As I was growing up, I came to a place one day where I did not care about following the Lord. It seemed to me the people I saw who said they knew Jesus, had it all together, or at least tried to present themselves that way. I didn't hear people say well this is in my heart that God is dealing with, or God delivered me of this, if I had maybe I would've had some hope for myself. Instead I figured, if you had to be perfect or "so good" before you could know the Lord Jesus, well, that counted me out! I was honest enough with myself I could see the ugliness in my own heart, and knew that was a definite sign that I did not have it all together. What I didn't know was that God already knew that was there, he had made me, and he would be the only one to perfect me, cleaning up my insides, cleaning up my heart.
Luke 11:39
...... Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter: but your inward part if full of ravening and wickedness.
Here's what Jesus said about me, and says about you.
Luke 5:32
I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Luke 15:4 / 7
4: What man of you, having an hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, doth not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness, and go after that which is lost, until he find it?
7: I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance.
By November 2006, I had already been born again having received Jesus, confessing him Lord, learning to hear his voice, but I had not been baptized into his death, by being baptized in water.
Romans 6:3-6
3: Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4: Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5: For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
Now I could hear the Lord talking to me, and he was telling me that I needed to be baptized in water. Well, I still had some cares in my heart about what people would think or what if it had to be a big production which seemed to be what I had heard of, and then there was the fear concerning what this might mean in my life, would the Lord require more of my life now!? The answer was, and is, yes; but I wasn't so quick to just want to turn it over to him.
It was around the spring of 2006, and although the Lord Jesus kept talking to me, I kept coming up with reasons to put it off. Summer had come and gone, and again I would find a way to reason my way out of doing it, in other words, I continued to disobey what I heard the Lord telling me to do. It was now late October, possibly November. I received a phone call that there had been an accident, the accident involved a person very close to me. When I found out the news immediately in my heart was, "It's because of your disobedience." I absolutely believed it then, and still do, and it scared me. Because of my rebellion I had allowed an opening for the devil to come in. God has a hedge around us, but I knew he could let it down too.
God had kept the person and they were absolutely fine, in fact they commented to me that I was more upset than they were; but God had my attention, and was teaching me. I saw the power of God that day, and that he controls everything, and has the power to give, has the power to take away, has the power to do whatever he wants. It put more fear of the Lord in this heart.
I knew God had been talking to me, and that I could hear the Lord. Whatever I wondered, thought, questioned, it didn't matter, I was going to obey God, and he would work out the rest in my life. He would perfect those things concerning me.
So on a very cold day, outside in a swimming pool, I was baptized in water according to Romans 6.
Fully immersed under water as unto the death of Jesus, and raised up in the likeness of Jesus' resurrection, into a newness of life, the old Misty dead, from henceforth to not serve sin, but to hear and obey the Lord.
And the Lord Jesus, and his Father, which is also my Father,(John 8:19) hasn't stopped working in my life since, continuing to talk to me, directing my steps, and perfecting those things concerning me.
If you don't know Jesus, you can! And you don't have to be all put together either to have access to him. He's the only one who's going to get you all put back together. Don't let religion keep you from knowing Jesus, or the Father in heaven.
If thou shall believe in thine heart that God raised Jesus from the dead, and confess him Lord, thou shalt be saved, born again. (Romans 10:9-13).
And the Father, and his Son the Lord Jesus will begin to talk to you, directing your steps on a daily basis, leading your life in a way that is pleasing to them.
John 10:27
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me....
God Bless You,
Misty
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