BEING SAVED
Being born again is the best thing that can happen to you. It means your spirit has been activated before God in His kingdom. It means you can now partake in the divine nature; this means you will receive the power to become a son of God (see John 1:12). While you may have been struggling to be a good person, when you are born again, and you learn and grow in the way of the Lord, you will discover that it will now be a struggle for you not to be a good person.
Jesus came to this world and died on the cross of Calvary for you. He did this because this was how He could set you free from the power of sin and death that gives Satan power over you. Jesus died for you and resurrected on the third day for you. He died so that sin’s power may be dead in you. He resurrected so that you may resurrect to the divine life. He is glorified so that you too will be glorified.
When you accept Jesus as your Lord and savior, you will receive an entrance into the realm of God’s unlimited power. This power will be manifested in every area of your life. You may have heard and seen that Jesus heals the sick through His people. You too will become His person and possess God’s great power to do exploits like healing the sick and casting out evil spirits (see Mark 16:16-18)
If you have not yet made Jesus the Lord of your life, pray this prayer:
Lord Jesus, I thank you for dying on the cross as payment for my sins. I believe in you and accept you as my Lord and Savior. I ask that you come into my life and make me your child indeed. Amen.
I recommend that you take out time to read the following; it will help you grow spiritually
You can download the Audio Book: Click the links to download the MP3 files
🎧 Chapter 1 (Click to download)
Chapter 1
Being a Christian means you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Lord and savior. He is your savior because He saves you (both when you first believed and forever after) from the bondage of sin and death; the bondage of the devil. Jesus offers you total salvation. This means he saves you from spiritual, psychological, emotional, and physical bondage. He does not only deliver you from unclean spirits but he delivers you from addictions and other such forms of bondage. He sets your body free from diseases and gives you a new life that strengthens your mortal body.
When we say Jesus is our Lord, this means we are handing over the ownership and government of our lives to Him. We no longer live to please ourselves but now live to please Him. This also means that you accept that He is now responsible for you. When you believe and say those words and mean them, you are sealing a deal that includes the transfer of the ownership of your life to Christ Jesus.
I was speaking to some friends on this topic when it dawned on me that one way to explain this is to use this illustration: In Nigeria, when you do not yet have a house, you pay a house owner some money as rent in order to live in his or her house for an agreed period of time. The house owners are usually called landlords or landladies.. I explained to them that the word ‘Lord’ means owner and controller. So landlord originally refers to the owner of the land. I asked that if when they rented a house and did not like the kind of roofing sheets used and wanted to change it to a better one, that even though they were the ones living in the house, would they do so without the permission of the landlord? They all answered “no”. Then I said to them that that was how it is when you accept Jesus as your lord. You no longer live your life according to your principles but according to His will. A trespass is when you go beyond your legitimate boundary. Many times we trespass when we do things that do not align with the principles of Christ.
When you accept Christ’s Lordship over your life, you have also accepted His protection and provision. It is what you hand over to someone that he personally takes responsibility for. Many Christians don’t grow and see Christ’s mighty power in their lives because they have not fully handed over the ownership and control of their lives to Him. They are still in charge and they wonder why they do not walk in the authority of Christ Jesus. Jesus is either Lord of all or He is not Lord at all. He is too big to share the ownership of your life. Give Him your all and see the incomparable benefits of that wise transaction.
If you have believed in the Lord Jesus, but you know you are not yet living according to His will, today is the day of a positive turnaround. Do not wait till tomorrow.
Pray this prayer: Ask the Lord to forgive you of your trespasses. Ask Him to help you walk in the light and fill your heart with great hunger for his word and presence. Ask Him to help you break every unequal yoke with unbelievers. Ask Him to set you free from every kind of bondage to sin as you abide in His word (Read John 8:31-32)
Let us go back to the landlord and house occupant illustration. You may now be wondering that this is simply unlivable. ‘does this means that I have to hear from Jesus before taking every simple step and move in life, I have to find out whether he wants me to take my bath in the morning or whether he wants me to get an education in the first place?’. A landlord is more concerned with the things you do that will affect the overall value of the house in question. He doesn’t bother about the kind of food you eat or the kind of cloth you wear. He is only concerned about the things you do to his house; how it influences the value of the house. Jesus is more concerned about your spirit man and the things you do that affect your spirit man because your relationship with God is essentially spiritual. The reason why many physical things we do matter in this regard is because the doorway to your soul is your body and the doorway to your spirit is your soul. Therefore, what affects your body has an effect on your spirit to a reasonable degree and this depends on the gravity of involvement. Your soul is the seat of your reasoning; your emotions or what some call your feelings, and also your decision-making organ. For example, if your body is in a hot place, it may affect your soul’s thinking because you will be thinking constantly about how to be more comfortable by leaving the heat, if you are really hungry, it would be very difficult to concentrate on anything else without first thinking about food to douse the hunger. Things that happen to your body affect your soul because they affect your emotions and your thoughts. This is why Jesus is particularly interested in the things that happen to your body that directly affect your soul because these things also affect your spirit. It’s not that Jesus is not interested in other things that affect your body but he gives particular attention to the ones that affect your soul more directly, because they affect your spirit.
Matthew 6:25: Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?
26 Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are ye not much better than they?
27 Which of you by taking thought can add one cubit unto his stature?
28 And why take ye thought for raiment? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do they spin:
29 And yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
30 Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is cast into the oven, shall he not much more clothe you, O ye of little faith?
31 Therefore take no thought, saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
32 (For after all these things do the Gentiles seek:) for your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things.
The most important things to your body are food, drink, covering, and shelter. If you do not eat you will be hungry and will starve to death, if you do not have clothing you will be ashamed and have poor self-esteem. This is a negative emotion that is not good for the soul and is therefore not good for the spirit.
If Jesus is your lord and you respond to Him that way, God takes it upon Himself to see that you do not lack any of these things aforementioned.
The way of the kingdom is the way of total submission to the lordship of Christ over your life. The Christian life is a life that acknowledges the lord in everything (see Proverbs 3:6). When you are faced with making a very crucial decision, the Lord Jesus should be the first one you consult. This means you have to know how to effectively talk with Him and hear Him. For starters, talking with God is not too different from the normal talking with your father, except that you have at the back of your mind that you are talking with the one who is the most powerful and who created you and who knows all things and who loves you and cares for you. So you talk to Him with reverence and love. He is your Holy Father.
Chapter two
When a human being is born, he is not born an adult but is born a child. What has happened to you is that your spirit has just been born again. The first time your spirit was born was when you were conceived- this is what it means to be born of flesh and by the will of man (see John 1:13) because every human conception is a function of the will of man. Whether it is just mere will to have carnal knowledge or will to get pregnant.
Now that you have believed and confessed the Lord Jesus, you have been saved from the limitation of the will of man and been brought into the will of God. Your spirit has been literally born again and this event is even more glorious in the spirit realm than when a physical child is born, so much so that the angels in heaven rejoice.
…there is more joy in heaven over one lost sinner who repents and returns to God…
When newborn babies are born, they are cautiously taken care of. They are given the finest foods and the mildest versions of most things.
What I will try to do in this book is to give you words that will help your spirit grow as a newborn baby in the kingdom of heaven.
The way you can consciously feed your spirit is by feeding your soul and your mind with the word of God. As we established earlier, what happens to your body affects your soul, and what affects your soul affects your spirit. The body has a number of windows that feed either your body or your soul. your ears, eyes, mouth, nose, and skin.
They all vary in degree as to whether they are feeding your physical body or feeding your soul. What you eat, drink or breathe directly feeds your body more and what you see and hear directly feeds your soul more. What your skin feels directly affects both your body and your soul.
The words you read or hear are heard by your soul. The things your soul hears are the things that can get to your spirit. They are the things you literally feed your spirit with. Now the soul has a very powerful screening mechanism, and whatever your soul screens out never gets to your spirit. Your soul has standards of truth with which you judge all things. If your soul hears something and judges it to be false or not reality, that thing never gets to your spirit but if your soul judges it to be true; it gets to your spirit. As you grow older in age and experience, your soul grows more difficult to convince. That is why children are the ones most effectively indoctrinated. Most religious suicide bombers were those who have been indoctrinated from childhood.
Having faith in Christ; believing the message of the gospel and accepting Jesus into your heart as your Lord and Savior is the first step to changing the standards of your soul to the standards of God’s word, such that your soul accepts God’s word and does not screen it out as false or untrue but rather would screen out everything that is not from God.
There are two principles in the world; by these, the people in the world (those who are not born again) judge things; they are fear and greed. People in the world take their decisions because of fear of the future, fear of the unknown, fear of securities, fear of death and so many other fears. Another principle they use is greed; the desire to have more and more and more. We in the kingdom of God are not to use these principles in making decisions because our father holds the future. Walking with these principles produces three broad categories of human manifestations; they are the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. These are the things in the world. And these things should not be in us as children of God (see 1John 2:16).
There are three principles in the kingdom of God that should lead us; they are faith, hope, and love. Faith is that evidence in you of the spiritual things. For example, you know there is God (the father; creator, source, sustainer, owner, and judge of all things both seen and unseen) and this knowledge is furnished by something. That thing is called faith. This knowledge that there is God has many applications in the way you live. Because this knowledge creates a consciousness of God that makes you live your life in a manner that should please Him- this is what it means to fear God. Faith creates fear of God and the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.
Hope is a product of faith. There are certain things that the knowledge and consciousness of God will create in your heart. These are things that you know will happen even though they have not yet happened, thus, you have an expectation for things not seen. This expectation is called hope. There are certain things you will do or not do, not because of what you see now but because of the hope you have; the destination you see ahead. This hope is one of the guiding forces for Christians. The third and the greatest of these principles is love. Love is action, it goes beyond the domain of the mind; love is faith and hope in action.
Love is the product of faith and hope. It is the summary of the character of the Lord God.
4 Love is patient, love is kind, it is not envious. Love does not brag, it is not puffed up. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-serving, it is not easily angered or resentful. 6 It is not glad about injustice but rejoices in the truth. 7 It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Paul the apostle of Christ describes the attributes of love in the preceding text.
These fruits of love are seen in your life when you choose to submit to the spirit of God that now lives within you. The fruit of the spirit is love. Your spirit can bear fruit because it has now been made alive by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Just like a tree without water will die, your spirit without the spiritual living water will dry away and be unable to bear fruit. Jesus is the vine; we are the branches that have been called to bring forth fruit (read John 15). The water of life that keeps us alive, that we derive from being joined to Christ, is the Holy Spirit. You cannot walk in the spirit without being joined to Christ. The Holy Ghost comes because of your relationship to Christ. That is the foundation of our relationship with the Holy Spirit. The more of the Holy Spirit we have, the more we grow because of the word of God that we continually receive from Christ Jesus.
The food your spirit feeds on is the word of God. Food without water is no good, so is the word of God without the Holy Spirit.
A starving person who has no food and no water will die faster if you give him dry food without any water. The word without the spirit kills. The letter killeth but the spirit brings life (see 2 cor 3:6).
Every Christian who wants to continue to grow cannot afford to downplay or under-emphasize the work of the Holy Spirit. The devil has tried for ages to deceive the Church into doing exactly this, and that is why there are so many weak Christians; because there are so many Christians that are not spirit-filled. The two most important things for every human being that intends to physically stay alive are food and water. The two most important things for any Christian that intends to stay alive spiritually are the Holy Ghost and the word of God. The word of God is spiritual food and the Holy Spirit is the spiritual water of the spirit life.
If you are reading this and you have not yet been baptized in the Holy Ghost, I counsel you to make it your top priority from this moment. Let it dominate all your prayer requests and thoughts.
11 What father among you, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead of a fish? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Luke 11:11-13
God wants to give you the Holy Spirit more than you desire. All you need to do as a child of God is to desire Him and ask God for His infilling and baptism.
You can meet the person that preached to you or your pastor or any genuine Christian you know is baptized in the Holy Ghost to pray with you and pray for you that you may receive the Holy Spirit. One of the most common signs of the Holy Ghost’s baptism is the ability to speak in tongues (see Acts 2:4, Acts 19:6).
One of the surest signs of life is growth. One of the ways to know that a plant is alive and healthy is that it continues to grow.
Every healthy child grows, and as a child of God, you are expected also to grow spiritually. You’re not to remain a baby but to grow in every way as a child of God. One of the most useful advantages of Children growing up from childhood is that they also begin to take certain degrees of responsibility. My nephew is currently about four years old, and I remember when he was born and just a little baby who could not walk, talk, or do anything for himself or anyone else. Today, even though he is still a child, he now talks, walks, play around, and is quite responsible for some things that were done for Him before; he now goes to the toilet himself, wears some of his clothes himself, and even helps his younger brother who is about 2 years do same. You can also now send him to get the remote control you forgot in the kitchen, close the door and do some other little useful things that he could not do when he was still a suckling baby. Can you imagine how unhappy his mother would be if at age 4, she still has to carry him everywhere and breastfeed him and he cannot talk, stand or walk?
There are many Christians who have brought grief to the heart of the father because of their own refusal to grow.
Unlike a little baby, we have a role to play in our own spiritual growth. There are certain things we physically do or not do that will affect our growth in the spirit. For example, eating the spiritual food which is the word of God and the living water of the spirit. Some Christians have ignored this and wondered why they are spiritually lean and weak. We are also to avoid adulterated food and poisonous or toxic foods to our spirits. Anything that enters your soul that rebels against the principle of the kingdom of God (whether directly or indirectly) is toxic to your spirit. An example is watching movies that encourage immorality. The kingdom of God condemns immorality and encourages decency and orderliness. Adulterated food is anything that looks like the word of God but does not glorify Christ or make Him the center of it all. Such could make you the center of it all or glorify anyone other than Christ. We also know such teachings as false doctrines and false emphasis of scriptural doctrines.
Do not neglect Christian fellowship
One of the advantages of going to worship God with a living church congregation is that you get to feed your spirit with the word of God you hear from the pulpit each time you go. This word is quite different from the one you hear when you are alone because there is more spirit (spiritual water) in such gatherings and we all know water helps us to easily digest the food we eat. Jesus promises that where two or three are gathered in His name He would be there in their midst (see Matt 18:20). He comes in form of the Holy Ghost who is the spirit of Christ; the spiritual water of life. So there is more spiritual water to digest our spiritual food in such spiritual gatherings. You may also have been having a scarcity of God’s presence in your personal life, and this could happen for a number of reasons. When you go to church, it is an opportunity for you to connect again with God’s presence. In his presence, there is liberty and liberation.
Chapter 3
How to feed and build up your spirit man
Every living human being knows he cannot continue to live without food and water. So it is with your spirit man. You must realize that you have a spirit man that has now been born again, and this spirit man needs nourishment.
The food your regenerated spirit feeds on is the word of God. The water that keeps you alive is the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the word of God and the Holy Spirit is the water of life. Never forget to feed your spirit by hearing the word of God. Never forget to stay filled with the spirit at all times.
Building up your physical muscles requires exercise; building up your spiritual muscles also requires spiritual exercise. There are things you can do in order to build up your spiritual muscles; they include praying in the Holy Ghost (see Jude 1:20), fasting, giving, meditation. But the zenith of them is praying in the Holy Ghost. The advantages of building up your physical muscles are numerous; you will be stronger and healthier. When you build up your spirit man, you will have more spiritual strength; it is this strength that helps to keep you from falling into temptations, it is this strength that you use to do spiritual things. There are a number of spiritual things you will constantly need strength for; doing things like casting out devils. A spiritually weak Christian cannot cast out devils; a weak Christian cannot heal the sick. It is also this spiritual strength you will use to get physical wealth God’s way; for it is God that gives us the power to get wealth (see Deuteronomy 8:18).
I am going to outline a few nuggets that will help you grow.
1. Walk in constant awareness of your new identity as a child o God. Read:
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
2. Watch the friends you have because evil communication corrupts good manners
Read 2cor 6:14:
4 Do not become partners with those who do not believe, for what partnership is there between righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship does light have with darkness? 15 And what agreement does Christ have with Beliar? Or what does a believer share in common with an unbeliever?
3. Feed your spirit regularly with God’s word. Also, remember the living water which is the Holy Spirit. Without Him, your spiritual life ceases to exist.
Read Acts 2:4:
They were devoting themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Pray regularly for this is the way you build up yourself and grow .the way to do this is by taking out time to pray fervently. This is the strength with which you conquer all temptations and trials, you walk in the authority of God’s sons and you do exploits. Etc
· Develop a devotional life: have a consciously marked-out schedule for reading the Bible and have a regular prayer time too. it could be ten minutes every day, this time should increase as you grow. Daily devotionals guides would greatly help too because they help you know when you are backsliding- they help you easily know when you stop studying the word.
4. Don’t live with a guilty conscience. If there is any trespass in your life that is standing between you and God, repent and forsake it immediately and don’t dwell in the guilt because God remembers your sins no more. Come to God’s throne of mercy to obtain grace and mercy to help in your time of need.
Read Heb 8:12:
” For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer. ”
Also read
For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help.
5. Rejoice in the Lord always. Let the thoughts of your heart be always dominated by thanksgiving to the lord. Do not let your mind stay sad for long. Thank God for all things and remember He is in control of all things. This is how to stay filled with the Holy Spirit after you have received His baptism.
Read Phil 4:4:
Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice!
Also, read Ephesians 5:18-21:
18 And do not get drunk with wine, which is debauchery, but be filled by the Spirit, 19 speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making music in your hearts to the Lord, 20 always giving thanks to God the Father for each other in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 and submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.
There is so much truth I would love to share with you on how to grow spiritually but this medium will not be sufficient. I trust that as you wait on Him, the Holy Ghost will lead you, teach you, and guide you into all truth. You will grow in your walk with God as you consciously maintain a sweet fellowship with the Holy Ghost.
Welcome to the greater days of your life.
Your brother,
—Abraham Damilola Arigi
sdabraham@streamglobe.org