If we deny Him, He will also deny us. (2 Tim 2:12b)
I did not used to believe that Jesus was real today. I was in denial. I grew up Catholic and I believed that Jesus died on the cross and that He sat at the right hand of the Father, but I did not believe that He was still a living, thinking, feeling person up to this day. I did not know what the Bible said, so I did not know much. I thought that the Holy Bible was a dead book… Then someone read a Bible verse to me that was relevant to my life and my eyes were opened. From that moment on, I began to read and study the scriptures as if they were the most important thing in the world.
If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
I was immediately convinced that the Holy Bible was a real book because of how it spoke to me in my situation, so I immediately believed that Jesus did what the scriptures said He did: He lived a perfect life, was the Son of God, was crucified, died and was buried and then He rose again and was seen by His disciples. His blood paid for my sins and He died for me. I noticed a difference in my life after I asked Him specifically to forgive me for my sins. I came to believe in Him concretely.
When I saw in the scriptures Jesus telling me how a person who loves Him is to behave towards Him… I realized how little I knew about what He said… I realized I did not know His commandments. How could I follow His commandments if I did not know what they were? I knew the Ten Commandments, but that seemed like a different thing from what He was talking about in John 14:15, so I decided to study the scriptures more to see what Jesus really commanded His followers to do.
Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. (John 3:5)
I have learned that it is absolutely possible to believe that Jesus died on the cross and not be saved (or born again of the Spirit).
If a person believes in Jesus, but doesn’t actually know what the bible says, then that person can’t follow Jesus’s commandments. A person’s eyes have to be opened in order for them to seek that kind of knowledge. The evidence that a person’s eyes have been opened is: They must know what the Bible says, because it seems extremely important. If a person is not hungry to know what the scriptures say, that person is not likely to have been born again of the Spirit yet.
Jesus says in Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John, “Verily, verily I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Then Jesus further elaborates, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”
This is how I have come to understand what Jesus is saying here: We don’t have to understand anything about the wind in order for the wind to blow. The wind is going to blow regardless of whether we understand it, or whether we pay attention to it, or not.
The holy Spirit is like the wind (invisible, but it’s effects can be observed)
When it comes to being born again, we need to accept that it is something important that needs to happen because Jesus would not have spoken about it if it weren’t important.
Jesus continues in Chapter 3 of the Gospel of John by saying “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”
If ye love me, keep my commandments. (John 14:15)
If you believe in Jesus, and you honour what He says (by believing what the Bible says), then Jesus promises in Chapter 14 of the Gospel of John “I will pray the Father, and He shall give you the Comforter, that He may abide with you forever (the Spirit of Truth, or the Holy Spirit). He will dwell within you.” That is how being born again happens. It is supernatural. Conditional upon accepting Jesus and accepting His word as the Truth.
Jesus is real. He is a real man, even still now. He is still a living person who sits at the right hand of the Father, God Almighty, the Most High God in heaven. If you take His word seriously, and believe in Him, He promises to send you the Holy Spirit… and it is the Spirit that seals you so that you are saved.
Once the Spirit fell upon me and then rested inside of me, I became a new person… or as the bible says: I became a new creature in Christ, and He (the Spirit that Jesus had when He walked the earth), came to live within me. The Bible became my most prized possession. I came to realize: The Holy Bible really is an instruction manual. The more I read it, the more I actually experienced having my own personal relationship with the One who literally created all things for Himself. My eyes were opened and my whole life changed.
I still struggle, but now you have an advocate, an ally, a friend, a guide, a brother, a redeemer, a Saviour.
My life with Jesus Christ is infinitely better in every way. When I became born again, the Spirit effected everything in my life. My life now belongs to God, and God wants to bless His people.
I put everything I have into trusting and obeying Him so that I can live under His cover. I don’t want to live for myself anymore. Living for myself makes me depressed and feel empty. Living for Him makes me feel full, happy and alive. When I trust and obey Him, I feel alive.
When I don’t obey Him, I feel depressed, moody, discouraged, dismayed and miserable.
The choice is mine in every moment… but the choice to trust and obey God’s word makes all the difference for me.
God is always good and He does everything for our good and for His glory! Praise God!
A Vessel Unto Honour 
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