And our journey through it.
Accepting Christ
Good morning, Church. As I was reading John again the first chapter, which many of us has read and embraced about the Deity of Christ, (verses 1-2) I come down to verses 12 through 14. I had to stop and really read those verses again in quiet meditation because those two verses of TRUTH tells everyone of us “HOW” we became Born Again Children of God! Glory! But first let’s read verses 9-11 to get the understanding of verses 12-14.
John 1:9-11
“That was the true Light (Christ) which gives light to every man who comes into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He come to His own (place), and His own (people) did not receive Him.”
The Jewish people are God’s chosen people yet when Jesus, God’s Son Who was talked about in the Old Testament, came to them they shunned Him, ignored Him, persecuted Him and finally killed Him. His own people did not accept Him for Who He was! But unknown to the world; He became the Savior of the “whole” world.
Church, we have two nations here: The Jewish Nation, God’s Chosen People; and the Gentile Nation, all who were not born a Jew and did not go by God’s Laws. Jesus came to “join together” the two nations into One Mighty Nation that would dethrone the enemy of the world, Satan. God had to show through His Son how much He Loved “all” the world and man-kind----He Made them! God wants EVERY ONE to live forever with Him in that LOVE! So Jesus had to pay the Price for us by breaking the hold Satan took from Adam and Eve in the Garden, and give us back the Love we had by giving us repentance through Mercy and Grace. Glory to God!
Now Saints, to have that Mercy and Grace we NEED to take that repentance to heart and “USE” it. We all know what is right and wrong; we have that inner gift from God, but our selfish, natural nature over rules our spiritual nature a whole lot of times and we become immune to the calling/urging of God. This in turn takes us over to the enemies territory with fear, deception and delusion being predominate through us. What will stop it? Our own wills trusting God and saying YES to Him and NO to the enemy of our lives. How can we do that? By accepting Christ as our Redeemer and Savior and Lord of our lives; that in turn takes us to verses 12-14 in John.
John 1:12-14
“But as many as received Him (Christ), to them He gave the right to become Children of God, to those who believe in His name: (verse 13)who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh (verse 1-2) and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 8:32; 14:6; 18:37)
I’d like to go into verse 13 here if I may to help us understand the title to this paper, Accepting Christ.
When I read that verse years and years ago for the first time, I did not understand it because everyone who is born is born of blood, we have to be---we can’t live without blood. My thinking was in the natural as most of us do 99.9% of the time. But as I persisted in reading the Word and listening to the Spirit “IN” me and growing and maturing in the Word I became more involved with the “whys” and “how-comes” of the Word of God. It is such a fascinating journey when you become so involved in what God is telling you through The Word. Yes, in the natural, we are born of blood, and in the natural a man loves or lusts and conceives in the natural BUT it is “in the spirit” that God puts His Love in “our” heart/spirit. That Church, is our spiritual man that is our true self; our God given self that is going to live forever---in heaven or hell. ( I Peter 1:23)
I’ve written this before but it bears repeating: We “ARE” a spiritual body. We have a natural/fleshly body covering our spiritual body just as God made Adam in the very beginning.
Let’s see what God’s Word says on the subject—God doesn’t lie:
I Corinthians 15:44 (read verses 35-58 explaining the resurrected dead)
“It is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.”
God’s TRUTH! When we receive Christ as our Lord and Savior (in our spirit) we are given the “right” to become Children of God---He becomes our Father also! That Church, is our spirit-man turning back to our Creator God; that also means we have the Power, Authority, and yes the RIGHT to come against our enemy, Satan and have the victory over him which Christ gave to us when He died on the Cross for us.
So letting our spirit-man rule and reign over our natural man is our God given path to Him. Now that Church “IS” the TRUE meaning of Accepting Christ. Hallelujah!!
How can we do this? By:
Trusting and Believing in God’s Love for us.
All scriptures are from: New King James Version of Prophecy Study Bible, General Editor- John C. Hagee unless otherwise stated.