Once and For All | Part Three

"Since we are now capable of embracing and assimilating to heaven's culture, we only need to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in all things."

The new birth is the most fascinating of metamorphoses.  Often likened to the dramatic change a caterpillar undergoes to become a butterfly, the new birth is even more radical because the process occurs within the unseen space of a clearly visible and functioning person.  We can see the person, but we can't see what's going on inside of them, only the manifested evidence of the work that's been accomplished within.  When a person accepts Jesus the Christ as Lord and Savior, their spirit man is regenerated and takes its rightful place as the person's identity (Romans 8:9-11).

All of us arrived to Earth with dormant spirits that required the quickening power of GOD to make us alive--in the truest sense of living.  As spirits possessing souls and living in bodies, humans must be born again by the Spirit in order to understand who we are at the very core of our being.  Without the new birth, life just ends up being an aimless journey of mistakes, sorrows and disappointments because of all the things we do (in our own reasoning) in search of ourselves.  But with a spirit that's alive and attuned to heaven's frequency, the murkiness of life takes on a refreshing sense of clarity, gains meaning and finally has a recognizable purpose.

Who would have thought that all this could take place by simply confessing with one's mouth and believing in one's heart that Jesus Christ is LORD?  But it's the truth.  No works of righteousness are needed on our part because the work was already done by the giver of this extraordinary gift.  When Jesus died at Calvary, the veil of the temple was rent in two, thereby granting us access to the Holy Place and GOD the Father.  Because of Jesus, the groundwork had been laid for our right standing with GOD long before we
entered the Earth realm. 

So now that we've been made right, what does that mean?  The gift of righteousness positions us to live righteously.  Our righteous (holy) living is not to the end that we be saved, but that we reflect the righteousness where with we've been made right in GOD's sight.  In other words, now that we've been made righteous by GOD, we should live righteously for GOD (Titus 2:11-12).  Furthermore, because of the new birth, it's no longer an issue of whether or not we're ABLE to live righteously, but one of our WILLINGNESS to do so.  Now that our spirit man has been regenerated, we are in tune with heaven and heaven's way of doing things.  Therefore, since we are now capable of embracing and assimiliating to heaven's culture, we only need to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide us in all things.  After all, according to 2 Peter 1:3, GOD has given us everything that pertains to life and godliness.

TO BE CONTINUED... Read Part Four of "Once and For All"