Now it is time to bring to light the main deception that churches are believing and proclaiming. This lie is the main deception of the devil that has entered into our churches, because there are many other deceptions that have been created and proclaimed to keep supporting this main deception. This one lie of the devil has become the root from which a lot of other deceptions spring forth.
This one lie of the devil has become so devastating because it has become the foundational truth that most people believe in for their faith. So as I set forth to show this false truth as a lie – I know I will be shaking and/or destroying the very sandy foundations that most of our churches have belief in. It is not my intention to hurt people and make them angry, but this is what is called tough love. God doesn’t want any to perish, so He is sending me to proclaim His real truth - so that the real truth will take the place of the false truth and truly set people free.
This main deception has to do with when and how we are born again. We have been taught that everyone must be born again to have eternal life – which is correct. Where the deceptions come into play is the devil convincing us that we are born again upon our salvation (upon our first coming to Christ). No where in God’s Word does it link being saved with being born again at the same time. This is a lie and an assumption of our own selfish human reasoning to tie these two events together. Although these two events can happen at the same time if the person’s heart has been conditioned and made ready, for almost all the people in our day, they have to hard of a heart to be born again upon their moment of salvation. We see many examples in the first church times where people were born again upon their salvation, but these people were already trying to live a Godly life because of their faith and love in God. What we accept and live in now is much different then the first church times. Society has lost their love for God and we love ourselves instead. We also don’t fear God like the people in the first church times. And today our culture accepts and even promotes out of wedlock sexual activity, but back in the times of the first church people, they were stoned to death for these sins. What they understood as sins back then, the world now accepts and promotes. In the time we live in, we all collect a lot of sinful baggage that we have to get rid of before God will accept us to be born again (born of God).
The condition of being born again is outlined in the following verse:
(This is not salvation – salvation is free, but being born of God has a cost - our love)
John 14:15-17 - If you love me, you will obey what I command. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.
We are not born again by receiving Christ at the altar. We can only be born of His Spirit after God sees that we love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. God is the one that sees our true heart – not any pastor, not any other person, and we can’t even see the true condition of our own heart (we are bias) – only God can. It is only God that chooses to make us born again when He sees us as worthy to receive His Spirit. What makes us worthy is our totally committed love for Him.
1 John 3:24 - Those who obey his commands live in him, and he in them. And this is how we know that he lives in us: We know it by the Spirit he gave us.
Everyone that has been born again (born of God) will know it. Our spirit will testify to us by knowing we are totally a new creation, by God’s Holy Spirit being merged with our spirit. When we have been born again, we have become one with God’s Spirit. It is impossible for a person not to notice this change when they are born again. They know at that time that all the sinful nature and selfish desires are gone and only the desire to love God and others remain.
1 John 5:3-4 - This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world.
When a person has been born of God, all they have is love for God and others. The love for self (selfishness) is gone. A person that has been born of God and loves God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength cannot willfully sin against God, because the Spirit is guiding their every thought and action. Of course, God will never take the choice away from us to sin against Him – even after being born again, but if we do we will be committing that unpardonable sin.
We have to stop proclaiming this devastating lie. Preachers and teachers of the church, stop telling people they are born again and a son of God when they come to Christ – we cannot make that assumption of what God has or hasn’t done. Preachers and teachers stop proclaiming to the congregations that they are born again when in essence most of them are not really born again. It is not the preachers or teachers job to proclaim someone born of God. God says we will know them by their fruits. If a person has all good fruit then it is a strong possibility that they are born again, but if a person still has some bad fruit (sin) – then we know they are still of the devil and not of God’s Spirit yet.
1 John 3:8 - He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning.
Proclaiming someone born again when they are still being controlled by the devil is devastating to God’s glory, devastating to Christianity, and devastating to that person you are proclaiming born again when they are not yet born again. This is why this lie works so well for the devil. The devil has gotten us to believe that we can be a born again Christian and still live a sinful life. The devil has gotten us to believe that we can still live in sin and have eternal life in heaven with God – God would never allow any sinful thing in heaven – no matter how much He loves His creation.
Why this lie is so devastating to the person being called a born again Christian, when they are not yet born again, is because they stop trying to be Christ like and become perfect in God’s love. If a person is running a race and they have believed they have crossed the finish line, will they not stop racing. This is what has happened. People have stopped growing and stopped being sanctified because they don’t think they need to go any further. They think they have reached the finish line (being born again), when in real truth they had just started the race and the finish line is still a long ways off.
Salvation is the way, but not the destination. Salvation is the way to becoming a born again Christian. The destination is to grow in Christ (through our salvation) to the point where you are born into Christ’s likeness. Jesus is our salvation from sin and Jesus is also our destination (to become like Him). He is the alpha and the omega in our salvation. Jesus is the way, truth, and the life. Jesus gives us the way as a gift. Then we must grow in Him through His truth. If we grow into a person like Him – then we will be born into His Holy Spirit. If God’s grace has made you into a pure and blameless Christ like person, then praise the Lord. But if you are one of the millions that have been fooled by the devils lies – thinking you were born again from the beginning and now realize that you aren’t, there is all the power of God’s grace available at your disposal to become born of God - if you are willing to die completely to yourself.
For more information on the born again process – click to read the message below on my web site.
http://webpages.charter.net/reidmike/Archives/BornAgainVersesEntireSanctification.htm
God’s and your servant,
Michael Reid
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