Introduction

“OK, today’s the day.” I thought to myself. Sitting on my parents’ bed, I asked my mother a question that had been weighing on me.

“Mom, am I prideful?” I asked anxiously. I’ve been working so hard on my selfishness, and I was hoping my mother had seen my labor.

“Um, you are, but you’ve always struggled with that.” She said with a distracted chuckle, moving some books on the shelf. Mom then said her goodbyes and left for work.

As I sat there defeated, I simply could not deny the fact that she was right. I’ve always been proud.

I remember the time my mother tried to give me a hug in a stressful situation. I didn’t recognize what she was trying to do, and in my anti-touch mode, I snuck under her arms and faced the other way. Mid-turn, I realized what she was trying to do, and I looked back to see the pain in her eyes. I wasn’t a good comforter then, so I didn’t know what do to. I simply stared apologetically, and walked away.

As I was meditating on all of my selfish moments, I couldn’t help but grieve. I had been trying so hard to have a good relationship with the Lord, but no matter what I did, I was never good enough. There seemed to be new sins every day, and old sins along the way.

Thank God Almighty

In my gloom, I called my father and decided to ask him the same question. But this time, humbly. I started venting to him about how I’m never good enough for God, and how I’ll always be selfish. My father then said something to me that I will be eternally grateful for. He told me to watch a particular sermon that explained 2 Corinthians 5:17:

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

Since watching sermons was how I spent my free time, my ears perked up. As soon as the conversation ended, I went to the video and watched intently.

The gentleman said something that I will never forget.

When one is born again, the Spirit moves in. And as 1 Corinthians 6:17 beautifully tells us, we are joined to Him. The Holy Spirit is not sinful; He is holy, righteous, just and good. And if He is sinless, spotless and cannot be touched by sin, and He is one with our spirit, what does that make our spirit?

This firmly captured my attention, sparking a flood of questions, later followed by answers.

1 John 3:9 now makes sense, the “seed” of God is in my spirit. He cannot sin, so my spirit can’t sin! The core of my being!

In one of his statements, the gentleman said this:

“If you are born again, you’re not fundamentally flawed, you’re fundamentally fixed.”

In other words, baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place when we trust in Jesus as our personal Lord and Savior. Our old, sinful, unregenerated human spirit dies, then is resurrected the new creature, one with the Holy Spirit, and the old has passed away, behold all things are become new.

Free at Last

It’s been almost a year since I’ve watched that sermon, and following that, I’ve watched many more by the same gentleman. The Lord, in His goodness, has taught me that I cannot complete sanctification on my own.

As I write this, I am 17 years old. I have five months left of being a teenager, and looking back, I realize I’ve wasted almost all of my teen years.

The message I’ve heard growing up was, “Salvation is by grace through faith in Jesus alone. But for sanctification, or to look more like Jesus, you have to work as hard as possible.” That wasn’t the message my church taught, but it was how I interpreted it.

In order to please the Lord, I’ve absorbed all the ‘holy’ deeds I’ve heard of. I’d get up early in the morning to pray and read God’s Word, and stay up late to pray and read God’s Word. There was one time I woke up at 4 AM, went straight to my prayer spot, and started my prayer list. In so much struggle to focus, I didn’t finish until 12 PM. I refused to give up, because I was “sure” I would disappoint the Lord.

This behavior did not please my God. However, it was all I seemed to know.

Summary

O, how grateful I am for my gracious Lord! He wants a faithful, thankful heart. Not a meritorious, vainly repetitive robot.

As the gentleman who preached the sermon said, “The Gospel to the sinners is, ‘Christ died for our sins.’ The Gospel to the saints is, ‘Christ died unto sin.’” Not only did Jesus save me from the penalty of sin, but in this side of Heaven, Jesus saved me from the power of sin. However, His power is accessed by His grace, through faith.

This is called, The Spirit Filled Life.

Conclusion

I would like to thank you for joining me in giving praise to the Lord. He is most definitely still working on me, and I am just so grateful for Jesus and His blessed Holy Spirit.

If you are not a Christian, you are most likely confused. Therefore, I thank you so much for reading! I encourage you to read my article, The Good News to help you understand what it means when I said, “Christ died for our sins.”

If you are born again, and are curious about the Spirit filled life and God’s grace, I encourage you to read The Gospel to The Saints, by John Van Gelderen and The Grace Awakening by Charles R. Swindoll.

Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift.

2 Corinthians 9:15

A simple servant for Jesus’ sake,

Kylee

My first post – The Only Hope for America.

– Cover image by Unsplash. –