What's the Deal? Why don't I "feel" born again?

As a Pastoral Counselor I have encountered this question with my clients. They are puzzled knowing that they are a Christian, but admit that sometimes they do not feel it. And to be honest, in the past, I personally have had similar thoughts.

Have you ever encountered this inner conflict?

I think many of us can relate with that concern.

We may be able to recall the day or time that we received Jesus as our Lord and truly wanted Him to be our Lord and Savior, but for some reason we just don't "feel" like we belong to Him. What's the deal? What does that mean?

So assuming that you know it is God's utmost desire that you receive His love and forgiveness and that Jesus has paid for ALL of your sin, I want to share with you a Biblical truth that radically changed the way I think and what I believe about my salvation in Jesus on any given day.

Because of this RADICAL truth, my trust in His perfect salvation is not "on" one day and then "off " the next day depending on my life choices or how I behave.

Is walking in obedience to His Word important?

OH Yes, ABSOLUTELY! However, no matter how "perfect" I am or how badly I miss that goal this does not affect my salvation in Jesus.

Let me explain...

First of all, it is important to know that God said this in I Thessalonians 5:23...

"Now may the God of peace make you holy in every way, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless until our Lord Jesus Christ comes again."

God is telling us many things in this scripture, but what I really want to point out to you is that He is educating us that we are not just a body with a heart or emotions. Humanity is multi-demensional or another way to say it is that we have many parts.

Here's where it begins to get really good...

Scrpiture tells us that God is a Spirit and we came from Him. So we ARE a spirit, we HAVE a soul and we live in a body. I want to talk more about these three parts in a minute, but let's talk about your spirit first.

Your spirit is the part of you that will exist forever. After your body dies your spirit will continue to exist.

Where?

Well that's actually one of the MAIN reasons why Jesus came to the earth to die for our sins. He came to pay for ALL of humanity's sins past, present, and future... ALL sin for ALL TIME. (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12,14; 9:26,28). When we pray to receive Jesus as Savior and Lord and to receive His forgiveness for our sins our spirit is born again. So, during our life on this earth we are given the opportunity to have a beautiful relationship with the Living God! And when our body dies, we are promised an eternal, heavenly home with Father, Jesus, and Holy Spirit.

The Bible says in 2Corinthians 5.17, that we become a NEW CREATION in Christ Jesus in the very moment we receive forgiveness for our sins.

Well it's EASY to see that this scrpiture is NOT talking about our bodies becoming a new creation when we receive Jesus as Savior. All it takes is a quick glance in the mirror to see that. (Ha!)

We can also understand that it is not referring to our souls because that is where our emotions and logic/reason resides. And I don't know about you, but I am still trusting God and His Word to help me with some of my thinking. We all need help and healing in our emotions even after receiving Jesus. So then this scripture has to be referring to our spirit that becomes a NEW CREATION.

Well, what's even more amazing is what 2Corinthians 5.21 says about this immediate transformation in our spirit...

"For He (God) made Him (Jesus) who knew no sin to BE SIN for us, that we might become the RIGHTEOUSNESS of God in Him."

This scripture is saying that when we receive Jesus as our Savior and Lord our SPIRIT becomes RIGHTEOUS (PERFECT). It is also saying that Jesus took our sin, and He gave us HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Jesus took the entire world's sin...past, present, and future. So much so that in this scripture we can see that Jesus literally became SIN.

WOW!

This was the GREAT EXCHANGE that changed everything as far as our relationship with God goes if we receive this extravagant mercy given to us by God.

Okay... so what am I saying??? What does this have to do with "feeling" saved or born again?

When you receive Jesus as your Savior and Lord your spirit becomes righteous... this work of God can NOT be taken away from you. How do I know this? Well, we have already seen in scripture that all your sin (even future sin) has been paid for, so when you mess up or sin you do not lose your salvation.

In addition, Ephesians 1.13 tells us that when we believed in and received Jesus' payment for our sin the "Holy Spirit sealed us." In other words, Holy Spirit sealed the work of cleansing of your spirit and making your spirit righteous. So the righteousness of Jesus can not leak out of our spirit, because it's been sealed by Holy Spirit.

It is done!

This is how we can rest in knowing that no matter how we "feel" we can know that since we have received Jesus' cleansing blood to wash away our sin... we are His. We belong to Him.

So the question may still remain in your mind...

"Then where does this feeling come from that I have lost my salvation or that God has rejected me?"

Let's talk about the other another part of humanity that we mentioned earlier...the soul.

Our soul, which could be further understood as the mind, will, and emotions is a very important part of our being. God created our soul to help us in so many vital ways. These parts help us to think logically, learn important facts, do important things, keep us safe as we judge whether a person or situation is to be trusted and they help us feel and carry emotions such as joy and pain.

Our emotions are indicators and should not be dismissed.

Joy is a beautiful, heavenly emotion and with it we can experience a little of heaven on this earth. Pain and brokenness is one of the main reasons that Jesus came to the earth to redeem mankind as stated in His mission statement of Luke 4:18...

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,

Because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor;

He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted,

To proclaim liberty to the captives

And recover of sight to the blind,

To set at liberty those who are oppressed."

Brokenness of the soul...

We all (even Christians) have some level of it whether we realize it or not. Remember our born-again spirit is complete, lacking nothing, sealed by Holy Spirit, completely righteous, but our soul....is still in need of Jesus' healing touch.

Sometimes painful events from our past get "stuck" in our soul. This pain causes our perception to be skewed regarding relationships and other life experiences .

Jesus knows how to perfectly remove the brokennes and pain that still resides in our soul. More than we could possibly fathom, He wants every part of our heart to be free of emotional pain, regret, trauma, woundedness.

Remember the mission statement we just read. He could have said SO MANY things in this moment that we read about in Luke 4.18. He was standing up to read the scroll in the temple on that day. This was the first thing He said publically regarding his mission and ministry.

And what did He say???

Jesus said, "My mission is to heal the brokenhearted and to release people from captivity." This is why He came to crusty, dusty earth. To heal and restore our hearts.

The first step in achieving that mission was to pay for our sins (remember Jesus became our sin on the cross) so we could have a new spirit that is filled and sealed with the righteousness of Christ Jesus. He certainly accompolished this! Jesus wants your soul (your mind, will, emotions) to be completely healed. Jesus knows how to do it.

So what about the body?

Our BODY is so precious and important to God. Again, we can look back to Jesus' mission and the finished work of the cross to see that the health and wholeness of our bodies is extremely important to God.

We know from Isaiah 53 and I Peter 2.24 (and many other scriptures) that Jesus' body was broken for us so that our bodies would be healed and whole. What I find very interesting and extremely important is that as Jesus heals our soul from past emotional pain, our bodies can also heal more readily. The body was designed by the Genius of all geniuses to heal itself. As pain and trauma are released from our souls (mind, will, emotions) we can also experience more healing in our bodies since trauma many times is stored in the body.

God loves you so much, and He does not want you to be sick just like a normal, healthy, loving parent would desire health for their child.

So I guess what I am hoping to communicate here is that your feelings, although extremely important, do not determine whether you are "saved" or belong to God.

Since you are a spirit, your soul or feelings can not discern the state of your spirit only God's Word can help you see that. God's Word is a spiritual book so ONLY God's Word can give you an accurate assessment on whether or not your spirit is born again and a new creature in Christ. Also, God's Word is a mirror (James 1:23), and it helps you see or understand accurately.

Feeling or questioning if we are really "saved" or if we belong to God is so common to the human experience.

As a pastoral counselor, I have encountered this question many times with clients and even in my own life before I learned what scripture has to say about this. However, once you realize that you ARE a SPIRIT, you have a SOUL, and you live in a BODY then you can rest in the peace of God that Jesus gave you His righteousness IN YOUR SPIRIT when you received His FORGIVENESS you were ALSO SEALED by the Holy Spirit.

It is a finished work!

DONE...JESUS CHECKED THAT BOX!

So, the next time you feel that God has rejected you and you are no longer forgiven....remember this...

1. Jesus paid for your past sins, present sins, future sins.

2. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body.

3. Your spirit is righteous in Him...Not by how good you are, but because of how GOOD HE IS!

4. Your walk with Him is a journey. You are in process. Receive His love for you everyday!

5. When you encounter pain from your past, release it to Jesus. He wants all of it!

   
   
   
   

   FINALLY...IF YOU KNOW THAT YOU HAVE SINNED AND NEED TO ASK GOD FOR FORGIVENESS...RUN TO HIM NOT AWAY FROM HIM.

   
   

   HE IS WAITING FOR YOU!

Many Blessings to you,

Christy