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I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
God uses the physical to teach about the spiritual. In physical life the life that starts at conception is the same life which comes into the world at birth and is the same life which is taught to become a productive adult. However, the activity of Mom and Dad is totally different when we compare conception to teaching a child to be an adult. In addition, the activity done to teach a child to become an adult has nothing to do with conception. Further, we inherit certain potentials which are given to us at conception, such as becoming a sports figure. However, we only inherit the potential and if that potential is not trained later in life then we do not achieve our potential.
These truths apply to physical life and to spiritual life. Many religious liars try to confuse these two but God tells us to be rightly dividing the word of truth
(2Timothy 2:15). Therefore, if we do not separate these two spiritual activities then we will be led into doctrinal error which will at least cause us to lose the blessings of God and can send us to the lake of fire
for eternity.
For example, baptism and good works
are part of our spiritual growth which happens after we are spiritually born. However, neither has anything to do with our spiritual conception. That would be like reading the Bible to the belly of a virgin woman and claiming that you are teaching the baby to believe the Bible or washing the woman's belly and claiming that you are giving a bath to the baby which does not exist. People claim that baptism and good works
are required for salvation but that foolishness is due to their refusal to rightly divide the word of truth
.
Likewise, people claim that we have all of the blessings from God at our spiritual conception and nothing more is required from us. However, we For example, many professional athlete has said that they knew people with more natural talent than they had but the person with the talent failed to become professionals because they refused to do what was required to fully develop that talent.
Thus we see that conception and growth have different activities while dealing with the same life. Also, the results from those activities are different. So also do these truths apply to the spiritual. Spiritual conception and spiritual growth have different activities while dealing with the same life. The results of spiritual conception can not provide the results of spiritual growth and the activities for spiritual growth can not provide spiritual conception. With that said, we will deal with the activities involved in each, and the results of those activities. But, first let's pay attention to our original verses.
Please pay attention to the word and
found in both of our verses. This is the mathematical function of addition. If you remove either side of an addition, you change the answer. Likewise if we remove either side of an and
that is found in the Bible, then we change the message from God and lose the blessings from God. In both of these verses we see that one side of the and
deals with spiritual conception while the other side of the and
deals with spiritual growth which is to occur after spiritual conception. In addition, we see that spiritual conception is dealt with first while the spiritual growth is added to the conception because there can be no growth until life already exists.
Starting with spiritual conception, we read in John 3:7 - Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Again, John 3:5 says: Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
When we are physically born, our mother's water
had to break. Thus we see that Jesus told us that we need a physical birth and a separate spiritual birth if we want to enter into the kingdom of God
. We need a spiritual birth because we were born with a spirit which does not have God's life in it. We are born with a dead spirit because of the change caused by the sin of Adam and Eve. The evidence of that is simple. Adam and eve talked with God face-to-face until they sinned by disobeying the commandment of God. They did what they wanted instead of what God commanded. Their sin not only affected them but also affected all of their descendants.
Think about this truth. None of us see or talk to God face-to-face like Adam and Eve did before they sinned. Also, we all want to have things our own way. That is why we have fighting and wars. It is foolish to think that God is going to let us into His personal home, called Heaven, and make the same type of mess there. No, we must agree to let God change us when He saves us so that we will stop our sinning and making a mess because of our natural selfish nature. When we refurew to obey God and we insist upon having our own way, we sin.
Now some think 'my sin isn't that big'. The only thing that Adam and Eve did was disobey once and all of the pain and destruction of all time was the result. It is foolishness to insist that our sin only affects us. There is too much evidence to the opposite. If we are to be honest then we must look at all of the long-term results of our actions including our influence on others. Our sin can cause the same results as the sin by Adam and Eve. Thus, the claim that 'my sin isn't that big' is a lie which is believed by people who follow the devil, who is the father of lies.
Returning to our verse, we can see that if we don't enter into the kingdom of God
then the Bible says that we will spend eternity in a lake of fire
with the devil because we refused to let God save us. Romans 3:23 which says: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God
. Since we all have come short of the glory of God
, we are not good enough to meet the minimum standard to get into Heaven. In addition, since all have sinned
, everyone has violated God's law and must pay the penalty, which is going to Hell until we are sent to an eternity in the lake of fire
.
That's the bad news. However, all Filipinos know John 3:16 (For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life
). While people know this verse they don't think about what it means and especially don't think about what it requires them to do. If you do not do what the Bible means by believeth in him
then you will go to an eternity in the lake of fire
. When we believeth in him
we have an ongoing belief in the person who is God in Human flesh. John 14:6 says: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
The only way that we go to the Father
in Heaven is Jesus Christ personally giving us God's life and to get Him to do that we must accept Him as our Lord, which means we agree to obey Him. We see this in Romans 10:13, which says: For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord
is what gives us God's life which last for ever. That is our part in the action of spiritual conception. The only thing we do is exercise our free will and accept God's offer of a free gift. However, as already discussed, that is not the end of things.
Once we have God's eternal life, we need to have it grow. We increase our spiritual life by believing on the name of the Son of God
, as our original verse tells us. That is, as we obey our personal Lord
and believe His promises, He increases our spiritual life through the process called sanctification
. However, as already mentioned, God gave us a free will and will not force us to accept sanctification
. If we refuse sanctification
then God withholds blessings and, if that isn't enough, then God brings punishment which can include sickness and death. However, if we obey our personal Lord
and let Him sanctify
us, then He also gives us additional blessings which result in the abundant life
which our original verses spoke about. The main thing to understand about this abundant life
is that it requires us knowing what the Bible says and obeying it. Unfortunately, too many people know what their religion says is in the Bible, but they have not studied their Bible enough to separate the word of religious liars from people who tell you the truth. While there are many ways of telling these two people apart, there is one simple way that always works. People who preach religion tell you to believe them because of their man given credentials. However, people who have the power of God
on their life show approval from God. These are the people that the Bible tells you to follow.
Now you might think you have God's blessings but realize that Pastor Nono started the Abundant Life ministry in Bacolod because there were many saved Baptist there who had basic salvation and religion, but other people looking at their life would not testify that they saw the power of God on their life. That said, 1Corinthians 11:1 says Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.
I am going to tells you of a couple of ways that you should be able to see the power of God
in my life and challenge you to do what I did so that people will also see the power of God
in your life. You can not honestly claim that you have abundant life
unless you have evidence of the power of God
in your life. However, if you do like I have done then it will take several years but before you die you will also have evidence of the power of God
in your life.
The first thing is that 5 times in my life I was dying and the doctors said that they could not save my life. Twice I have died and been revived. I think that it would be pretty hard for people to deny that this is evidence of the power of God
in my life. In addition, the fact that I can drink Filipino water when it makes other Americans sick is also evidence of God's blessing. Now I could go into lots of Bible verses but I will make things simple. The Bible warns that God uses sickness and death as a punishment when His children refuse to obey. The number one neglected ministry in America is soul winning and the number two neglected ministry is missions support. The number one prayer request in American churches is for sickness, death and other medical problems. Now, not all of those are a result of punishment by God but a lot are. If you want to avoid the same then get personally involved in the 'Great Commission', which is to be done at home and away from home at the same time according to Acts 1:8. It is preaching the gospel to the lost, according to Mark, and to teach God's people to obey God's word according to Matthew. If you wait until you have stage-3cancer then it is too late. So, the time to get involved is now.
In addition, to avoiding punishment by God, you will get blessings from God as I have testified that I have received. You should always carry tracts and pass them out when you can. You should try to be involved in any mission trip that is available. As a minimum you should read every report from your missionaries so that you can pray for them on a regular basis. Realize that Paul never asked for money but always asked for prayer.
The second way to get God's abundant life
is to prove that you are dependent upon God for everything that you need and not on things of this earth. When Moses sent twelve spies into the promised land, ten returned with a bad report because they looked at the physical. They saw giants that they could not defeat and they led their entire generation into death and defeat. The other two spies looked at it spiritually and saw how God could get glory by doing what they could not do. They led the next generation into victory. So, the question is are you willing to look at things spiritually or are you going to accept defeat by keeping your eyes on the physical?
Those who claim to be spiritual must prove it in the little things before God has you prove it in the big things. Luke 16:10 He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much.
God wants His people to praise and thank Him for all of the little things that He provides before He gives us big things. If we will not praise and thank Him for all of the little things then we will not praise and thank Him for the big things and God will not waste His big blessings on us unless God is building a record of our failure which will be used to condemn us.
While God wants us to praise Him, our sinful selfish nature keeps us from doing so unless we have something to remind us daily to do so. Explain five centavos.
Now, let me summarize. If you have not accepted the person of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord
, whom you agree to obey and trust to take care of your sin, then you are still a sinner heading for Hell and the lake of fire
. James warns us that we do not know if we will be alive tomorrow. Jesus called the rich man a fool because he did not know that he would die that day and did not prepare to meet God in judgment. Right now is the time to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord
if you do not want to be judged as a fool by God and sent to Hell.
If you have accepted the person of Jesus Christ as your personal Lord
, then you still need to obey in order to get the abundant life
. If you refuse to obey then you not only will lose the blessings but, in time, will be cursed by God. I gave you two specific ways to obey God and received the abundant life
. First, I told you to be personally involved in the 'Great Commission'. That means soul winning, teaching the saved and supporting missions at the same time. This is the best way to avoid sickness and death as a punishment from God.
The second way that I gave you to received the abundant life
was to daily thank and praise God for all of His little blessings. I brought you a way to remind yourself to do that. You are invited to come up and take a reminder but you also need to pray and commit to thank and praise God every time that God uses it to remind you to do so.
Jesus said: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
These require two different actions to receive them. You must first receive God's life before you can add the abundant life
but you must obey your personal Lord
in order to add the abundant life
and receive all that God offers. Will you accept God's offer of His gifts today?