“But Peter and John
answered and said unto them, ‘Whether
it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge
ye. For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.’”
Acts 4:19-20 KJV. Their answer to the rulers at Jerusalem indicates that they
were determined to keep the command of Jesus to tell of God’s love to the world, regardless of what their religious
leaders told them. Matthew 28:19-20; Acts 1:8; Acts 5:19-21. They didn’t mind the obstacles that were placed in their way
to hinder them, or the mistreatment they received, but counted it all joy to
suffer for Jesus’ sake. “And to him they agreed: and when they had called the
apostles, and beaten them, they commanded that they should not
speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go. And they departed from the presence of the council, rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for His name.
And daily in the temple, and in every
house, they ceased not to teach and preach Jesus Christ.” Acts 5:40-42
KJV. They didn’t stop preaching Jesus,
even after they were beaten and warned to stop. The prophet Jeremiah states
the desire to speak of what he had seen and heard of God like this: “But if I say, ‘I will not remember Him
or speak anymore in His name,’ then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire
shut up in my bones; and I am weary of holding it in, and I cannot
endure it.” Jeremiah 20:9 NASB. Thus
when you love Jesus, you cannot help but speak of what He did for
you, like the Apostles and the prophets of old did!
If you have heard and
seen that Jesus and His Father love you, and that Jesus died to save you, and
believe, you cannot help but tell it to others what God has done for you!
If you have tasted and seen that the Lord is good (Psalms 34:8), and ‘have
tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,
and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come’ Hebrews
6:4-5 NASB, you cannot help but speak of these things that you have seen and
heard to as many who will listen, or you will greatly long to show them His
love or help them in whatever way God has given you the ability to do. Failure
to do this will cause your wells of water and springs to run dry.
If you have tasted
and seen that the Lord is good, it will be just as natural for you as it was
for Peter, James, John and the other Apostles to speak of God’s love and the
gospel to the world, as they did in the book of Acts. Or to do your part to
help in whatever way the Spirit has given you the ability and the gifts to do. It
will be your greatest desire! If you have not really seen, heard, or
believed, then you will be unable to tell this truth effectively to others,
unless you pray for God’s special blessing until you get it. God can still bless you before you have
completely consecrated yourself to Him, but it is much better to taste the
wonderful gift of the Holy Spirit that God wants to give you! Once you
have tasted of this wonderful gift of God, you cannot help but testify of Jesus
and the Father’s love. And you will never thirst again, for Jesus said, “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him
shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well
of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14 KJV. “Now on the
last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying,
"If any man
is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in
Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his
innermost being shall flow rivers of living
water.'" But this He
spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the
Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” John
7:37-39 NASB. So we see here that the gift to satisfy our thirst that Jesus
promised, is the promise of the Holy Spirit, and it was to be given to all
willing Christians, starting at Pentecost (Acts 1:4-5, 8) to the end of time,
to all who are thirsty and believe in Jesus. These are the conditions. “Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.”
Matthew 5:6 KJV. These words are still true for us today, if we will hunger and
thirst after God’s righteousness, we will be filled! Thus this promise of
the Holy Spirit is for all who are thirsty for Jesus’ love, and hunger and
thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled, if they believe in Him.
Now let’s recap and finish our passage in Hebrews 6:
“For in the case of those who have once
been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made
partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the
powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it
is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again
crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame. For ground that drinks the rain which often
falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is
also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and
thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being
burned.” Hebrews 6:4-8 NASB. Jesus says something similar to this when He
said, “If a
man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”
John 15:6 KJV. Again this reiterates that those who have tasted of the Heavenly
gift of the Holy Spirit, and have not continued to abide in Christ, will become
withered and they will eventually be gathered and cast into the fire at the
judgement, unless they repent.
It is beyond our
belief how someone could experience the wonder of the gift of being born again,
receiving the Holy Spirit, and ever want to go back to their life without the
Holy Spirit again, but Hebrews 6:4-8 says that it can happen. And in fact
there were a few examples in the Bible where it did happen. Read about Balaam
the prophet (Numbers 22, 24; 31:8, 16; 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 1:11), and the
prophet who was slain by the lion. 1 Kings 13:11-30.
We also note that
Samson, who had the Holy Spirit, lost Him through disobedience, but at the end of
his life he prayed to God, and God heard His prayer and avenged His enemies, by
allowing Samson to slay more in his death, of God’s enemies, than in his life.
*We believe by faith that God forgave Samson, because he is mentioned in
Hebrews 11:32, and because God heard is prayer at the end of his life and gave
him his miraculous strength back, because
we know that God heareth not sinners. John 9:31. See Judges 14:5-6; 19,
15:14; 16:20-21 for information proving that Samson had the Holy Spirit. Samson probably didn’t really appreciate
the wonderful gift of strength that was given to him before he lost it and his
eyes were put out. But we believe
that he wanted the Lord’s help again just before he died, to serve God’s
command for his life one last time. Judges 16:22-31. And God worked a miracle, so Samson’s life
was not in vain, and used him to
help His people out of their desperate situation with their enemies. Samson’s
enemies had mocked God and thought that their gods were more powerful,
because they had given him into their hands. But this wasn’t so. God allowed the Philistines to capture and imprison Samson because of his sin, not because their gods were more powerful. In fact their "gods" were not gods at all but devilish imposters. God
avenged His name among the heathen by Samson’s sacrifice of his life, when
he enabled Samson to bring down the house on the lords of the Philistines and
the people gathered there with them. So
Samson hadn’t fully appreciated the gift of God he had been given, but later
regretted it and God forgave him, when he turned back to Him in prayer.
*We want to
thank our stepdad, David Jenkins, for reminding us of this wonderful fact about
Samson in Hebrews 11.
So there is hope for you, if you used to have a born
again experience with God, and you have let it slip away - if you will repent
now. Maybe you didn’t fully know
what you had? Maybe you have been in a lukewarm state for a long time,
without the love of God fully in your life, or the joy that knowing Him brings?
Do you long for the experience that you
once had with God? How long has it
been? God will take you back, if you will return to Him with all your
heart! “Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will
listen to you. You will seek Me and
find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah
29:12-13 NASB. But we believe that if you have lost it, that you probably
hadn’t experienced it in its fullness, because Hebrews 6:4-8 says that it is
hard to walk away, if you have ever fully tasted the fruits of God’s precious
Holy Spirit in your heart in full force. It is the most precious thing you can ever experience in this life!
It is hard to walk away from this experience of knowing
Jesus and His Father. Why would you
want to? But it is also a most dangerous thing to live in a lukewarm
Christian state, neither for God nor against Him, but in the middle. Revelation
3:14-17. That is why this passage in Hebrews 6:4-8 is given, for our
instruction.
Jesus says to His Church
today: “'Behold, I stand at the door and knock;
if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will
dine with him, and he with Me. He who overcomes, I will grant to him to
sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My
Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:20-21 NASB. Amen! Let it be so. When
you hear Jesus knocking on the door of your heart, open it up and let Him come
in. You will never regret it, we
promise you! “Jesus answered and said to him, ‘If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love
him, and We will come to him, and make Our
abode with him.’” John 14:23 NASB. Jesus promise to you is: if you will open
the door of your heart, let Him come in and dine with you and you with Him, and
if you will keep His Word, He and His Father will love you and come and make
their abode with you! Oh precious promise! Amen!
#rejoice #suffer #joy #speak #heard #love #taste #God #good #abide #Born #Again #Holy #Spirit #disciple #believe #hunger #thirst #righteousness #gift
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