The question is often asked, "How do you join the Apostolic Christian Church? How do you become a member of this church?" They may expect an answer like, "Here, just sign this membership roster," or "Here, agree to our statement of beliefs and you're in." Or maybe you are used to the new "people-centered" churches where you might expect an answer like, "Members? We have no such thing here, just show up on Sunday once in a while and throw some money in the offering plate and you will be considered a part of our church." Or perhaps you are used to the Roman Catholic or Lutheran style of membership and expect an answer like, "You need to go through this confirmation class and then correctly answer a few questions afterwards and you will be a member." Or perhaps you are used to the more liberal mainline Protestant churches, where they will send you to a quick "orientation" after which you will considered a member.

However, expect none of these answers when you ask how to become a member of the Apostolic Christian Church. Instead, the answer will be, "You need to go through a period of repentance and to experience peace with God, that is and the infilling and work of the Holy Spirit in your life." That sets a lot of people back for moment, it is not what they are expecting to hear. In these days of heretical teachings based on the self-centered desires of man, not God, you have "easy believism," "name it and claim it," "cheap grace" and "once saved, always saved" and all kinds of heresies taught as if they were doctrines from the Bible. In this environment, an old-fashioned call to repentance stands out in stark contrast.

Yet from the very beginning, Jesus saw His mission as calling men and women to repent (Matthew 4:17, etc.). Repentance and the forgiveness of sins go hand-in-hand, you can't have one without the other (Luke 24:47, etc.). So the Apostolic Christian Church believes it would be irresponsible to lead someone to believe that he can become a Christian without repentance; surely the church would be held accountable on judgment day for leading someone to believe he was secure in his salvation, when he really wasn't even a Christian! Of course, ultimately, repentance is up to the individual, we can not do it for him or her, as much as we might like to.

The next question we get asked is, "What do you mean by 'repentance'? Do you mean feeling sorry for my sins?" Yes, that is part of it. In Apostolic Christian terminology, repentance is really another word for conversion. To become truly converted, we need to first recognize who were are in relation to God. We need to believe in Christ (John 3:16, etc.) and His redeeming sacrifice on the cross and that He arose from the dead. And we need to recognize our sinfulness, confess our sins(1 John 1:9, etc.) (traditionally done in private, to an Apostolic Christian minister) and to reconcile with both God and man (Hebrews 12:14, etc.). Also, we need to fully submit ourselves to Christ; that, of course, requires trust on our part. Lastly, we must follow His commandments (John 15:10, etc.), those with true Christian faith will naturally show it in their actions (James 2:19-20, etc.). All of these steps are demanded of us by Scripture.

When someone sincerely follows through with this simple plan, they will find that something amazing happens. The Holy Spirit enters their life and changes them totally! They become born again! After this, there will be no doubting if we are really "saved" or not, we will know that God is with us and that if we continue to walk with Christ, we will live with Him forever in heaven. Of course, if we choose to turn our back on God and walk away from Him, abandon Him and disobey His commandments (and die in that state), we can not expect to arise on judgement day to a heavenly home, the Bible makes this perfectly clear.

One dear brother (below) tells us of his struggle to find an intimate connection with God and an assurance of salvation, and how he could not find it until he followed all the steps of true repentance. He has analyzed several of those steps of repentance and shared them with us. If you are struggling for an intimate relationship with God and a firm hope of your salvation, you may find this article helpful for your spiritual journey. -The Editors

Do you feel like you have never had that close relationship with Jesus you have always wanted? Do you doubt that the Holy Spirit is active in your life? Have have you tried everything you know of to remedy this, to no avail? Do your prayers seem to be going nowhere? Do you feel like God has overlooked you? Well, then you are not alone. That is how I felt until I encountered Jesus Christ.

And He summoned the crowd with His disciples, and said to them, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world, and forfeit his soul? For what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels." (Mark 8:34-38) (NASB)

"Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are My friends if you do what I command you." (John 15:13-14) (NASB)

And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt. (Matthew 26:39)

You may recall an old hymn, one we still sing in the Apostolic Christian Church. The chorus goes, “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way, to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” Before I was converted, this song always used to get my hackles up. Though I was generally a very obedient kid by most standards, I still didn’t like being told I must obey someone, it just rubbed me the wrong way. However, now I have to admit that the old hymn was right. If we deny Christ and live our lives for ourselves, we will ultimately find on judgment day that we have completely lost control of our lives (Mark 8:35), we will be taken to a place we do not want to go and there will be nothing we can do about it. The fact is that we are only Christ’s friends if we do what He commands us to do and that's not just me talking, that's Jesus (John 15:14). As the song says, we really must learn to trust and obey if we are to have a close relationship with Jesus. And when we are close to Jesus, we will find love, joy and peace.

So what exactly does Jesus want us to do? He wants us to break down any barrier between us and Him. For instance, He told the rich young man that he had to sell all of his possessions. Why? Because even though this man had claimed to have followed all of the commandments of the Old Testament, Jesus knew his love of his possessions was standing between him and God (Matthew 19:16-26). Jesus wants us to deny ourselves and follow Him (Mark 8:34). That means doing what Christ wants--this may be something far different than what we would want to do. That means a life totally devoted to Him. When our life is totally devoted to Him, He will naturally pervade all facets of our life at all times, not just when we are in church; there will be no false divide between our “spiritual life” and our ordinary life, they will be one and the same. Yes, it would be easy if He simply wanted us to attend church twice a week or give a percentage of our income to the poor or help our neighbor and then use the rest of the time to follow our own selfish desires--but no, Christ wants us to give our heart, life and will over to Him--and all of it! Even Christ Himself surrendered His will to His heavenly Father (Matthew 26:39), why should anything less be expected of us?

Trust And Submission

Putting our total trust in Christ is easier said than done. It is particularly difficult for those who are naturally distrustful of others or maybe even learned to fear their earthly father or other authority figures. Others may have come to assume that they will be rejected by those they seek a relationship with, and may even assume that they are unworthy of love and respect. But let me tell you, dear soul, if you are thinking these kinds of thoughts, you are wrong! Don't let your earthly relationships prevent you from the greatest relationship you can ever have!

Releasing control of our own self-will may seem like a risky proposition. It is like taking every cent we own and putting it in a bank; we have to trust that our banker will keep it safe. If he doesn’t we will have lost everything! However, if we can trust God enough to give Him our most precious possession, our self-will, the returns on this investment will be more than you could have ever imagined! We will not lose our life savings, no, quite the opposite!

However, our investment will not pay off if we insist on keeping our fingers tightly clenched around it, like putting our money in a bank, we need to let go and let God take control of it. If you go to a bank and put the money at the teller’s window, but refuse to release your hands from the money, I can guarantee you that this money will not show up in your next bank statement! We must have faith and trust, so that we can give our banker our money and keep it safe.

In my case, I knew I needed to turn my life over to Christ, to give Him the reins. I came to that realization as a teen. But I was naturally reluctant to do something like this—I had full control of these reins ever since I found them as a toddler—probably around age two or so—or as mothers call it, the “terrible twos!” And when it came right down to it, the prospect of giving Christ complete control of the reins terrified me. When I thought about it, I envisioned myself dangling over a bottomless pit, desperately hanging onto those reins. I envisioned Christ saying, “Let go of those reins, I’ll catch you!” I wanted to believe Him, but I feared He would step away at the last minute and I would fall into the pit. You see, I experienced a lot of rejection as a kid and I guess I assumed that if everyone else rejected me, why wouldn’t He? And I feared that if I handed over the reins, perhaps I would be mistreated or I might die of some horrible disease or be forced to live the rest of my life in some kind of awful, tortured existence!

So, in lieu of total submission to Christ, I tried to make a deal with Him; I don't think this was done on a conscious level, but it was done, nevertheless. It is a deal many try to make. I told the Lord of the many great things I would do for Him, if He would only let me slide on this little control thing. However, I soon found out that God doesn’t make deals like that. The one thing He wants from us more than any other is total submission, you can't command God to be involved in one part of your life, but keep His "hands off" of another part of it.

The result of my selfishness, lack of trust and fear of submission was sad indeed. I didn't realize that if the Holy Spirit is not directing my life, that leaves a vacuum for other spirits. Evil ones. As I grew older, I gave in to selfish desires. Sin entered into life my more and more. Eventually, I found to my surprise that I had lost all control of my life. I was being led into dark places I had not intended to go and there seemed to be no way out. I found that I had become the slave of sin and Jesus was far from me.

Learning To Trust

However, I have since found out that my fears were silly and totally unfounded. First of all, when we die, He will have full control over the reins anyway and then the consequences for not handing over the reins may be a horror beyond comprehension! Second, Christ had actually addressed my concerns, though I was not aware of it at the time.

"Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (Luke 11:11-13) (NASB)

In the past, I recall hearing this passage above from Luke and I always thought to myself, “This is silly, why would Christ have to state the obvious? What kind of father would hand his hungry son a scorpion?” However, what I didn’t realize at the time was that those verses could have been penned specifically for me! I didn’t realize at the time that this was exactly the kinds of things I subconsciously expected from my heavenly Father, that is, things that could harm me or put me in danger! That’s why I always envisioned a bottomless pit beneath me when contemplating giving Christ complete control over my life--handing over the reins seemed synonymous with doom. However, in reality, there was not a bottomless pit--that was only my irrational fears.

"I am the good shepherd, and I know My own and My own know Me, even as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd." (John 10:14-16) (NASB)

All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)

There was no reason to fear that Christ would do anything but love me; we are His sheep and He is the Good Shepherd, even taking care of those who were not originally in His flock. He will not tire of us and throw us out.

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. ( 2 Peter 3:9) (NASB)

…there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11) (NASB)

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

You may have even been rejected by peers and family on this earth, however, Christ will not reject us, He does not discriminate against anyone who submits to Him. He loves you, He really does! But you need to trust Him completely and strive to obey Him if you are to find out just how much. Nobody can force you to surrender your life to Christ. It must be something sincere and from the heart. It must be completely voluntary and the only one that can do it is you.

The Path To Submission

Perhaps you consider yourself a Christian, but yet, you don't feel very close to God; you can't truthfully say you have a personal relationship with Jesus and the communion of the Holy Spirit. Okay, let me ask you some hard questions. Have you considered that you may still feel isolated from God because you made yourself the commander-in-chief and you have been unwilling to relinquish your command to the most victorious Commander in history, namely, Jesus Christ? You may think you have already surrendered your life to Christ as much as you feel necessary and you may even feel you are doing more “spiritual things” than the average Christian. However, have you fully surrendered your life and will over to Christ, with no exceptions, no holding back? Have you let Christ into those forbidden corners of your mind, where even you fear to tread?

“Okay,” you may say, “I see that I need to totally submit to Christ, but it is so hard to do--how does one do it?” In order to be submitted, you need to first believe that He exists and that He is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do. Submission does not happen automatically or without your knowledge--not by a long shot! Giving up our self-will is probably the hardest thing we can do—it is not something done casually, it is a heart-rending, conscious decision--if we have done it, we will clearly remember it!

Isaiah 45:9 "Woe to the one who quarrels with his maker--an earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, "What are you doing?'” (NASB)

To be fully submitted, we need to be in the right state of mind. What state is that? In a state where we recognize the true reality of our existence. We need clarity about ourselves and our relationship to God. We need to recognize that it is only through God's will and power that He decided to make the universe from nothing, and from that, He took some basic elements and created human beings, of which we are only one of several billion. We are here because of His power, because He wanted us here, we had nothing to do with it. We are mere mortals and God does not owe us one little thing—not one. We have no "rights" in our relationship with God—He owes us absolutely nothing, He does not have to do what we would like or think is best.

All God wants is for us to see the obvious--He wants us to recognize who we are and that we should be grateful to be here and to be given life, the ability and opportunity to be the servant of the one and only, Most High God. If God wanted to treat us like dirt, He would have every right to do that, after all, He is God—who can tell Him what to do?! However, from day one, God treated His human subjects fairly, He told us what we need to do to please Him—we call these rules or commandments.

The very first human beings, Adam and Eve, were given a single commandment, to not eat the forbidden fruit. They had only one commandment to follow and they couldn’t do that! No wonder they were banished from paradise! So we need to recognize, as Adam and Eve did, that we are mere mortals, and that God is, well, God! We need to learn of the limits of our own power. We need to admit that we can't “have our cake and eat it too,” God is not willing to cooperate until we completely surrender our life and self-will; we can not tell God what to do—no, it is the other way around!

I only learned of God's power and love when I was at wit’s end; finally, I was finally ready to let the Lord do with me whatever He wanted, even though I feared it may be something very unpleasant (my irrational fears at work). I told God in a desperate prayer that he could have complete control--and I meant it. Now this might be a more exciting story if I could report that during that prayer, there was a flash of lightning from heaven, or that I was visited by an angel or even that I felt overpowered by God’s presence at the moment, however, none of these things happened. It took a few weeks before I knew something had changed. And had it ever! The power and love of God was revealed to me in such a way that I knew, without reservation, that I never wanted to leave Jesus--never! I would be His devoted servant for the rest of my life. That old Zion's Harp song (#210) became my song, it goes, "Now it is accomplished / I'm no longer mine / Lord, I will forever and always be thine / For Thou hast created and purchased me too / Baptized with Thy Spirit, Thou makest me new." No more did I think that God had forgotten about me, or was ignoring me. All I could do is bow down in awe and humility and thankfulness because of my encounter with the grace and love of our Lord!

If you don’t think you have come to the point where you are willing to totally submit your life to Christ, don’t be afraid to ask God to open your eyes, so that you can reach this critical point. And don’t worry, Christ always wants what is best for you. However, it may take a little time for some, because we are stubborn, selfish creatures at heart.

Loving God With All Of Our Heart

For thou shalt worship no other god: for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God (Exodus 34:14)

"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God. But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them." (Deuteronomy 4:24, 29-31) (NASB)

One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: "Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied: "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments." (Matthew 22:35-40) (NIV) (See also, Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18)

"You shall have no other gods before Me." (Deuteronomy 5:7) (NASB)

"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." (John 15:10) (NASB)

And this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the commandment, That, as ye have heard from the beginning, ye should walk in it. (2 John 1:6)

In the verses above, we see that God is a “jealous” God, so jealous in fact, that one of His names is Jealous! At first glance, this may be disconcerting, after all, isn’t jealousy a sin—why would God want to be known as Jealous? Well, in the Old Testament days, the pagan nations would have many different gods at one time, one to help in childbirth, one to make the crops grow, one to help with health matters, one for human fertility, etc. However, God made it clear that He is not willing to share our attention and devotion with anyone or anything else, and of course, God has every right to ask that of us, because after all, He is God!

Or to look at it another way, how much of us does God want? All of us! Did you note how the verse from Deuteronomy said we would find God if we sought Him with all of our heart and all of our soul? And if that wasn’t clear enough, when Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment of all the Scripture was, He said it was to love God with all of our heart and all of our soul and all of our mind! And then He went on to say that this commandment and loving your neighbor as yourself was the foundation of all of the remaining commandments in the Bible.

If one would try to summarize the entire Bible in one sentence, it would be Matthew 22:37. This is the whole purpose of the things we talked about earlier; we need to recognize who we are in relation to God (clarity), then we must believe that He exists and that He is who He says He is (faith), and then we must learn to trust Him with our life (trust) so that we can willingly submit to Him and do His will (submission) and then we must learn to love Him above all others in our lives.

Now I am not telling you all of this because I have the urge to preach to someone—no, I am telling you this because it is the key to a true, intimate relationship with God. It is the key to becoming a child of God, one of the kingdom of Christ. It wasn't until I came to this point that I found out what it really means to be a child of God.

Love Can Not Be Forced

Now in our little minds, the greatest commandment may seem to be like a stranger pointing a gun at our head and saying, “Love me now or you shall die a horrible death!” We can’t simply pull love out of thin air, it is something that must be earned! We can not be forced to love someone, nor can we love someone grudgingly. Love, by definition, is something that we sincerely feel from the bottom of our heart. So how can we honestly follow this commandment?

We do it by following the path the Bible lays out for us, the one we have been talking about, clarity, faith, trust and submission. If we are honest with ourselves and if we learn to trust Him and submit ourselves to Him, it will be impossible not to love Him with all of our heart! Did you notice John 15:10 above? Jesus said that IF we keep His commandments, THEN we will abide in His love--we will find it hard not to love Jesus because He will show His love to us so clearly. And of course, we must remember that in order to follow His commandments, we must be in total submission to Him. That means that we must be following the commandments willingly; God is not fooled if we do things grudgingly, or out of a sense of duty or in an attempt to buy His favor--if you don’t believe that, think about the first and greatest commandment we have to obey—to love God more than anything or any other--true love is always something true and sincere.

Clarity: Recognizing Our Sinfulness

So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." They answered Him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never yet been enslaved to anyone; how is it that You say, 'You will become free'?" Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:31-36) (NASB)

My repentance led me for the first time to see myself as God saw me. That led me to seek a true and intimate relationship with Jesus Christ, because what I saw was not a pretty picture. I had become of slave to sin. Also, I found that I truly wanted to please God. I had met the first step in the process of repentance, clarity.

This led to a trust of the Almighty I never had before. Before that time, I was afraid to completely submit myself to God. Why? Of course, a lot of it was due to pure pride and selfishness, but another part was the belief that I had fallen through the cracks somehow; I had assumed that my heavenly relationship would be like my earthly relationships. Also, my new clarity led me to see how much of the misery in my life had actually been the result of my own actions or distorted perception!

The Indwelling Of The Holy Spirit

Though I had heard about God’s love for me thousands of times throughout my lifetime, I never felt it personally. For example, I thought some hymns were a little sappy, when they went on and on about loving Jesus. He probably loves us, I thought, but it was more like the kind of love you might get from a very distant father-figure; you knew He loved you, but He simply didn’t show it very much. However, when the lies had been cleared away, I was left with the ability to fully trust Christ with my life; the barriers between us had been broken down. I realized that I had not fallen through the cracks, I had not been ignored or neglected! Christ was no longer a distant father figure; He was right there with me! I finally realized how much Christ really loved me; I wept tears of joy when I considered how He sacrificed himself on the cruel cross for me. Yes, ME!

For the first time in my life, I held my head up high because I felt truly loved and valued by God; I had an extra spring in my step. It seemed that a mantle of darkness and depression had been lifted, I had lived with it so long I thought it was normal! The joy in my heart put a smile on my face, it was a smile emanating from the joy inside me, it was not a forced smile. I didn’t know it at the time, but I was beginning to experience what Christ talked about in the verses below; now that I was able to love Him, He responded by sending the Holy Spirit—my love was returned to me a hundred fold!

How Do You Receive The Holy Spirit?

Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." (John 3:3-6) (NASB)

Jesus says that you will not be able to enter His kingdom unless you experience a spiritual rebirth (John 3:3). What does that mean? It means that you will start your life over—you will be born again, but this time, it won’t be from your mother’s womb, but from a new spiritual beginning—the spirit He is talking about is the Holy Spirit. In other words, you need to have an encounter with the Holy Spirit that will radically change your life.

Obviously, the Holy Spirit is something you should want active in your own life. When you read the letters of Paul, you will see that this is the very definition of the true Christian, a person with the Holy Spirit to guide them. Some people want to change the subject when you start talking about the Holy Spirit because they think you have to fall into trances, handle poisonous snakes or do other strange things to get the Holy Spirit. But any true follower of Christ will automatically receive the gift of the Holy Spirit—the Holy Spirit is simply the Spirit of the holy, living God, living in us. It is the ultimate communion with Him.

"If you love Me, you will keep My commandments. I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you." (John 14:15-17) (NASB)

Jesus talked about the Holy Spirit, especially in the gospel of John. He said that if we love Him, we will follow His commandments. If we can do that, then we will be blessed with the presence of His Holy Spirit, or Helper or Comforter as He is sometimes called (I recommend that you read chapters 14, 15 and 16 of John for more about the Holy Spirit). The Holy Spirit is what I had been missing in my life. After I found myself in a place where I could truly submit my life and will to Him, then, and only then, did I experience the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life.

The Fruit Of The Spirit

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-35) (NASB)

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions,envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:19-25) (NASB)

Before I had the presence of the Holy Spirit in my life, when I read the scriptures above, it seemed like a bit of an overstatement, or an unattainable goal we should strive for, it was something that would look nice on a Christian plaque, but did anyone really believe this or experience it in their own life? Others perhaps, but not me. However, now I was experiencing these very things in my own life. I had more love and kindness for those around me, for the first time I had real joy and peace in my life, etc. Now I knew why the Apostolic Christian Church made such a big deal about the fruits of the Spirit. Yes, I knew the fruits of the flesh well and knew this is not a path I wanted to follow anymore. Give me those fruits of the Spirit!

Also, I now found that when I read the Bible, I understood it on an emotional, not simply an intellectual level as before. Some passages which were hard to believe or that made little sense to me were suddenly meaningful to me. I was surprised to see that so many Scriptures from the New Testament now related to my own recent personal experiences!

The Guidance Of The Spirit

When I began to feel the presence of the Spirit in my life, I also became sensitized to the things that might grieve the Spirit. For example, in my former life I used to spend many hours watching TV, often watching many programs of questionable character. No more! Why? Not because I decided to take on a puritanical mindset, but because I was feeling a new love for my Lord. I could not fathom why anyone who claimed to follow Christ would sit and willingly sit and allow themselves to be indoctrinated by writers and programs which openly demean Christ, Christianity, the work of the Spirit or the life Christ asks us to live.

I felt grieved when I heard others take Christ’s name in vain---didn’t they realize who they were talking about? I am amazed when I meet “Christians” who swear like sailors and regularly take the name of the Lord in vain! If they really know Him, then they are knowingly treating Him like dirt! Who of us would stand idly by, while someone used the name of our mother like a swear word, accompanied with the most vile profanities one can dream up?

I cleared my home of anything that seemed the least bit unwholesome. Anything that might pose even a minute potential for temptation was thrown out. Also, I found myself being more careful about getting involved in coarse jesting or lying or exaggerations or un-Christian behavior of any kind. These changes in my life were not because I had been "brainwashed" or resolved to follow some new moral code or because I felt it was my duty to live a strict moral life or because I thought it was a method of assuring my place in heaven or because that is what I thought was expected of me. No, I was doing it because I loved the Lord and I wanted to please the Him and because I was following the prompting of the Spirit.

Instead of spending time listening to talk radio on my commute to and from work, I started listening to Christian music. I was often moved to tears of joy, sometimes it was because of the words of the songs, however, often it was simply because singing or humming along to the songs was an act of worship and love toward my heavenly Father. Also, I found new meaning in many old hymns I had known from my youth, they often reduced me to what probably looked to others like a blubbering idiot, crying my heart out with tears of joy at the mercy and love of the Lord.

Quench not the Spirit. (1 Thessalonians 5:19)

There were many times that I felt impelled to prayer and worship. I remember one time when I was in the shower I just felt the overwhelming need to fall on my knees right then and praise God for His mercy, love and goodness. I didn’t do it, “I’ll do it when I get out of the shower,” I thought. However, by then I the moment was gone—I learned something that day—when the Spirit impels you to do something, do it, don’t quench the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19). I am by no means an expert on the Holy Spirit. I am learning more about how to live a life in Christ each day. However, I can tell you that I will never be the same again.

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (2 Corinthians 5:17)

And he that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And he said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful. And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son. (Revelation 21:5-7)

Do you know Jesus like I know Jesus? If not, I would encourage you to stop by your local Apostolic Christian Church. They can point the way to your new relationship with Jesus Christ.