New Creation - Baptism by Fire

By God's grace, we are entering the Holy Week of 2017. The Lord gave a meaningful lenten season and had done great things in the lives of His people. May God pour out His blessings on all who seek Him sincerely. As we are going to complete the lent season of 2017 with sufferings, death, resurrection and glorification of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit wanted me to write some of the divine revelations I received in the past few weeks. So, I am going to pause the new creation series with this article and then going to publish some interesting articles about cross of Jesus. Later, we will resume back the new creation series with posts that I specified at the end of the last chapter.

This should be relatively smaller chapter when compared with the last few chapters of new creation series. John Baptist was the one who informed first about this kind of baptism, that is baptism by fire. The baptist said "I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and  with fire:" Matthew 3:11. So, there is a third type of baptism apart from water and Holy Spirit and this is called the baptism by Fire. This directly represents the power and gifts of the Holy Spirit.

When Jesus sent the disciples for training during the first time, He gave them the authority over evil powers and diseases. Matthew 10:1. But, still they were not able to drove out a demon as in Matthew 17:16. They were not doing full-pledged preaching yet. So, the full powers of the Holy Spirit was not awarded at that point of time. We could see that in John 7:39 as it says, "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". But, as we all know, the day came on Pentecost where the promised Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples who had assembled on the upper room. Acts 1:13, 2:1-4 and there is powerful wind that was blown, fire tongues came and sat on top of the brethren. Psalms 134. Then Peter started to preach and on his first sermon, 3000 people accept Jesus Christ and took baptism. Hallelujah. Praise God. He fulfills every promises He gives. Then, the disciple started to minister the Lord in powerful way and the entire Acts of apostles book explains the various incidents and the expansion of the church. The powerful anointing was on all His disciples and in a later chapter, they were called the shakers of the earth. "These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also;" Acts 17:6.

Do we have a fore shadow of the baptism by Water, Holy Spirit and Fire in Old testament? Yes, We could see the ministries of Moses (represents Water as he was named as taken from Water. Exo 2:10) and Elijah (represents Fire, as he dealt most often with Fire and finally went to heaven via fire chariots and whirlwind). Both of them had done mighty things for God. Both of them served the Lord in a powerful way. But, for me, the greatest saint of the entire old testament is David. In symbolization with three types of baptism (Water, Holy Spirit and Fire), David was anointed thrice. First, he was anointed by Samuel as the identified one (Water baptism) 1 Sam 16:13. Second time, he was anointed as a King of Judah in Hebron. (Holy Spirit baptism) 2 Samuel 2:4 and then the third time, he was anointed as the King of Israel (Fire baptism) 2 Samuel 5:3.  That's why David could wrote those many spiritual Psalms and he hints us the anointing behind that as "Now these  be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man  who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob, and the sweet psalmist of Israel" 2 Samuel 23:1.

God gave David a testimony saying that "David is after His own heart". I Sam 13:14, Acts 13:22. That's why Jesus is called son of David. There were two prominent persons who were called Servants of God in Old testament. One is Moses and the another one is David. The name of the OT saints mentioned in Revelation are very few. No mention of Abraham there. Moses is mentioned once. But, the name of David is mentioned three times, greater than any other OT saint. Moses was truthful, Abraham was faithful and strong in faith and obedience, but David, though he sinned a lot, he was the one who loved God more than any one else and that's why God made special promises to David and there is something called grace of David. Isaiah 55:3 Why David? The secret behind David's greatness is His love for God exceeds all the others in old testament and that is the secret. As God Himself is love, if you love God more than anything else, you will surely spend time in His word, praise and prayer and the Holy Spirit will continue to be exalted in you.

Final word about baptism by fire. This fire anointing is not mandatory to make it to kingdom of heaven. It is sufficient to be anointed by Holy Spirit and the fire baptism is something special to God's ministers and whoever having these gifts and powers should be cautious and exercise judgement while using them. They should be careful to give the glory to God's name when they perform miracles and these signs, miracles are given to the ministers of God so that they can win more souls for Christ and not for their own benefits. If you are anointed with Holy Spirit, pray for the anointing by Fire so that you can do great things for Christ. But, seek Lord's will and whatever you ask or do, fulfill His will. May God's name be glorified. Amen.

To summarize, what we have learnt in new creation series till now, we are seeing how to do God's will or how to fulfill God's plan for our individual lives and that comes with understanding of the process of understanding of sin, repentance, salvation, baptism and renew our spirit and mind by the Holy Spirit. We will see more after we resume the new creation series probably a couple of months later.

Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honor, and glory, and blessing. Rev 5:12. Let's praise and worship the great one, the holy one and the mighty one. Let's adore Him by falling prostrate in front of Him alone. No one or nothing else deserves our praise or glory. All Praise to you Holy Father, Holy Son Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

New Creation - Baptism by Holy Spirit

Let's see further to our last post. As explained in the earlier post about New Creation - Born again, this is the second step in born again. God sends His Holy Spirit to those who acknowledges Jesus as their Lord and Savior and this happens for every truthful and sincere believer. This is where the new creation actually begins. Paul wrote to Titus about the renewal or new creation as "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" Titus 3:5.

The new creation is the new life that we start to live along with the Holy Spirit slowly yielding ourselves to God and we are no longer the old. Living this new life by ourselves not difficult but it is impossible. Jesus said to His disciples that "when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come." John 16:13 and that's why we read one who doesn't have the spirit of Christ, he doesn't belong to Him. Romans 8:9. Holy Spirit is the helper through whom we will be able to live life in Christ's way and then we could please God.

How to get the Holy Spirit? To answer this, first we need to know who is Holy Spirit? If you would have gone through my second post, Trinity, you would have an understanding that Holy Spirit is God but in the form of Spirit. Holy Spirit is a person and we could see in many places that the Holy Spirit is mentioned as "He" instead of "It". Let's see few verses to explain more about Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Triune God. II Corinthians 3:17 says "Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord  is, there is liberty". The Lord Himself is Spirit and when Jesus spoke about the Father God to the Samarite woman, He said "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship  him in spirit and in truth." From here, we learn some truths. Firstly, God dwells in a place that is called as Spiritual realm which is not visible to human eyes whereas the universe, the planets, the stars and the satellites are physical. The earth that we live in is called physical realm which is visible to us and when the invisible God came into earth to live among us, He took the physical body and His name is Jesus Christ.

Now, if Jesus Christ is still living among us, He will be able to live at just one place at one point of time. But, by going back and seated at the Father's right hand, Jesus was able to send back the Holy Spirit so that He can dwell among men. To do that, first He need to sacrifice Himself at cross to remove the barrier (sin nature), and once the price was paid, God was able to live among people who accepts Him through Holy Spirit. This is symbolized by "the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom" Matthew 27:51 when Jesus died on cross. I think I have written this already on my post of Tabernacle but just want to quote the scripture again from Acts, "Howbeit the most High dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet" Acts 7:48. There is a prophetic verse that specifies Holy Spirit indwelling from Psalms. "Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive: thou hast received gifts for men; yea, for the rebellious also, that the LORD God might dwell  among them." Psalms 68:18 so the Lord received the gift from God to so that He can dwell among people. Praise the Lord, He Himself became our Redeemer, the Peace Maker, the Wisdom, the Sanctification, the Righteousness and the Redemption. I Cor 1:30, Eph 2:14, 15.

Now, as we know the Holy Spirit is God Himself in the form of Spirit who could indwell among people, we will try to answer how to get Holy Spirit? Peter answered this question during his first anointed sermon. "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Peter 2:38. Even now, this is the answer. Repent completely and baptized in the name of Lord Jesus Christ. Now a days, we are not able to see the public manifestation of the Holy Spirit as in the days of Apostles. But, God's word is truth and even if heavens and earth gone away, the Word will stand. So, even if the one who truly repents and sincerely accepts Jesus Christ and takes baptism, whether he knows or not, the Holy Spirit started to live inside him. He may not be aware of that.
There is a second clue in Acts that for whom God gives Holy Spirit. From Acts 5:32, "And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.". Whoever obeys God and His word will have the Holy Spirit by default. The third one which I could think about is the verse, "the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life." John 6:63. Jesus told to His disciples that the words are spirit and life. So, if you meditate the word of God regularly, give importance to it, you have the Word of God indwelling inside you which is nothing but the Holy Spirit.

Now, having answered the question of How to get the Holy Spirit, let me answer another intriguing question, How to know whether we have Holy Spirit? This is a tricky question and there is no direct answer. I could find a straight one from John 14:17, "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." So, we know that if we have the Holy Spirit, we know Him, we know the one who dwells in us. You may not aware of Him immediately after baptism or for some time (may be years) until He reveals Himself to you. The revealing of Holy Spirit is a beautiful experience. In my personal experience, if someone asks me, do you have the Holy Spirit? my answer is YES because I here His small still voice often and in the beginning I was not able to differentiate between the voice of Holy Spirit and my mind voice and satan's voice. But, now after some time, I could differentiate between those voices. Jesus said in John 10 that His sheep hear His voice and recognize Him. So, I am aware of the God's presence in me, I am aware of the indwelling spirit. Now, someone might ask, what is the proof that you have Holy Spirit? A very valid question. I may not be able to perform miracles, heal others, prophecy or cast out demons, but I know the one who lives in me. But, how to prove to others. My works, my thoughts and how I act shows Holy spirit works through me. The spiritual fruits of love I bear shows it to others. This blog posts show to others that Holy Spirit lives inside me. Not to boast about myself but just I wrote it as an example. I started this blog some 4 or 5 years back and I just put my first title Word of God and just wrote one scripture verse John 1:1 there and then it has been idle for 2-3 years. But, when I decided to recommit my life to the Lord 2 years back, the Holy Spirit gave me the articles and now I have written over 20 posts. That itself is a huge miracle. I know rarely one reads my articles but, I still continue to write because I know God loves these posts and He is the most sincere viewer and anyone who might accidentally got into these posts will go through a great transformation if he has time to go through these posts and the verses because these posts have been inspired by Holy Spirit. So, there will be a same kind of transformation in one's life who had been led by Holy Spirit and that is the real sign he is a new creation of God in Christ.

Let's see more about the nature of Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God Himself but dwelling inside us. Jesus said He is the comforter because He comforts us during losses. John 14:16. The Holy Spirit intercess for us and prays in the right way on behalf of us. Romans 8:26. Jesus helps us through Holy Spirit when we go through temptations and troubles Heb 2:18. He carries out our spiritual battle and He lifts up the banner against the enemy when he comes like a flood. Isaiah 59:19. He leads us when we have difficulties in decision making and shows us the right path. Isaiah 30:21. Above everything, he renews the new creation in us each and every day II Cor 4:16, makes us grow and fulfill the will of God in our lives and He has sealed us for redemption unto the praise of His glory when our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ appears again. Ephesians 1:13,14. The Holy Spirit is a prized possession and He can be easily grieved when we walk against the will of God and when we deliberately sin. The Holy Spirit will initially reproach if we sin and grieve him. But, if we don't hear and if we backslide and continuously walk against God, the Holy Spirit will be grieved and leave you completely. I Chronicles 28:9. That is a worst thing that could happen to anyone. Classic example is Solomon. You will be aware when Holy Spirit reveals Himself to you but you won't realize when He leaves. Another example for this is Samson. "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption." Eph 4:30. Don't quench the spirit I Thess 5:19 instead be fervent in spirit. Romans 12:11. If you are careful to please the Holy Spirit in all your ways, He will continue to abide with you and perfect you in every way and finally He will make you Christ alike so that you will get the eternal life and glory with our Lord.

This has been another big post and thanks for reading through. Receiving the Holy Spirit is the point of the beginning of new creation process in every truthful and sincere born again Christian. There is one more type of baptism, that is the anointing of fire which is used to do powerful things for Jesus Christ and to be a stand out testimony and witness for the Lord. We will see that in next chapter and then we will see how to sustain the new creation, how to grow and what are the practical difficulties in upcoming chapters. May God be with you, bless you, protect you and give His Shalom peace for now and for ever. Amen.

All honor, glory and praise to the God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit for now and for ever. Amen.

New Creation - Water Baptism

As a continuation to my last post, let us go more about water baptism. For simplicity, I mention as baptism in this post further and all the references mean to water baptism unless explicitly specified otherwise. We have seen the basic idea behind baptism is that one acknowledges his faith in Lord Jesus Christ that He accepts Him as his Lord and Savior for his life. Now, we will see the meaning of it further. Before writing anything spiritual, I just want to mention about water and life. As everyone knows, apart from blood, water is the essential content for life. Nothing can survive without water. That's why in extra terrestrial search for life, a planet is first analyzed for water presence. Water is mentioned in the second verse of the Bible before even mentioning about light."And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness  was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters." Gen 1:2 and no wonder water is linked with Holy Spirit. So, we see the importance of water here. Water constitutes 60% of the human body.

Baptism is the process of getting immersed in water three times (to represent Trinity). Why it is considered a way for born again? Just think about how a baby is delivered. Before the baby has to come out, there needs to be a rupture of amniotic fluid bag in the mother's womb. We could also say that water is an essential element for baby's birth. In same way, to born again, one has to immerse and come out of water by faith in Jesus Christ.

So, what Baptism signifies? Baptism simply means that the individual who is taking baptism is dying to his previous self centered life and he is getting born again in his spirit to live a new life that is Christ centered. Refer Romans 6:3. So, he is a new born person now. This is the simplest meaning. It also means that he is dying to his old habits, worldly things and all the other selfish things that he had been doing before accepting Jesus Christ as the master of his life. Not only it symbolizes the death of the person but it also means he is crucified on cross and then buried with him through baptism and when we get out of water, we are resurrected with Jesus Christ by faith and new man is born and the spiritual man is quickened from the dead. All through faith, nothing is visible process. Romans 6:4-6. Baptism symbolizes all this process and everything happens to the person who undergoes baptism even if he is not aware of all this.

Is that all baptism signifies? Well, it signifies more than that.In last post, I have mentioned a verse from Peter that this is a covenant that is being made between the individual and God. To understand more about the covenant, lets review some of the relevant covenants from old testament. The first one is the God's covenant with Noah. God promised Noah after the great floods that He will not destroy the earth by water again. Peter exactly says that is a like figure. Noah's family of 8 members alone were saved from the entire world by getting into the ark. Baptism is comparable to that in such a way that each one is getting saved out of water through baptism as a new born member of Christ. The ark is comparable to Jesus Christ Himself and taking baptism is again compared to be within the ark (Jesus Christ). Do we have any other example of baptism in old testament apart from the Noah's ark protection on great floods? Yes, the entire nation of Israelites who came out of Egypt after pass over were baptized in red sea. Moses was named after he was taken from waters, his name itself is significant in context of baptism and he lead the entire nation of Egypt through pass over (crucifixion of Jesus) and through pillar of cloud Red sea (baptism). I am not saying this, but people who know the Bible know where this is exactly given. Yes, please go through I Cor 10:1,2.

The second covenant is the one that God made with Abraham where God told Abraham will become a great nation and as a mark of covenant, Abraham and his descendants have to undergo circumcision. The circumcision is a blood covenant as blood spills out of the process and God remembers the covenant. But, actually Jesus has established the new covenant to all who accepts Him by faith and whosoever accepts Him become a child of Abraham automatically. This is a contradiction to Abrahamic covenant as the original covenant was based on circumcision on flesh. To extend this covenant to gentiles, a greater covenant has to be done. But, how a covenant that has been made by God with a man can be abolished or changed. Only by God Himself and exactly that is what Jesus has done on cross. He became a man and stood on behalf for all mankind, shed all His blood on cross to create a new covenant in such a way that old Abrahamic covenant is no longer required. He fulfilled all the Mosaic law and hence He made a blood covenant with God on behalf of humans so that this covenant cannot be broken because Lord had made covenant with God and it is sealed. Now, anyone can enjoy the blessings of God through Abrahamic covenant by simply accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and no need for him to undergo circumcision. I will try to cover more on this in a separate chapter with reference verses. But, to give a hint, the core theme of the epistle of Galatians point to this fact. So, to learn more about old covenant, law and new covenant, please read the epistle of Galatians. The Abrahamic covenant looks a bit out of context with baptism. But, the connection is it was abolished by Jesus Christ on cross so God has made a covenant through Jesus for anyone who accepts Him. "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God,  even to them that believe on his name. Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." John 1:12,13. But, it is the covenant act of the individual from his end to take baptism by sealing that he is accepting Jesus and surrendering to live a new life pleasing to God through Holy Spirit.

Now, having gone through the foreshadows, meaning and spiritual importance of baptism, let's see what is the right approach for baptism. Many churches give the practice of infant baptism. Is it right to baptize the baby? As per the above explanation, it is wrong to baptize the baby because it is a covenant between an individual person and God and the person has to decide it, not the parents or guardians of the infant. The baby doesn't know what is good or bad or what is sin. But many denominational churches follow this practice. So, what is the right time for a person to take baptism? Let's look at our role model, Jesus Christ. Luke 2:23 says Jesus was about 30 years old when he took baptism. I would also say 30 is the perfect age for a person to take baptism unless otherwise he comes to Christianity in an older age. Because, a person would be completely matured and probably married by 30 years of age and he knows how to live a family life. So, in my opinion, 30 is the perfect age but it could be few years earlier or later depending upon the faith of the individual. So, why churches have infant baptism? My guess is during the evolving of church there could be a confusion that if a person die in young age before taking baptism, whether he goes to heaven or hell as per the verse of John 3:5. To know more about that check the wiki page of infant baptism at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infant_baptism. But, I believe dedicating a baby during naming is the right approach rather than baptizing because baptism is just a basic qualification and we cannot assure everyone who takes baptism to reach the kingdom of God. It is just a starting point. So, I believe in cases of death in young age before baptism, still the child could enter kingdom of God by faith based on the discretion of God.

So, the right approach should be followed and only the matured adults should take the baptism and then only the new creation would have a real meaning and purpose in the life of the person who takes baptism. One who takes baptism should clearly know the truths about sin and salvation by grace through faith in Lord Jesus Christ and he or she has to believe in that. Try to read the incident of Philip baptizing minister of Candace queen and the condition is if you believe with all heart that Jesus Christ is son of God, you may take baptism. Acts 8:26-39 focus on verses 36-38.

I think I covered most about baptizing by immersion in water and I might have left out something. it has already been a bigger one. In my next post, I will cover about another important process of baptism by Holy Spirit and baptizing by fire. May all glory, honor and praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who promised to make us a new creation. Amen.

New Creation - Born again

As I have mentioned at the end of the last post, the next step in new creation is the process of getting born again. There was a conversation between Jesus and a jewish officer named Nicodemus in John 3. It is one of the most important conversations in the entire Bible as Jesus plainly put forth the basic condition to see the kingdom of God. Later, Jesus quotes the most popular verse in 3:16, about God's love that forms the crux of the Christian faith, "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.". But, let's focus on the process of born again for this chapter. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night, probably he doesn't want other pharisees or scribes to see him with Jesus (I am just guessing). Just to give an overview about Nicodemus, we could read about Nicodemus in 2 other places in John, one is where he tries to defend Jesus in John 7:50 and finally we see that he does the final rituals of Jesus after His crucifixion along with Joseph of Arimathaea in John 19:38,39 and at both places Nicodemus was identified as the one who came to Jesus in an earlier night.

The conversation starts as Nicodemus appreciates Jesus by saying "Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him." John 3:2. But, Jesus never cared about his praise but directly responded to Him by telling something totally irrelevant to the context but it is the most important stuff and basic eligibility to see the kingdom of God. "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." John 3:3 So, Nicodemus asked Jesus again, what He actually meant by born again, whether one can enter his mother's womb second time to born again. Jesus explains again saying, "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." John 3:5

The above is the process of born again, that is to born again of water (Baptism) and of the spirit (New creation). This is the second step after salvation. As we saw in last post, salvation is the very first process that one believes in Jesus, confess his sins and accepts Him and declares that Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Born again is a two stage process because there are two persons involved in born again of every individual. One person is God and the other is the individual. The first step should be from the individual to get baptized by water thereby publicly acknowledging that he or she is accepting Jesus Christ as his or her Lord and Savior. The second step is from the Lord to baptize the individual with the Holy Spirit there by acknowledging his faith towards Him. This is a kind of getting into mutual agreement or covenant (covenant is the right word). That's why Peter explains, "The like figure where unto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:" I Peter 3:21. The original translation says it is the covenant of a good conscience with God. So, if one takes baptism it actually means that he is entering into covenant with the living God to become His child by accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

Why Baptism is required? We read in James 2:17 that "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone". So, we learn that if we have faith in Jesus, we have to show that through our works. The first work probably one should do after being saved is baptism because it is the act that Jesus Himself had gone through. So, we should acknowledge our faith by action publicly by taking the baptism by water. I will write more about the meaning of baptism in my next article.

Let's see the second part of it. God waits for one to acknowledge Jesus through baptism before He starts his works in us. Once we have done the first step, we can be sure that God always hold on to His word to send His Holy Spirit to the person who takes baptism. Though the person may not aware of this fact, this is a 100% sure thing that happens in him. Some people realize this and some don't. But, it doesn't mean that because a person doesn't feel a difference or he doesn't realize, it is not happening. If you are truthful and sincere to acknowledge Christ as your Lord by taking baptism, it is doubly assured that Holy Spirit started to live in you from that moment onwards. It is one hundred percent true that God acknowledges those who acknowledge Him. I could quote many verses for this but limit that to few examples.

Let's start with Jesus who made himself a role model for others to follow. Jesus took the baptism in river Jordan through John Baptist and once when He entered the shore, we could read God acknowledging Him in Matthew 3:16, 17. "And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him:, And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.". What a wonderful scene that would have been? When David was anointed by Samuel, we read that "Then Samuel took the horn of oil, and anointed him in the midst of his brethren: and the Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward." I Samuel 16:13. The Lord spoke to Eli through a prophet and said "for them that honor me I will honor, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." I Samuel 2:30 and when you are baptized with Holy Spirit, you have started to live a new life in Jesus Christ and this is all about the starting of new creation.

In my next post, I will write more about Baptism by water and what is the core meaning of it, what is the right way of doing it.  All honor, glory, praise to the almighty God through our all sufficient savior Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

New Creation - Salvation by Grace through Faith

Paul wrote in his second epistle to Corinthians, "if any man  be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." 2 Cor 5:17. Holy Spirit inspired me to write a series of articles on this new creation and this is my third post. In this post, we will see the basic building blocks or bricks (or the beginning steps) of this spiritual process, New creation. We have seen in first post that each Christian is expected to live a life pleasing to Christ, i.e. living life in Christ's way and we have seen about creation of human being and what constitutes a human in my last post.

The very first process of the new creation is salvation and it is not just a one time process and it happens throughout the life. We could say that whoever accepted Christ have been saved, are being saved and will be saved eternally. But, let's see the context of salvation that happens to a believer for the first time. I don't think any man can accept or come to Christ by himself. He should have been identified by God. One may be a Christian by birth but that doesn't mean he has gone through salvation automatically. So, we should understand, if anyone is truly a Christian, he had been through salvation not by himself but because he has been chosen by God even before the foundation of the world. Jesus said "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out." John 6:37. In same chapter, He also told "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him." John 6:44 and again in verse 65.

So, how does one get salvation? what one has to do to get the salvation? The gift of salvation is available to everyone and it is free. It is God's grace. But, for an individual to receive the salvation, he should have faith on Lord Jesus Christ and what he had done on cross for the mankind. Faith is the first step in order to receive salvation. The definition of faith is given in Hebrews 11:1 as "Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." In this context, we haven't seen Jesus shedding blood on cross, or we haven't seen Father accepting Jesus sacrifice for sins of mankind, but we are believing through scriptures that Jesus has paid ransom for our sins in cross. This is what faith is all about. The second step is declaring our faith through our mouth, accepting that we are sinners and we cannot save ourselves and instead we accept God's provision for salvation, which is through the blood of the lamb, Jesus Christ. We will see more on God's provision with couple of old testament examples. But, the above entire process is written in Romans 10:9-11 - "That 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 righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Think the grace of God as a huge water reservoir like a dam or a huge river. We can go and see the dam and the water. But, to get the water from the dam, you need to have a vessel. You should have a vessel to get water for yourselves. Just seeing is not enough. So, going to church, giving offerings and doing other church activities are like seeing the waters. But, having faith in Lord Jesus is the vessel to get the grace for ourselves. How big the vessel is that much amount of water we can draw. That's exactly why Paul writes in his letter to Ephesians, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." Ephesians 2:8,9

Let's see the examples for God's provision. When Adam has sinned, the entire mankind has been fallen short of glory and became unrighteous and unholy in front of holy and righteous God. In last post, we have seen the fig leaves were not sufficient to cover the nakedness but God has provided clothes made of skin to cover Adam and Eve. It became very clear that God has to provide a way of salvation when it comes to restoration of mankind back with God and any other solutions that man offers won't be approved in God's presence. The first example is the incident of God's calling of Abraham to sacrifice Isaac. When Isaac asked Abraham, where is the lamb for a burnt offering?, Abraham by faith knows God will provide an alternative for His son and even if he has to sacrifice Isaac, he believe God will rise Isaac from dead because God promised Abraham through Isaac, his seed will multiply. Heb 11:17-19. So, he gave a wonderful answer to Isaac that "My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering". Gen 22:8. Finally, as Abraham said, he found a ram and he called God as Jehovah-Jireh, in the mount of the LORD, it shall be seen. Gen 22:14. How true in the mount of Golgotha, the solution is provided. Praise God. John Baptist introduced Jesus as "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." John 1:29

The second example is the pass over in Egypt. When the Israelites applied the blood of the lamb on their door posts, they were saved from the plague that killed all the first born of Egyptians. The door post symbolizes the cross and all the households of Israelites who were behind those door posts were saved and they were delivered from Egypt that night. If you believe that Jesus dies for your sins on cross in your heart and confess through your mouth that He is your Lord and Savior, you are behind the door post where the lamb's blood has been sprinkled and you are saved. You are saved eternally from condemnation, hell, the clutches of devil. Not only that, you are partaker of the blessings of the Lord. As I heard in one of the sermons, the difference between mercy and grace is, mercy is the act of relieving from the eternal punishment but grace is along with relieving from eternal punishment (mercy), extending the blessings of God in such a manner that we haven't sinned at all.

Salvation is just the first step, just like a baby steps and this is essential step in a Christian life. Just remember, because as you were born Christian never meant that you were saved. One must realize and accept Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. Faith is the first step required in us and this faith has to be started by God Himself. So, if you are touched by this post and haven't gone through salvation, it means that God Himself worked in you to realize the truth. Jesus Christ, our Lord is the author and finisher of faith. So, He has already started faith in your heart. In invite you to believe that Jesus died for you on cross, He shed His blood on cross for the remission of your sins and confess your sins and declare that Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior from now on. You will see your life changing even if not immediate gradually or at some point.

We will move on to the next process of new creation which is being born again. I will explain that in my next post. All glory, honor, praise to God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the holy lamb that bore of the world in Himself and created salvation through Himself. Praise God for His unspeakable gift, Lord Jesus. II Cor 9:15. He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? Romans 8:32 Amen.

New Creation - Beginning

I have started writing about new creation in my last post. I will elaborate more on this post. Please go through my previous post to get the understanding. To summarize, I wrote about what God expects out of every Christian irrespective of his background and had mentioned that we are expected to live our life in Christ's way thus glorifying Jesus Christ in our thoughts and actions and being testimony of Christ for others. In this post, we will see how to live this new life in Christ.

To understand the new life or new creation, first we should be aware of the old life. As I had written the post of trinity, every human being is made of three parts called body, soul and spirit. We can see a reference to these three parts in the verse where we read about creation of man. We read this in Gen 2:7 as "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul". We can see a reference to the dust of the ground representing the physical body composed of skin, bone, blood and physical parts that can be seen. The body directly corresponds to the five senses. The second reference is to the breath of life and it refers to the spirit. The spirit is directly connected to the conscience of the person. The third part is soul as referred in "man became a living soul". Soul refers to the mind, emotions and will of the person. Soul actually determines who the person is though the body and appearance help to distinguish person to person. So, every man is a living soul dwelling inside the shell which is the body. Understanding this is essential to understand life and new creation.

God told Adam in Gen 2:17, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Even after eating of the tree, Adam and Eve lived for 900+ years. But, the spirit was dead immediately when they sinned. There is actually another way of interpreting this which is also very appropriate. For God, 1000 years is like 1 day but Adam died on 930 years of age that means he died on that day (at 930 years which is short of 70 years to 1000 years) and no man reached 1000 years in this world though couple of them translated and ascended (Enoch and Elija) to heaven. From that point on wards, the spirit of every human being is dead from their birth on wards though they have physical life and soul. Except for one identified generation from Adam through Seth until Noah, every humans in the world started to live as they wanted before the great floods of destruction because they were totally cut off from living God and their spirit was dead and they were not connected with God.

The physical body, also called as flesh is corrupted when Adam and Even sinned against God. It is no longer pleasing God and it wanted to please self. This is exactly a dead state of spirit. Now a days, we can see even small kids want to have everything for them and they don't consider the others. Still, we have life but spiritually we were all dead and self is in control that leads to selfishness wanting everything for ourselves. There are many sinful activities defined throughout new testament but all of them could turn to seven basic sins. The seven basic sins are pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth and all of these seven sins have a root which is "self". If one serves his own self, he indirectly serves satan and he cannot serve God in this state. Every human is born in this state by default and there was no chance for him to please God or have an eternal life by himself. The good works the man try to do to save himself don't work. This was also shown in garden of Eden. When the eyes of Adam and Eve opened and when they realized they were naked, they tried to cover their bodies with the leaves of fig tree. But, that was not sufficient. But, God instead provided them clothes made up of skin. How true? Our good works in our own are like fig leaves and they cannot make us right or in front of the holy God. But, an animal was sacrificed by God and the skin was given to cover the bodies and this is a direct representation of lamb of God who was crucified on cross and the blood of Jesus Christ alone atones for our sin and covers every one who comes to Him.

Jesus Christ, the son of God, came into the world to fix all the issues and restore the humans back with God, the Father and that was not possible without sacrificing Himself on the cross and shedding His blood as it is written there is no atonement without the shed of blood. Heb 9:22, Lev 17:11. Every human being can be saved only by accepting this blood of lamb upon him by believing in Jesus Christ. This is what is called Salvation by Faith. How great is the Father's love? He has sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, again God Himself in the form of flesh, to atone on behalf of each and everyone of us. The cross of calvary is a wonderful exchange of our sins to God and receiving His divine blessings of salvation, peace, prosperity and protection. It is the point where the unthinkable happened, the Holy God and sinful man meet together. I know I am writing about New Creation but without the process of salvation, the new creation cannot even start. We will get into more details in next post.

All glory, honor and praise to the perfect lamb of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. How great is love of Jesus? He sacrificed Himself for us in cross. He alone deserves every glory. Jesus Christ is the embodiment and representation of the invisible almighty, Holy God. Amen.

New Creation - An Introduction

Holy Spirit says through Paul that "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." II Cor 5:17. I wondered many times in my life, what is expected out of myself as a Christian? What God wants out of me? or How to please Him? It has been my desire from my childhood to become a powerful minister for God. I wanted to be a true prophet. To be honest, I have the desire deep within, but my ways were not very focused on God. I was a lukewarm for a long time. I wanted both. I wanted worldly pleasures as well as God. But, I know God is looking over me, caring over me and He will turn my ways at some point of time when He wills. Once I was touched by God, my inward spiritual thought process took a big turn (but, outside was still the same - more on this later). Then, I realized the answer for that question.

During my college days, I had attended a 3 day Christian youth conference. In one of the sermons, the preacher said that all Christians are called to do the will of God and the will of God differs for person to person. How true? The Lord appointed Peter, who was a fisherman to become a preacher for conventional jews but identified Paul, who mastered the doctrine and law as a minister for gentiles. Paul explains this in his letter to the church of Corinth as there could be different organs in the body, but each of them serves it purpose and cannot ignore the other one. If one suffers, the entire body suffers. I Cor 12:14-26. So, the apostle cannot say that prophet is not required and vice versa. It applies to the way we want to serve God too. I may wanted to become a prophet but God may have chosen me as a preacher. The other one may want to be a preacher but God may want him to do a healing ministry. So, God's will differs from person to person with respect to ministry.

But, the preacher said one more thing which is the actual answer. The answer is whether a persona is a prophet or a preacher or evangelist, there is a basic thing that God expects a Christian to do and that is to live his everyday life in Christ's way. This is what a definition of a Christian. A true Christian is one who has Christ living in Him. Having Christ make him a Christian. Christ lives through Him by Holy Spirit and he reflects Jesus Christ to the world. This is the basic requirement of every Christian irrespective of anything else. He may be a lutheran, presbyterian, anglican or any other denomination, but the above thing must be satisfied. Not all Christians are called for ministry but every Christian is called to live life in Christ's way. I can quote many scriptural verses for this but just want to show one of them. I John 2:6 says "He that saith he abide in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."

To live this true Christian life, one must die to his old worldly habits and become what is called a "New Creation". Like a normal life, which starts as a baby, grows to a child then to an youth and a matured man, this new creation too has its own phases. One can never live this Christian life to full extent by him alone. It is impossible. Like how water is essential to the growth of a plant, Holy Spirit is essential to the growth of this New creation.

We will see more about this new creation in the subsequent articles. From now on, I plan to make my articles short enough so that reading won't be a burden. If it takes more content, I will split them to 2 or 3 smaller articles. May God be exalted in everything we do. All honor, glory and praise to the one who hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honor and power everlasting. Amen. I Tim 6:16 Praise the Lord, our Savior, Jesus Christ.