First steps with God

Hello dear soul. For indeed thats what you really are! A soul that is precious to the God of heaven and earth. The one who created everything including you. You have a body but you are not just a body, you have a soul and spirit. When you were born, (really concieved), you became a living being with a new soul brought to life by the spirit given you by God.

As you interact with the world through your body, your soul, the real you, takes shape. Every thought, action, word or deed contributes either positively or negatively to your soul (the real you) that will live on even after the physical death of your body and the spirit returns to God who gave it. See Ecclesiastes 12:7 and Job 34:14-15.

A quick word on your spirit. The spirit God gives you enables you (or rather your soul) to experience the spiritual world around you and it’s with the spirit you can communicate to God but that line of communication is broken and needs to be restored which we will look at later. A quick warning though, your spirit can also communicate with dark evil spiritual forces that do exist but this is very dangerous and warned against in the bible for good reasons.

Okay. So now you know that you are a body, soul and spirit being let us move on to the next step – Are you a good soul? What do I mean by “good”? Well have you done, said and thought nothing but the right thing all the time every time?

Does it matter what you do, think or say? Well its all recorded by God anyway and everything you do, say or think will be taken into account in God’s court of law after you die with one notable exception which I will mention later. You might say “surely what I think doesn’t count for much – its what I do and say, right”? Well you might think that but let me show you a few things. Apart from what the bible teaches – In Matthew 5:28 Jesus teaches us that even the person who thinks of committing adultery is guilty of that crime. What you think shapes your soul. See Proverbs 23:7 – If you think wicked thoughts then you will be shaped by them. Lets give you an example… You think that all certain skinned people are not so good so you don’t treat them the same way when you do encounter them. Either you are suspicious or treat them as inferior or don’t give them the same chances or opportunities. Your thoughts have shaped your actions and since they are wrong thoughts your actions or reactions will be wrong. Ok, so racism is one example but there are many isms in our world. There’s sexism, ageism, ableism, relativism, materialism… I could go on an on. These affect our thoughts, words and actions but we also have murder, lying, stealing, adultery, torture, rape etc. which you would probably agree is wrong.

By now you would admit that you are not a perfectly good soul. Even if you haven’t murdered, lied, stolen etc. Let’s be honest, no one on earth can say they are good by those standards and they are God’s standards. The only one who ever did was Jesus, who is God’s son.

So what’s the point here. Well you are not on your own in this world. You share it and everyone you come into contact with will be affected by you and your thinking and actions and words for better or for worse. Even if you are totally alone on a desert Island your own soul is shaped by them for better or for worse.

The bible is very clear and calls these wrongs – sins! If you never sinned you would never die as the bible says the soul that sins shall die. Ezekiel 18:20. That’s why we die folks – eventually we all die and then face God.

Long story short, YOU sin, YOU pay. That payment is the consequence for your sin. That payment is not just physical death, as I said in step one, you have a body but you are not just a body. Your soul lives on either with God in heaven or without God in the other place. There is hell to pay and that is not a place you want to be. If you want proof there are many testimonies of people who have died and been revived who can tell you what it is like. You can search for them on You Tube. Search for died and went to hell and back.

Now at this point you may be thinking we all have no hope and you would be right except that God has made a way – just one way to put things right between us and Himself. – Jesus! God’s one and only son is the way and the truth and the life. So how does Jesus make a difference? OK lets go on to the next step.

Jesus took our punishment when he entered our world, lived a sinless life and the sinless Christ was crucified. remember I said the bible teaches that if we sin we die, well Jesus did not sin yet he died by crucifixion although the bible tells us that Jesus gave up His spirit. Jesus could have called on 72 legions of Angels and avoided death but He gave up His spirit willingly for us. God the Father allowed His Son to die in our place. His death went beyond the physical and Jesus paid the price we could never pay because we cant erase our wrongs. So there was hell to pay and Jesus paid it all (see Acts 2:31) and arose from the dead bodily after 3 days as death could not hold Him (see Acts 2:24) and for our part, if we want to be forgiven, we need to believe it and accept it and the payment will be credited to us (See Acts 2:38). It will not be credited to us automatically, it takes faith on our part unless we are a baby or young child for such are covered by the grace of God.

At the moment your faith allows you to believe this, you are forgiven and you receive the gift of the Holy Spirit which makes your spirit come alive and opens up the communication channel so your mind can understand the things of God and the bible. At this point I have to mention repentance. The word means to change your mind and do a U turn on something you have been saying, doing or thinking which is wrong. You may not be aware of what you need to repent from before you believe in Jesus, but if you do, you must be prepared to give it up, even if you don’t know how to, its the willingness to turn away from whatever it is that matters. Once you receive the Holy Spirit, then He gives you the understanding of what you need to repent of and also the power to do so. This is a part of the renewing process, once you come to Jesus.

Not only that but remember I said everything you do say or think is recorded with one exception? Well those who have been forgiven by accepting Jesus have their sins wiped out, because their sins are paid for in full by Jesus. The things that are left are what you did, said and thought that was good, uplifting helpful, merciful and just. Just the good. We will however have to give an account of what we have done for Jesus since we became a Christian. See the article “How to live the Christian life” for more information.

So lets summarise these steps towards God.

Step 1 – Know that you are a living soul not just a body and what you do in this life affects your soul.

Step 2 – Know that you are not a perfectly good soul. We have all done wrongs.

Step 3 – Jesus Christ has paid for our wrongs and through faith in Jesus with a repentant heart, we can now be forgiven our wrongs.

Step 4 – After believing, you receive the Holy Spirit guaranteeing you are forgiven and back in a right relationship with God.

Let’s explain step 4 a bit more in depth. Who is the Holy Spirit? how does one receive Him? What difference does He make? Well lets start then with who the Holy Spirit is.

The Holy Spirit is God! – Yes, the God of the bible has revealed himself in three distinct persons – There is the Father God, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Now hold on to your reasoning for a moment as I take you through the bible verses that prove this in my article “The nature of the divine“.

That’s why the bible says when we become a Christian we are a new creation 2 Corinthians 5:17. We have God the Holy Spirit living in us making us spiritually alive and able to commune with God the Father and God the Son – Jesus (This communion goes beyond simple prayers, its more like fellowshipping and is two way). More than that the Holy Spirit comforts and guides us in our decisions and what we do, say and think.

Can I ask you a question? What do you believe? If you don’t believe God exists then you are not going to find Him. The bible says that every one that comes to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. Hebrews 11:6. If you don’t believe he exists then you will not go on to the next step which is to receive the reward he offers to all who earnestly seek him.

Now for any atheists out there I have a special message – Unbelief is no excuse and unbelief is no defense before God, in fact unbelief is itself a sin according to God. Revelation 21:8 This is not the same as ignorance. We are talking about active unbelief here. You cant hide aetheism under a cloak of agnosticism and get away with it in front of God who knows your thoughts and your heart. God does still care about you and won’t give up on you but you must take the next step. However small the step you take towards knowing God it will be rewarded. If you are willing and open to think for yourself then I invite you to read my article called proof that God exists.

The whole of creation cries out there is a creator God, however, if you have a bible, read it, for the bible is God’s word to the world and its in the bible, enlightened by the Holy Spirit, we find the answers to life and how to know God personally. Now if you have got this far and have become a Christian, please send an email to info@isitbiblical.org and go to the next step in the article “How to live the Christian life“.