Under the Dome Continued

I left you yesterday at the point of how I understand our rebirth will happen.

Growing Up
Our spirit has been reborn but there is a growing up period. The growing up of our Spirit happens in the grace period. It begins with the washing by God's Word (teachings).

Ephesians 5:25-27 (KJV) 
²⁵ Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
²⁶ That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
²⁷ That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Just a note. When the word church is used here, it is not talking about that building or any one grouping of people. It is talking about the ones who are followers of the teachings of the Christ.

Titus 3:4-7 (ESV) 

⁴ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared,
⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but

according to his own mercy,

by the washing of regeneration

and renewal of the Holy Spirit,

⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior,

⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

The keywords in these verses are saved, washing, regeneration. Saved in the this usage means to protect or deliver; washing means bath; regernation means rebirth, restoration, renovation.
So He is delivering and protecting us because of His compassion towards us. Not by things we do but by giving us a spiritual rebirth bath and the Holy Spirit’s renewal which means renovation.

The Purpose

In the course of this washing, God sets you aside to do something that will help others.

We call that ministry. Kind of sounds like everyone under His dome has a job to do. There are no slackers in this group. The other difference between God’s dome and Chester’s Mill is that those who live under God's dome can go out to tell others about life under God’s dome and invite them to come and live there. It also gives them opportunity to serve them; meet their needs; help them. When their job is done for that period of time, they can return to the dome but no one can follow until they have made a sincere decision to move in. God knows. He gives the ability to pass through or not.

The Original Question

So, what do we mean when we ask someone if they have accepted Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Savior?

What we are asking them, whether we realize it or not is

Have you made the decision to be spiritually bathed by the water of His Word and your nature to be renovated or made over by the Holy Spirit?

Have you accepted that He has poured out His compassion and graciousness on you so that you can be declared innocent and live eternally with Him?

Are you learning how to live under His dome according to His rules and are you willing to obey?In other words, are you in a student of the word so you can know the Word; so you can be renovated by His Spirit; so you can be presented before the Godhead without defilement or wrinkles and live with Him eternally?

And you are saying

Since I am telling you that you need to do this, I am indirectly declaring that I have done this. 

• That I am living under God’s dome, according to God’s rules and

• I am studying to know what they are.

• I am obeying His word and agreeing to the Spirit’s renovation of my spirit.

• And I am doing the assignment He gave me.

So when we pray, sing, or testify that we belong to Him, that He is the Lord of our life, our life needs to look like it. People need to see it before we tell them. They should experience His love through our treatment of them, even if we don’t particularly like them. He changes that if we are obedient.

Then and only then will the unsaved, unprotected, undelivered will know what those words mean. This is not a play thing. It’s real.

We need to stop playing with God. We need to stop with unprofitable traditional behavior that serves absolutely no purpose. We need to erase the lines of division that denominations have formed. We need to focus on who He is, who we are in Him and what He expects from us. He came to heal the sick. Not just those with physical illness, but mental, emotional and spiritual.

Religion has made a lot of people sick.  All the rules that have nothing to do with what He said have hurt people when they thought following them was what they needed to do to be right with God.

Maybe, just maybe we who live under God’s dome need to look at ourselves and determine if we have become complacent. Do I need a bath of spiritual refreshing? Do I need some more Holy Spirit renovation? For me it was a loud, resounding Yes. I had to cry out and I am still crying out.

Where are you living. Under or Outside God's Dome?