REGENERATION & THE HOLY SPIRIT

by
Scott Jones

The vast, vast majority of those who profess to be Christians ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even though they cannot remember the MOMENT the Holy Spirit supposedly indwelt them, even though they cannot remember the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE that occurs with ALL who are born of the Spirit -- there are NO exceptions -- even though they cannot honestly and legitimately testify that they can remember the EVENT and the MOMENT when Jesus Christ PERSONALLY introduced HIMSELF to them, and spoke to them, and communed with them, an EVENT and a MOMENT which ALL who are born of the Spirit can REMEMBER and can honestly and legitimately testify of it being the greatest EXPERIENCE one could ever imagine, as observed in the quotation above.

And those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit without the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE of being baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit denigrate and cheapen what Jesus Christ purchased for his elect, and therefore damn themselves to a greater extent than ALL who do NOT profess to be Christian. Indeed, the VAST majority of those who profess to be Christian simply ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even though they cannot remember the MOMENT the Holy Spirit supposedly indwelt them.

Of course, as all who are genuinely born again know, and as the quotations above reveal, this is not possible. Not even remotely. To assert that one does not remember the MOMENT he was baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit, or does not remember the EXPERIENCE of being baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit, is akin to saying you met the top three leaders of the world in a grand, magisterial ceremony, but yet, you not only can't remember any of the details of that meeting, you likewise can't even remember the meeting or the event itself, even though there is nothing wrong with your mind or your health.

Which is, of course, absurd.

In other words, those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit simply because they've "made a decision for Christ", or because they "accepted Jesus as their Saviour", or because they "prayed the sinner's prayer", or because they walked down an aisle at a crusade or in a church, or any number of other such monstrous, anti-biblical WILL-WORSHIP SUPERSTITIONS, are the most deluded people on the planet, BAR NONE.

In short, it is NOT POSSIBLE to be baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit without NOT ONLY knowing it, but without it likewise being FAR AND AWAY the GREATEST EXPERIENCE you have ever -- or COULD ever -- know. It simply ain't possible, and those who think it is are as deluded as deluded can be. Further, WITHOUT such an EXPERIENCE, it isn't possible to be regenerated, to be born again, for being indwelt and filled with the Holy Spirit occurs IMMEDIATELY AFTER regeneration in ALL whom he indwells -- there are no exceptions -- and he who thinks it is possible to be indwelt by and filled with the Holy Spirit without it being FAR AND AWAY the GREATEST EXPERIENCE one could ever possibly know, is the most deceived man in the universe, BAR NONE. There are no exceptions.

That's why Jesus said there are FEW that will be saved, and that is why there are FEW who can HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify to having had such an EXPERIENCE.

Ah, the irony. There are multitudes who have preached in the name of Jesus for ten or twenty or thirty or forty or fifty years or more, and who have led dozens or hundreds or thousands in "the sinner's prayer," or some other formula mimicking regeneration, all of them false and anti-biblical, yet who CANNOT -- and who WILL NOT -- BELIEVE that they are NOT born again, who WILL NOT even SUSPECT that they are NOT born again (because they refuse to seriously examine themselves according to biblical and spiritual guidelines), but alas, they are utter STRANGERS to the new birth, utter STRANGERS to the MIRACLE of regeneration and the filling of the Holy Spirit, and who, while they now ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit (even though they cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify to AN UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL ENCOUNTER with the Holy Spirit), so while they now ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, will nevertheless be, as Tozer stated, WHITE WITH SHOCK on the day of judgment when Jesus Christ says to them, "I NEVER KNEW YOU. DEPART FROM ME,"  as it is written --

And yet, that is EXACTLY what Jesus Christ is going to say to ALL who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and yet who have not EXPERIENCED the MIRACLE of regeneration in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL ENCOUNTER, whereby a man is FILLED in A MOMENT OF TIME with the Holy Spirit in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Ghost, an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION which is the greatest EXPERIENCE one can ever know. There will be NO exceptions, for as it is written, if any man have NOT the Spirit of Christ, he is NONE OF HIS.

Furthermore, until such a man renounces his WILL-WORSHIP SUPERSTITIONS, he has ZERO chance of EVER being born again. Until such a man renounces his OWN WILL in the matter of regeneration, including the monstrous, anti-biblical SUPERSTITIONS of "making a decision for Christ" or "praying the sinner's prayer" or "accepting Jesus as your Saviour" or walking down an aisle at a crusade or in a church, or any number of other such WILL-WORSHIP SUPERSTITIONS, indeed, until such a man renounces these, he has ZERO chance of EVER going to heaven. Until such a man realizes that Jesus Christ doesn't need the sinner's permission to save him, he will NEVER arrive at the level of humiliation that ALL arrive at who thereafter undergo the EXPERIENCE of regeneration and the filling of the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the FIRST step to being GENUINELY born again is to realize that Jesus Christ saves WHOM HE WILL, WHEN HE WILL, and WHERE HE WILL, as he HIMSELF said so --

This plain statement by Jesus Christ is of course in direct opposition to the unregenerate free-willers and proud reformed doctrinalists who know nothing of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who simply ASSUME that they have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit because they've "made a decision for Christ", or because they "accepted Jesus as their Saviour", or because they "prayed the sinner's prayer", or because they walked down an aisle at a crusade or in a church, or any number of other such monstrous, anti-biblical WILL-WORSHIP SUPERSTITIONS.

In short, Jesus Christ saves WHOM he will, WHEN he will, WHERE he will, and NONE can stay his hand. There are no exceptions. And the man who refuses to bow before this PLAIN declaration of Jesus Christ has ZERO chance of ever being born again himself, has ZERO chance of ever being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. ZERO, for the Lord Jesus will never save the man who spurns his PLAIN declarations, ESPECIALLY those statements which declare his absolute godhood and sovereignty, as does the declaration above.

Those who continue to place their confidence in THEIR OWN will, in THEIR OWN actions, such  "making a decision for Christ" or "accepting Jesus as their Saviour" or "praying the sinner's prayer" or walking down an aisle in a crusade or a church, or any number of other such monstrous, anti-biblical WILL-WORSHIP SUPERSTITIONS, MUST ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit -- must ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit because that is ALL that they can do, having never had an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE in the Holy Spirit -- so indeed, they must ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit  because they have never EXPERIENCED an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit themselves, and they NEVER WILL as long as they hold to WILL-WORSHIP as denoted in the SUPERSTITIONS above.

Because the Puritans were regenerate, they knew it was IMPOSSIBLE for anyone who is genuinely born of the Spirit to think that THEIR OWN will was the cause of their salvation, for no man who is genuinely born of the Holy Spirit could EVER buy into that Satanic delusion and SUPERSTITION, for the doctrine that asserts that a man's will is the first cause of his salvation is the very HIGHEST SUPERSTITION, and is likewise, as just seen, the EXACT OPPOSITE of Jesus Christ's very own words. As a sampling of what truly regenerate men of God have noted in the past --

Naturally, the unregenerate who have no EXPERIENCE with the Holy Spirit, in an effort to try to justify their SUPERSTITIONS, will quote Scriptures like this one in Galatians in an attempt to overturn the PLAIN declarations of Jesus Christ --

Those who attempt to employ this and other such Scriptures to overturn the PLAIN declarations of Jesus Christ and thereby support their WILL-WORSHIP SUPERSTITIONS only demonstrate that they themselves are complete strangers to the new birth and to even the BASIC operations of the Holy Spirit.

You see, having no EXPERIENCE with the Holy Spirit, they don't know that regeneration PRECEDES the indwelling and filling of the Holy Spirit, and thus they have NO CLUE that the above verse is perfectly in line with, not only all the other Scriptures, like Ephesians 2:8, which states that SAVING FAITH is a GIFT, but also with the PLAIN declarations of the Lord Jesus Christ in John 5:21 and many other statements by him.

Indeed, as ALL who are truly regenerate know, there was a time when they were DEAD in spirit, and then, SUDDENLY, the Lord Jesus made them ALIVE, ALIVE in SPIRIT, and then, IMMEDIATELY AFTER, they were enabled to believe SAVINGLY, for the first time EVER, they were ENABLED TO BELIEVE SAVINGLY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER, and consequently, they were IMMEDIATELY indwelt by and filled with the Holy Spirit in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit. Which is exactly what the Scriptures teach, and which is exactly what the truly regenerate have been saying for two thousand years, for this is the EXPERIENCE of ALL who are truly regenerate, as many have noted --

This is why the Scriptures state so dogmatically that it is impossible for a man who is devoid of the Holy Spirit to understand the Scriptures. Those who are unregenerate THINK they can understand the Scriptures, for they have no clue that the Scriptures themselves are SUPERNATURAL, and only he who is SUPERNATURALLY INDWELT by the Holy Spirit in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit, can truly understand the Scriptures. And the unregenerate's abuse of so many Scriptures, like the one in Galatians above, is INFALLIBLE proof, not only of their inability to understand the Scripture, but likewise of their CERTAIN unregeneracy. In short, there isn't a genuinely born again believer alive who is a free-willer. Not one. Just as Owen and Bunyan testified above, and as ALL who are genuinely born of the Spirit know.

Yet, on the other side of the coin from the free-willers are those who place their confidence in their doctrine. They hold to all the substantial doctrines of the Reformation and therefore ASSUME that they must be indwelt by the Holy Spirit because they, too, have made professions of faith in Jesus Christ, but unlike the free-willers, they believe that it was the Holy Spirit who led them to place their faith in Jesus Christ in the first place, never realizing for a second that their OWN FAITH is a DAMNING faith, a non-saving faith, a FLESHLY faith, and therefore of no account. None whatsoever.

These will testify with their mouths that saving faith is the gift of God, but in their practice they utterly deny it to be so, for even though they cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify to an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit, they nevertheless ASSUME that because they've made a mental commitment to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit must therefore have been involved in their mental commitment, never comprehending the simple fact that their faith is not one iota different than the faith of a Muslim, or a Hindu, or any other man-made religion. They have never understood that SAVING FAITH is UTTERLY SUPERNATURAL and is therefore UTTERLY BEYOND the scope of any man. Not knowing this, they place their confidence in their orthodox doctrine, believing that their correct doctrine must be from God.

Of course, nothing could be further from the truth. As the Lord Jesus himself stated, MANY will appear before him in that day who THINK they are born again, who THINK that they are saved, who ASSUMED that they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even though they cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify to an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Ghost, but who will yet be deluded through and through. They, like the free-willers, will be utterly confounded on the day of judgment, as Tozer smartly noted --

After ASSUMING they have been indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even though they cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify to an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit, the rest of their deception is a foregone conclusion. Once Satan has gotten a man to ASSUME he's indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even though such a man cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify to an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit, Satan knows that deceiving that man further is mere child's play, for having bought into the great lie, the lesser lies are swallowed without an iota of suspicion.

In the first place, those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit quickly develop a dynamic to convince themselves that such is true, that is, that the Holy Spirit does, in fact, indwell them, thus further deceiving themselves, for they cannot testify to the actual UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EXPERIENCE of being indwelt by the Holy Spirit. But having dismissed this FIRST necessity, that is, having dismissed the EVIDENCE of being filled with the Holy Spirit as being unnecessary, they quickly fabricate a new spectrum of evidence as they go along, substituting their own false qualifications for the true evidence, thus further sealing them in their deception.

For example, after ASSUMING that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, they next begin to ASSUME that their own thoughts and their own groanings in the soul are actually those of the Holy Ghost. They have no clue whatsoever that their own thoughts and their own groanings in the soul are ENTIRELY DISTINCT from the movings of the Holy Spirit, but having never EXPERIENCED the operations of the Holy Spirit themselves, they are utterly incapable of DISTINGUISHING between their own movings and those of the Holy Spirit. They have never experienced the RAW POWER of the Holy Ghost indwelling them, or the RAW POWER of his indictings and movings within them, and thus, in order to ratify their own ASSUMPTIONS, they contrive out of their own imaginations the movings and indictings of the Holy Ghost in order to sustain the charade of their supposed regeneration, for the one thing they CANNOT do, DARE NOT do, is suspect THEMSELVES of being unregenerate. They have NO CLUE of what Paul truly meant when he wrote --

Alas, what pulpiteer today can make this claim? Perhaps one out of a hundred thousand, if that.

On the other hand, those of us who are truly born again and mature in the Lord Jesus can testify to these Scriptures being MANIFESTLY fulfilled in preaching and giving our personal testimonies, and it will be shown on the day of judgment just how FEW are truly saved, and that the vast, vast majority of those who ever were genuinely saved were saved not in great crusades or church services, by one-by-one from the personal evangelism of truly regenerate saints. One here, one there, is the primary means whereby Jesus Christ makes up his jewels for his kingdom. Ah, the world is going to be SHOCKED on the day of judgment at how FEW will be saved indeed, just as the Lord of Glory HIMSELF, even the Lord Jesus Christ, PLAINLY stated, and the failure of those who ASSUME that they are filled by the Holy Spirit to recognize this PLAIN Scriptural truth is one reason why they remain blind and ignorant of the new birth and therefore blind and ignorant of even BASIC spiritual matters.

You see, for a man to admit that he is NOT truly regenerate, especially the pastor or missionary, or someone who has professed Christianity most or all of his life, indeed, for such a man to confess that he is NOT truly regenerate would cut to the very root of his pride, for pride is ultimately what drives the lost soul who stubbornly maintains he's saved. Moreover, this man is generally unequaled when it comes to projecting a false humility, not knowing what true humility is, and so, it is just here that Satan makes his greatest stand, for Satan knows that BEFORE a man can become regenerated, BEFORE a man can be baptized in and filled with the Holy Ghost, which occurs IMMEDIATELY AFTER regeneration -- there are no exceptions -- a man must FIRST come to the stark realization that he is NOT truly born again, that -- no matter how long he may have been confessing Jesus Christ with his lips, he has no EVIDENCE that Jesus Christ has ever confessed HIM, for he has never EXPERIENCED the UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit in the MIRACLE of the new birth, which Jesus Christ gives unto ALL he regenerates, for the GIFT of the Holy Ghost is the PRIMARY GIFT that Jesus Christ purchased for his elect -- there are no exceptions -- and thus Satan will fuel this man's delusion to the uttermost, for once get a man to see -- to TRULY see -- that he is lost, that he is genuinely and fatally lost, and only a heartbeat away from eternal damnation, indeed, once get a man to see this, it will not then be long before he cries out to Jesus Christ with a cry that will shatter the ages, soon after which angels will be seen rejoicing, and Satan will himself be seen like lightning falling from heaven.

In more advanced cases, such protocols are indications of the judicial hardening of the Father HIMSELF upon their souls, which is to say, God has given them over to their own reprobate minds and to the delusions of Satan in order -- as Bunyan says -- to complete their destruction. These are those who primarily have stubbornly refused to acknowledge their sin and repent of it and make restitution where possible, and who have instead engaged in sin in the name of Jesus Christ, and then justified their sin before angels and men in the name of Jesus Christ, and finally have twisted the Word of God to accommodate their sin, all in the name of Jesus Christ. Indeed, the Father HIMSELF often gives such men over to the control of Satan in order to complete their destruction, for they make a mockery of his only begotten Son, even the Lord Jesus Christ. Further, many of these souls, if not most, wind up entrenching themselves in one of the many "inner life" type cults, such as those that promote the deity of man, and who emphasize almost to the exclusion of all else their union with Christ, even though such a union is a mere figment of their deluded imaginations.

Like the less extreme cases, they have ASSUMED that they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit because they made a mental commitment to Jesus Christ, and as a result of this mental commitment to Jesus Christ, they have ASSUMED that Jesus Christ has made the same commitment to them, even though Jesus Christ has given them no EVIDENCE of such a commitment by gifting them with the UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Ghost upon and within them, which is an ABSOLUTE NECESSITY for true regeneration.

And yet, those who are orthodox in their faith but who likewise ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit are no better off. The only difference is that there is still a slight glimmer of hope for them, for it is still possible for them to come to the end of themselves and recognize that their entire life has been a life of nothing but the flesh, nothing but their OWN FLESHLY FAITH, and not that SUPERNATURAL FAITH that is required for GENUINE salvation. In such cases, which admittedly are rare, God will nevertheless bring this man to his knees through some spiritual crisis, a crisis which may not be a result of any fleshly or worldly event, such as a death in the family, or what-have-you, but rather, a spiritual crisis in which the soul of the man becomes so parched and dry that it causes the man to realize that he has never EXPERIENCED a genuine NEW TESTAMENT spiritual encounter, and thus he repents of his fleshly being in its entirety, and he cries out to Jesus Christ -- not the Father, not the Holy Spirit -- but to JESUS CHRIST HIMSELF, and he admits that he is unregenerate, and agrees in his soul that the wrath of God abides upon him still, even though he has been preaching Jesus Christ for forty or fifty years, or evangelizing in the name of Jesus Christ his entire life, and such like, but he has never EXPERIENCED a genuine NEW TESTAMENT spiritual encounter, which ALL who are genuinely born again EXPERIENCE -- there are no exceptions -- and so he is granted that SUPERNATURAL FAITH that is requisite for GENUINE salvation.

But, as I said, such cases are rare indeed, are few and far between indeed, for in such a case a man must come to the realization that his entire life has been of no spiritual value whatsoever, and unfortunately there are FEW who can be made willing to arrive at this realization, even though it will cost them eternal life in the end, but such is the depth of the willful pride and stubbornness of sinful man. Though he cannot honestly and legitimately testify that Jesus Christ has PERSONALLY introduced HIMSELF to him, nor can he remember the MOMENT he was supposedly baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit, yet he is so blinded by his own sinful nature, and so unwilling to give up his life of SUPPOSED service to Jesus Christ, that he cannot bring himself to believe that Jesus Christ will shun him in the end, for he has preached in the name of Jesus for fifty years, has proclaimed the name of Jesus all his life, yet because he is spiritually dead and blind, he cannot comprehend that the difference between his own WILL-WORSHIP and the true MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL WITNESS and SUPERNATURAL WORKS WROUGHT BY THE HOLY SPIRIT in the genuinely born again believer is the benchmark that the Lord Jesus will abide by in the day of judgment, and none other.

This man has no clue why the Holy Spirit forbade the disciples to preach the Word of God in Asia; this man has no clue why God doesn't heal all the sick little children in the world when he has the power to do so, or why Jesus only healed ONE man out of THOUSANDS at Bethesda, and so on and so forth, for this man is utterly blind to the difference between works wrought by the Holy Spirit and works wrought by the flesh, and he has no clue that his entire life, spent in what he thinks has been service to Jesus Christ, has in fact been nothing but works of flesh, that his entire life of preaching and teaching and ministering in the name of Jesus Christ has in fact been nothing but an abomination in the eyes of God, for all his works have been wrought by the flesh, and thus, because he CANNOT and WILL NOT bring himself before the Lord Jesus to be truly examined by him, it is therefore only on the day of judgment, when he experiences the undisguised scorn of the Jesus he has been preaching all his life, that he will learn what Jesus truly meant when he stated --

Indeed, such a man is doomed, and he has no clue that Jesus is talking about HIM when Jesus declares that MANY will stand before him, testifying just as this man does, testifying that he has served in the name of Jesus all his life, and yet he has no clue that it is precisely HIM that Jesus is talking about when he declares, I NEVER KNEW YOU. DEPART FROM ME!

Oh, the avalanche of delusions that will come cascading down in that day! All of these ASSUMED that they were indwelt by the Holy Spirit because they not only made a mental commitment to Jesus Christ, but they likewise did many wonderful things in Jesus' name. They preached in the name of Jesus, they held firmly to orthodox doctrine in the name of Jesus, they decried evil in the name of Jesus, they gave their money and their time in the name of Jesus, they fed the poor in the name of Jesus, they clothed the naked in the name of Jesus, they prayed in the name of Jesus, and anything else that could be considered noble and noteworthy did they in the name of Jesus, and yet, they will spend eternity in everlasting damnation because they were NEVER BORN AGAIN in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit, and they have no clue that Jesus really meant it when he said --

Just as they have no clue that Jesus also really meant it when he said --

Ah, the multitudes cannot be counted which will discover in that day that Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory, said EXACTLY what he meant to say, and that he meant EXACTLY what he actually did say.

Those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, even though they cannot honestly and legitimately testify of that MOMENT, that MOMENT when the Holy Spirit came upon them in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of POWER, aye, those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit have never really hunkered down in genuine humility before the Lord Jesus Christ and thought deeply about, and deeply considered, just WHO the MANY truly are, just WHO the MANY truly represent, even that MANY that Jesus spoke of when he stated --

All those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit -- every one of them -- will be among that MANY that the Lord Jesus has spoken of. Not one will be absent from this MANY, NOT ONE SINGLE SOUL who ASSUMES that he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit will be absent from this MANY. Not ONE!

The Word of God could not possibly be clearer -- being born again means you can honestly and legitimately testify that Jesus Christ has PERSONALLY INTRODUCED HIMSELF to you. This is not metaphor, or symbolism, or any other type of dodge someone may come up with. If you are born again, you can remember this EXPERIENCE, you can remember this MOMENT when Jesus Christ HIMSELF personally introduced HIMSELF to you, and you can remember this MOMENT as if it happened only seconds ago, no matter how long ago it may have happened.

And don't think for one second that what YOU did has any relevance whatsoever, because it doesn't. No, I'm not talking about what YOU did, such as praying a prayer, or walking down an aisle, or making a decision, or making a profession, or making a confession, or any number of other things. I'm not talking about what YOU did at all.

If you claim to be born again, then what did JESUS HIMSELF do? And what EVIDENCE do you have? What did Jesus Christ COMMUNICATE to you? What were the communications HE HIMSELF communicated to you? If you are born again, you can give an answer to anyone who asks you to account for the hope that is in you by telling them what Jesus Christ HIMSELF did, NOT what YOU did. What YOU did is UTTERLY irrelevant. What did Jesus Christ HIMSELF do you in your supposed new birth?

Indeed, indeed! The vast majority of those who profess to be Christians just ASSUME that the Holy Spirit indwelt them when THEY "made a decision" or when THEY "accepted Christ as their Saviour" or when THEY prayed a prayer, or what-have-you. The vast majority of those who profess to be Christians ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit because they've made a willful commitment to Jesus Christ, even though they have not one scintilla of EVIDENCE that Jesus Christ made a commitment to them. Instead, they ASSUME that such an action constitutes the new birth, but they are all -- every one of them -- deluded as deluded can be.

As ALL who are truly regenerate KNOW, when Jesus Christ HIMSELF personally INTRODUCES HIMSELF to a man, it is the greatest EXPERIENCE one could ever CONCEIVE of, let alone go through, and they can remember the MOMENT of this EXPERIENCE, they can remember the MANIFEST SUPERNATURAL INDWELLING AND EFFUSION of the Holy Spirit -- there are no exceptions -- and they can remember this EXPERIENCE as if it happened only seconds ago, no matter how long ago it may have actually happened. There are NO exceptions. None whatsoever.

You say you're born again...

Really? What did Jesus Christ HIMSELF do in your supposed new birth? What did Jesus Christ SAY to you? What did Jesus Christ COMMUNICATE to you? Can you remember the MOMENT when Jesus Christ first arrived and began to communicate with you? Describe that MOMENT in which you claim you were baptized in and indwelt by the Holy Spirit in a MANIFEST UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION of POWER, for the kingdom of God is not in word, but in POWER.

You are, in fact, the most deluded man on the face of this earth if you think you're born again because you have ASSUMED you were indwelt by the Holy Spirit when you made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ. No man in this universe is more deluded than YOU. No one. You are more deluded than Judas and Ananias and Sapphira COMBINED. None is as deluded as you are. NONE.

What YOU did when you supposedly became a Christian is UTTERLY irrelevant. Utterly. All those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but who cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify of the MOMENT when the Holy Spirit supposedly arrived in a MANIFESTLY UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION OF POWER, when the Holy Spirit supposedly QUICKENED them and made them anew, and supposedly indwelt them, I say, ALL those who ASSUME that they are indwelt by the Holy Spirit, but who cannot so testify, are the most deluded people on the face of this earth, BAR NONE. BAR NONE.

If you want to go to heaven, and yet you cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify that Jesus Christ has HIMSELF personally introduced HIMSELF to you, and yet you cannot HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY REMEMBER the MOMENT when the Holy Spirit came upon you in an UNMISTAKABLE SUPERNATURAL EFFUSION OF POWER, which is the case with ALL who are baptized in and filled with the Holy Spirit -- there are NO exceptions, for it is the greatest EXPERIENCE one can ever know -- if you merely ASSUME that you are indwelt by the Holy Spirit without the requisite EVIDENCE thereof, and yet if you wish to go to heaven, then cry to Jesus Christ from your heart, if you have the heart to do so -- and WOE unto the man who is never given such a heart -- indeed, then CRY to Jesus Christ from the heart, and behold what great things Jesus Christ will do for you, for unless you can HONESTLY and LEGITIMATELY testify of these words, you will surely lose your soul --

The Holy Spirit and your spirit are DISTINCT, and if you cannot testify as I have written, and as you have just read, and yet you think you belong to Jesus Christ, you are the most deluded man in the world, BAR NONE, and you will NEVER set foot in the kingdom of Jesus Christ, not unless you humble yourself and confess that you are not born again. Indeed, confess your unregeneracy now and perhaps live, or wait until the day of judgment when you will be forced to confess it and will thereby be summarily exposed before all creation, where you will be laughed to scorn for your foolish pride by those who had not your opportunity to bow before sovereign grace, and who likewise will accompany you into hell, but with power over you because your sin is greater, where you will be tormented forever and ever for your foolish pride, "because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and FEW there be that find it!

Farewell and fair warning.