Today I would like to talk to you about being saved. I want to stress the fact that it is more than a mindset. Even though I 've gone to church most of my life this is something that was never really made clear to me. Changing your mindset and changing your life are just the first steps. But there is more to being saved than just that.
Eventually there is a response from God. A renewing of your spirit. Some people call it being born again. But there are many other terms for it...receiving His Holy Spirit, being filled with His Holy Spirit but in my circle most say 'getting saved'. This is something that cannot be given to you. It cannot be learned, taught or requested from the church. This is bestowed upon you by God as a response to your faith.
We are all born into this world sinless. spotless and clean. But because of our flesh and the influences of the world around us we get dirty. Little by little, one experience at a time. With each exposure to sin, we are receiving a smudge, a stain or a spot on the perfect garment of our soul. It is such a slow and gradual process that you do not even realize that you are becoming soiled.
What I learned from my own experience is that the Holy Spirit will not move into a dirty vessel. After 5 months of seeking God daily through prayer and reading His word. God responded to me. On Sunday morning February 7, 2016, while sitting in church, I started to feel something. It felt like I was being cleansed from the inside out. There was a heaviness that was removed from me, that I had no idea I was carrying around. I felt lighter, refreshed and a clarity that I really cannot explain. And then in that moment I was filled with His Holy Spirit and I knew that my repentance had been accepted. I could not stop the tears from flowing. I was totally new, it was amazing. And I have felt a connection to God every since.
That is the event that changed my entire life. That is why I am, who I am today. I had no idea how filthy I was until I received His Holy Spirit. So I want to encourage you to seek Him until He responds and then continue to seek Him after that.
Isaiah 64:6 6But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
Ezekiel 11:19-20 King James Version (KJV) 19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh: 20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.
Acts 2:38 38Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Acts 1:8 8But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.
2 Corinthians 5:17 17Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
Titus 3:5 5Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;
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