Just for the record, I surrendered my life to Christ / Yeshua the Messiah on one particular Saturday morning in the spring of 1977, at the Sheraton Hotel in New Kingston, Jamaica, under the ministry of Deeper Life Ministries. That’s when I believed the gospel presentd by the preacher, was convicted by God’s Spirit about my past sins, repented with many tears (that’s just me) asked forgiveness and received the full, free salvation offered by God the Father through God the Son. That’s when I was born again by the immediate indwelling of God’s Spirit. All of that happened on that day. As a child enters the world once by natural birth, so I entered God’s family once by being “born again”, spiritually. Being born again is no more an on-going process than is natural birth. Since that spring day in 1977, I have been “working out my salvation” (Philippians 2:12) – exploring all its aspects and benefits; submitting myself to its mind-renewing disciplines; reconciling my behaviour to its distiction; marveling at what the apostle Sha’ul (Paul) called “the depth of the riches, of both of the wisdom and knowledge of God”. By my count, I have now been “born again” for over 38 years, and at this point I’m loving it! But it has not always been easy to live up to my spiritual “family name”. I have only made it thus far with the indispensable help of the Ruach haKodesh (Holy Spirit, a.k.a. the Spirit of God/ Spirit of Jesus/ Spirit of Yeshua).
Way back when John the Baptist was immersing people in the Jordan, he said to those who came to him to be baptized (Mark 1:8), “After me comes One (Who) will immerse you in the Ruach haKodesh.” Well, Yeshua – the “One” Who came – fulfilled the first part of John’s prophetic promise almost immediately (Mark 1:9). However, He only began to fulfill the last part after He’d laid aside the limiting “Rabbi from Nazareth” costume and returned to glory. Even before that though, He endorsed the second part of John’s prophecy by re-naming it “the Promise of the Father”, by confirming that He would Personally send the Promise down “upon” the disciples, and that as a result they would be “clothed with power from on high” (Luke 24:49). Furthermore, being clothed with power from on high was so important that Yeshua told them to wait in Jerusalem until they had received this Promise. They were not to venture out from Jerusalem without it. Then, on that particular Feast of Pentecost (Shavuot) which is mentioned in Acts 2, Yeshua began to fulfil this promise and He keeps fulfilling it until today, in the lives of successive generations of disciples.
When I was immersed in the Caribbean Sea by a modern day baptist and came up sputtering, the water ran right off me, having fulfulled its symbolic function. However, when I received the Promise of the Father months later, the “clothing” of power from on high that was showered down on me (immersing me in its other-worldly consistency) did not run off like water. Instead, it seemed to penetrate me, and pour out of me in trickles, squirts and spurts over time, without being depleted at the Source. That ever-living water is the sustainability secret that has kept me over these 38 years, and flowed through me in varying measures to others as well. Praise the Lord! Read more about it in …
TGIF: Thank God It’s Friday by M. Evangeline Anderson
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