Jesus’ teachings on prayers (Luke 11:1-13) [Part III]

Finally, I am putting out this last part of the 3-part article on Jesus’ teaching on prayers.

In Luke 11:1, the disciples of Jesus asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. In the next 12 verses, Jesus taught about:

1. Praying for oneself (Luke 11:2-4)
2. Praying for another (Luke 11:5-10)
3. Praying for the Holy Spirit to be given (Luke 11:11-13)

For this third and final part of a 3-part article on this portion of the Scripture, I going to write on the third item covered by Jesus – praying for the Holy Spirit to be given (Luke 11:11-13). You can read Part I here, and Part II here.


Praying for the Holy Spirit to be given (Luke 11:11-13)

11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:11-13)

What we should understand:

1. Here, Jesus is not talking about the adoption indwelling – the first indwelling but rather the baptism of Holy Spirit (& subsequent infillings)
First, let me say that I believe these verses above are NOT talking about the first time the Holy Spirit is received by a Christian. The first time the Holy Spirit is PUT INTO a Christian BY GOD is at the time of salvation/conversion/born again. To understand this, read my article on “Adoption Indwelling of the Holy Spirit”. 

At salvation, God PUTS the Holy Spirit into you as an act of adoption of your spirit as a son of God. The Death and Resurrection of Jesus Christ is an open invitation, and when you accept that invitation, God takes you in, as a son by putting the Holy Spirit in you as a seal (Eph 1:13), you do not need to ask for the seal.

What Jesus is talking about here is the subsequent times of receiving of the Holy Spirit which includes the first baptism of the Holy Spirit and the subsequent infillings and comings upon, of the Holy Spirit. Notice that phrase, “your Father” is used in the last verse, as in “how much more will your Father… give…” It is used here because you are already His son when He adopted you by His Holy Spirit, at salvation. So, you see, Jesus still said that you are to ask for the Holy Spirit even after your adoption.

2. The reservation and fear are not new
I believe the reservation and fear that we experienced, or maybe more correctly, by certain segments of the Christian community concerning the prayer for the coming of the Holy Spirit upon people are not new.

They were there during the Pentecostal time – when the Holy Spirit came upon the 120 people in the Upper Room, people (God-fearing people) came together in bewilderment (Acts 2:6). They were amazed and perplexed (Acts 2:12). Some even said the people who had the Holy Spirit came upon them, had too much wine (Acts 2:13). Peter, with the Eleven, had to explain to the people that the people were not drunk, it was 9 o’clock in the morning (Acts 2:15).

3. This was Jesus’ assurance, accept it
Today, many, especially in the more “traditional” denominations are still skeptical about this prayer for the Holy Spirit to be given to individual Christians.

Jesus knew the concerns of the people, that was why He said the things He said above. I have a close one who is in lay leadership position of a more traditional church. When I talked with him on this matter of baptism of the Holy Spirit, I could sense that he was concerned that when one asked for this (the Holy Spirit), one might get something else from “someone” else.  He also expressed that if God wanted to give it, He would have given it; that he did not have it meant God did not want to give it to him.

I believe the former is a stronger reason than the latter because when I said I could pray with him to receive it, he would not agree to be prayed for. It looks like for some people Jesus’ assurance above is still not good enough (maybe not yet good enough). Do not get me wrong, the one I referred to, is a faithful Christian who has been serving in his church for many years despite holding down a full-time job. I am praying that he will experience this dimension of the faith.

4. Know that you are not praying any differently, and it is the same God
Please understand that when you ask the Holy Spirit be given to you, you are asking Father God (unless you are praying to “someone” or something else!) for it. You do not need to worry that someone else gives you something else. If you think that can happen, then let me ask you, what about all the other occasions when you prayed for some other things or issues, could they not then also come from someone else or what you received was an evil thing, in disguise?

One more thing, Jesus says, “Ask”, so you just ask if you want it. Do not say, “If I do not have it means God does not want me to have it”. How did one get converted – receive the promise of eternal life, by doing nothing? Of course not, you believed in your heart and confessed with your mouth in order to accept Jesus as the Lord and Saviour, you do something – you ask God to come into your life.

For those not yet baptized in the Holy Spirit, think about it, when Jesus took the trouble to cover this in his teachings on prayers, it must be that important. To expound on the importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, the works, gifts and fruit of the Holy Spirit, separate articles are necessary – look out for them.

Jesus, in Luke 11:2-13, did not just teach on prayers, He taught about how to pray for oneself, pray for another and lastly He did not omit to address the reservation and fear about praying for the subsequent times of receiving of the Holy Spirit.


Anthony Chia, high.expressions – it is WRONG to say that unless you are baptized in the Holy Spirit, you do not have the Holy Spirit in you, yet it is important for us to be baptized in the Holy Spirit, and to embrace fully the role of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

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I can do all things through him [Christ Jesus] who gives me strength (Phil 4:13)

This is quite a commonly used verse from the Bible. Because it is like a good confidence boosting slogan, many of us use it and we encourage others to do likewise. What happened afterward, some of us completely avoided this verse. Why? Because it did not appear to be true. We couldn’t do all things. For example, if you wanted to fly but you found that no matter how much strength you used you just could not fly. Does "all things" include human flying? Whose quote is this?

The Book of Philippians was written by Paul. So it is Paul’s quote. Paul wrote a large portion of the New Testament (According to Conservative Christians Beliefs, 13 Books – Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Thessalonians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus & Philemon) and it is only when you realized what Paul had gone through in his life for the sake of the Gospel, through the reading and studying of Paul’s life in the scriptures, that you can understand how he could say what he said, “I can do all things through him who gives me strength.”

Firstly, I think we will often have problem in interpreting the word “all” as in all things, all men, all people, etc. We find these “all ……” in various verses in the Bible. Sometimes it meant “every” as in everything and everyone, sometimes it appeared not. Sometimes in our own conversations, we also use the word “all” without really meaning it as “every”. What we probably were trying to refer to is “a set of things we have in mind”. To you, all things included human flying per se, but to Paul, his all things probably did not include human flying per se.

Secondly, let say you wanted to go on a mission trip to the Mediterranean in a month’s time to spread the Gospel and you needed money for the trip. You went round asking people to contribute money for your trip. It was “tough” for you to “beg” people to give. To you, you had tried your best when at the end of one month, you could not raise enough for the trip. You could not go. But for Paul, if he were in your shoes, probably decided that if begging was not enough (I just use begging, as an example, but really Christians should not need to beg), he would do hard labor to raise the rest of the money, and if that was still not enough (and if it was possible), he would be prepared to wash dishes on the ship that was to sail to the Mediterranean. You see, to Paul, he could get to the Mediterranean to spread the Gospel – Phil 4:13 is true. But to you, Phil 4:13 is not true. We all need to bear the cross over time in order to have Phil 4:13 coming true for us with increasing frequency. If you still did NOT catch it, read the preceding verses to Phil 4:13 carefully,

…for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. (Phil 4:11b-12).

Paul subscribed fully to that which was said in Luke 14:27 & Luke 14:33:

And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:27)

In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.(Luke 14:33)

Paul was prepared to go all out for God. The condition of his heart was right with God. Only with that would Phil 4:13 comes through for Paul all the time. To catch a glimpse of Paul’s attitude, let us look at some of the Paul’s “speeches”:

Indeed I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God depends on faith; that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his suffering, becoming like him in his death, that if possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead (Phil 3:8-11)

And in Phil 1:19-21 after speaking of his imprisonment:, he said:

For I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance, as it is my eager expectation and hope that I shall not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain.

For Paul, to live was gain, because while he suffered in this life he was imitating Christ and was becoming more Christ-like. Also to live was gain because while he lived he could spread the Gospel and be an example for all. He said, “But to remain in the flesh is more necessary on your account.” (Phil. 1:24) To die was also gain, because if he were to die he would share in the Resurrection of Christ. Whether he lived and suffered, leading to the Resurrection for himself and others, or died and shared in the Resurrection himself alone, he would be united to Christ and be an example for all.

Paul also accepted the arrangements of God: And to keep me from being too elated by the abundance of revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to harass me, to keep me from being too elated. Three times I besought the Lord about this, that it should leave me; but he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’…For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults,hardships, persecutions, and calamities; for when I am weak then I am strong. (2 Cor 12:7-10)


So what am I saying?
1. If we want to apply the Phil 4:13 to ourselves, we need to know we have to be prepared to carry the cross and do our part. Our heart condition has to be right with God.

2. The next time when we look at a declaration or promise in the Bible, before we decide that it is NOT true, we better dig deeper.


Anthony Chia, high.expressions - My heart condition has to be like that of Paul if I were to claim the promise that he claimed - I can do all things through him who gives me strength (Phil 4:13)

[PS: {added 11/01/2010} I am NOT necessarily saying that God will not bring one past his difficulties without his (own) effort. In fact, God did and does bring people past their difficulties supernaturally like through miracles, and signs and wonders, but our heart conditions, I believe, need to be right, for consistent victories. I believe it would be extremely rare to find one who can get 100% achievement over time, with God. If not for anything, it will be, so that we do NOT become conceited, and act independently of God.]


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Reserve glory and worship for God, practise honor, and grow in favor with God

This is article is not meant to be an exhaustive study of glory, worship, honor and favor. I have tended to write on topics I felt led to write. I was really on another topic, but somehow felt led to dwell on this, so this became an article by its own.

Glory and worship
A simple definition of glory -
Glory of something/someone – great brightness, splendor, magnificence, majesty, beauty, renown of the something/someone
To give one glory – to give him very great praise (incl. adoring praise or worshipful thanksgiving)
To glory in something/someone – rejoice proudly, rejoice triumphantly, exult with triumph

Glory and worship are big words and intertwined. Worship is reserved for God alone (Ex 20:5, 34:14, Rev 22:8-9). Particularly, I wish to point out that even angels are careful not to take any of the worship away from God. We read this in Rev 22:8-9 -

8I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things [things in Revelation]. And when I had heard and seen them, I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who had been showing them to me. 9But he said to me, "Do not do it! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers the prophets and of all who keep the words of this book. Worship God!"

Likewise, glory should be confined to God. In Isaiah 42:8 we read this:

I am the LORD;
that is my name!
I will not give my glory to another
or my praise to idols.

I know the Apostle Paul talked about sharing God’s glory in the Bible but I believe he was referring to the future glory. This future glory is only relevant to us after we pass on -

17Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory. 18I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. (Romans 8:17-18)

[In this respect, we should imitate Jesus' attitude:
I am not seeking glory for myself; but there is one who seeks it, and he is the judge (John 8:50). ..."If I glorify myself, my glory means nothing. My Father, whom you claim as your God, is the one who glorifies me" (John 8:54). Jesus, too was looking at his future glory at that point in time (before crucifixion). The glorification came when He died and was resurrected; meanwhile He only wanted to glorify the Father. -inserted on 24/11/09]

The kind of glory that is ascribed to God must not be appropriated, even partially, by anyone, i.e. you cannot take any of such glory for yourself.

For example, a person prayed for a crippled man to be healed, and God answered the prayer and the crippled man is instantly healed; God performed a miracle. The glory to be given as a result, must be ascribed to God, the person who prayed for the healing cannot take any of it.

While I fully subscribed to the fact that we, as Christians, are princes and princesses, co-heirs with Jesus, in the Kingdom of God, and God is our Father, we are not god (H426). You and I are not Jesus or the Holy Spirit. Only members of the Triune God share each other’s glory. I know there are many mighty servants of God now doing great supernatural works for God after gaining insight of their kingdom identities – royal priesthood, princes and princesses. While I am sure many of them understood such requirements as practicing repentance and holiness, and humility before God and are themselves observing these requirements, there are those, because of their eagerness to share the insights that God had shown them, had in their over-emphasis in their identity-power teachings, and extreme under-emphasis in the fundamental aspects such as the requirements of repentance, holiness and humility, (some even, suggest repentance and holiness as not being required for such things as return of backslidden Christians/prodigal sons and high worships, respectively) caused lopsidedness in spiritual diet of saints. I have an uneasiness over this development, feeling that if it is unchecked or not balanced out, it may stumble other saints. Some of these great servants are also not very careful with the concept of pre-destination (especially general pre-destination of personal salvation). While signs and wonders and miracles do empower the Gospel, inappropriate word droppings of pre-destination can stumble people.

For the healing example above, we should not go round suggesting/insinuating that the person used by God to pray for the crippled man was not doing the right thing in ascribing all the glory to God, or that he was not right to always quickly ascribe every credit/praise back to God.

One may glory in the things that God has done (say a miraculous healing), if to glory is to rejoice proudly or triumphantly. Yes, we rejoice when people are ministered to/healed/blessed, but we do not take any of the glory for ourselves. When we see people got healed/ministered to, we rejoice with them and give glory to God by thanking God, praising Him with adoring praise or give worshipful thanksgiving to Him. When we rejoice, it means we share the joy of another (in this case, the healed man). It can even include the sharing of God’s joy (if you are like me, believe God is joyous, on healing a man) – this I can accept. This is the correct attitude of heart followed by our manifestation thereof.

Honor is different from glory
Honor, on the other hand, I believe is different from glory. The Bible does talk about God honoring man, and it is right for man to honor man. [Added: 03/01/2011 - I am aware that KJV and NKJV translations used "honor" in place of "glory" {used by NIV and many other translations} for such verses as in John 8:54; however, present day use of "honor" is more in line with Greek word, "timaō" (G5091) as in John 12:26 (below). "Doxa" (G1391), the Greek word in John 8:54, should be rendered as "glory" and not "honor" to avoid confusion with "timaō". Honor is also used for timē (G5092), as in say, 1 Tim 5:17 {which we will touch on later in the article}.]

Jesus before his going to His death on the cross, said these words, “26Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.” (John 12:26).

For he[Jesus] received honor and glory from God the Father when the voice came to him from the Majestic Glory, saying, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased." We ourselves heard this voice …..(2 Pet 1:17-18a)

Jesus went before us, He is the firstfruit. He is the model, He is the pattern. He received honor while serving the Father God on earth [One may think that Jesus hadn’t even started His Ministry at the time of his water baptism. That may be correct but He started serving the Father on the earth the moment He was born on earth.]. The same could be ours, the honor in serving on earth. That is why Jesus said those words, “My Father will honor the one who serves me.” in John 12:26 above.

Ah, you may say, 2 Pet 1:17 says, “he received honor and glory”. The glory here is referring to the manifested presence of God – in the light which shone around Jesus. This glory, manifested presence, is different from the glory we are talking about above, and is not uncommon even today, and it can take various forms.

Where is the honor in 2 Pet 1:17-18a, you may ask. The honor is in the words, the declaration itself, given in the presence of multitude. Often overlooked, I believe manifested presence also can be an act of honoring. This is especially so if the manifested presence takes forms that do not “serve any purpose except drawing awe” from the multitude. Let me explain,

For example, it is not uncommon that we hear of certain minister or preacher having glisters or gold dust forming on him or around him when he was before the multitude doing the work of God. Apart from indicating His presence, I believe God was honoring such servants of his. The glisters or gold dust does not serve any practical purpose but it does draw awe from the multitude. Miracles on the other hand, are different, they serve certain purposes, for example, to heal, to deliver or to meet a need or minister to someone.

I also believe that His doing of the very thing you ask of Him when you are ministering to people can also be an act of God honoring you. Of course, God can do a thing for any number of reasons.

In the light of what has been said above, I believe there is nothing wrong with asking God to honor us as we honor God (e.g. by doing a piece of work of God, by obeying a difficult command in a given circumstance, etc). I prayed that way often.

[added: 03/01/2011 - In connection to the last 2 paragraphs above, particularly in relation to our prayering for another in person, despite, preference by some, saying that we should not "tell God what to do", we should not hesitate to ask God to act on our requests, if indeed our requests are in line with Who He is. We should not tell God what to do, only to the extent that we must understand that our requests must be in alignment with Who God is; we must not hold God out to be our genie in a bottle, to do as we request (we, indeed do not tell God what to do, it is God who tells us what to do); and we do not try to "limit" God with our request (eg. suggesting that God should only act in a particular fashion).]

The Word of God exhorts us to honor one another. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. (Romans 12:10). Give everyone what you owe him: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor. (Romans 13:7). The elders who direct the affairs of the church well are worthy of double honor, especially those whose work is preaching and teaching. (1 Timothy 5:17).

While we say the person God used (say, for praying for the sick) must be quick to ascribe all glory back to God, there is nothing wrong for us to affirm the person, give him a pat on the back, thank him for taking the time and making sacrifices to minister to the sick. This is part of honoring a servant of God. And do not be taken aback or feel offended if he said something like, “Oh, it is God, not me.” I am sure he did not mean you were a busybody or that you did not know better – that it was God who did the work. I bet you he appreciated your gesture and it would spur him on.

What about favor of God?
Serve God well, serve him rightly, and grow in his favor is the way to go.

Deu 10:12 -
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask of you but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

Romans 14:17-18 –
17For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, 18because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men.

The Bible records that Jesus, over time, grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men –

And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. (Luke 2:52).

It is understandable that Jesus would grow in wisdom and stature but it says Jesus also grew in favor with God and men. If Jesus needed to grow in favor with God and men, how much more do we also need to grow in favor with God and men. I believe when we have the favor (or continuing favor) of God, we would be able to do great exploits. The Bible recorded that, among others, the following people have found favor in the eyes of God:


Joseph
Gen 39:4 - Joseph found favor in his [Potiphar] eyes and became his attendant [after Potiphar bought him from the slave market. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers]. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. [Potiphar is one of Pharaoh’s official]

Gen 39:21 - God showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. [Joseph was thrown into prison when falsely accused of having an affair with his master (Potiphar)’s wife.]

Joseph went on to interpret Pharaoh’s dream of 7 years of abundance followed by 7 years of famine; made 2nd most powerful man in Egypt, next only to Pharaoh; given the wisdom to store up food for the 7 years of drought, saving not only Egyptians and Canaanites but also his original family – his father, Israel (aka Jacob) and all his brothers. Joseph and his brothers are the fathers of the 12 Tribes of Israel. Joseph was instrumental for the continuity of the 12 Tribes of Israel, even as they were started off.

Moses
Ex 33:12-14 - 12 Moses said to the LORD After the Golden Calf incident and the LORD’s instruction to march on to the promised land. Because of the Calf incident the LORD had declined to accompany the Israelites on the journey. This was Moses’ plea, "You have been telling me, 'Lead these people,' but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. You have said, 'I know you by name and you have found favor with me.' 13 If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you. Remember that this nation is your people." 14 The LORD replied, "My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest."

Ex 34:9 - Moses repeated his plea before the LORD on Mt Sinai. The LORD had instructed Moses to chisel out another 2 stone tablets for the LORD to rewrite the Ten Commandments on, and to go up to the Mount again] 9 "O LORD, if I have found favor in your eyes," he said, "then let the LORD go with us. Although this is a stiff-necked people, forgive our wickedness and our sin, and take us as your inheritance."

Moses led the Israelites out of Egypt, from the hands of Pharaoh, to the edge of the Promised Land, with great signs and wonders and miracles, including the parting and crossing of the Red Sea) – you can read Moses’ exploits in the Old Testament. Exodus is one of the books you can read.

Esther
She prevented the annihilation of all the Jews in the kingdom of King Xerxes, which stretched from India to Cush [Upper Nile region](127 provinces). There was no mention of her favor with the LORD (but surely she was not without great favor from the LORD, she could have died for entering the inner court without being summoned by the King, but did not – Es 4:10-16. For the full story, read the Book of Esther, a short book) but there were ample recordings of her favor with everyone. She won the favor of Hegai who was in charge of the harem (Es 2:9a), She won the favor of everyone who saw her before she went before the King for the first time (Es 2:15), She won the favor and approval of the King, King Xerxes and was made Queen (Es 2:17))

Lastly, not forgetting our Lord, Jesus
Luke 2:52 - And Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men. The exploits of Jesus for Father God, of course, cannot be adequately dwelt with, here.


Anthony Chia – Lord, let not pride be found in me. Lord, I worship you alone. Help me not to take any of your glory but be quick to ascribe them all to you. Lord, teach me your ways that I may continue to find favor in your eyes. Above all, help me to be holy as you are holy.

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Psalm 42 – What to do when discouraged

The way to read this article is that the orange underlined texts are the verses of the Bible (NIV, unless otherwise stated). The black texts following the Bible verses (and enclosed by square brackets) are my commentaries. At the end of these Bible texts and commentaries, I have inserted a section on "Points to take note".
{For full listing of all articles in this Psalms exposition series, click here}


Psalm 42

1 As the deer pants for streams of water,
so my soul pants for you, O God.

2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
When can I go and meet with God?

3 My tears have been my food
day and night,
while men say to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
[Where are you, God, my soul longs for you just like the deer pants for water? My soul cried day and night while my enemy mocked at me saying, “Where is your God?”]

4 These things I remember
as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go with the multitude,
leading the procession to the house of God,
with shouts of joy and thanksgiving
among the festive throng.
[God, I remember I used to lead multitude in procession to your house with shouts of joy and thanksgiving among the festive crowd.]

5 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and 6 my God.
My soul is downcast within me;
therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.

[Oh my soul, do not be discouraged, put your hope in God, my Savior and my God. Praise Him still. God, in my discouragement, I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the height of Hermon – from Mount Mizar.]

7 Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.

8 By day the LORD directs his love,
at night his song is with me—
a prayer to the God of my life.

[Afflictions have come so thick upon me that I felt overwhelmed. Yet in my prayer, I will declare the Lord will send your mercy in the daytime, and in the night His song will be with me.]

9 I say to God my Rock,
"Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
oppressed by the enemy?"

10 My bones suffer mortal agony
as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
"Where is your God?"
[God, have you forgotten me? I am oppressed by my enemy, I am in grief. I am in agony as my enemy continues with the attack. ]

11 Why are you downcast, O my soul?
Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
for I will yet praise him,
my Savior and my God.
[Oh my soul, do not be discouraged, put your hope in God, my Savior and my God, whom I will yet praise.]


[When we are discouraged what do we do? What should we do? This is what the psalmist in Psalm 42 did:

The psalmist went before God, told God how his soul longed for Him, how he cried day and night while his enemy mocked at him, saying “Where is your God”. The psalmist reminded God that he used to lead in worship, giving shouts of joy and thanksgiving to Him. Even as the psalmist reminded God how he used to be joyful, he told himself not to be discouraged, to put hope in God our Savior and our God. He told himself that he still had to praise God.

The psalmist told God that in his discouragement, he would remember God. He told God that afflictions had come so thick upon him that he felt overwhelmed. Yet in his prayer he declared that the Lord would send His mercy in the daytime for him, and His song, in the night. He pleaded with God, saying “God, have you forgotten me?” He told God his condition – being oppressed, in grief and in pain as his enemy continued with the attack.

The psalmist ended by reminding himself again not to be discouraged, to put hope in God our Savior and our God. He told himself that he still had to praise God despite it all.]


What we should have learnt:

1. Never forget you have a God you can turn to.
If you are a Christian, never forget you have a God, your Savior and your God that you can turn to. The Christian God is a reliable and dependable God. If you are not yet a Christian, approach a Christian to find out how you too can have this Savior God.

2. Know your God well.
I believe the psalmist knew his God well. He probably knew that his God was a great and mighty God, capable of delivering him from the thick afflictions that he faced. Why did I say that? You can see he did not express any doubts at all about his God’s capacity to deliver him. He was only pleading for God to act. We have to get to know our God well. We should never doubt God’s capacity to deliver us from whatever afflictions that we may face. Make efforts to know your God before afflictions strike you.

3. Cry out to God.
Do not listen to people who suggest that we should just take all the afflictions “lying down”, that God had welcome the afflictions since they happened; that God would not do anything until they are all over. Do not listen to people who suggest that God would have given (gifts, help, etc) if He wanted to, that we do not need to ask. God does wait for people to cry out to Him, and men, big and small, in the Bible, cried out to God when they were faced with afflictions of all sorts. He knows everything, so what, it does not mean He is not waiting for you to talk to him or ask for his help.

4. Tell God you want to repossess the condition before discouragement.
Tell God you remember you used to be joyful and full of thanksgiving towards Him, and you want to repossess that joyfulness and thankfulness towards Him, and that you want to still praise Him. Tell God that in your affliction, you remember Him.

5. Pour out to God your condition now
– how badly you are afflicted, how oppressed you feel, your pain, your weariness, etc. Men may have problem taking your pouring-out but not God.

6. Ask God for His grace and mercy for your situation.
The psalmist asked for God’s mercy to sustain him in the day, and God’s comfort for the nights. God may or may not take you out of your situation, but be sure that his grace and mercy are sufficient to see you through.

7. “Get your hope up”.
This is very important, the psalmist repeated it. We should repeatedly tell ourselves not to be discouraged, and that God is working in our situation. Yes, tell our souls, speak to our souls. One indicator that your soul has listened to you is that you are able to praise God despite your afflictions. Whatever happens thereafter, be confident that in all things, your God will work for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28). This is a powerful verse in the Bible. To be sure I am always included, I constantly remind myself to love Him, and try to understand what He wants me to do (do not wait until you are afflicted to love Him or to find out what He wants you to do!).

If you are facing trials and temptations, you might want to read another article of mine, James 1:2-18 (Handling Trials and Temptations).


Anthony Chia – I must always keep my head up. The Lord my God is with me, he is mighty to save (Zephaniah 3:17a).

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Adoption Indwelling of the Holy Spirit

When does a Christian first receive the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Firstly, we have to ask ourselves whether there is a passage in the Bible that clearly spelt out the correct position of the topic. If not, then we have to subject relevant passages to interpretations. Therefore, the conclusion I reached is also one of interpretation, and one of call based on a degree of sensing of the anointing of the Spirit as I dwell on this topic. For those not already know, sometimes, when I write for this blog I will have heat coming on, on my back – an indication of anointing/presence of the Spirit around me. I dare not say all my writings are inspired by the Holy Spirit but I believe some are.

Many believe that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is received by Christians upon conversion. I have come to the conclusion that it is correct. Although originally I thought it would be difficult to find scriptures to directly support it, I have managed to find a few key texts that when taken together would suggest that the position taken is correct. The expositions of the texts/verses are found in the article - No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

In here, I just want to address the reasonableness of associating the first indwelling of the Holy Spirit to the time of conversion. From the article just mentioned, we can conclude that to be born again is to be born of water and the Spirit and by that it means that (1) a person accepts Jesus as the Lord and Saviour and is cleansed by His Blood (essentially a conversion event, a saying of the Sinner’s Prayer), and (2) God puts His Holy Spirit into the person and adopts him as son and quickens the spirit of the man (essentially the event of receiving of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit).

But are the two events happening at one go? That is the question? If they are, then we can say that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is received on conversion. For clarity and easy reference, I reproduce the relevant passages here:

John 3:4-7
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

From these verses, it is reasonable to conclude that to be born again, one has to be born of water and the Spirit. What is not clear is that whether the two “births” (born of water and born of the Spirit) need necessarily be at one go. Not really clear, I think. What do you think?

Let’s look at another passage:
Ezekiel 36:24-27:
24 " 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

You would realize in the article, I said the 2 passages are of the same “type” and therefore I read them together. I find that verses 25-27 of Ezekiel 36 are about things in one sitting/in one go. As such, when you take verses 5-7 of John 3 together with these Ezekiel verses (25-27), we can conclude that the “two births” (born of water and born of the Spirit) in the John passage happen at one go/one sitting.

So, it is true that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is received at the time that one accepts Jesus as the Lord and Saviour. When one accepts Jesus as the Lord and Saviour, the Holy Spirit adopts the spirit of man, as son. I called this first indwelling of the Holy Spirit in a person as a Christian, the Adoption Indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In this particular experience, the adoption, there is NOT the necessity of speaking in tongue as an evidence of receipt of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The passages above clearly did not mention the speaking of a new tongue. Having said these, I want to state that I did NOT say post-adoption, you do not need further times of “coming on”/infilling of the Holy Spirit.

Other verses commonly referred to by other people, in support of the position that the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is received on conversion/salvation/born again, include those below. But I must say, taken by themselves, each does not conclusively support the position.

Eph 1:13-14 -
13And you also were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, 14who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

Remark: “Having believed, you were marked……” How long after that before you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit? Time not known, cannot presume to know and say it was at the time of salvation.

1 Cor 12:13 -
“For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.”

Remark: No connection was really made between the timing of conversion/salvation/born again and the receipt of Spirit. Also, the context is somewhat off the issue on hand.

Romans 8:9 –
“You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.”

Remark: With the understanding gained from the article on “No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit”, it would be easy for one to accept that this verse implies receipt of the Holy Spirit on conversion/salvation/born again. Without that understanding, doubts still feature because timing is not easily discernible here. (To more tightly relate the various truths and revelations, I would separately write on Romans 8:1-18 which is commonly titled in the NIV Bible as Life Through the Spirit – watch out for it.)


Anthony Chia – Yes, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is first received on salvation/conversion/born again. Yet, further times of “coming on” of the Holy Spirit are recommended.

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Thank you Lord, for the affirmation again

Preamble
The purpose of this article is not to boast of what I have done. For what I have done, was done through the Lord. Apart from him, I can do nothing meaningful(John 15:5). The glory is His. I am just a willing vessel at the appropriate times, and that at those moments He was pleased to use me. This blog, and this entry served as a personal journal for me, in some way, a record of some of the things the Lord has done in and through me. In addition, it is my desire that it, including this entry, will bring encouragement to readers, especially when you see these things are happening in and through a lay person. Although I am an altar minister in my church, I am actually only a lay altar minister, I am not a staff or a paid pastor of the church, I am just a long time member of the church, doing the things I do on a volunteering basis. Of course, without the consent and support of the pastoral team and staff of the church, I would not have been able to do some of the things that I am currently doing. Still I must say, I cannot just write about everything I want since this is a public domain, and that people’s privacy must be observed. Also, I do not want the church to get any wrong idea and think that what I am doing in the church is for getting things to write about in this blog.

The 3 visions
Sorry, for the long opening. Actually, I just want to write about several things that happened over the last weekend (25-26 July 09), which I found to be noteworthy and comforting. Firstly, I released 3 visions over the weekend, one for each of the 3 weekend services. This is a first for me. Two of them were pictures/words of caution, one about our negative attitude towards expressions of worship. This one was more of a mental picture. The second one was a picture of a stretch of fence with a sudden jumping of the fence by someone, seen by me (in the vision) at the corner of my eye accompanied by a stir in my spirit. This was to be a caution to someone(s) who has(ve) overstepped/comtemplating overstepping the precepts of the Lord (the fence represented the precepts of the Lord put there to protect us). Words of caution/warning/rebuke are difficult words to release, especially for a lay person, to a congregation. I am grateful to my Senior Pastor for allowing me to release the word. May the Lord continue to bless him with discernments in the things of the spirit. He is a courageous man of God. The third was a picture of a young lady bound, possibly by excessive/unusual fear or guilt, and there was also a flight of stairs in the vision. It was that, perhaps, the Lord wanted to minister to people with excessive/unusual fear or guilt or suffering from compulsive disorders, like anger, etc. I also released some words on physical healing conditions for the services.

Spiritual Bethesda Pool
For some few weeks now, I have been witnessing some people being slain when I prayed for them at the front of the sanctuary. I believe this place in this church is a very special place. I believe it has been designated by God to be a place of healing, a spiritual Bethesda Pool. Whenever I can, on every Sunday morning, I would do “prayer walk” around this “pool”, praying for God to continue to use the place for healing and ministry, continue to pour forth his anointing into this pool, that His angels would continue to form “angel arch” over the pool, dropping healing essence or anointing into the pool. I once had a word from the Lord to form human arch over the pool. Because I was doing this “prayer walk thing” all by myself, each Sunday morning, about an hour before the first service, I was unable to do the arch. I told the Lord, to continue to do weekly prayer walking around the pool was ok for me but to involve others would be a little difficult for two reasons - one, that I believed what I believed about the area was because I had believed and appropriated a word of revelation released by one of the former pastors of the church but others might not believe, two, that it was not my intention to attract attention to what I had been doing, lest I be labeled a Pharisee – praying and doings things at front of the sanctuary that all may see and know. Of course, it was not that people could not see I was there, kneeling and praying, Sunday after Sunday, if they turned up a bit earlier, before the first services began, but at least I was doing things by myself quietly. In case you want to know what I did during the time of about an hour, I first prayed that the Lord would prepare me for the hour, do the prayer walk around the pool (there are 2 red lines, some 5 to 6 feets apart on the carpeted floor, marking the long “pool” at the front of the sanctuary), praying for God’s continued designation of the place, for the anointing to be poured forth, for the angels (healing ones, ministering ones, and even warring ones) to come, for the forming of the angel arch, for empowering of the ministers who would be ministering at the area (I must confess that at the beginning I only prayed for empowering for myself, how selfish!), for the worship team on the stage, and for the speaker of the morning [R. Watson, God used you to remind me to pray for speakers of the services]. When I finished the walk, I would kneel on the spot in front of where I normally sit (I normally sit in the first row, in front of the sanctuary), pray for my ministry (actually too big of a word to use for whatever that the Lord is doing through me, but what the hack, nothing wrong with thinking big and dreaming big with the Lord for things of the faith, and of the spirit, right?), intercede for some people (I make it a point to do this), and finally round off with asking the Lord to prepare me for the services of the morning - to worship Him, to serve Him in words of knowledge, prophesy, and be a vessel for Him to use in altar ministry time, also to feed on His word spoken through the speaker. By the way, from time to time, I do receive words of knowledge during this pre-service time. Oh, before I forget, I actually want to say that the church did eventually do the human arch around the pool – sometime this year, the church did a Fire Tunnel exercise as a finale of a series of teachings on supernatural living. I have the privilege of writing an email to the Senior Pastor, suggesting the sites for the tunnels; yes, you guessed it right, at front of the sanctuary between the 2 red lines. I did not receive a reply from the Senior Pastor or know whether he did read the email (sometimes, emails do get filtered by secretaries, you know) but all the same, 2 tunnels were formed on that occasion, one on the right and one on the left, from the centre of the “pool”. And the people proceeded from the seats via the central aisle, walked to the centre of the “pool” to enter either tunnel. For a few weeks prior to this, I had also been extending my prayer walk into the central aisle. I did not know why then, but on the night of Fire Tunneling, I knew why – the central aisle was to be used (In my usual prayer walk, as in currently, the central aisle is not included). Another thing, for readers from the same church, now you understand why I ministered so confidently at the front of the sanctuary – I believe I have the Lord with me, and I have the “home ground” advantage! Oops, Lord, a whole long para. ended up devoted to your spiritual Bethesda Pool in this church!

People slain
Ok, back to the things that happened. Yes, I was saying that I was witnessing some people being slain when I prayed for them during the altar ministry time at the front of the sanctuary. A couple of weeks before that the frequency was about every other week, one or two persons would be slain in one or more of the services. Then it went from every other week to every week, one or two persons would be slain when I ministered. I generally give words of knowledge and prophesy, and perform altar ministry (praying for people in ministry times). Of late, more got slain by other ministers as well, at the altar ministry times. Do I feel pressurized or jealous? Honestly, no but I care about whether or not I am still being used by the Lord, and I want to see growth in my “ministry”. I prayed for power and anointing for other ministers, didn’t I? I want to spur others on, don’t I? Yes, I just do not want to be “left behind”. I have come to believe and I think I still believe that when we “empower” others and spur others to greater heights, God will empower and anoint us further if our hearts are right. In any case, in all things, the prerogatives belong to God – if you do not want to intercede/pray/empower/impart/anoint, God could get someone else to do it. When we say we empower/impart/anoint, actually we really do nothing of the sort, it is God who does it, the source and giver is God, not us, we are just the vessels, and I believe it is a blessing that you and I can be willing vessels. If you are willing, you are already blessed, for being willing to be used by God is a blessing in itself. In another article, Trials and Temptations (James 1:2-18), I said that with godly wisdom for execution, we should always focused on the end result. I think it is not wrong to say, that’s how God is, God looks at the end result. He looks at what is going to be achieved at the end of the day - that is what is important to Him. Why do I say that? It is because He has the wisdom for execution all the time. When you have the wisdom for execution, what do you look at? Yes, you look at what you desire to achieve. Of course, for God, the end results of everything that He does are good because God is good all the time. What is the good end result here? People be healed, delivered and ministered to, the name of God be lifted up and glorified and men are drawn to God. Whether it is through me or through other ministers are matters of execution.

Take note of what is/isn't happening
Ah, so what happened last weekend, apart from the 3 visions given for the services? Another set of 3 things happened, even though for this weekend despite the fact that some people got slain by some other ministers but no one fell under the power of the Spirit when I prayed for the people – a surprise break! I am going to digress again, but bear with me. I think it is important that we be sensitive to what is going on, in and through us, in relation to our walk with the Lord. When we take note of what is happening we would be able to constantly check ourselves, do self-reflection to see if there are anything that went amiss (maybe our attitude was not right, our motive was not right, pride has gotten the better of us, maybe we have sinned, disobeyed God and God isn’t pleased about it). I am constantly reminding myself what Wilfred, a veteran itinerant preacher, said concerning moving in the supernatural –God can use anyone in the supernatural, even a sinful man or woman, an unwilling vessel, a baby or young Christian, but to continue to move in the supernatural with frequency and consistency, one has to grow. God expects the person to grow. If you are living in sin, you have to leave that sinful life, if you are an unwilling vessel, you have to learn to be willing, if you are a young Christian, you need to grow in the Word, etc (By the way, no one can claim that he/she has arrived), and we must all try to be holy as He is holy (1 Pet 1:16 and 2 Cor 7:1). Although, Wilfred said He has no theological degree or formal paper qualification, I believe his insight is correct. I now tell people that when you do natural things well, people may not attribute them to God because you maybe naturally endowed but when you do supernatural things consistently, people attribute them to God working in and through you – you have God’s name written all over you; in a way you represent God. Do you think that God will allow that if you still remain in your “undesirable” state? Or that when you allow yourselves to deteriorate into the “undesirable state”, would the Lord still continue to let you be his representative? Whether you are a prince or a princess, it is the same. Knowing your identity in God is important, but it doesn’t mean as a King’s son or daughter, you can do whatever you like. I know some of the readers are from the same church I am attending, and they have been exposed through overseas speakers, the importance of knowing our identity in God. Let us all bear in mind that [as we are taught and believed] all Christians are princes and princesses, and if that is so, then when one does not walk right with God, we just get, instead of a so and so commoner, a so and so prince or princess, like a sinful prince/princess, an unwilling prince/princess, a young prince/princess, or a prince/princess who is unwilling to practice holiness before the King whose is first and foremost, God the Holiness. Before God, our status of being a prince/princess is the same for everyone, when we are disobedient, we are just disobedient children. It is in relation to those outside, like the non-Christians and Satan and the principalities of darkness that our status as princes and princesses become very crucial and our own knowledge and belief in that, are very crucial. If you think that just because you are a prince or princess, you can call down fire and brimstones, you are mistaken. The Chinese has a saying that sounded something like this, “If royalty breaks the law, he/she gets the same punishment”; what more when in our kingdom of the Christians (Kingdom of God), there are no commoners! So, let us be obedient children before God, the Father, honour Him, please Him, bring Him joy, and share in His work.

Finally, the other set of 3 things
Sorry, folk, ok, I come back, get to the point and finish this off. The other set of 3 things are that I received 3 feedbacks. You see feedbacks/report-backs/testimonies are precious to us, who ministered in faith. They assure us, affirm us, increase our faith, spur us to do more for the Lord. Seeing some people slain maybe encouraging, getting feedback that people are healed or ministered to is even better. Thank you, Lord that you, not only give one but 3 feedbacks/report-backs at one go.

Firstly, a young man, a poly undergraduate whom I counseled and ministered to, for several Saturday evenings some months back, who had become a Christian but was holding onto the notion that being a Christian, one needn’t necessarily go to a church [representing fellowship and body], has now started going to church. After I stopped the counseling sessions several months back, I continued to intercede for this young man on Sundays. Yes, you read above that I intercede for people on Sundays, in the hour before the church first services. Last weekend, I saw this young man coming to church, I asked him about it, and he said that he had been coming to the church’s youth services, for 4 weeks already. I kept asking God to bring this young man into the fellowship of the church, now a breakthrough has taken place.

Secondly, a man I ministered healing to, several weeks ago at the altar ministry, came up to me at the church hospitality plaza last weekend and told me that his doctor had said that everything was alright for his colon. I could remember this man because of something he said. You see, if you give words of knowledge and prophesy regularly and prayed for many people regularly, you will not remember the words or the people particularly unless you made a point to remember the words or persons by recording them down or something peculiar happened. This man mentioned more than once, the previous diagnosis by his doctor that the “tube” was too small and he had problem moving his bowel. He was complaining about problems with his colons and bowel movement, but the word “tube” was kind of a strange term to use, and I remembered that. He told me then he would be re-visiting the doctor for further examinations. The man was happy and I was happy that his doctor has since cleared him.

Lastly, a woman told me that the Lord had given her a word for me, and that she had carried it for some times but had not had the occasion to give it to me. She said she even shared it with her children. This sister and her husband are somehow “special” when they got prayed for, by me. Actually, I do not get many feedbacks on people being healed when they are being prayed for, by me. I wish I get more of that. Well, Jesus, on one occasion only got one out of ten, so I should not complain. In Luke 17:11-17, we read:

11Now on his way to Jerusalem, Jesus traveled along the border between Samaria and Galilee. 12As he was going into a village, ten men who had leprosy met him. They stood at a distance 13and called out in a loud voice, "Jesus, Master, have pity on us!" 14When he saw them, he said, "Go, show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were cleansed. 15One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. 17Jesus asked, "Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? 18Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?" (Luke 17:11-17)

There must be times when I prayed for people, people do not get healed even subsequently over time, but when Jesus prayed for people, people got healed (v 17a). Yet we read that only one out of the 10 lepers came back to report of his healing, the other nine did not (People, what must we do when we got healed? Report back and give praise to God. Maybe some of the people do report back, to the church, and I was not aware). So, if people do not report back, I will still pray. Even if only one out of ten or more, gets healed, I will still pray. I prayed for this sister before, for her tearing eye conditions and she was healed (I shared this before, because she reported back, in a separate article – A Special Resurrection Sunday Indeed) several months ago. More recently, I prayed for her husband for pain and discomfort on the shoulder/shoulder blade area, and he experienced healing immediately. I remembered this occasion because, firstly, his wife was healed before, and secondly, the setting was not in church and a person received instant healing when prayed for, by me. Last weekend this couple came up to the front of the church sanctuary for prayer of resolve, to spend time with God as a family unit. I was actually far away from where they were standing, and for that particular session I was thinking that I could just pass, i.e. not going forth to pray for people (remember, I do what I do on a willing basis, I am not “on duty” as such). Then suddenly, I just felt I should pray for the couple. I quickly made my way to the couple and prayed for them. I felt “heat” when I lay hands on the couple’s foreheads, particularly for the husband. In fact the heat was so strong, I told the brother, the Lord’s anointing was upon him. It was after this that the wife said that she had the word for me sometime back. She kept apologizing that she did not tell me earlier. She said that the Lord’s word was that I was sincere when I prayed for people, and the Lord being pleased with my sincerity, heard and answered my prayers for others. What comforting words to hear. Thank you, Lord.

Pray for me
This is really a very roundabout and long-winded way of saying 2 sets of 3 things – a set of 3 visions and another set of 3 feedbacks/report-backs; but I hope you have enjoyed reading this and know a little bit more of me and what I do. There are reasons for the time being, for not being a little more personal, like publicly showing my photo on this blog site, revealing my age and where exactly I worship, etc. I hope those who read this blog, would pray for me, pray for my protection, pray that I can break all undesirable habits, be more holy as the Lord is holy, and not function in the flesh, and deliver only what God wants delivered, particularly in times of release of words of knowledge and prophesy.


Anthony Chia - Lord, may I always remember that much is given, much is expected (Luke 19:25-26)

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No one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit.

These are the words of Jesus Himself when He was asked by Nicodemus, a Pharisee and also a member of the Jewish Ruling Council, about how to enter the kingdom of God. Jesus told him that one must be born again:

John 3:4-7
4"How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!"
5Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. 6Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.'

Jesus said that we must be born again to enter the Kingdom of God. Being born again obviously did not mean re-entering the womb and coming out again. Jesus said that we must be born of water and the Spirit.


What does born of water mean?
Water is akin to washing, cleaning and cleansing, and the Word. In Biblical interpretation, we recognize “types” {as in say, a type of Christ, for example, the power of the brazen serpent (Num 21:6-9) is a type of power of the Cross.}, first (or earlier) mentions, and repeated associations. With these in mind, I like to refer you to Ezekiel 36:24-27 -

24 " 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. 25 I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. 27 And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

I want to suggest to you that this is a “type” – “Entering the Kingdom of God” type. The Ezekiel verses talked about a gathering together of the Israelites after a scattering (also note that Ezekiel 36 itself is a prophesy – a foretelling (Eze 36:1)). Entering the Kingdom of God is about a gathering of the Christians to enter Christians’ eternal land, Heaven. With this in mind, now we will interpret the above verses in the Gospel of John.

I believe the key to the interpretation of born of water is found in verses 25 & 26 of Ezekiel 36. To be born of water is to be cleansed of all our unrighteousness resulted from sins. Although many Bible scholars referenced water to water baptism and said or implied that water baptism was what was referred to by “born of water”, I believe it is the underlying meaning of water baptism that was referred to by Jesus. Jesus was talking in a manner that was understandable to people at his time. Water baptism preached by John the Baptist was in essence, “repent and be cleansed”. We know that post John the Baptist and after Jesus’ death and resurrection, we first get cleansed by accepting Jesus into our lives. So to be born of water really means to accept Jesus, who is the Word personified, as the Lord and Saviour of your life – not water baptism. To enter the kingdom of God, you need to cleansed of your unrighteousness, resulted from sins, by the blood of Jesus, in other words, you need to be a Christian.

I believe a little bit more need to be said of this cleansing by the blood of Jesus. I felt led to elaborate. Firstly man comprises the body, soul and spirit (click this article on tripartite nature of man for more on this. You are advised to read this article in order to follow the argument in this para.). For eternal life after death, what matter are the soul and spirit. The body though needs to be sanctified as well, decays when we die. {added 05/08/2010: The resurrected body (imperishable) is important for eternal life, but here the reference is to the natural body (perishable body)} But the spirited soul lives on, in fact forever. I read verse 26 of Ezekiel as cleansing of the heart (perhaps the most important part of the soul) and the spirit. When we see the word “new”, it is logical to say that there was an old one. But the word “new” here, I submit to you that it is not new as in “throw away the old one and put in a new one”. What I believe is that the cleansing work of the blood of Jesus is so thorough that the heart and the spirit become as in their original intended condition (new). They are still the same heart or spirit, just changed. Why do I say that? This is because (as I pointed out in the article referenced in this same para. on the tripartite nature of man) the spirit cannot be simply chucked away and be substituted with a new one. A spirit created by God lives forever. A spirited soul (soul with his spirit) either ends up living forever in the Kingdom of God (in Heaven) or suffering in the lake of fire in Hell forever. So a new spirit really is an old spirit made new, and so, by like to like interpretation, a new heart of the soul is also really an old heart made new and is no longer hardened – both cleansed perfectly if the person in question is truly “converted”. I must also assert that it is my belief that upon cleansing, the heart or spirit maybe perfect but afterwards if you sin, it will not be. I believe (contrary to some others), in this life, perfection is momentary, but we are exhorted to be righteous and holy as God is holy.

If you want a New Testament verse to support the association of water, washing/cleansing and the Word (Jesus is the Word, personified – John 1:1-3), take a look at this:

….just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word (Eph 5:25b-26)


What about born of the Spirit?
Accordingly Ezekiel 36:27 give us the key to interpretation of what is meant by born of the Spirit.

Ezekiel 36:27 - And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws.

I believe the blood of Jesus cleanses all 3 parts of the man – body, soul and spirit. But this cleansing may not be sufficient for us, to be born of the Spirit is necessary. I believe a cleansed spirit still need to be quickened. If you have read my article on the tripartite man, you would have noticed that I have said the spirit of man not born again is in a very much “weakened” state. I believe the Apostle Paul understood this well and that was why he reiterated this saying in 1 Cor 15:45 –

And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam[Jesus] was made a QUICKENING spirit. (1 Cor 15:45)

To be quickened is to come to life; to become alive; to become vivified or enlivened; hence, to exhibit signs of life; to move, as the fetus in the womb.

To quicken is to make alive; to vivify; to revive or resuscitate, as from death or an inanimate state; to make lively, active, or sprightly; to impart additional energy to; to excite, to stimulate; to hasten, to incite.

So, firstly, to be born of the Spirit is to have one’s spirit quickened by the Spirit of the Lord. So, Flesh gives birth to flesh, but "the Spirit gives birth to spirit” (John 3:6) is referring to this quickening of the spirit of man by the Spirit of the Lord – Only a spirit (in this case, the Lord’s Spirit) can quicken a spirit. What happens is that God put the Spirit of the Lord in us (Eze 36:27a) and the Spirit of the Lord quickens us. Eze 36:27b said the Spirit will move us to follow God’s decrees and make us be careful to keep God’s laws. This is part of the quickening – to quicken include to hasten and to incite (to hasten and incite the following of God’s decrees and laws). Secondly, God’s putting of the Spirit of the Lord into us is God’s adoption of our spirits as sons. The Apostle Paul spelt it out very clearly to us in Rom 8:15 -

For you did not receive a Spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, "Abba, Father." (Rom 8:15) [Notice that I have capitalized the 1st appearance of the word “spirit” because of the capitalized second appearance of the word “spirit” as in the Spirit of sonship; for this reason, I also capitalized the word “him” in the verse.]

Just to support further my lines of argument, let us take a look at another passage on the same subject. Paul wrote in the Book of Titus as follows:

5he[Jesus] saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, 6whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, 7so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. (Titus 3:5-7)

There is no inconsistency. Notice in the second part of verse 5, Paul used the words, “washing of rebirth” and “renewal by the Holy Spirit”. To me, the former could be taken to mean “cleansing unto(until it is like) new” and the latter, “of the spirit, being made new, into condition as of from the start”. Notice that the (spirit) renewal is by the Holy Spirit through Jesus Christ. Paul, in verse 7 is referring to the same sonship that we looked at, in the earlier passage (Rom 8:15) which was also Paul’s writing. Here Paul is saying being sons, we are heirs in the Kingdom of God.

I also want to point out that the putting of the Holy Spirit by God into a person, at born again for the purpose of adopting the person's spirit as son is the first indwelling of Holy Spirit for the person as a Christian and is the first quickening of the spirit of a person as a Christian. This indwelling I called it, Adoption Indwelling of the Holy Spirit.

[added 15 July 2010]You should also notice from the above exposition that the primary objective of Jesus giving of Himself as The Sacrificial Lamb is to restore or reestablish the righteousness state of ours to that before The Fall of Man (by Adam & Eve) in the Garden of Eden. In their righteous state, Adam and Eve still sinned, similarly, in our restored state we are capable of sinning, except that you and I cannot blame Adam or Eve anymore, and are answerable to God as to how we exercise our free-will.]

So what does born again mean? It means to be born of water and the Spirit. What does born of water mean? It means to accept Jesus as Lord and Saviour and be cleansed by His blood. What does born of the Spirit mean? It means to be adopted by God as a son and be quickened by the Spirit of the LORD {Jehovah} (which is the Holy Spirit – Isaiah 11:2).


There are still a couple of things to be said before we end this discussion.
1. To be born of water is the work of Jesus. Jesus died and resurrected, and you need to believe in Him and accept Him as the Lord and Saviour; He forgives you and cleanses you.

2. To be born of the Spirit is the work of the Holy Spirit. This is not so clear cut. Let me explain:

Let us look again at 1 Cor 15:45 -

… The first man Adam was made a LIVING soul; the last Adam[Jesus] was made a QUICKENING spirit.

To start with, Adam is a soul and he became a LIVING soul when God gave him a spirit [a spirit lives forever], and so we say the first Adam was made a LIVING soul. Now to start with, Jesus is spirit [being one of the Triune God] and He became a QUICKENING spirit when GOD gave Him the Holy Spirit [the Holy Spirit was put into Jesus when He was “cleansed” by water by John the Baptist (to fulfill all righteousness)], and so we say the last Adam [Jesus] was made a QUICKENING spirit.

Jesus is the first-fruit, our fore-runner; as man, to fulfill all righteousness, He went through the whole process. We are followers after his footsteps. What I am sharing here could only have come from the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, not of my own.

3. So, following from the above, the Spirit that quickens is the Holy Spirit. There is no inconsistency, the sevenfold spirits [seven Spirits] of the Holy Spirit include the Spirit of the LORD {Jehovah} (Isaiah 11:2) – to understand more of the sevenfold spirits of God, look out for a separate article to come.

4. Why the need to be born of the Spirit? To appreciate the need to be born of water is not so difficult – the tripartite man needs to be forgiven and cleansed. Although I have mentioned the weakened state of the fallen spirit as the reason for the need of quickening, there is still the question of why the need for us to have the Holy Spirit in us. If you read my article on the tripartite man, you will find that I have said that the Holy Spirit was NOT put into man when God created man. Why was there not a need then to put the Holy Spirit into man, and subsequently a need? To fully explain this would entail a fuller and longer article touching on a number of controversial ideas, of which I believe I have some revelations. It suffices to say here that man’s having knowledge of good and evil was not part of the original plan of God. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit was not necessary in the original plan. Man was created in the image of God, not as god (there are differences between originals and images). I believe by acquiring the knowledge of good and evil in the Fall, man is no longer able to cope with all that he needs to face in life without the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and still hopes to come through victorious, the way God intended it. The indwelling and aid of Holy Spirit are needed. Despite the many speculations put forth to explain what is the "new creation" is all about, I believe this is the base perspective, and we should expound from this base.

5. On-going need to be cleansed and quickened. The reason I threw in point 4 above is so that we can appreciate what I am going to say for this point – we need to be cleansed and quickened on an on-going basis. These things when pushed to their conclusions would touch on touchy subjects such as “one saved is always saved” or “is it that we need to work on our salvation with fear and trembling?” If and when I feel led, perhaps some days, I would write on these issues, including those I avoided to elaborate in point 4 above. I have to, at least, mention here that although you need only to accept Jesus once, you need, on an on-going basis, to repent of your subsequent sins and be forgiven and cleansed by (the blood of ) Jesus (1 John 1:9)[added 11/07/2010: Those doubting if 1 John 1:9 is for believers, should read my separate article - "1 John 1:9 is for believers"]. Similarly, although you need only to be adopted once as son of God, you need to be quickened on an on-going basis. Be honest, how near are you to God? If you are far from the life source, you will weaken; and in case you are not aware, we “leak”! or if you want a more scientific analogy, in this fallen world, we are entropic. This will also lead us to other topics such as the needs for baptism of the Holy Spirit and subsequent infillings of the Holy Spirit – subject of other articles to come.


Anthony Chia - To be born again includes to be born of the Spirit

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