How do we receive Jesus in our hearts?
The word of God declares that we are born again BY THE WORD OF GOD.
So we receive Jesus when we receive the word of God, The life is in the Word. If you keep the Word, you keep life.
1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
The Word of God IS JESUS, and Jesus IS THE WORD OF GOD.
The Word of God IS TRUTH, and Jesus IS TRUTH.
The Word of God IS LIFE, and Jesus IS LIFE.
The Word of God IS LIGHT, and Jesus IS LIGHT.
The words of God are seeds, and they are a part of and came from Jesus, and a part of the Spirit of God is the life in and of the seed.
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
Joh 6:68 Then Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life.
Therefore, if the seed remain in you, the life that is in the seed will remain in you.
These seeds, which come out of Jesus, get planted in our hearts after we hear the word of God/faith, believe and agree with the truth, receive and act upon
it by faith via our confession, according to Romans 10:8-10, then the old stony heart is replaced with a heart of flesh, and we are given a new or fresh baby
like spirit made like God with the triune God Himself in him or it, making us new creatures or children of the Most High God. Ezek 36:25-27.
We receive God the Father, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost in our hearts through the spoken word of God or the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Gal 3:2 This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith [or the spoken word of God]?
But there could be a couple potential problems with keeping the truth/gospel in us.
Joh 5:38 And ye have not his word abiding in you: for whom he hath sent, him ye believe not.
Luk 11:28 But he said, Yea rather, blessed are they that hear the word of God, and keep it.
Joh 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our
abode with him.
Joh 14:24 He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.
1Jn 2:3 And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.
1Jn 2:4 He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.
1Jn 2:5 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him.
1Jn 2:6 He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.
If we keep the word of God in us, then we keep Jesus.
Keeping does not necessarily mean obeying or doing, as in the works of the law.
One keeps the truth by believing the truth.
Believing is keeping, changing or rejecting the truth, is to reject the word of God, and therefore will not be able to hear the truth of the gospel.
What if one stops agreeing with the truth of God's word and/or makes the truth of God's word into a lie, such as the former Baptist minister and his wife to
whom I spoke with, who became atheists?
The bible asks in, Amo 3:3 Can two walk together, except they be agreed?
The implied answer is, no.
Can the truth stay in you if you no longer agree with it? Can truth stay in you if you change it just a little?
I believe the answer still, is a resounding, NO.
2Co 6:14 Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light
with darkness?
Again, the implied answer is, absolutely none.
Though this is speaking of nonbelievers, it is referring to the light that is in us.
If truth is light then the lie of the devil would be darkness.
The truth of God's word is light, and the lie of the devil is darkness.
They are contrary one to another.
This is not to say that a Christian cannot have a demonic spirit in them. You just can't have both light and darkness in the same room, and there is more
than one room in us.
Psa_119:140 Thy word is very pure: therefore thy servant loveth it.
Pro_30:5 Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him.
God's word is pure, so even the slightest twisting of the truth of God's word, such as what the devil did in the garden of Eden, would defile it and turn the
light that it once was, into darkness.
Luk_11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is [turned] evil,
thy body also is full of darkness. Mat_6:23 ...If therefore the light that is in thee be [turned to] darkness, how great is that darkness!
Luk_11:35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not [turn to] darkness.
At first glance, it appears that the pure word of God can be tainted, like man when they sin, but the law of Genesis says that every plant produces seed
after its own kind, so the seed itself cannot be corrupted into something it is not, but it can be choked, killed, irradicated and replaced by a lie. One can
change the truth of God's word into a lie, rendering the pure word of God, impotent and without power or effect.
Rom 1:25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
According to the sower sowing seed parable, the seed that is in us can wither away and die through pressures and temptations, or it can be chocked by lies or
seeds of the devil that come up as weeds that choke the word of God, so that it bears little or no fruit, but shows no sign of being corrupted, polluted,
tainted or defiled.
To what extent does this apply though?
The man I spoke with went from being a so-called believer to an atheist, both he and his wife, denying Christ.
But what about other truths that have been turned into a lie, such as living by the law after one has been saved by grace?
Gal 5:1 Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Gal 5:2 Behold, I Paul say unto you, that if ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing.
Gal 5:3 For I testify again to every man that is circumcised, that he is a debtor to do the whole law.
Gal 5:4 Christ is [has just] become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace.
Gal 5:5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.
Gal 5:6 For in Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision; but faith which worketh by love.
Gal 5:7 Ye did run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?
Gal 5:8 This persuasion cometh not of him that calleth you.
Gal 5:9 A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.
Remember that we are saved by grace through faith. So to say ye are fallen from grace and if ye [as children of God] be circumcised, Christ shall profit you
nothing, and Christ [has just] become of no effect to you, is to say, you just lost the truth, and agreed with and accepted the lie, thereby losing your
salvation.
So the seed cannot be corrupted, but a little leaven can leaven the whole lump.
Luk 12:1 ..., he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
Mat 16:6 Then Jesus said unto them, Take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
Mat 16:12 Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees.
I believe, this is saying that a little lie can permeate through the whole lump of dough, that the leaven was put in, before it is cooked and becomes the
bread of life.
With so many doctrines of salvation such as, you must be baptized, or baptized through sprinkling of water verses by total submersion, or baptized in the
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost verses being baptized in the name of Jesus, or to be baptized as an infant, or filled with the Spirit, or filled with
the evidence of speaking in tongues, or you must take communion to eat the flesh and drink the blood of Jesus that you may have life in you, or if you don't
go to our church you are not going to heaven, or if you do such and such sins repeatedly, then you again are not going to heaven, and so on and so forth.
1Jn 4:6 We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.
What I know to be the truth, many of you do not. So who is to say who has the Spirit of truth or the spirit of error, when it comes to interpreting the
bible, which is truth? Because, if you have the Spirit of truth, then you know God and will hear the truth and will have Christ and be of God. But if you
have the spirit of error, you will not be able to hear the truth, you will not know or be of God, because Christ will not be in you.
So how do you even know who is and is not born of God if-
Mat 7:21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Keeping and doing the word of God is the will of the Father.
Joh 15:3 Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
Joh 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
Joh 15:5 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
Joh 15:6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Joh 15:8 Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
Joh 15:9 As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love.
Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
If you abide, continue, or dwell in Christ, He will abide, continue, or dwell in us.
If you don't abide in Him, then you are cast forth as a [dead] branch and will wither and die.
We are clean through the word of God or the truth, if we keep or retain God's word, as in the truth of it, we shall ask what we will or want, and it shall be
done to us. That includes your salvation.
We are saved by the word of God if we keep the truth of that word in us.
Wouldn't the safest way to keep the truth of God's word in us be to believe the word of God as it is written, instead of making excuses as to why it didn't
work for you or a loved one or why it does mean what it really is saying? You therefore have turned the truth of God's word into a lie. To say sickness is of
God and even a blessing of God, which is a curse from Him, and say, to desire the blessings of God, such as prosperity, is evil, you make good, evil, and
evil, good. Money is not evil, but the love of it and the trust in it, is. Wanting it for the purpose of squandering it on your lusts, is evil, but to be
able to give to others is more blessed than to be in need of receiving from others. One cannot give if one does not have.
If you change the word of God, even the gospel, into something it isn't, how then can His truth be in you? I'm not talking about just not know, but rejecting it.