The Secret to Real Conversion

The Secret to Real Conversion

By Eric C. Wheeler

I find the number one reason why so many professing Christians (“Churchians,” as I call them) aren’t really converted and saved is because they don’t truly have the Holy Spirit. Oh, but they think they do! They think “they are [spiritually] rich and wealthy, and have need of nothing,” but don’t realize or recognize their own wretched spiritual condition and poverty (Rev. 3:17). They think and believe that they have the Holy Spirit; yet they have no power, exhibit no lasting fruits of the Spirit, and don’t exercise any of the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit. They “have a form of godliness but completely deny its power” (II Tim. 3:5). They have been falsely taught that because they have “accepted Jesus in their heart,” attend church, sing in the choir, do “works” (like provide doughnuts and coffee to the clergy and parishioners, vacuum the sanctuary, hand out food and clothing to the poor, and volunteer to work in soup kitchens), that they are saved and in right standing with God. All of these things mean nothing if you don’t truly know God! Jesus said so: “Many [not a few] will say to Me, ‘Lord, didn’t we do all of this stuff in Your name.’ But I will say to them, ‘Depart from Me. I never knew you!’” (Matt. 7:22-23).

People don’t realize that the biblical definition of “knowing someone” (“I never knew you,” as Jesus said) denotes and signifies the biblical concept of sexual intimacy and intercourse. That is, it is the biblical idea of two completely differing entities becoming one. That is why it is written in the Bible that “Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived” (Gen. 4:1). This is why it is also written that we shouldn’t have sexual relations with a prostitute or anyone else who is not our spouse because in doing so we have then become one body with that person, just as “the one who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him” (see I Cor. 6:15-17). Biblically knowing someone is sharing an intimacy with them – that is, having intercourse with them. They are in you, and you are in them! This is why Jesus prayed, “Father, I desire that they may be one in Us. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in One, just as You are in Me, and I am in You; that they may be One in Us” (John 17:21-23). He said that if we love Him and keep His word, then He and His Father would come and make their home within us (John 14:23), thereby making us truly One. This is the same reason that He made us male and female from the beginning – in order to demonstrate to us this spiritual concept – that in Him, we, being two completely different and opposing entities by nature (that is, male and female – “opposites”) can become one in Him and by Him. In the beginning when He created us male and female – opposites, and yet, both sexes bearing His image, He divinely declared, “These two shall become one flesh.” (Gen. 2:24; Matt. 19:4-6; I Cor.  6:16). That is, they shall be intimate with each other. They shall have “intercourse” with each other. They shall become one. This is the biblical definition of truly knowing someone. Likewise, when we receive the Holy Spirit, we become One with God (I Cor. 6:17; Heb. 2:11; John 14:17,23; Rom. 8:16-17). This is what Jesus meant when He said, “Depart from Me. I never KNEW you!” – that is, “I wasn’t in you, and you weren’t in Me!” As Paul also wrote: “If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ dwelling in them, they are not His!” (Rom. 8:9).

A very simple and easy way to determine whether you have the Holy Spirit or not is to see whether the fruits and gifts of the Holy Spirit are manifested in you and by you. For example, the old adage, “If it walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, and behaves like a duck, then it must be a duck” rule applies here. Jesus acknowledged the same principle when He said, “You will know them by their fruits” (Matt. 7:16). The Apostle Paul used this same line of reasoning and spiritual evaluation when he came across some disciples in Ephesus. He obviously noticed something was seriously missing in them when he asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” (Acts 19:2). Paul could tell that the fruits of the Spirit – that which the Holy Spirit produces in your life, such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (see Gal. 5:22-23) – were strangely missing in these men’s lives. In addition to this, Paul could see that they obviously weren’t displaying and utilizing any of the Holy Spirit’s powerful supernatural gifts and abilities that Spirit-filled believers would undoubtedly possess as delineated in his first letter to the Corinthian brethren (see I Cor. 12:1-11). Paul observed that something (or rather, Somebody) was clearly missing in these professing believers’ walks. Where were the fruits of the Holy Spirit? Where were the manifestations and demonstrations of the power of the Holy Spirit in them and through them? As Paul himself said to the brethren: “I didn’t come to you with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit’s power that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.” (I Cor. 2:4-5). Notice that when these believing men of Ephesus heard Paul’s question as to whether or not they possessed the Holy Spirit, they didn’t become offended. Instead, they immediately realized and recognized their spiritual poverty – that is, they humbly acknowledged and confessed that they didn’t have the Holy Spirit. Upon this realization, they humbled themselves by quickly getting re-baptized in water; and then when Paul laid his hands on them, they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and promptly began demonstrating the supernatural gifts of the Spirit as God through His Holy Spirit gave them these miraculous abilities (see Acts 19:5-6).

Do you know why we don’t really see these things happening among Christians today? Because so many Christians are refusing to acknowledge and humbly confess their own spiritual poverty! They think they already have the Holy Spirit. They think they “are rich and have need of nothing” (Rev. 3:17). In their spiritual pride they won’t readily admit to themselves and to others, and especially to God, that they are spiritually empty, poor, blind, miserable, and naked – that is, they are spiritually impotent (powerless). As it is written: So many Christians today “have a form of godliness but deny its power” (II Tim. 3:5). And consequently, God won’t draw close to them because “He resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (James 4:6). He will not draw near them because their spiritual pride is a stench in His nostrils (Isa. 1:11-17; 65:5). As Jesus said, “You Pharisaical people believe and think you see, but you won’t admit your glaring spiritual blindness, therefore your sin remains.” (John 9:39-41). Instead of admitting and recognizing that they aren’t really doing the supernatural and miraculous works of God as expressed and delineated by Jesus, such as “the blind receive their sight and the lame walk; the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear; the dead are raised up and the poor have the gospel preached to them” (Matt. 11:5), the church leaders of today, just like their Pharisee counterparts of Jesus’ day, are convincing the people sitting in the pews, that the Holy Spirit died in the first century and is no longer acting in power. They conveniently teach “cessationism” – the belief that the Holy Spirit’s real and living demonstrations of power were only for the first-century Christians and has since ceased. These church leaders HAVE to say and teach this because they themselves are spiritually powerless, and they need to have a way to justify themselves, and to excuse and explain away the fact that they can’t do any miracles or demonstrate supernatural anointing. Just like the Pharisees, they too try and discredit others who have this supernatural ability and divine power by attributing it to demons and/or to satanic powers (Matt. 12:22-30). This is not to say that there aren’t any counterfeits out there utilizing demonic powers and influences; indeed, there are many counterfeits out there (such as some Pentecostal churches and Assemblies of God denominations); yet these counterfeits do not negate the true. For instance, you can’t have a counterfeit unless there also exists its true counterpart! Think about it. Men don’t bother to counterfeit $4.00 bills; neither does Satan bother counterfeiting that which doesn’t have its true counterpart. The point is, you can’t have “many false prophets arising in the last days” (Matt. 24:11) if there aren’t also going to be true prophets existing at the same time! You can’t have the false without the true, and you can’t have the true without the false.

The point of my writing is this: Quit letting churches and ignorant and/or deceived pastors convince you that you possess the Holy Spirit but don’t have the fruits of the Spirit in your life or exercise any of the miraculous gifts of the Spirit such as: giving words of Godly wisdom; relaying supernatural knowledge; exercising and demonstrating powerful faith; performing healings; working miracles; utilizing the gift of prophecy (speaking under the direct influence and anointing of the Holy Spirit); exercising the discernment of spirits; speaking in tongues; having the ability to interpret tongues, dreams, and visions. Don’t let a church or pastor deceptively convince you that these things no longer exist or that they’re demonic. Repent and acknowledge and confess that you may not be as spiritually equipped and as spiritually “rich” as you think you are. Get on your knees and acknowledge to God that you are nothing like Jesus Christ – though you claim to follow Him. You need His Spirit in you to be like Him, or else it is impossible to walk as He walked (I John 2:6; 27). Jesus said that “the servant is not greater than his Master; but that it is right that the servant be like his Master” (Matt. 10:24-25). And again, He said: “A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher.” (Luke 6:40). Jesus said that we as believers would be doing the exact same works and miracles that He did, and even greater things than He did when He was here (John 14:12). Why then do we let the churches erroneously teach us that Christ’s Holy Spirit is dead? They may not use those exact words, but by convincingly telling us that the Holy Spirit no longer does miracles or gives powerful demonstrations and displays by imparting supernatural abilities to God’s chosen children is effectively communicating that the Living Spirit of our mighty God is now dead. Nothing could be further from the truth! Look inward at yourself and humbly admit that YOU (and the church that you attend) might be the one who is spiritually dead, not God. It’s time to recognize and acknowledge your own spiritual poverty – and then repent by confessing it, getting baptized (or re-baptized), and then receive His Holy Spirit by the laying on of hands by someone whom God sends, while there is still time! Jesus said, “Apart from Me, you can do nothing!” (John 15:5). He also said to the crowds following Him, “Blessed are the poor in spirit [those who recognize their spiritual poverty] for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt. 5:3). True conversion and salvation begin with repentance – an acknowledgement that you are not as spiritually rich as you think you are!

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