The Daniel Fast

The Rainbow Pen!

 

 

Baptizing With God's Spirit

 

 

Everyone became excited and wondered, “Could John be the Messiah?” John said, “I am just baptizing with water. But someone more powerful is going to come, and I am not good enough even to untie his sandals. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. (Luke 3:15-16 CEV). If we believe that Jesus is truly Christ, we are God’s children... We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow. Every child of God can defeat the world, and our faith is what gives us this victory. No one can defeat the world without having faith in Jesus as the Son of God. (I John 5:1-5 CEV).

The World defines success as obtaining power, fame and wealth. In God's Kingdom, successful people learn and apply God's Kingdom principles for humanity's good and for God's honor and glory. The successful person is therefore the one who lives within the Kingdom of Light and by its rules. Our success phases as Christ's followers are, first, being saved and knowing we'll go to Heaven; and second, learning and applying heavenly principles here on Earth. The World has taken the principles and rejected the person of Christ. You've to be born-again in order to be saved. And unless you're saved, you're not Christ's follower. When you're saved, you're adopted into God's family. The Lord Jesus Christ is stepping up Baptizing With God's Spirit these months. God is still guiding the course of events as He works out His plan on Earth. Satan the Devil is deceiving and desensitizing people. Movies and video games motivate our minds and hearts to tolerate bloodshed and cheer for brutal deaths. You who are striving to live as Christ's follower must raise the bar of morality, becoming a pattern of good works.

 

As Baptizing With God's Spirit increases, society will catch fire for God's Way and begin developing His perfect holy and righteous character. We can't overcome the World on our own. We need God's partnership through His Spirit. You've to be born-again in order to be saved. And unless you're saved, you're not Christ's follower. You must therefore try to live a life that is pleasing to Him, out of love and godly fear. Acts of sin or rebellion will take away the joy of your salvation, but not the salvation itself. But if you continue in a course of known sin, you'll lose the assurance of your salvation. For you'll be at odds with God. This is about your awareness and assurance of salvation and the Holy Spirit. Anyone born-again doesn't continue in a course of sin, refusing to confess and repent of their sins. There is a transformation of your life as a second birth. You're motivated from within as the Holy Spirit begins to lead you in obedience to the righteousness of God. You suddenly want to do everything the right way. Once born-again, you're righteous by faith and the Holy Spirit helps you live righteously. You live the righteous demands of the law by the Holy Spirit leading. This is the process of regeneration into divine DNA!

 Baptizing With God's Spirit turns a sinner into a saint, fit for God's Kingdom. An act of sin will not cost you your salvation, but it takes away its joy. When you're saved, you're adopted into God's family. You try to live a life pleasing to Him, out of love and godly fear. We cannot earn our salvation through good works for Jesus paid the whole price to set us free from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of Light. We've people now who have learned God's way and can boldly teach it to the next generation. They're therefore powerful tools in the hand of God. They've spent decades learning and applying God's instructions in the battleground of life. Applying this knowledge has produced wisdom and understanding. They can help the younger generation to expand their horizons and prevent arguments by learning to see things from another person's perspective. And if we learn to respect the more experienced Christ's followers, we'll act with respect and be more receptive to their wisdom, understanding and perspective. While we're young in our spiritual walk, our life experience is yet rather brief and we lack the perspective.

Your life isn't complete without a personal relationship with God Almighty your Creator. You'll strive all the time to succeed for there is a big God-sized hole or vacuum in your life. You'll eventually be forced to search and read the Scriptures in order to fill this vacuum. There is indeed a spiritual solution to every problem. You can but feel the apparent unexplainable contradiction between the emptiness inside while seeming to enjoy affluent life. All the material things in life are meaningless if a person hasn't discovered what's underneath them. The missing link in most troubled lives is the personal relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is still Baptizing With God's Spirit today. To begin the born-again practical journey, ask the Lord Jesus Christ  into your life and turn your life over to Him. You'll immediately feel His presence with you and His peace within you. You'll begin to see and feel, hear and smell, talk and taste things differently. Everything will seem different to you. You'll know that something has happened to you. And you'll know that you're born-again!

That's what you mean by accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. That's it, as simple as that. Of course, you're to want Jesus in your life, really want Him. That's the way it starts. And things will begin to change because of the change taking place within you, due to Baptizing With God's Spirit. And you'll begin to have satisfaction and joy about living and life. To you, Jesus will no longer be just a historic figure. You can hardly invite Jesus into your life if you don't believe that He is alive today and that His Spirit is a part of today's scene. It's hard to imagine how such a miraculous change can take place in such a simple way. The pressures of life and insecurities make people bring problems on themselves. If you'd put your faith in God, and if your cause is just, He'd guide you. And His help will be a thousand times more powerful than all your efforts and shady schemes. It's tough to argue with success. When you become a follower of Jesus Christ, you rely on God totally. You manage your affairs and finances in the competitive worlds of business and politics successfully. And the results will be visible for all to appreciate.

God does not cause evil. Evil is a result of Satan the Devil or the human heart. Since evil has the tendency to multiply itself, Baptizing With God's Spirit will change the human nature. Giving people the freedom to choose between good and evil has been God's policy since creation. It is hard for a new Christ follower to turn himself over to God completely. The person who has and truly repented from sin can find repeated assurances of the eternal covenant given to His people by a God who cannot lie. The work of Jesus Christ is eternal and will never be revoked. As a Christ follower you've eternal security through the day-to-day witness of the Holy Spirit in your life and lifestyle. We're secure in God's hand and we're to rest in the Lord Jesus Christ. God has put His Spirit within us and He has given us His Word. Jesus Christ is at God's right hand, constantly making intercession on our behalf. And God has sent angels to watch over us. In other words, we're surrounded by tremendous help. Constantly remind yourself that you're a child of the Most High God who loves you, and makes you secure because you belong to Him. Your daily prayers and study of Scripture will greatly help your spiritual growth.