So when you were born again, what did you have to do? Desire to be in Him, and be willing to accept His life, the life He lives, then He could start living through you. That's it. No matter what you said, did or any thing else, those three things were all it took to start you down the right path.
In Rev. 3:20 we find the Spirit of God saying: "Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: If any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me".
The Word of the Lord could not knock on your "door", until after Jesus was taken up, because we find Jesus saying in Matt. 7:7 and Luke 11:9, "...knock and it shall be opened unto you", but in Rev 3:20, it's Jesus doing the knocking.
First, you must seek it. He has promised you will find it. Second, you must ask for it. He has promised you will receive it.
Third, you must knock on the door of His heart, His Spirit. He has promised It will be opened unto you.
One thing is sure. The churches of today could accomplish much much more, if they would quit depicting God as sitting out there somewhere in the cosmos on a throne pulling strings and pushing buttons, blessing this one and zapping that one, and quit depicting Jesus as being up there somewhere peeping from behind a cloud waiting and watching for someone to invite Him into their life.
He is in their life already. John 1:9 says that Jesus was the true light that lighteth EVERY man that commeth into the world.
What?!?!? Yes, read it again..that's not talking about just the Christians, there can be no dispute. Not only does the verse say "every" but it includes the fact of "coming into the world" reinforcing that He has "lit" everyone. Also notice it does not say He was the lighter of the light, but that He was THE LIGHT. He was not the candle, or the candle holder, but the flame on the candle and has lit every person, regardless of race, gender, or religion.
All that was ever needed was for them to receive Him. All that is needed now is for everyone to enter into His life, to be "saved". This is the rapture, the second coming, the marriage supper of the lamb, the resurrection. All these labels point to the same event within each person. More on this in the next section.
Even if none of this makes sense, at least understand this one thing. God made the earth and gave dominion over it to man. The very first thing God told man was to replenish the earth, and subdue it (Gen. 1:28). To subdue anything means to bring it under control. What God gives is freely given, and never has to be paid back. So, control of the earth belonged to man, and him alone.
Exactly what was the first thing man did with the control God gave him? He gave it to satan, by believing satan over God, then began crying for God to get it back. Since dominion in the earth now belonged to satan, God had no jurisdiction in the earthly realm.
There was one ‘hitch’ in the deal, to mans benefit. Since man gave it, only man could get it back. Satan then demanded a price far greater than man could pay, so man curled in upon himself, so to speak, and said; There is no way.
What never dawned on man was that there was a way to get dominion back without paying any price whatsoever. You see, in order to get the dominion of the earth from man, satan lied. Satan’s lie alone gave man the right to take it back without paying one iota.
Meanwhile, man began to “believe” in the power of satan, who has no power, for there is no power but of God. Man demanded that the price be paid, so God paid the price with His Son. All of this fell right in with Gods plan to get rid of Satan.
After the price was paid, then did man take back the dominion of the earth? Not hardly, for man then began to dream of a “pie in the sky in the sweet by-and-by when they die”, and satan still runs rampant in the earth.
If it seems as though I am selling mankind short, I do not need to. Man has done that to himself. To preach a God that needs, or even wants the praises of man, is to preach a God with an inferiority complex.
The only sort of praise God desires is for us to get our minds off of eachother and our own problems and ruminate on how wonderful He is. It is for our own benefit.
Revelation chapters 2 and 3 talk about all of the things that happen and are given to those who "overcome".
This is exactly the process which took place in Jesus Christ throughout His life here on Earth, and must take place in every member of the body of the Word. We must digress again here, but we will return to the subject of the word of the Lord doing away with Satan shortly.
When Jesus gave the cup to the disciples at the last Supper, according to Matthew 26:27-29, he said; "Drink ye all of it. For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins." Notice, He did not drink of the cup, for He said next that He would not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when He drank it new with them in his Fathers kingdom.
Two things to remember here; #1, This is the head of the body of the Word speaking here, so we can apply this to the Word, or Word of the Lord in each one of us. #2 Blood means life , and the entire life of Jesus was pure, unselfish, out-flowing, altruistic love for others. All others.
We need to paraphrase a little here and change it to a more understandable jargon. In Genesis 9:4 it states; “...the life thereof, which is the blood thereof...” and in Leviticus 17:13-14 it is written that the blood of all flesh is the life thereof. We can readily see by these Scriptures that ‘blood’ and ‘life’ are synonymous.
We find Jesus, as the Word of the Lord, saying; This is my life which seals the last will and testament of God. I give my life to you, so take all of it. But I say unto you, that I will not be able to love as I would love, for I will have your pride, your vanity, your lust, your fears and your hating on my shoulders.
So you take my life, which is unconditional love for all others, and live it as I would live it, and when you are cleansed and purged of all of your unrighteousness by loving exactly as I would love, then there will be none of these things piled onto me, and then I can live and love with you in the kingdom of God.
For this conversion to take place, there is one thing lacking yet. We have yet to overcome. Our conscience is still defiled, and this is where the great battle comes in, for the spirit and the flesh must be separated, and the flesh made subject to the spirit.