Epiphany of faith...

Tonight, at church, Brother Johnny preached about the time when Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to question Him about spiritual things. Jesus told him that he wouldn't see the Kingdom of Heaven unless he was born again. (John 3:1-21)

While he was preaching his sermon, I got an epiphany -- you know, one of those, "OH, I GET IT!" moments.

When we are born of a woman, we are already condemned. The Bible teaches that. So, being condemned, we are as dead men walking. But, when we are born of the spirit, (saved, given new life, putting on the new man, however you want to say it) we are now eternally alive. We can't understand the spiritual stuff because we are not spirit. And, if we never get the new "spiritual" birth, then we will die never to understand, condemned for all eternity.

Brother Johnny didn't preach this, but it suddenly came to me. It was my epiphany:

This life is a transition from physical to spiritual. When you are born again, you don't all of a sudden go from being a physical, worldly person to being a spiritual Godly one. It is a transition. When you accept Christ, what you are doing is guaranteeing that the transition will take place, because the spiritual is already present.

Brother Johnny explained it like this: Danny lived in a sort of vehicle. When his vehicle got wrecked, he died. It was no good to him anymore. Immediately, he stepped out of his old physical vehicle and got into his new spiritual one.

So, (back to what Johnny didn't say) what happens is you get saved. You immediately gain your new spiritual body. But, you are still in your old physical body. So, both bodies are at constant war with each other -- hence the reason people deal with temptations and persecutions. It is not the temptations and persecutions that is the struggle, it is how we react to them. Because we are now the spiritual children of God, we have access to spiritual powers that we did not have access to before. (Johnny DID say that!) I kind of like that idea. But, what is amazing is that we have access to those powers EVEN THOUGH We ARE STILL IN OUR PHYSICAL bodies. But, the only way to make the spiritual things work in the physical world is by FAITH.

So, most saved Christians live with one foot in the physical world and one foot in the Spiritual world. Jesus was constantly calling us to step over into the spiritual realm and leave the condemned behind. "Go and sin no more." (John 5:1-15) "Faith, as small as the seed of a mustard tree can move mountains". (Matthew 17:20) The only way the spiritual man can work in the spiritual realm to make the impossible happen in the physical realm is to overcome completely the condemned physical man.

This sounds all like something in the supernatural self-help section of a book store. But, it's really all there in black and white in the Word of God.

He that has ears to hear, let him hear. (Matthew 11:15)

Johnny explained that there are things that are in the Bible that those who are not saved will never understand because they are not saved, therefore, they are not "born of the spirit", and only those who are "born of the spirit" can understand the things of the spirit. (1 Corinthians 2:14) And, I will add (because the Bible says it) that if you are among those who understand, then you are blessed, because God CHOSE you. (Romans 8:29)

Yes, I loved Johnny's message tonight. It made me think on things in a whole new level of understanding. It made me realize WHY it is that even though I struggle financially, I have never been hungry, or without shelter, or without clothes. I have always had enough, and then some, even when I didn't have much at all. It is why I am so confident in who and where I am today, and so content with what I have, and if I do desire more, it is so I might be able to give more.