Excerpts from the first sermon of 2022 for January 9-16 time of prayer and fasting.
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 3 - Begin to live on a new level.
So Jesus uses terms like “born again” and “born of the spirit.” What does he mean?
When God created man, He breathed into him His own breath.
Genesis 2:7 AMP
Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.
So we have physical life - that part belongs to the dust. Jesus calls it flesh - the merely physical part of our being. But what about the spiritual part - do we even pay attention to it?
Jesus says that unless we are born of water and the spirit, we don’t perceive the Kingdom of God, the spiritual part of life. Water would be symbolic of baptism or cleansing. But a baby born into the world also comes through water.
Water is the environment for the formation stage. Being formed in water prepares us to live and breath the air. This physical life is also a formation stage for our spiritual eternity with God.
You can experience all of the good things that life has to offer. But until you begin to realize that you are a spiritual being, meant to breath the air of life with God, then you haven’t begun to live. This earthly life is a womb - it is a formative stage for the life that we are really mean to live.
The brokenness and failures that we all experience in life are meant to teach us that there is something more. We are going to keep on repeating our failures until we figure out that there is a life beyond what we know. The good news is that we retain those lessons each time we begin again.
How many times are we going to start over in our own strength and determination until we learn that it’s not about that?
2022 Fast Days Devotional
Day 3 - Begin to live on a new level.
So Jesus uses terms like “born again” and “born of the spirit.” What does he mean?
When God created man, He breathed into him His own breath.
Genesis 2:7 AMP
Then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath or spirit of life, and man became a living being.
So we have physical life - that part belongs to the dust. Jesus calls it flesh - the merely physical part of our being. But what about the spiritual part - do we even pay attention to it?
Jesus says that unless we are born of water and the spirit, we don’t perceive the Kingdom of God, the spiritual part of life. Water would be symbolic of baptism or cleansing. But a baby born into the world also comes through water.
Water is the environment for the formation stage. Being formed in water prepares us to live and breath the air. This physical life is also a formation stage for our spiritual eternity with God.
You can experience all of the good things that life has to offer. But until you begin to realize that you are a spiritual being, meant to breath the air of life with God, then you haven’t begun to live. This earthly life is a womb - it is a formative stage for the life that we are really mean to live.
The brokenness and failures that we all experience in life are meant to teach us that there is something more. We are going to keep on repeating our failures until we figure out that there is a life beyond what we know. The good news is that we retain those lessons each time we begin again.