Examine yourself, whether you are in the faith

The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 13:5 to examine yourself, whether you are in the faith, and prove your own self. There are many Christians, who go to church and say they believe and even perform signs and wonders, just like the church at Corinth, but in reality, are not in the faith. How do you know if you are in the faith? How do you examine yourself, whether you are in the faith?

Examine yourselves, whether you be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except (unless you don’t stand the test) ye be reprobates (2 Corinthians 13:5)

How do you know if you are in the faith?

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth Me; and he that receiveth Me receiveth Him that sent Me (Jn 13:20)

By faith in Christ and through regeneration, you have died as son of the devil and are risen as son of God in Him. You have become a son of God and have received the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit lives in you, whereby Christ lives in you and with Christ, God the Father. You have become one with God.

When you received the Holy Spirit and Christ; the Word lives in you, you became an enemy of the world, just like Jesus and His disciples.

When they received the Holy Spirit, they didn’t belong to the world anymore. From that moment, they were not loved and accepted by everyone, but they experienced resistance and persecution. Because the Holy Spirit, Who dwelled in them testified in them, that the works of the world (sin) were evil.

Therefore, those, who belonged to the world and were sons of the devil, tried to silence the sons of God (Read also: Why the world hates Christians?)

How do you know if Christ lives in you?

He that is of God heareth God’s words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God (John 8:47)

When you are born of God and have received the Holy Spirit and Jesus Christ lives in you, you shall receive His words. You shall depart from your words, because your words will make way for His words.

You shall renew your mind with the words of God, which are written in the Bible, so that your mind will be renewed en get in alignment with the Word of God.

The mind of the old man shall be transformed with the words of God so that you will have the mind of Christ.

You shall no longer think and live from your flesh, but you shall think and live from the Spirit, by the words of God (1 Corinthians 2:16).

His words shall be seeds in your life, which shall grow and produce fruit in your life, through faith, obedience, patience, and by doing, so that the Word takes shape and becomes visible in your life.

When Jesus lives in you, the Word lives in you, and you shall receive His words and be obedient to the Word.

But if you don’t receive the words of Jesus and don’t renew your mind with the words of God, but instead rebel and reject His words and keep doing your own will, you shall not receive Jesus and therefore Jesus doesn’t live in you.

You shall have a reprobate mind and the mind of the world, which is enmity against God and therefore you shall live as an enemy of God in rebellion against His Word (Read also: A reprobate mind delights in sin and takes pleasure in those who practice sin).

You can say that you have received the Holy Spirit and that Jesus Christ lives in you, but your speech, actions, and the way you live shall betray you and testify that it is not true.

The words of Jesus are the words of the Father

I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put My words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto My words which He shall speak in My Name, I will require it of him (Deuteronomy 18:18-19)

Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of Myself: but the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works (John 14:10)

I have manifested Thy Name unto the men which Thou gavest Me out of the world: Thine they were, and Thou gavest them Me; and they have kept Thy word. Now they have known that all things whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. For I have given unto them the words which Thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from Thee, and they have believed that Thou didst send Me (John 17:6-8)

The words of Jesus are the words of the Father. When you are born of God, you shall receive the words of Jesus. But if you are not born of God, you shall not receive the words of Jesus.

If you don’t receive the words of Jesus, you don’t receive the words of the Father and don’t’ receive Him, but reject Him.

The words of Jesus are spirit and life

It is the Spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life (John 6:63)

The words of Jesus are spirit and life and feed the spirit of the new man, so that the new man matures.

The words of Jesus bring forth life in the life of the new man, but at the same time, the same words of Jesus will kill the old man.

That’s why the old man doesn’t want to read and study the Bible and hear, take and do the words of God, since this means the end of the walk of the old man.

And many are not willing and prepared to put off the old man and put on the new man.

They can’t let go of the past and want to live like the world and live the way they want to live after the lusts and desires of the flesh. They consider the words of Jesus as outdated and judgmental and according to them, you may not judge people.

But Jesus says, that the words, He spoke shall judge him in the last days. Therefore it’s better to hear and believe His words and repent and lay down the works of the old man during your life on earth, than being judged by the same words, which Jesus spoke and through disobedience to the words of God be sentenced to eternal death and cast into the eternal lake of fire (John 12:47-48, Revelation 20:15).

The words of Jesus produce life and peace

Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and <y Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make our abode with him. He that loveth Me not keepeth not My sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent Me. These things have I spoken unto you, being yet present with you. But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in My Name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you. Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (John 14:23-27)

As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love (John 15:9-10).

As long as you abide in the Word and His words abide in you, you shall produce fruit in your life and experience the peace of God and His life in your life.

The peace of God shall always be present and shall not come and go, since the peace of God doesn’t depend upon natural elements, like situations, environment, people, feelings, emotions, etc.

God reigns through His Word in those, who hear and do His words.

When a person decides to not listen and not do the words of God, the person rejects God and lives in rebellion against God.

As long as you experience all kinds of fears and anxiety and don’t experience a continuous inner peace and rest in your life, you haven’t received His words and obeyed and applied His words in your life. Instead, the words of the world still reign in your unrenewed carnal mind and your life.

If you haven’t received His words, you don’t possess His words and Jesus Christ doesn’t live in you. Because Jesus; the Word, promised that He would leave His peace and give it to those, who receive Him, love Him and therefore obey Him and serve Him.

Those, who have received His words and walk after His words in righteousness shall experience the peace of God and His life in their lives.

They shall not be bound to death and walk in unrighteousness and produce the fruit of death, which is sin, and be burdened and tormented with all kinds of fears and anxious and depressive thoughts, which wander through their minds and cause agitation.

But they shall experience the peace of God, which passes all understanding, through the words of God, with which they have renewed their mind and obey and do in their lives and therefore live in them.

As long as the words of the world reign in someone’s life, the person is not in faith.

Jesus is the Living Word

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him; and without Him was not any thing made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not (John 1:1-5)

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (John 1:14)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life; (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;) that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1-3)

Jesus is the Living Word of God, Who walked on earth and lived among the people. Jesus was a faithful Witness of God, Who didn’t speak His own words, but He only spoke the words of God to the people (John 14:10, Revelation 1:5).

Wherever Jesus came, Jesus brought peace and the life of God, by preaching the truth of God, calling the people to repentance, and destroying the works of the devil.

Jesus walked after the Spirit in obedience to the words of God and He called those things, which were not as though they were.

By preaching the Kingdom of God and calling the people to repentance Jesus distributed life, unlike many believers, who nowadays do the exact opposite.

They remain the old carnal man and speak vain words from their prideful and carnal mind, which are in reality lies, and exalt themselves above the words of God.

Unspiritual people, who do not have the Spirit and the Word

They are unspiritual carnal people, who don’t have the Spirit of God and the Word of God. Therefore they don’t speak the words of God from the Spirit, but they speak the words of the world from the flesh (carnal mind, emotions, feelings, etc.) and don’t preach peace and don’t bring forth life in the lives of people, but the exact opposite.

They are not distributors of life, like Jesus, but they are distributors of death, by compromising with the kingdom of darkness and allowing the people to live in disobedience to God, in sin, and not call them to repentance

They don’t walk in obedience to God in the love of God and don’t correct and lead the people, the way Jesus did, through His confronting and correcting words, which came from God and contained the truth and the way to eternal life.

But these unspiritual people, want to be liked by the people and don’t want to experience resistance and persecution. Therefore, they lead the people with their flattering humanistic words, which derive from the world and their emotions and feelings and look like the words of love, but in reality, carry the death in them and therefore many people are being deceived and misled and led to hell.

They are not preachers of righteousness and Life, like Jesus, Who spoke hard words, but they are preachers of unrighteousness and death, like the devil, who spoke flattering words, which led to the fall of mankind.

Therefore many believers keep living after the flesh and remain servants of the kingdom of darkness. Instead of being converted and laying down their flesh in which the sin nature dwells and through regeneration enter into the Kingdom of God and renew their minds with the words of God, submit to the words of God and obey and do the words of God in their lives.