2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

Listen to my witness, please.

God answered my first prayer instantly.

“I don’t want to be like this.”

Suddenly without a word my Sovereign God took away the one thing that was troubling me in that moment of confession. He changed me without any effort on my part other than confession.

This is the important part, God is able.

Matthew 19:26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

This passage became my new reality. God proved He could by doing what only God can do.

Did God speak to me audibly, no, He spoke to me by doing His will in me because I was lost and confused and was helpless to help myself.

His actions made the scriptures come alive.

Romans 10:17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.

God did not use words to communicate His will at that moment but I knew it was this God I had been hearing about in Sunday School. If God had used words, that might have scared me away.

The second lesson to this witness is that God desires to draw you closer, not chase you away.

It is my personal belief that God knows how to reach each person in a way that they can accept Him without scaring them away. We are individuals and we have different problems, concerns and ways of thinking. The universal solution for so many different personalities is one God that can do the impossible, reach you as an individual.

2 Peter 3:18a But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 

As we grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord trust is built and we will discover new ways of communicating with our Lord. Those ways will always be consistent with His Word so that we can be assured it is our Lord.

Leviticus 22:21 And when anyone offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to the Lord to fulfill a vow or as a freewill offering from the herd or from the flock, to be accepted it must be perfect; there shall be no blemish in it.

We have been explaining the process that leads to eternal life and this is yet another requirement. Perfect peace cannot be attained without a perfect sacrifice.

2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

With every turn it seems we need to explain yet one more thing. Without going into greater detail here please read righteousness as a right standing before God. This is required in order to have a personal relationship with God the Father, to be able to stand in His presence.

Deuteronomy 21:8 Accept atonement, O Lord, for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, and do not set the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of your people Israel, so that their blood guilt be atoned for.

What if we refuse to accept blood guilt? Unless we repent of the life we have lived, we cannot accept His atoning work.

Romans 3:10 as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;”

Are we born again if we understand all that is required of us? Sorry, not yet.

John 14:26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

John 15:26 But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

When will we know that He has sent the Holy Spirit?

Romans 3:25 whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Here we go again, to be received by faith.

Galatians 3:2 Let me ask you only this: Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law or by hearing with faith?

How does hearing by faith work?