Saturday, January 28, 2017

Salvation is not an EVENT it is a JOURNEY





Salvation is not an event,
like so many people believe. Salvation is a journey, following Jesus
Christ until the very end.
Many people believe that
they have been saved, that they are saved. They will give you the
date on which they believed in Jesus and repeated a prayer, a sinners
prayer, after somebody else, and after that they were told that now
they are saved , and if they should die they are going to heaven.
They are not saved, they are just deceived.
Salvation is a journey
where we believe in Jesus, after hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ,
and if we obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, His words, if we repent
and are baptized in water, then Jesus Christ reveals Himself to us
and we are born again. We get to know Him for real, as the living
God. And Jesus Christ promised His Holy Spirit, baptism in the Holy
Spirit , to those who obey Him, those who repent and are baptized;
and just like those first believers who received .the baptism in the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, each and every believer who
obeys Jesus will also receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, with the
evidence of speaking in tongues, if the obey the gospel of Jesus
Christ and IF they want the gift.
That baptism in the Holy
Spirit, that is an EVENT. We need the baptism in the Holy Spirit,
because Jesus commanded His disciples to go to Jerusalem and wait for
the Holy spirit, because He said to them that once they have received
the Holy Spirit they will receive power to be His witnesses.
We need the power to be
His witnesses. Many believers say they cannot stop sinning. Many
believers are defenseless against satan. Many believers are powerless
against the wiles of the devil because they do not have the power of
the Holy Spirit. Sadly so many believe that they are already saved
but they have never started that journey with Jesus. We only start
the journey with Jesus after we have repented and been baptized in
the Holy Spirit. Jesus said that "He who loves Me is the one who
obeys My words, and Me and My Father will come and dwell with him,
live with him, and I will reveal Myself to him." It is only if
we obey the gospel of Jesus Christ, repent, stop sinning, and be
baptized in water and seek Jesus with all our heart, obey His
commands, live according to His words, it is only then that He
reveals Himself to us as real. Then only does the journey start. Then
only are we being saved, but we are not finally saved yet. We have to
endure with Jesus Christ until the very end. If we keep on going
after Jesus , if we keep on living in accordance to His commands, His
gospel, then there will be many events in our lives; there will be
much tribulation. There will be trials, we will be tested, there will
be temptations, but we have to endure with Jesus and go through it
all, stay with Him until the very end. If we turn away from Jesus
then we are not being saved any more, then we have deserted Him, we
have strayed, we have left Him. If we keep on following Jesus Christ,
He will guide us and He will teach us and He will discipline us,
because He has to form us and make us into His image. He has to
change us and make us useful for His kingdom. we will have ot submit
ourselves to His discipline and not give up when Jesus disciplines
us. If we sin, He will discipline us. If we do wrong, he will
discipline us and that is where many believer run away, they become
disheartened.
The writer of Hebrews
wrote in Hebrews 12:4 to those who quit, to those who give up. He
said: "You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood
in your striving against sin;" You see, so many believers say:"I
cannot stop sinning." But they are not resisting the devil, they
have not done their utmost, everything in their power to not sin.
I read again: Hebrews 12:4
"You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in
your striving against sin;
5and you have forgotten
the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons,
“MY SON, DO NOT REGARD
LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD,
NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE
REPROVED BY HIM;
6FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD
LOVES HE DISCIPLINES,
AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON
WHOM HE RECEIVES.”
That is harsh treatment to
scourge.
7It is for discipline that
you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there
whom his father does not discipline? 8But if you are without
discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are
illegitimate children and not sons. 9Furthermore, we had earthly
fathers to discipline us, and we respected them; shall we not much
rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? 10For they
disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He
disciplines us for our good, so that we may share His holiness. 11All
discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet
to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the
peaceful fruit of righteousness.
12Therefore,
strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble,
13and make straight paths for your feet, so that the limb which is
lame may not be put out of joint, but rather be healed."
We have to submit
ourselves to the discipline of God, and He will treat us harshly, so
that we can learn to be disciplined. When people join the army, they
are subjected to severs discipline, and there is no way that you
back-chat to the commander or the person in charge; you will truly
regret it because you will be punished. Much more, our Father God, is
a sever disciplinarian - He does not tolerate disobedience. We will
be disciplined so that we will be obedient and fruitful children of
God.
If we decide to stay with
Jesus and we follow Him, He will guide us and He will send us,
sometimes to places that we do not like, He will tell us to do things
which we regard as impossible, irrational, but we have to learn to
trust Him and to obey Him, because Jesus requires utter obedience of
His disciples. We have to be disciples that live under His discipline
to be able to be saved, to stay in that discipline until the very
end. We have to endure with Him until the end and submit to Him, do
His will, not our will any more; we have to follow Him, go after Him,
obey Him until the very end.
Our obedience, dedication,
faithfulness and fruitfulness, will be tested and if we fail, God
will discipline us, but if we keep on straying, keep on being
rebellious, refuse to submit to Him, then we will not bear fruit and
Jesus warned that every branch in Him, every born again believer who
started following Him and who does not bear fruit, will be cut off
and burned.
I read the words of Jesus
in JOHN 15:1 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser.
2“Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and
every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more
fruit. 3“You are already clean because of the word which I have
spoken to you. 4“Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you
unless you abide in Me. 5“I am the vine, you are the branches; he
who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me
you can do nothing. 6“If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown
away as a branch and dries up; and they gather them, and cast them
into the fire and they are burned."
Disobedient, unfruitful
born again Christians will end up in hell if they do not repent!
Verse 7 “If you abide in
Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be
done for you. 8“My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much
fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9“Just as the Father has
loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10“If you keep
My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My
Father’s commandments and abide in His love. "
We have to obey His
commands, we have to obey His commandments, the words of Jesus, the
gospel of Jesus Christ. We have to remain in Him in order to bear
fruit, or else we will get cut off and burned.
Very few are willing to
follow Jesus Christ. Very few stay with Him until the end. He started
the good work in us and He will carry it through IF we stay with Him.
The apostle Paul wrote in Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of
this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it
until the day of Christ Jesus.” But we have to stay with Him, we
have to remain in Him.
Dear friends, not many are
being saved. I read the words of Jesus in Luke 13:23,24
23And someone said to Him,
“Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to
them, 24“Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell
you, will seek to enter and will not be able."
We have to stay with Jesus
until the very end of our life. We have to complete this journey with
Him, be led by His Holy Spirit and go after Him every day of our
lives until the very end. Jesus warned in Matthew 24:9“Then they
will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be
hated by all nations because of My name. 10“At that time many will
fall away and will betray one another and hate one another. 11“Many
false prophets will arise and will mislead many. 12“Because
lawlessness is increased, most people’s love will grow cold. 13“But
the one who endures to the end, he will be saved. 14“This gospel of
the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world as a testimony to
all the nations, and then the end will come."
Are you BEING SAVED? Have
you started the journey? Did you obey the gospel of Jesus Christ? Did
you repent ? Were you baptized in water? Did you truly get to know
Jesus Christ for real? Did He reveal Himself to you? How many events
have taken place in your life where Jesus revealed Himself to you?
Some people just had one event, they had the joy when they first
prayed the sinners prayer and then they believed they were saved, and
they walked away from Jesus, but they never continued the journey.
they never followed Jesus. Many of them die in sin, they never follow
Jesus. THEY ARE DECEIVED BECAUSE THEY BELIEVE THAT THEY ARE SAVED,
and they will stand before Jesus and He will say to them:"Go
away I never knew you, you workers fo wickedness." They never
repented, they never stopped sinning, they never walked with Jesus.
They never went on that journey with Jesus, day by day. They never
submitted themselves to His discipline. They never learned to trust
Him and to obey Him. They do not know Him, and that is the situation
with the majority of Christian believers today. They believe they are
saved, but they do not know Jesus. They never started the journey.
Have you started the
journey? Are you following Jesus Christ every day and are you
determined to endure with Him until the very end?
Are you BEING SAVED?
May Jesus bless you.

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