Did Jesus really come into your life?

Did Jesus really come into your life?

Revelation 3:20, Most of us know these words, they've been repeated often since we were children, to us. "Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and eat with him and he with Me". Most of us know that verse from at least Billy Graham evangelistic crusades and probably most of us from hearing it at some evangelistic service in our home church.

We all know that it's the verse that is quoted to indicate that Christ is willing to come into your heart and to take over your life and to give you a sense of His favor and His love in your own personal heart. If you are like me you felt, "That's what I need, that's what I need. I believe in Christ and I believe in Christianity. I believe in going to church and I believe in this bible but it isn't real to me inside. It isn't warm and real in my own heart and I don't know how to make it real". You may have gone forward at an evangelistic crusades or evangelistic service and you've repeated those words and asked Christ to come into your heart and life.

"Lord, I know that you are saying to me, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and he with Me".

Then you may have gone through all kinds of contortions to try to open the door of your heart. I don't know what you've gone through but I know I myself went through all kinds of what I thought were mystical experiences and I tried to imagine in my own mind, "The Lord Jesus is here in this room. He is at this altar for real. He is in this room where I am seeking Him and He is right here and He is willing to come into my heart and all I have to do is ask Him". I tried to imagine Him coming into my heart and I was unable.

Or you tried singing the verse of a hymn because you thought, "If I can get the atmosphere of that meeting that I was at, where I felt God stirring me, if I can recapture that feeling that I had, then I'll know the warmth of God in my heart". Now the problem is it has never come real for you. It has never really taken place and you may have actually come to church or even this body for years and yet it is still not real to you.

I would appeal to two groups of you actually. One of you who might be very intellectual and might have to work out everything in the mind. You might be in the position where you are saying, "It's just not for me, that kind of closeness that other people talk about. I happen to be more cold-blooded than other people. I am just coldly intellectual. I think things through, so I can't expect the reality of Jesus in my life that other people have who aren't quite as intellectual".

Indeed, if you are like some of us, you might think, "Actually it's rather embarrassing to have anything too emotional or warm inside", and you might have decided, "I am an intellectual Christian, that's what I am. I don't feel God particularly close to me. I don't feel very great warmth of His presence in my life. I don't feel He is personally showing His favor to me but I believe all the things that this book says and I believe that He is not against me". You might be in that position of many of us who are intellectuals where we feel, "Well what we have is enough, admittedly it doesn't seem to be exactly what other people have who are real with God but it seems to me enough".

I speak also to those of you who are emotional and who think to yourself, "Well, if I can only get an emotional experience of Jesus in my heart, that's what I need". So you go from church to church to church, to atmosphere to atmosphere, trying to get that emotional experience that will convince you that God is in your heart, that the Savior has come in to take over your life and to dwell there.

Brothers and sisters, none of that is right. None of that is right. None of those things are right. That's not where Jesus coming into your heart is at, at all. It has nothing to do with that stuff. It has nothing to do with your emotionalism, nothing to do with your intellectualism. It has nothing to do with mystical experiences. It's nothing to do with kind of a momentary experience, it isn't.

It's on a far more down-to-earth level than that. The reality that many do have Jesus in their heart does not come from an emotional experience or from an intellectual experience or from a mystical experience. It comes from a spiritual experience and a spiritual experience is real, down-to-earth and plain and simple. It's the like what that the dear Jew, Waynesworth, said.

Wayne puts it so plainly and so straight that I couldn't put it any better and I don't think any of us could. He said, "So Jews could and should believe in Jesus", that's it. So, "Jews could and should believe in Jesus. The only thing I needed to see was another Jewish Christian. I wanted to really see that everything was true. I was then convicted as far as I could be. One night, it finally happened. I met a girl ho was Jewish as I was and she told me about how she gave her life to Jesus. That was all I needed. That night, I asked the Lord to come into my life. I am not exactly sure of what I thought would happen but I knew that nothing did happen".

Now that is what happened with a lot of us. Now at least Wayne knew that nothing happened when he prayed. Many of us are deceived because we think something did happen when we prayed. Many of us have repeated a prayer or just asked Christ into our heart but we may have had a warm fuzzy feeling and then just concluded that Christ came in. Others of us were told; "Christ does not lie, if you have asked Him into your life then He is there no matter what." The result of all this is hundreds of thousands of people believing that they have Christ but in reality do not have Him.

Now Wayne knew that nothing happened so he kept seeking the Lord. This is what he said; "A few days later, I was sleeping at about 5 or 6:00 a.m. and heard a voice telling me that if I would stop sinning, I would have what I wanted". That's it. "If I would stop sinning, I would have what I wanted. It was so loud, so clear that it woke me up. Finally it became clear as to why nothing happened that first time I invited Him in, because I was still planning on sinning".

Wayne used to cruise the beaches and pick up the girls. So, he was trying to continue the old life and yet he asked Jesus in. "It happened that the first time I invited him, I was still planning a sin", you can't fool God. "So what I was going to do was sin. What I wanted was Jesus. Before, I had repented but not with a heart ready to leave sin behind and God knew it. Very shortly after, I made my decision to leave sin behind and I prayed once again and this time I received the Lord with the Spirit and all it's benefits and truths, joy, peace, patience, love and everything else that goes with it. For the first time in my life I had real peace. Praise the Lord, I was now a reborn Christian Jew. This happened on June 12, 1982 and now three years later, I am still amazed at the storehouse of blessings and promises I have inherited, along with how many people are in need of Jesus to freedom".

You see that It is not complex at all, it isn't. It's not a complicated thing at all.

My wife is very different from Waynesworth and yet she came through the same experience. I am very different from Waynesworth. I came through the same experience. Anybody who comes to the point where they're asking Jesus in their heart, finally finds out that the reason why they can't experience the witness of the Spirit. It is the witness of the Spirit that really counts. It's not emotionalism that counts, it's not intellectualism that counts, it's the witness of the Spirit. The reason many don't experience the witness of the Spirit that Jesus has come in, is because Jesus hasn't come in. He did not come in because there was something in their heart that will not let Him in. That something is very simple and plain.

If you've asked Jesus to come into your heart and nothing has happened, it's only for one reason, it's not because you are not emotional enough, it's not because you are not intellectual enough, it's not because you are mystical enough, it's because you still plan on sinning, that's it. God has convicted your heart about something that you should stop doing or something that you should start doing and you are planning on going on doing what He has forbidden or you are planning on going on doing what He has told you not to do, that's it.

I know this is not the message you hear so often and I was offended by the whole thing. I felt I was a kind of intellectual sophisticate in the university. I could not believe that God would be so ridiculous as to tie His presence in my life to something as practical than down-to-earth as stopping being impatient with my mother or stopping being irritable or stopping swearing, but God is. God is disgustingly down-to-earth.

God simply says to you, "Your sins made My Son's death necessary. Your sins killed My Son. I cannot give you My Son in your heart if you are still involved in putting nails in His hands and a spear in His side. That, you have to stop". You cannot plead the blood of Jesus and shed the blood of Jesus at the same time.

In other words, you see what you are doing, you are involved in a spiritual impossibility. It's a spiritual impossibility. You can't ask the Savior to come into your life and you continue to practice sin. The bible tells us that an angel of the LORD appeared unto Joseph in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins. So if you want Jesus in your heart and you want God to be real in your life, stop the sins that God has told you are in your life, that's it. That's it really. It's so simple and plain, you know, and Wayne puts it in such an unsophisticated way. He says, "I am not sure what I thought would happen but I know nothing did happen". He was a Jew. He knew nothing about all the stuff we've been brought up with for years but he did what we said he should do and nothing happened. Then God spoke to him and told him that he had to stop sinning and when he stopped sinning, he only had to plan to stop sinning. He only had to determine not to sin and the whole thing became real in a moment.

Waynesworth hasn't been at any evangelistic campaigns. He doesn't know anything about all the stuff we go through. He just knows that God is faithful. If you stop sinning, Jesus really does come into your heart. If you don't stop sinning, you can ask Him into your heart but you don't experience anything real, you just experience an emotional thing or a reformation of your life.

So brothers and sisters, I just make no apology for sharing that again. It doesn't matter how long we think we have been born again are or how saintly we all think we are, it gets back to the matter of stop sinning and immediately, there comes a presence of God into your life that you could not believe. It's the same with the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit comes in and fills you when you get rid of the things that God has shown you are there.

So, I would encourage you this day, even if you have tried it before and it's been kind of disappointing, or you've tried it before and it doesn't seem to have worked. Would you examine your own life? I would ask you, is there any sin there that you are planning on continuing? I am saying to you, "Will you stop it now? Will you just plan not ever more to sin that sin and if you will be real with your God, He'll be real with you".

Now, sooner or later, you will have to be real with Him. Sooner or later, you will meet Him and He will expose those sins to you and to the whole world but then, there will be no forgiveness possible. So you have to do it sooner or later. It's just now, you can do it to salvation. Then, you will do it to eternal damnation.

Now, will you do it now? Will you stop it now? Whatever it is, or whatever it is He has been asking you to start, will you start it now? Will you correct the thing now? Will you change your life to align it with God's will for you? If You do He will immediately give the witness of His Spirit in your heart, and you will know God is there. you will know He's there, you will.You know, this was not planned or organized at all. I didn't know I was going to say these things, I was going to preach another sermon. You should come. You should do whatever needs to be done. You should come up and you should kneel up here, you can kneel here and you know, and you should make your commitment to God, you should.

If you have tried before and it hasn't worked and you see now the very sin that you know you have to forsake or you see the very thing that you have to do, you should come up now and just repent of it to God and then just go back to your seat and trust Him for the witness of the Spirit which He will give to you. So let's just bow and prayer.

. Now at least Wayne knew that nothing happened when he prayed. Many of us are deceived because we think something did happen when we prayed.

Too many of us are involved in saying we have Christ but we are sitting on a huge heap of garbage and manure. This heap of garbage is all the sins that we will not confess and repent of. We are sitting on this heap and we are trying to stretch out to have faith that Jesus Spirit has come to us, it's impossible.

You can't receive the Spirit of Jesus over un-confessed or un-repented of sin. You can't, it's not possible. God is a holy God. He walks in light. You can't walk in darkness and walk with Him. So unless you truly agree with God about the things that are in your life, unless you truly turn from them, you will not be able to receive Jesus Spirit to make your spirit alive and that's where many of us are having ridiculous troubles, you see.

The whole Christendom is filled with easy believism, isn't it? A dear brother said to me last week, "Well, I mean I prayed to receive Jesus. I mean did nothing happen?" Well, just I prayed to receive Jesus, that's easy believism. I mean when you receive Christ, He comes in because the thing that was in your life that prevented Him being there has been put away.

The whole of the Old Testament is filled with that, "Put the evil thing far from you and I will be your God. I won't be your God unless you do that". Now when He comes in, He gives you grace and strength to walk in what you've done but it's vital for you to declare your readiness to do it even without the strength that He gives you, knowing that He will give you the strength to walk in that, but brothers and sisters, you have to put the evil thing from you.

So don't say, "Oh I thought I was just receiving Jesus", no, no. It's getting rid of the stuff that crucified Christ, otherwise if you receive Jesus in and the anger of the Roman soldiers is in your heart and the dishonesty of Judas is in your life and the lies and uncleanness of the mob is in your heart and your actions, will Christ not be crucified all over again inside you?

freecd quoted

I cannot give you My Son in your heart if you are still involved in putting nails in His hands and a spear in His side. That, you have to stop". You cannot plead the blood of Jesus and shed the blood of Jesus at the same time.

Mike said

[b]I didn't even fancy myself a Chrisitan[/b] and yet here back of all of it was the Lord crafting and begining a great demolition project. Now that I think of it, it could be compared to a construction project in that a great deal goes into planning, archetecture, submitting plans, permits all these things before the project truly gets under way. And it was so in this case, it was a couple of years before things really began to "break ground". How odd, how peculiar are the Lords ways with us.

[color=006699]Then the word of the LORD came to me, saying: [/color]

"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you;
Before you were born I sanctified you;
I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

[color=006699]Then said I: [/color]

"Ah, Lord GOD! Behold, I cannot speak, for I [i]am[/i] a youth."

[color=006699]But the LORD said to me:[/color]

"Do not say, 'I [i]am[/i] a youth,'
For you shall go to all to whom I send you,
[b]And whatever I command you, you shall speak[/b].
Do not be afraid of their faces,
For I [i]am[/i] with you to deliver you,"

[color=006699]says the LORD. [b]Then the LORD put forth His hand and touched my mouth[/b], and the LORD said to me:[/color]

"[b]Behold, I have put My words in your mouth[/b].
See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms,
[b]To root out and to pull down,
To destroy and to throw down,
To build and to plant[/b]."

[color=006699]Jeremiah 1:4 - 10 (NKJV)[/color]

I have learned we can do these things with ourselves before God, co-operating in the great demolition which precedes His rebuilding plans.

Hi Blunt,

There are a wealth of threads addressing the question inherent in your statement:

Make no mistake the flesh you were born with will be fighting you TILL YOU ARE WITH HIM !

If he had not experienced the answer, how did he manage to stop getting Christians put in prison? I mean, how did he overcome his urges to think he was better than gentiles, or more educated than some Jews, or even to call his keeping of the law flawlessly, as something to cease? Why did he call himself 'a prisoner of Jesus Christ', if he was really as out of control as he had been before he was 'saved'?

An helpful way of reading Romans 8

8 So then they that [u]are given to the flesh [b]cannot[/b] please God[/u].

9 [u]But [b]ye are not[/b] given to the flesh but to the spirit[/u]: if so be that ye spirit of God dwell in you.... (Tyndale)

This makes all the difference to being able to obey God or not. The decision has to be made, as freecd's article explains.

Tyndale also says that the man of flesh 'persecutes' the man of the spirit. But that doesn't mean to say that the man of the spirit just [i]rolls over[/i] .... does it?