Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Welcome to the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. Thanks for tuning in to join us, as Pastor Cannings brings us this final message from John chapter 3 in our series titled, "What does it mean to be born again?"

Scripture clearly states that many will be self-deceived about truly knowing Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior. They will mistake their human efforts of living a good life for salvation. This is the most important and critical decision any of us will ever make. So let's listen now as Pastor Cannings brings us today's lesson. It's titled, "Assurance of Salvation."

Dr. Paul Cannings: To understand, the minute a person truly comes with their heart, the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes in. The spirit that was dead, he quickens. When he quickens our spirit, the Holy Spirit works with our spirit. He lives in us permanently, and that's where the transformation takes place. It's like having all the switches in a house and you finally got electricity running to it.

In Titus chapter 3, this is what waking up looks like. Why is that so huge? God is not a physical being. God is a spiritual being. So spirit talks to spirit because he is spirit. So if I don't turn on the spirit and I'm trying to understand him in the flesh, I never get it because he is a spiritual being.

So that's why he has to wake up our spirit, pour his spirit inside of us, so we live less in the flesh and more in the spirit. And the more I live in the spirit is the more I connect to the spirit, who is God. It's spirit to spirit. That's why understanding the word of God in the flesh does not work.

Look at verse 4 of chapter 3 of Titus. "And when the kindness of God, our Savior, and love for mankind appeared, he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured upon us richly through Jesus Christ." The Holy Spirit was poured upon us, and he regenerated us so that we could walk in the spirit.

That's why a person must believe. The word belief means they must be convinced that now that I've confessed Jesus is the Christ, whenever he tells me to do, I am going to develop a discipline to get it done. He says, "When I see that kind of heart in that person, that's the only time I enter. Until then, they just confessed like Nicodemus. They don't know me."

Go back to John. You're going to see this. "Born again we cannot see the kingdom of God." Cannot see it. The kingdom of God, because I have to keep—in the Bible you have one complete thought. If you break the thought then it's hard to explain the following week.

So here's the thought. He's driving him to say, "You can't see me. There's a reason why you can't." So who's the kingdom of God? Is he saying, "You can't see heaven?" He's not saying you can't see heaven. Look at Luke chapter 17, verse 21. He's not saying you can't see heaven. He's literally saying, "You can't see me."

So you could go back to your school, you could go back to your Sanhedrin, you could learn all this stuff and come back, and you still will not know who I am even though you know who I am. It's like people that get married believing they know the person so well we just have to get married, and then six months later they find out, "Oh, this is who you are."

This is what he says. The kingdom of God, you can't see it. He says in verse 21, "Now will they say 'Look here it is' or 'There it is.' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst." I am standing right here and you can't see the kingdom of God because you're not born again even though you have knowledge.

So let's take a quick movement here and I want you to go to Galatians chapter 5. Now watch this carefully. He says this: envying, drunkenness—he's talking about the flesh that starts off in verse 17. He's talking about the flesh. Verse 21 says envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I forewarn you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

So in other words, a person who's living in the flesh will not inherit the kingdom of God. So does that mean that the kingdom of God is in heaven? No. Jesus Christ has gone to heaven. So how is he still talking about this kingdom of God and Jesus Christ has gone to heaven? So this kingdom of God never left the earth. He is saying this person who claims to be saved but lives in the flesh will not inherit this kingdom of God.

What is he saying? Look at Ephesians chapter 1. In Ephesians chapter 1, look down to verse 12. "To the end that we who were first to hope in Christ would be to the praise of his glory. In him, you also after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of our salvation, having also believed... you were sealed in him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is a pledge as an inheritance with a view to redemption of God's own possession to the praise and glory."

What is he saying? "The inheritance I left you is the Holy Spirit." So if a person... what is an inheritance? A person dies, and when they die they leave you an inheritance. Jesus Christ died, rose from the grave and he left us an inheritance. Who is this inheritance? The Holy Spirit is our inheritance.

He said, "Now inheritance is money." He's going, "No. If you seek me first I grant you according to my riches. But live on the inheritance; don't live on the stuff out there. Live on the inheritance because my only gift to you that takes care of everything is the Holy Spirit in you that quickened you when you got saved."

So if a person is going to see anything, the person has to live in the Holy Spirit; that's how they see the kingdom of God. That's how they see how God works. That's how they see how God operates. That's how they see how God is functioning. They can get up in the day and they can see God moving. They can get up in the day and say, "Oh, God is at work, man, I'm good. I don't care how bad things are going, I can keep going because I see God."

They can't see that until they are born again, committed to walk in the spirit. And when they walk in the spirit, their eyes open up bigger and bigger and bigger. So that's why they can live in the kingdom experience of God because now they can see. And that's why blind could be a Christian's life and not see.

Last passage, Second Peter chapter 1. This is what he is going to say. You have to make a choice or you'll be just as blind as Nicodemus. This is blind: standing right next to Christ, can't see. But the knowledge says, "You are the Christ," but can't see the kingdom of God. And we have that inheritance that allows us to see it all. We can see it all.

In verse 2 he says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God, of Jesus Christ." You can experience his grace better when you walk in the knowledge. Experience the Holy Spirit, who is our peace, better. Verse 3: "Seeing his divine powers granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence."

He has given us everything we need. So every decision we face he says, "That's what drives you to seek me every day because you have everything you need in order to live—not in this world with a worldly knowledge or just living as a Christian because I'm saved, but living in this world, finding an experience of what God is saying that I do."

And when I start living in this world with what he is telling me to do, the kingdom of God starts to light up in my eyes because I'm giving you everything you need, everything. You say, "Come on, Cannings. I'm catching a plane. What does that have to do with God?" Get 35,000 feet in the sky and you'll learn what that has to do with God.

The Bible is saying if I am on a journey doing something productive for God, he says, "I'll protect you." In this thing that is tons up in the sky, and you land safely and you can be productive in wherever you're going, your bags are right there, wherever you're going, you see the work of the kingdom of God.

To us it is just, we just landed. God is saying, "No, because somebody righteous is on that plane, it restrained all the evil that is on that plane. If you just look through my eyes, you see it differently." And that's why he says this in verse 9: "He who lacks these qualities is blind or short-sighted." In other words, if a person doesn't start showing the character of Christ, they never applied the word of God.

That's what he is saying from verse 4 all the way to verse 8. That's why he says in verse 4: "For by these he's granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them we become partakers of his divine nature." By using this, I become like Christ, his nature. And when I become like Christ, he said there's no way I could be blind.

In verse 9, "He who lacks these qualities, don't have the divine nature, is blind, short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. Therefore, brethren, be all the more diligent to make certain about his calling and choosing you, for as long as you practice these things, you will never stumble."

So Nicodemus kept following Christ, kept doing what he's learned about Christ. He peeks into the Sanhedrin but he walks with Christ. And when Christ died on the cross, it was Nicodemus who said, "Let me have his body."

When the Sanhedrin is saying, "He didn't get up from the grave; tell everybody he's dead and the disciples stole his body," Nicodemus was the one who said, "Let me get him and bury him because I believe this is the Christ. So I am going to take care of his body because he is getting up from the grave." We look at Nicodemus and we might criticize him reading the Bible, but can never get it; can only get it when you actually let it impact your heart and the spirit of God comes in as our inheritance so we start living in the kingdom of God.

Guest (Male): Thanks, Pastor Cannings. Friend, if you missed any part of our series and would like to review it, you can access these at powerwalkministries.org. That's powerwalkministries.org. I hope you'll take a few minutes to learn more about our vision and goals and browse through our ministry resources.

One resource in particular I'd like to recommend to you is Pastor Cannings' book, "Disciples in the Making: Discipling Believers from Spiritual Infancy to Spiritual Maturity." It will help you grow in your faith and develop a deeper love for God. And if you're interested and able, we also request you partner with us by making a financial contribution of any size. It will help us with airtime and operational costs.

Again, you can do so online at powerwalkministries.org. Our mailing address is Power Walk Ministries, P.O. Box 920517, Houston, Texas 77092. Thank you for your support. And now as we leave you, let's remember our goal must not be to somehow make it to heaven, but to truly experience new life through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.