Power Walk Ministries

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us today for the Power Walk Ministries broadcast. What does it mean to be born again? That's the current series being taught by our founder and president, Reverend Paul Cannings. Pastor Cannings explains what God's gift of salvation means and how you can understand and believe what Christ has done for you on the cross. Also, even as believers in Christ with a new nature, why do we still struggle with sin? Breaking this down for us today, here's Pastor Cannings with today's message, "The Flesh Versus the Spirit."

Dr. Paul Cannings: There's two things about born again. Born again means that nobody can do it. It's a begotten. This is why Jesus Christ was begotten. He was begotten because the Holy Spirit in a virgin gave birth to Christ. So he was begotten; he was not born in the normal way. So when the Bible talks about born again, it's actually similar to the very word begotten. In other words, nobody can save themselves. Only Jesus could save us.

So therefore, when I have this new life, it's begotten because I can't create it. That's why I can't go and follow all these rules and end up with it. I have to trust Jesus Christ to come into my life. This is something that nobody can do on their own. The born again means I now have a divine nature. I now have a divine nature that has been regenerated. That's why I'm a brand new creation. I have a new nature. So that's why the Bible is saying there is no way a person can say they're saved but act the same way because I gave them a new nature. They're a brand new creation. Old things went away; behold, all things are new.

At the point of salvation, our spirit is dead. At the point when we were made by God, because He's a spirit being, He made us with a spirit so that our spirit could connect to His spirit. He is a spirit being, like water from one stream flowing to another stream; they can just keep flowing because they have the same nature. They just intermingle and keep going as they follow down the trail. When we sinned through Adam, the spirit died. That's why the Bible says even though Adam lived 900 and something years, he's dead.

The reason why he's dead but still living is simply because Adam's spirit and Eve's spirit no longer existed in them; it went dead. So God can't communicate as a spirit being to flesh. He communicates as a spirit being to spirit. That's gone. So God no longer can communicate with man the same way. So that's why when the Bible says that we are born again, the word "again" means that you were once born through Adam, but because your spirit died, I took my spirit, poured it into you, quickened the spirit that was once dead—that's why it's called regeneration—so now we could communicate again.

That's why it's born again; you can't do it. Number one, two, you have a new nature, and in that nature, we can now connect. And in our connection, we can now build a relationship. Makes sense? See, some people have relationships with dogs. When a dog dies, I'm so sorry, I just saw somebody in here remind me how much they love their dog, but he's just dead-dead. Somebody argued with me and said, "But there's dogs in heaven." Because there's a creator in heaven, he could create dogs. He created them in the first place. He likes animals. God likes animals.

At the end of the day, this dog is dead. So even though we feel we could get a relationship with the dog, technically even though the dog may bark or wag its tail or you say something and they follow you or whatever, and you feel cuddly when you hold the furry little thing, you can't have a relationship with the dog because number one, it doesn't talk. There are inhibitions between a human being and a dog. So even though there's a relationship, it can't be a full relationship because they're two different animals.

When God recreated us, born again from Adam to now, he set us up to the point where in Ephesians—I'll do a sermon on this—He doesn't even see us living on Earth. He sees us living in heavenly places. So God sees us that way. That's why when we get saved, we are alive in Christ. So that's why it's a born again, because we were once dead. And it's a begotten. And the third thing is it is a divine nature. Because of that, in 1 John chapter 3, look down to verse 4. And this is what we will find in verse 4.

I want you to follow me on this because many people say they're saved but they're not. You see, but you can't see. Nicodemus can say, "I see signs. You got to be connected to God, but I don't accept you as the Messiah." So even though I see, I can't see. So no matter what I'm explaining to you, you can't see. Look at verse 4. He says, "Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness." Sin does not concern itself even with the Ten Commandments because sin has a nature.

See, we tend to think "I just sinned, I messed up," but sin has a nature. And when sin is finished with you, you don't care about no rules, don't care what anybody got to say. It takes you down to a state where the Bible says the person is in a state of apostasy if they were saved. Sin has a way of making a person obstinate. Best example of it is watch Israel in the wilderness. The more they sinned is the more it just made sense for them to die because they turned from God.

Sin goes this deep to where you could have a fire, cloud during the day, Moses coming down with light shining around him, and still vote him out. A person gets that blind. That's how deep sin can be. And we don't tend to understand that sin has a nature to it that drags you down to where the person is dead-dead. And that's why the Bible says there's a sin that leads to death. In 1 John chapter 5, verse 16, it's literally a person can die early. Now here's verse 5, and the wilderness experience tells us that. You're going to die, and I'm going to tell you how long you got. You got 40 years; you're going to die.

In verse 5, he says, "You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin." Jesus Christ. No one who abides in him sins. Now let me explain that quickly because that seems to be a contradiction to chapter 1, verse 8 through 9. The word "sins" is going to make more sense when we keep reading because it means that person doesn't practice sin. A person who is really born of God can't just keep practicing violations of God's word and don't care. It's impossible for the person because they have a divine nature inside of them, and that divine nature inside of them doesn't allow them to keep going in the wrong direction.

They're a brand new creation; they can't keep up the old act forever. He says that person, no one who sins has seen him or knows him. That's why, Nicodemus, you don't know me, you can't see me. Little children, make sure no one deceives you. The one who practices righteousness is righteous because he cannot do that without the divine nature. So that person is depending on the divine nature to do right because he can't do it without that divine nature. So he's saying just as he is righteous, the one who practices sin is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning.

The Son of God appeared for this purpose: to destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin because his seed, the Holy Spirit, lives in, abides, dwells, remains in him. He cannot sin because he's born of God. By this, the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. In other words, God says one of the things you're going to learn about a person's nature is that they can't love anybody that doesn't like them.

They just can't. They will hate the person if they don't like them, if they don't do the things they want, if they can't stand the things they want. So in that marriage situation, this is not going to work because you're showing me you can't love when she doesn't do what you want. You're going to hate, you're going to argue, you're going to fight, you're going to tear down because this person must harmonize with you. And until they harmonize with you, you're going to hate them. And you have no problems with that hate. It's a test, one of the tests you're not saved.

So please understand, this divine nature doesn't allow a person to keep practicing sin. It just doesn't. Now let me get a little deep for a second here; there's some theological variations to what I mean by that. If you see a person that actually show fruit in their life for consistently for a while then go left, the Bible says the person became a carnal Christian. 1 Corinthians 3. But they have to show fruit. There's a person who's showing fruit for a good while, that person then goes away from God and don't want to turn back ever; that's a state of apostasy.

What I'm saying is fundamentally, if a person isn't born again, they lack the ability to do righteousness. So the righteousness that Nicodemus would like to do is by the law, but that's all flesh. It's not by the divine nature. So Nicodemus, when you finish doing all those laws, you don't come up with eternal life. So you are believing that you're going to have this eternal life because you're following all these laws, but even in following all these laws, Paul became a murderer of Christians because he couldn't do righteousness.

Righteousness is only done by faith in Christ; it's not done by laws. So a person lives righteous when they choose to trust God, and when he's not making sense, they're still going to do what God says. And because they still keep doing what God says, they're depending on that divine nature, and the more they depend on that divine nature is the more he transforms them. So they don't walk in the flesh anymore; they walk in the Spirit. And the more they walk in the Spirit, the Bible says is the more I'm empowering you to do what the Bible is saying no matter what the cost is to your life. That person is now functioning in my righteousness, not theirs.

So that's why faith leads to righteousness. Now, look at verse 4 back to chapter 3 of John. It's begotten; you can't create it yourself. It's a divine nature. It is something that brings with it the ability of the Holy Spirit quickening our spirit, so we now have a brand new creation that gives us the ability to walk with God. So we don't need the rules and the laws. We just need to keep serving God from His word. If you walk in the Spirit, you automatically want to do what God says. So you don't need laws, because the righteousness is coming from Him, not you.

Guest (Male): Amen. And thank you for that powerful message, Pastor Cannings. Friends, I hope that you will surrender your life to Jesus Christ today and accept God's forgiveness and the gift of eternal life. To learn more about what that means or to receive this message series, log on to PowerWalkMinistries.org. That's PowerWalkMinistries.org, or you can call us at 281-260-7402. That's 281-260-7402.

When you contact us, ask about the series, "What Does It Mean to Be Born Again?" Our mailing address is Power Walk Ministries, PO Box 920517, Houston, Texas 772092. Another tool which will help you take steps each day to mature in your faith is Pastor Cannings' book, "Disciples in the Making: Discipling Believers from Spiritual Infancy to Spiritual Maturity." And as we close, remember, I hope you'll read the first few chapters of the book of John and make this most important decision to accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior of your life.