Believe in Jesus
All you have to do is have faith. All you have to do is believe. Let me explain. John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” How do we believe? Believing in Jesus does not mean to just think or say that you believe Jesus is real or that you believe he existed. Believing is acting out in faith by following his commands. John 14:23 says, “Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and will come to them and make our home with them.. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.”
So to believe in Jesus means that we must obey His teachings and keep Gods commands. 1 John 2:1-6 says, “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world. We know that we have come to know him if we keep his commands. Whoever says, “I know him,” but does not do what he commands is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. But if anyone obeys his word, love for God is truly made complete in them. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must live as Jesus did.
What did Jesus Command?
Repent
Once Jesus began his ministry, the first thing Jesus commanded is found in Matthew 4:17. Jesus says, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” We must repent of our sins, turn away from sin. 1 John 1:9 says “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
The Holy Spirit is divine and holy, therefore before the Holy Spirit can come in and enter us, we must be purified, and clean from all sin and unrighteousness. Repent does not mean just to say we are sorry or to confess our sins, although it does include that. To truly repent you must see and understand the depravity, enormity and severity of your sin. Understand the severity of your sins to a loving, Divine and Holy God. Turn away from your sin. With an open and contrite heart, turn to God, confess your sins and repent. Ask God to forgive you and completely change your way of thinking towards your sins.
1 Corinthians 6 says, “Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
It is important to understand how important it is not only to repent and ask for forgiveness for our sins against God, but we must also repent for hurting others and we must forgive those who have hurt us. Let it go, do not let others offenses against you keep you from receiving Gods promise for your life. In Matthew 6:14-15 Jesus says, “14For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Baptism in water, Die to your old self
In the Book of John, Jesus spoke to Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader, regarding the Kingdom of God. John 3:3 says “Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.” “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!” Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.”
It is important that you are born again, but before you can be born again, you first must die. You must die to your old self and your old fleshly desires. Dying to yourself means that you are no longer yielding to your old self and its fleshly desires. You are saying that you are done trying to be in control of your life. Your stopping the car getting out of the driver’s seat, giving the keys to Jesus and saying, “Ok Jesus, you drive. Take me where ever you want me to go, I’m going to the back seat, you drive, you are in control.” Just as Jesus died on the cross and rose up, you must also die so that you can live in your new life of being led by the Holy Spirit. In Acts 2:38 says, “Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
The act of Baptism is not more than just a ceremonial act where you get dunked in water. When you get baptized in water in the name of Jesus, you are confessing to the world that Jesus is your Lord and Savior and that you believe the Gospel. You believe that He died for your sins and rose from the dead so you can have the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to live in you. When you are baptized in water, you die to your old self, just as Jesus died on the cross and took the punishment for your sins. When you go down in the water, you are leaving your old sinful self behind. When you come up from the water you come up as the new person just as when Jesus rose from the dead because death and hell could not hold him since he was sinless. The new person comes up out of the water no longer follows the desires of the flesh but it is led by the Holy Spirit.
Although the ceremonial act of baptism of being physically submerged under water is important, to receive the Holy Spirit you must understand that significance and meaning of true repentance, dying to yourself, giving your life to Christ, and asking Him to come into your life by sending his Holy Spirit. Baptism must be on your own faith and it must be something that you choose to do on your own. If you do these things and seek Him whole heartedly with a sincere and contrite heart, I believe God will send and you will receive the Holy Spirit.
Luke 11:9-13 says, “9 “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 11 “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 12 Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13 If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
Who can baptize you? Jesus commanded his disciples to go out and make disciples of all nations and to baptize them in water and the Holy Spirit. Who is a disciple of Jesus Christ? Anyone who has obeyed his commands of repentance, has been baptized in water, and received the Holy Spirit is a disciple and can baptize you.
