Having God’s Heart – What Is It Like? - Part 2

When I share these messages, about how God does truly free us from our sinful nature, most of the responses from people are - it is not possible and that as long as we live we are going to sin. Most people believe that we will always have some sinful nature in us as long as we are living in this body of flesh. This is sad, because it is their very lack of belief that keeps them from receiving this gift of God. So I realized that people need to hear this from other people other than myself, in the hopes that they will understand that – it is not just what God has done in me, but in many other people as well.

Here is one of those other true believers trying to get this same message out.

Obeying God Is No Burden

John, the beloved apostle, wrote, "This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous [burdensome]" (1 John 5:3).

Some would beg to differ. They find God's com­mands inconvenient, if not a real pain. Every device has been tried to explain how one can be a Christian without literally obeying God's Word.

Why do some find God's commands such a burden? And why do others, like John, find obey­ing God to be no burden at all? Love makes all the difference. "And, this is love, that we walk after his commandments." Obeying God has practical results, in faithful love in a marriage, helping those in need, and Christian generosity and honesty.

It's a virtuous cycle: Love produces obedience, and obedience produces even greater love. Too many experience, instead, a vicious cycle of dis­obedience which leaves them guilty and certainly not loving God, but resenting both Him and His commands.

It's a most unsatisfying cycle, but one that God, by His grace, will help us break. The Bible teaches that God's grace both makes us righteous, and enables us to live right (see Romans 6:16-23).

God invites you to experience His grace. "The Spirit and the bride say, Come" (Revelation 22:17). God commands all men everywhere to repent of their sin and believe on His Son (Acts 17:30). When we do that, He does three things for us: Forgives past sin (Romans: 3:25), gives a new nature that doesn't want to sin (2 Peter 1:4), and delivers from the tyranny of sin (Romans 6:14). Those so converted both want to, and are able to, obey and serve Him faithfully until death.

And that is why they love God. Nothing can produce real love for God like experiencing His power to overcome the sin that enslaved us. It is then that we, like John, find His commandment no burden.

So don't let anyone tell you that it is impossible to obey the Bible or that it requires some marathon self-discipline. It only requires that we surrender to God in repentance. Ask anyone who has experienced His grace. He'll tell you that God's commands are no longer a burden.

Written by Dallas Witmer

I hope now that some of you that didn’t believe in total freedom from sin will now ask – how do I get there? It is through faith in God’s Word and being obedient to that Word even if you don’t understand it yet.

It was through disobedience that the fall of man came about and it is only through obedience to God’s commandments that you will be allowed to be rejoined with Him. We show God that we love Him by obeying Him and it is through this obedience that comes out of loving God that we are found worthy to receive His Holy Spirit. It is at this time – when we receive His Holy Spirit, are we born again and become one in Spirit with God. God has made the Holy Spirit available to all who truly believe because of what Jesus Christ has done on the cross.

With the non-converted spirit of man it is impossible to be without sin, but with a born again person, all things are possible because it is Christ living in us that does every good work.

I want to draw this letter to a close by showing that God’s Word strongly indicates that obeying His commandments are not burdensome, but are an automatic result of being a born again believer.

Matt 11:28-30 - Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

Rom 8:9-10 - You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit), he does not belong to Christ. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness.

Rom 8:5 - Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires.

Eph 2:10 - For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

Eph 6:6b - but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart.

Heb 13:21 - equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.


God’s servant and yours,
Mike Reid

Having God’s Heart – What Is It Like? - Part 1

When we become a true believer, we get a new heart from God. But what does that feel like – to be given a new heart – a heart that you weren’t physically born with, but given to you by God Himself. Well, I can’t answer all the thoughts that might come up with this topic - since a Godly heart is as diversified as God’s love itself, but I will cover some important aspects that are always weighing on my heart (God’s heart).

We need to first realize that when God replaces your fleshly heart with a Godly heart, all your desires are turned upside down and inside out. The Godly heart He gives you is His heart and will replace all your selfish desires with righteous and holy desires. The replacement of our heart is what changes everything. This new heart sets us apart as His children from the rest of the world. This new and everlasting heart is what changes us completely by changing our every desire to love God and others. This new heart drives out all selfishness - because true love conquers all selfishness and evil.

Since our desires of our heart is what drives every aspect of our soul – then with this new heart from God, every action that comes forth out of us will be holy and righteous. This is where the Bible comes true when it says that anyone born of God will not sin and cannot sin. Most professing Christians indicate very strongly that living a holy and righteous life is not possible, but what I want to tell everybody from experience - that living a holy and righteous life is the easier part of being a born again believer. I agree that getting to the point of receiving this pure Godly heart might be a very tough road, but after receiving this new heart from God, your main desires are to live a holy and righteous life for God. At the same time when you receive God’s new heart – you are actually receiving the Holy Spirit to live with you. God sending His Holy Spirit to live in me and giving me a new heart has made me be reborn and alive in Him. His Spirit and mine have become one. The reason I won’t sin is because I am actually offending myself now when I sin. All sin now offends me also, because I am one in Spirit with God. What offends God also offends me.

So if living a righteous and holy life is the easier part of being a born again believer, what is the harder part? The harder part is the love I now have for all my fellow man. You see when you receive God’s heart you don’t only receive the love you need to fill you up, but also an overflowing love for others. Because my selfishness is gone, I now love others as God loves His creation. So how is loving others the harder part you might ask? It is out of this love for others and knowing that most are headed for an eternity in hell. Because God’s heart breaks for all the souls rejecting Him, I also have a breaking heart. His love for others and my love for others are the same since we have become one. This love for others actually becomes the driving force behind spreading the full Gospel. At the time I became truly born again – I had to also become a disciple. I no longer have the choice to believe in the lies that most of the world believes - because the Word of God has been written on and into my heart. Knowing the truth of God’s Word is truly a freeing experience but also a captivating hurt for the rest of humanity.


God’s servant and yours,
Mike Reid

Does Your Church Give A Message Of Life Or Death

Does your church preach and teach that all your sins can be conquered through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, or does your church preach and teach that we will never be free from the bondage of our sins.

The message of life - When we are truly set free from our sinful nature and are given Jesus’ nature, we will no longer have a nature to sin and won’t. This is what being born again means – we are born again into Jesus’ nature and accepted into God’s eternal righteous kingdom. We are able to enter God’s kingdom because we are not just washed on the outside with Jesus’ righteousness, but when born again we are also cleansed spiritually and given a new heart filled with only God’s love, which is God’s nature. When born again we are given a pure heart and made righteous through and through by Jesus’ Spirit which lives inside us. This is what Jesus meant by having life. Anything short of this results in eternal death and separation from God in hell because only pure hearts and pure righteousness enter His eternal kingdom. Does your church teach this message of life?

The message of death - Many are teaching that we can never be free from our bondage of sin and will always sin as long as we live on this earth. If this is the case, why did Jesus even come? If we still have to stay in bondage to our sin, then we are no better off then the Jews before Jesus came and died on the cross. If there is no power in Jesus’ Spirit that comes into us when we are born again, why would God even bother to send the Holy Spirit if it had no power to conquer all sin in our life? Since we can’t enter God’s eternal heavenly kingdom unless we are spotless of any sinful nature, what is the sanctification by the Spirit all for if we will never be made spotless with out any sin? Some people believe we are made perfect after we die; there is nothing in the Bible that supports this. We are only given new spiritual shells for our soul to be in. If our soul is still sinful, even if we get a new spiritual body our sinful soul makes the whole spiritual soul and body unclean and sinful. The only reason this theology exists is because people want to believe it. It is not biblical and has been reasoned out by man to allow people to keep on sinning and also think they are saved unto eternal life. This theology is of the devil and the results are no re-born experience for who ever believes it. Anyone not born of God will not have eternal life. Does your church teach this message of death?

Michael Reid

What Does Works Have To Do With It

Up until this point, I have not mentioned much about the act of works in my writings. I didn’t want to give the subject of “works” more emphasis than it should have, since we aren’t saved by works, but by grace. In all of my previous writings I have tried to concentrate on God’s Holy Spirit working in and through us to accomplish all of God’s will that He requires and wants to perform in every individual life. In response to some of my writings, a few people have indicated that I am teaching a salvation based on works, when in reality I have continually communicated that all good works in a believer’s life is done by the Holy Spirit and only by His Spirit.

In this message I will share how we are not saved by works, but by grace alone. Although my goal of this letter is to talk on the subject of works, a person can’t teach on the subject of works fully without discussing grace also. Grace and works are tied together because good works comes out of God’s grace. So to look into this subject thoroughly, we must define what grace and works are, where grace and works originate from, and how grace and works interact with our heart, soul, and body.

Since we are saved by grace and not by works, we should first try to understand grace. Many people have a misunderstanding that God’s grace is limited only to what Jesus did for us on the cross. God’s grace is much more than what happened at the cross. God’s grace also continues its work today after the cross. Even though the grace God performed at the cross is so very important, I want to concentrate on the power of God’s grace that started at the point of Pentecost. Pentecost is when the power of God’s Spirit was opened up to anyone who would believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Anytime we talk of God’s grace, it is referencing some action that God has done or is currently doing, first of all for His glory and then secondly for our benefit. Grace is not just something God did in the past; it is also something He is continuing to do. When God’s Spirit softens a heart of stone to the point of being able to accept Jesus as Lord and savior, this is God’s grace in action. When God’s Spirit continues sanctifying a heart to bring it to a point of making it holy, this is God’s grace in action. When God’s Spirit baptizes a person’s heart and turns it into a heart totally devoted to Him and then puts that heart into service for Him, this is God’s grace in action. When God’s Spirit guides a person in a certain direction or to do something, even if that God directed action is to benefit someone else, it is God’s grace in action. Saving grace is any action on God’s part that He does in us or through us for HIS glory.

So how is God’s grace manifested in us and through us? God’s grace is manifested in us by the softening and perfecting of our heart into a new heart filled with His love. God’s grace is then manifested through us by God’s love flowing out of us in acts of love towards others. These acts of love are God’s grace being manifested in the form of good fruit and good works. These good works will then always glorify God. This love flows from the new heart He has given us. This love will always flow out of us back to God and to others, and is really God’s grace flowing through us to glorify God Himself. So any good works we perform is only by God’s grace and cannot come from our own humanness. Anytime God’s Spirit does any action through us, in us, or for us, it can only be called God’s grace.

Acts 4:33 NIV - With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.

Acts 6:8 NIV - Now Stephen, a man full of God's grace and power, did great wonders and miraculous signs among the people.

Rom 12:6 NIV - We have different gifts, according to the grace given us.

1 Cor 15:10 NIV - But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect. No, I worked harder than all of them — yet not I, but the grace of God that was with me.

2 Cor 8:7 NIV - But just as you excel in everything — in faith, in speech, in knowledge, in complete earnestness and in your love for us-see that you also excel in this grace of giving.

2 Cor 12:9 NIV - But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

Eph 3:7-8 NIV - I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power.

Eph 4:7-8 NIV - But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. This is why it says: "When he ascended on high, he led captives in his train and gave gifts to men."

James 4:6 NIV - But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble."

If we are a Christian living under the New Testament and not under the law, we are relying on all of God’s grace to be eternally saved. God’s grace consists of the grace given to us by the works of Jesus before the cross and on the cross and also the grace that transforms our heart.
There is a real danger with the teaching that all of God’s grace was provided for us with the work done on the cross. There are some who believe and teach that they have little or no responsibility to live holy to be eternally saved because Jesus’ grace on the cross covers all their sins so they don’t have to even try to conform to God’s will and commandments to live holy. If we believe this lie, then in essence this gives people a license to keep on sinning and still believe they are saved. This is a lie devised by the devil to keep us from the truth and a true relationship with God.

Jude 4 NIV - For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men, who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ our only Sovereign and Lord.

Now, that we defined grace, let’s try to define what works is. The definition of works can be said to be any action or bi-product that comes directly from the condition of the heart.

There are good and bad works, or to say it a different way, there is good and bad fruit.

Eccl 8:11 NKJV - Because the sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.2 Tim 4:18 NKJV - And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom.Col 1:10 NIV - And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work.

Some examples of what spiritual good and bad fruit can be taken right from scripture.

Gal 5:22-23 NIV - But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Gal 5:19-21 NIV - The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

All good works or good fruit originate from God’s love that God’s Spirit has installed within our heart. This love can only produce the fruits of the Spirit (good works). It is impossible to produce bad fruit (bad works or sin) from God’s love. On the other hand, all bad works or bad fruit originate from a sinful nature. A sinful nature can only produce bad fruit (bad works or sin), because the sinful nature only has selfishness and pride within that nature. A heart that is filled with the sinful nature can only love itself or anything that sinful nature thinks benefits itself.

Matt 7:17-18 NIV - Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, and a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.

So we must understand that good works or good fruit are only from God’s Spirit and bad fruit or bad works are only from the sinful nature. Even though our eternal salvation is not determined by our acts of sin or good works, our works do indicate what kind of heart we have.

Luke 6:45 NIV - The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart , and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart.

So getting back to the subject of this message, what does works have to do with our salvation? Our works have nothing to do with God’s decision to accept us as sons and daughters or whether we inherit eternal life.

So what about the scriptures that indicate we must do God’s will to enter the kingdom of God?

Matt 7:21 NIV - Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.

At first glance this scripture sounds like we must do good works to enter God’s kingdom, but you have to look deeper and understand that Jesus is really talking about a heart issue and is not talking about any works we need to perform out of our own humanness. Jesus is emphasizing that we will be doing God’s will if we are true Christians. Any works that we perform as Christians will be of God’s will since these good works are from God’s grace working within us. Jesus is saying that there will be good works, but not works of our own.

If we have good works (good fruit), we cannot claim these good works as our own since all good works are of God and not by our own accord. When ever we perform good works, it is really God’s Spirit working through us to glorify Himself. Since any good works are of God’s workings and not of ours, they have no value in determining whether we inherit eternal life or not. If we have bad works (sin or bad fruit), we have someone who has already paid the price for these sins if we believe in Jesus as our Lord and Savior. But even though Jesus paid for all our sins, Jesus’ payment of sins alone doesn’t guarantee eternal life with Him. We also need God’s grace to transform our hearts from a selfish sinful nature into a selfless loving nature.

So how does God determine whether we inherit eternal life or not? It is by a thorough inspection of our heart. God can always see our entire heart and how pure it is. God’s Word indicates we need to be born again of God’s Spirit. When we are spiritually born again, we are given a new heart, totally purified and absent of any sinful nature.

Heb 10:22 NIV - let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.

John 3:3 NIV - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.

Acts 1:24 NIV - Then they prayed, "Lord, you know everyone's heart.

Matt 5:8 NIV - Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.

2 Cor 5:17 NIV - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!

Rom 10:10 NIV - For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.

John 3:5 NIV - Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

2 Tim 2:22-23 NIV - Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

What is your treasure? If your treasure is God and serving Him wholeheartedly, then your heart will be pure and totally devoted to Him.

Matt 6:21 NIV - For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Every action we do and every word we speak comes directly from the heart. Our heart represents the desires of our soul and these desires are the driving force of the soul. Out of an evil heart come all kinds of evil.

Matt 15:19 NIV - For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander. But out of a pure heart comes love and righteousness.

1 Tim 1:5 NIV - The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.

2 Tim 2:22 NIV - Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

For any person that will not humble themselves and repent, then it is that hardened heart that will send that person to an eternal hell. Everyone has the free choice to humble themselves before the Lord. If we choose Jesus as the Lord of our lives, then He will transform our hearts. But if our choice is to reject Him by rejecting His grace, then our hearts will not be transformed, but the Lord will have the last word. He owns every one of our souls, whether we accept this fact or not.

Rom 2:5 NIV - But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed.

Heb 3:12-13 NIV - See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.

So does the works we do have any value? Yes, even though works doesn’t have any value in God’s decision on whether we receive eternal life or not, works does have a purpose. First of all, works has great value in that all good works point back to God and glorifies Jesus and our heavenly Father. Secondly, our works are meant to show ourselves and others whether our heart is pure or not. The works that come out of us show the condition of our heart. Our works can be used as a purity gage to show us the purification status of our heart. God intends to bring all believers to the point of having a pure heart and be blameless before Him so we can inherit eternal life. The only thing that will hold us back from receiving a purified heart is our own pride. So we must all humble ourselves before our Lord Jesus Christ to be saved. Thirdly, works do make a difference in the amount of rewards or punishment we receive in our eternal destination. If we have a pure heart, then the more we give up or sacrifice for the Lord in this life, the more rewards we will have in heaven. If we don’t end up having a pure heart because we have rejected God’s grace in some way, then the works we do here will have an effect on the amount of punishment we will receive in hell. But I want to emphasize, no one has to go to hell as long as they are willing to totally humble themselves before Jesus and make Him their Lord and Savior.
May the power of God’s grace strengthen you!

Phil 4:23 NIV - The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen.

Living only by His grace - Michael Reid

Romans 7 – So misunderstood

I was not planning on writing a message on the interpretation of Romans 7 until I realized that the misunderstanding of this passage was deceiving many away from God's truth. This scripture is so misunderstood by most churches.

There is an epidemic of misunderstanding of what a true Christian is and everybody with this misunderstanding seems to keep pointing to Romans 7 for their justification for this misunderstanding.

The misunderstanding originates from Romans 7:14-20.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.

Most have misunderstood this verse because Apostle Paul seems to be writing this about himself. Since Paul is a born again Christian at the time he wrote this, people assume this is what a Christian is like.

If people fully understand the rest of the New Testament, they would quickly see these verses could not even be remotely considered to be representing what a true Christian is. To say a born again Christian is still controlled by his sinful nature is an oxy-moron. The phrases “born again Christian” and “controlled by sinful nature” cannot exist in the same person. Either you are still controlled in part or in full by your sinful nature or you are a born again Christian where the sinful nature has no control over you.

To start understanding this scripture we must understand whether this person Paul is talking about is born again or not. One of the key verses that indicates this is not a Christian is in Romans 7:14.

We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin..

When we are a Christian we are filled with God’s Spirit which has transformed our heart into a heart of love. Romans 7:14-20 is indicating a person’s life without the Holy Spirit in it. Without the Spirit in us, we have no hope of conquering sin on our own and we are still a slave to sin.

Apostle Paul is actually talking theoretically about any person, including himself, and how we are powerless with just our own human capabilities to get rid of sin. We learned throughout the Old Testament that we cannot obey God’s commandments on our own without the Holy Spirit’s power in us. This is what Paul is stressing in his letter. He is helping them understand what all of Israel already new before Christ came to die on the cross for us. The Jews knew the law was good but they were not capable of fulfilling the law.

Ever since the time when Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, we have had the knowledge of good and evil in us. Remember it was the knowledge of good and evil, not just evil. The big problem ever since the original sin is not that we can’t know what is good, it is that we could not do any of the good we had knowledge of without the power of God in us. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 7:15-16.

I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.

Paul goes on to say that it is the sin, or evil, living in this person doing the sin since this person is still under the law. It is evident that this person does not have the Holy Spirit living in him. Paul concludes in Romans 7:17-18 that the only thing living in this person is the sinful nature.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.

Now to keep this passage in context, let’s go back to the passages before Romans 7:14-20 to Romans 7:1.

Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?

We see here that Paul is addressing people that know the Jewish law and emphasize that all men are under the control of the law until they die. Another words, we have to die to be free from the law. To illustrate his point Paul uses marriage as an example in Romans 7:2-3.

For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.

So what Paul is emphasizing here is that we have to die to the law before we can be bound to another, which is Jesus Christ. We die to the law by believing in the perfect body of Jesus Christ dieing on the cross for us. In Romans 7:4-6 Paul explains this for us.

So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.

If we believe Jesus Christ died for us, then we believe through the cross we also died and are no longer bound to the law and are now under God’s grace and no longer under the control of the sinful nature. We are given a new heart from God which does not have any selfishness or sin in it, but only love for God and love for all of God’s creation. True love cannot contain any selfishness or sin of any kind. Because this new heart that is from God has only love, it cannot willfully sin. Through this new heart we now have control of the body instead of the sinful nature in the body controlling us. Only God can do this and everything is possible with God.

Matthew 19:26 - Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Today Romans 7 is falsely preached from many pulpits with the idea that Christians can’t keep from sinning. This has been another deception from the devil that a lot of people have believed because it supports people believing they are born again when they truly haven’t had a total heart transformation yet. Don’t let yourself be fooled by this lie of the devil. The truth is, when your born again you can, through God’s Spirit’s power in you, conquer all the sins that His word or His Spirit convicts you of.

Remember God’s grace is His Spirit working in and through you – Michael Reid

Only Souls With Pure Hearts Will Enter Heaven

God has promised that when we are born again we are given a new heart.
Ezek 36:25-26 - I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you.

God says all of our sinful nature is gone and we are a new creation in Him.
2 Cor 5:17 - Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation ; the old has gone, the new has come!

When we are truly born again we are no longer slaves to sin, but slaves to His righteousness.
Rom 6:18 - You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. Jesus says he has set us totally free from the bondage of the sinful nature.
John 8:36 - So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

We must understand that for most of us that call ourselves Christians, we are not really born again yet. Most of us are in the pregnancy stage and we are getting ready to be born again. When God’s grace has purged all of the sinful nature out of our heart and soul, He will give us a new heart filled with only His love and all of our sinful nature will be gone. Then we will truly be able to love God and others like He commands us to.

To be born again, we have to humble ourselves by letting go of all of our pride and selfishness and give every bit of our soul to Him. Only then can anyone come to Him with the faith as a child to be reborn.

God is patient and gives us our whole life to let Him transform us into a pure spiritual being. Only after our heart is made pure, holy, and righteous by God are we acceptable for the gift of eternal life with Him. How long do you think you have left? Remember this is a process for most of us and usually takes some time.

For anyone that has been taught and believes that this total regeneration is not possible, please understand you have been deceived, for the Bible clearly indicates this entire sanctification is possible through the work of the Holy Spirit. It is not only possible; it is required for anyone to have eternal life with God. Our soul must be purged of any sinful nature because God will not allow any unholy thing into His eternal kingdom.

John 3:3 - In reply Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."

I tell you this even though it might be hard to hear, because a lot of us have stopped searching for God’s real truth. We have become complacent with our walk with God because we think we are eternally saved already. We have to stop listening to preachers that are telling us what we want to hear and search for the real truth. God says if we will search, we will find. So I sincerely ask you to search God’s Holy Word. Don’t go to books other than the Bible. Most books other than the Bible will mislead you in some way. The whole truth is in God’s Word. Let God talk to you through His scriptures.

God Bless,
Mike Reid