Posted on 03/28/2023 8:47:17 PM PDT by fishtank
"For you have been born again
not of seed which is perishable but imperishable,
that is,
through the living and enduring word of God."
1 Peter 1:23
I love this verse.
A former pastor used to quote this often, often, often.
So rich, so much truth is layered in What God Has Spoken.
He used to tell the story about his seminary professor Howard Hendricks.
The prof would start a semester with an assignment:
“Make 25 original, non-repeating observations” on a particular Bible passage.”.....
The next class day, he’d say, OK, now write out 25 MORE original observations on the same passage.
On the third class day, he’d say, OK, now write out 25 MORE (75 total so far) on still the same passage.
What do you think the prof was trying to teach to his students?
Amen 🙏🏻!!!!
22 Now that you have purified yourselves by obeying the truth so that [you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ]
23 For you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God.
[you have sincere love for each other, love one another deeply, from the heart. ]
This is far more important than the commands and the reason Jesus answered the question on the most important commandment the way He did.
7 Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.
20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen. 21 And he has given us this command: Anyone who loves God must also love their brother and sister.
When you are truly born again you perceive this Love as physical. It is easy to perceive those who proclaim their religion but have no Love as their hearts are closed like the Pharisees.
This same Love protects you, it radiates outward so that spirits of darkness fear Jesus shining through you. This is the power that does the exorcisms.
Most who proclaim to be born again are dead in spirit. They are still asleep. They do not have the discernment of an open heart. They “think” that an intellectual acceptance of Jesus protects them. Unless you know and experience Jesus’s Love in your heart, He does not know you. That is communion of the Spirit.
This is why in Jesus’s parable of the tares in the wheat, the weeds were planted while we were asleep.
The weeds are here now. But most will be so full of themselves by possession of their knowledge that they are blind. Only despair will get rid of the old to allow one to see with their heart.
🙏
Bttt
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