A New Creature
Pastor J. R. Wilhite, author
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2 Corinthians 5
My prayer for you is: 3 John 1 2.
17. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
You should be able to look back and see the changes in your life due to Christ. I can see how the old Jerry did things the new Jerry couldn't even try to do and wouldn't want to do. I used to say "I am going to Hell in a hand basket unless I change my ways", jokingly I thought. But actually it was the truth. I stopped saying it without even realizing I had stopped until one day I remember the coment and wondered what made me stop saying it. Then I realized I stopped when my relationship with God started growing. Of course I stopped because it was no longer true.
At first most people notice their bad language changing. As much as I have changed, and it seems to be 180 degree turn around, it seems more like 10 degrees based on what is still left to be changed. The more you notice change the more you notice how much more still needs to be changed. We have to change or else we will back slide, become one with the world again, sin, die, and spend eternity in torment. In 1973 I asked Jesus into my heart.
At the time I knew I was missing something and I knew I needed Him and felt Him. For 16 years I spent as a ministry leader, a father, husband, and businessman never realizing I was slowly back sliding and not growing. But in 1989 I got the in-filling of the Holy Spirit. You see at first you ask Jesus in, have the blood for salvation, and the Spirit would be like a match burning inside. But after the in-filling and what later I learned was the anointing (Christ is a Greek word meaning anointing) so much of the word of God made sense and I understood it in ways I could not before. That is when I realized God protected us from our enemy (Satan) by making the word only understood through Him(God) via His Spirit.
1 John 2
27. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.
John 14
26. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
We were not to be taught of by man, but by God alone. That is why there are so many different beliefs and they are so different in some areas. Satan did his job well; he hid from us the meaning of Christ and in doing so the reason to even seek any further elements or filling of
the Spirit of God. He (Satan) had us believing as they did 2,000 years before that we were to go to church, hear from a man of God, and follow all the old traditions and values knowing full well as long as we did we were lost and it was easier for him to get us into Hell.
Even the Jews knew of the anointing and its capability and power.
Isaiah 10
27. And it shall come to pass in that day, that his burden shall be taken away from off thy shoulder, and his yoke from off thy neck, and the yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing.
Jesus even explained it to us, but since we thought Christ was His last name or title we missed it altogether.
Luke 4
18. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,
But as soon as someone saw what it meant in the translation they let it out. It first started by God telling us and guiding us to the translation.
So you need to be of Christ; a Christian is someone of Christ. So they are anointed with the Spirit of God in, on, and through them. In our salvation and through the word is the forming or birth of faith. But in Christ is when it takes on a power of its own.
1 Corinthians 1
24. But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
One of the smartest men I knew was a Pastor and a good friend but he did not have a clue about Christ. He did not believe a pastor was called. He had very little if any belief in the Spirit today; he thought it ended in 1st century in the book of Acts and was not for us today. God used him to bring many to Him, but as this man continued in his knowledge and not of the Spirit attacks came and one big attack took him away. God used this attack to bring him closer to the Spirit and God and afterwards to get the whole congregation on the right track for growth in the Spirit of God. He is now with God. I have no doubt of his salvation.
Do not allow anything or anyone to slow you, hinder you in anyway in your growth with God via His Spirit. All you have to do is accept Jesus as your saviour and believe:
Romans 10
9. 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.
10. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Next ask God to anoint you with His Spirit and believe and it will happen.
Hebrews 11
6. But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Mark 11
22. And Jesus answering saith unto them, Have faith in God.
23. For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith.
24. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
25. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
26. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses.
Remember to be a Christian is to be of Christ. To be of Christ is to be one with God, and it starts with the blood shed for you by Jesus.
Remember to show faith when you pray, then praise and give thanks.
God Bless You as you hear His words and follow His leading.
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