The enemy would have you believe that you’re nothing special — that life is some combination of chance, circumstance, and heredity.  But God has so much more for you.  God has blessings, opportunities, promises, and a destiny that He has been planning to give you since He first decided to create you.  It’s like He said to the prophet Jeremiah,

“Before I formed you in your mother’s womb, I knew you.  Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you” – Jeremiah 1:5

Each of us is unique.  Each of us is a gift.  Each of us is set apart and appointed.  Each of us is chosen.  Each of us has a destiny.  God identified you before you were born, He gifted you with exactly what you need to pursue the opportunities He is opening before you. He appointed you for a significant purpose. He selected you specifically because of who you are.  It is your God-given destiny to take your life to the next level, to accomplish something of meaning, to make this world a better place because you have been a part of it.

Now, the enemy would like us to believe that we are evil, corrupted, beyond repair, and that change is near to impossible.  But the good news is that this is not how God sees us.  God created us.  God knows us with all our strengths and weaknesses.  He sees all of our potential and the challenges that stand in our way.  God knows our history, our heredity, and our circumstances and still His plans for us are to bless us, to lift us up to new levels of joy, fulfillment, peace, and prosperity.  He sees everything that is happening in our lives and He specifically tailors blessings, opportunities, and promises for us so that we can come to enjoy everything that He has been preparing for us. He is constantly moving in ways seen and unseen to provide new and improved relationships, more accessible resources, better connections, greater opportunity, richer health, fuller knowledge, deeper wisdom, clearer vision, and ever-increasing levels of success.

To embrace our God-given destiny, we must believe and embrace the fact that God is good, He is a very persistent giver, and He has promised to bless us because He loves us.   We must refuse to believe the lies of the enemy that would tell us that God is distant, not concerned with our lives, or not invested in our success.  We must reject the voices that would say that we are trapped, entrenched, confirmed, or limited by our past, by our traditional ways of thinking, by our family history, by our heredity, or by our circumstances.  Because, as we step out in faith to engage with the reality of the goodness of Jesus Christ, our God, we will discover that His plans for us are better than we have even dreamed of, His ability to reach into our lives and lift us up to new levels of well-being and success is not limited, and His willingness to bless us is not constrained to just the few areas in our lives that we think about as “spiritual”, because His work with us is all-encompassing, reaching into every area and aspect of our lives to bless us, to lift us up, and to strengthen us so that we can accomplish great things.  God is ready to take your life to the next level.  Are you?

“The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it is coming from, or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the spirit” – John 3:8

Everyone who is born of the spirit, everyone who is born again lives life at a new level of awareness and is able to accomplish things that others may only understand in the most limited way.  People can see that believers are different.  Believers are able to achieve success, happiness, peace, fulfillment, and that kind of radical inner joy that cannot be compromised by what is happening around them.  However, without being born again themselves, non-believers simply can’t figure out where this level of purpose, dedication, commitment, faith, and vision are coming from or where they are going.  In other words, they can see that something is working for those who are born again, but they aren’t sure why and they aren’t sure if it is just a coincidence or if there is actually a permanent improvement in the lives of those who follow Christ and accept His teaching.

So, which side of the line do you find yourself on today?  Have you committed your life to Christ?  Have you embraced the opportunity to change your life for the better both now and forever?  Are you living your best life now?  Experiencing all the blessings that God has in store for you?  Or are you finding it hard to commit?  Are you unsure what to commit to?  Do you think you have committed but you haven’t seen any results?  Did you commit to something a while ago, but haven’t really done anything about it since?

Here’s the secret to every believer’s success — Jesus offers answers to life’s questions that require complete commitment.  You can’t be “sort of” Christian any more than you can be “sort of” born.  Either you have been born again or you have not.  It’s a commitment.  It’s a permanent change.  And like any commitment, you only reap the benefits if you are actually, fully, 100% dedicated, with no compromise.  It’s like marriage, you can’t be “sort of” married, and people who try to be discover that it is not fulfilling, successful, or joyful.  The fact is, the only way to discover the full benefits of marriage is to be 100% committed to your spouse and to God without looking back, and expecting the same of them.  And its like that with life as well. Too many people try to live life without any intention of following through.  Trying to find some sort of safe middle road that doesn’t offend anyone too badly, that seems reasonable and acceptable to most people, and that doesn’t require any significant change to how they see the world or live their lives.  They may “commit their life to Christ” in the same way that some people try “a starter marriage” before they get to the real thing.  But the tragedy is, for those who lack commitment and an understanding of the life of faith, their experience as a believer will only be limited and will likely end in disappointment, just like those who believe in starter marriages condemn themselves to the tragedy and heartache of a breakup.  Being born again is kind of like marriage, a lot of people focus on the wedding and expect the rest to just happen on its own, when, in fact, the wedding itself is only significant because it marks the beginning of the marriage.  It’s like life, while it is extremely significant that you were born, it is perhaps more relevant that you are alive.

When Jesus explained that every person must be born again in order to enter the kingdom of God, He was revealing that every life has the opportunity to experience a complete overhaul, a revolutionary change for the better that takes us to a new level of understanding, a new level of vision, a new level of decision making, a new level of accomplishment, success, fulfillment, peace, happiness, the list goes on.  The benefits of being born again are limitless and eternal, and to get them started in your own life, all it requires is a commitment without compromise.  A choice that will require every day of your life for as long as you live.  A decision that will determine your bedrock, your foundation, your direction, and your destiny.  You can’t go halfway.  It’s all or nothing and it will take everything you’ve got.  Look at your life today.  Choose today, and today could be your spiritual birthday, the first day of the rest of your life.  If this is what you want, then tell Jesus today,

“I want to be a Christian.  I commit my life, my thoughts, my stuff, and my heart to you.  Everything that I have and that I am are yours.  You are the only God for me.  From now on, I want to see what you see, I want to know what you know, I want to love who you love, I want to do what you do.  Nothing will stop me this time.  No weapon formed against me will prosper.  No distraction, obstacle, or challenge will take me away from you.  No doubt will turn me from my purpose to seek and to accomplish your will.  I know and I believe that you have great things in store for me.  I’m yours Lord, save me.”

If you prayed that prayer, than you have been born again.  Get in a good, Bible-based church, and get ready to experience all of the promises that God has in store.  He is going to take you places that you’ve never even dreamed of.

There was a time when only a few could or did know God.  But when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea all that changed.  God Himself became universally visible for the first time, not just to a select few prophets or wise men, not just to the priests and levites serving in the temple, and more importantly, not just to the few who actually met Jesus in those few years He spent building His ministry, developing a following, and initiating His kingdom on earth to coordinate in harmony with His kingdom in heaven.

“Because you have seen me you have believed.  Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed” – John 20

The key to becoming a priest is establishing an unmediated relationship with Jesus Christ as your only God.  Don’t hide.  Don’t try to enlist someone else to take care of it for you.  Its about you and God.  Its between you and God.  And only you and God can sort it out.

So, to become a priest, here are the basic steps that God has provided, for anyone who desires to find Him:

1. Take ownership of your life.  Every decision you have made.  Every experience you have lived.  Every thing that has been done to you.  Everything that you have done.  And all of the results both good and bad.  Accept where you are and who you are with complete openness, honesty, and the willingness to see it for what it is. 
2. Evaluate your decision making based on the results you acheive.  God’s answers always work.  So if the decisions you are making aren’t working, they aren’t God’s will for your life.  Identify where God is already blessing your life and areas where you are still in need of blessing.
3. Commit your life, your decisions, your property, and your personal identity to Jesus Christ as your only God.  Jesus is God.  Embracing this reality will take your perspectives, your decision making ability, and the results you achieve to places you have not even thought possible before.  And commiting your life to Him changes the way you interact with other people, what you choose to do with the time and resources He provides for you, and at the heart of it all your commitment changes who you are – because by choosing a relationship with Jesus as your only God, you are born again.
4. Get baptized by full immersion in water in the name of “Jesus Christ”.  Baptism is the physical act of commitment indicating your ordination into the priesthood.  No other names, titles, or aspects of God should be used in the baptism of new believers than “Jesus Christ”.  Although only your own commitment to walk with Christ can make your baptism effective, and so who physically helps you into the water and makes the statement “I baptize you in the name of Jesus Christ”  is of little consequence, the best practice is to be baptized by the believer who introduced you to Jesus as your only God.  This connection through shared experience will provide you with a mentor in the faith, and a fellow disciple to walk with on the path to eternal life.
5. Take your baptism to the next level.  The baptism in water is your ordination, but your calling is to receive full immersion in the holy spirit and fire.  God’s spirit comes on those who pursue, study, pray for, and accomplish His will.  And as you discover His will, come to understand the actual gospel, and persist in your commitment to staying right in your relationship with Him, exercising your rights as a believer and facing your responsibilities as well — the passion for the salvation of souls, for making the world a better place because you have lived in it, your ability to see God’s will in the present, and receive the persistent blessings God showers on you will rise up like a flame and the power of God’s love will come into you, over you and around you — and through you into all those you reach.
6. Make disciples.  It is the first and most important responsibility of every believer to introduce others to God.  As a priest you are a disciple, a follower and servant of Jesus Christ.  It is your job to make more disciples, not for yourself, but for God.  You may not be the first or the last person to introduce them.  They may not be ready to hear, or they may have deep seated rejection of God in their hearts.  But you make sure the witness of your life, and the testimony of your words accurately reflect, embody, and convey your relationship with Jesus Christ as your only God. 
7. Live with integrity.  One of the best measures of your own faith, is observing how consistent you are.  God is completely consistent and so has perfect integrity.  Evil, on the other hand is completely inconsistent and lacks all integrity.  God’s vision for your life is to bless every single thing you think, say, and do.  Every word you speak.  Every decision you make.  Every task you take on.  Everything.  Everything you choose to do either empowers the presence of God on earth, or limits His ability to bless you and those around you. 
8. Engage reality and so change it.  Don’t get bogged down in your mistakes, overcome them.  The only unforgiveable sin is one that you won’t face or for which you don’t want forgiveness.  God doesn’t hold mistakes against you, but there is nothing He can do if you don’t accept reality and choose to change it.  Our God is bigger than every challenge you face today.  And there is nothing you can do that will turn Him off of His desire to work with you.  God is a very persistent giver.  Accept the goodness of God, not because you believe you deserve it, but because you know that He wants to give it to you.  Every time you fall, get up.  Every time you stumble, take one more step.  Focus your life on discovering and accomplishing God’s will, not on reliving the past.  Every moment is a new opportunity to engage reality and so to change it.  Take that opporunity.

God isn’t holding anything back in His relationship with you.  His will always provides the best possible outcome in every situation.  And so as you embrace the reality of His will for you, you will be perfected not just individually in your relationship with Him, but also collectively with all other believers as we all work together in becoming the living body of Christ. 

Are you ready?  Then pray this prayer, “Lord Jesus, I accept who I am, I understand where I have been, and I repent of my sins.  Right here, right now, I commit the rest of my life to you.  Come into my heart.  I make you my one and only God.  Save me.  Amen.”

If you prayed that prayer, I believe you were born again.  Get baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, pursue and accomplish His will, and get ready to accept the blessings and the promises of God that will chase you down and overcome you now that you are a priest and a believer, a disciple of the one true God and eternal life, Jesus Christ.