic and say that Bible is contradict Bible and try to mislead others. Please, my friends, if you don't believe Bible is the Truth, don't read it, don't say that you believe in Jesus, don't ever say to me that you are Christian. You are not. How can you believe in Jesus but reject His Word? Why don't you behave wisely, what do you think? Is your little, tiny brain can understand God fully? God understand you, not you understand Him. What you can do is, to try to be as close as possible to God, so He will tell you what is in His heart, not using your own logic trying to guess what God want to do.
Or some of you always criticize among believers for their attitude, not because of their wrong-doing, not because of their false hope, but just because something in your mind, like: why you only eat vegetables? why you think everyday is the same? why you didn't wash your hand before eating? why you been baptized like that, etc? My friends, why don't you leave those things? The one who only eat vegetables, the one who make one day more special, they do it for God. And also the things that go inside your mouth will not make you impure, but things that came out from your mouth can make you impure.
If you still have the behaviour that you really know deep down in your heart, that it can make God sad, can make you backslide; ask God to deal with it. Have you ever see the tree like this picture below? We are the branches, Jesus is the vine and God the Father is the gardener. We must always stick to the vine to get life from it. Jesus said, 'Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.'
God is the Gardener, He is your Creator. Like a clay of pottery in the hand of the Potter, He knows what He wants you to be. He has designed something great for you. Don't you know that you are fearfully and wonderfully made by Him (Psalms 139:14)? Allow Him to cut every branch of you that can't bear fruit. If God wants you to be like this elephant tree, just allow Him, my friends. Each person has his own purpose, has his own glory from God. Don't you know that He has something special designed only for you which is greater than this human-made elephant tree? What is your purpose in this life? If you don't know yet, go and ask Him. Pray to Him, speak to Him.
Perfection, holiness are the things that you need to pursue in your life to be an effective Christian, to have good relationship with God, to know more about Him. Let Christ be seen in your life.
Matthew 5:48
So be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
1 Peter 1:15-16
Instead, just as the one who called you is holy, be holy in every aspect of your life. For it is written, “You must be holy, because I am holy.'
2 Corinthians 7:1
Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us cleanse ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit by perfecting holiness in the fear of God
1 Thessalonians 4:7
For God did not call us to impurity but to holiness
This is what God demanded from you. To be perfect, as He is perfect. Many people can't do this, so they mock people who are pursuing holiness. They think it strange that you do not plunge with them into the same flood of dissipation, and they heap abuse on you. But they will have to give account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead (1 Peter 4:4-5). These speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves (Jude 10).
Many people are like that, they mock Christian who loves God. Are you alone who will go to heaven? Are you saint? Are you not too self-righteous by telling other that they will end up in hell? Are you not playing God?
To those people, someday, God will send His strong delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12). So, my friends, instead of being critical, it would be good for you to ask God to tell you, is this mad guy, Alvin, telling me the Truth or he is just another false teacher. Ask God, my friends. Don't harden your heart and try to satisfy your itching ears always. Don't you know that your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked (Jeremiah 17:9)?
If you really sincere to experience the touch of God come to you for the second time. This is what you need to do. Ask God.
James 1:5
If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.
But believe me, His process is never seemed to be pleasant, but painful. Do you really want to grow mature or you want to be like seed who sowed in the shallow soil or among thorns? Receive the word with joy only for a short time, but when trouble, persecution comes because of the word, you quickly fall away, or because of worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke it, making it unfruitful. What kind of seed do you want to be? If you want to be like a seed that fell on good soil, read this.
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: ''My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline, and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son."
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