All mankind on earth possess a spirit — the invisible part of them which reflects their soul, and animates the heart and mind. The spirit in all humans, once created, is eternal. Meaning that when the body dies, the spirit lives on. Every eternal spirit must spend its eternity somewhere, and that somewhere is pre-chosen by the person before their body dies.

God alone, the sovereign creator and ruler of all things, has the right to decide where you will spend your eternal life. In a brilliant affirmation of His commitment to freedom, He gave you the choice. That’s the good news. The bad news, it is a binary choice. The good news is that you can choose to spend eternity with God in His magnificent kingdom, or you can choose NOT to be with Him.

It’s a binary choice, and only you can make it.

The only way to become a true citizen of heaven, a reborn child of God, is through believing in God’s Son, Jesus Christ.

Believing first, that He exists; that He left heaven and arrived on earth as a human child like you did.

Believing that after growing up, demonstrating His power through miracles and profound teaching, He yielded His life up to a tortuous death, which the Father accepted as atonement for all the sins of all men. In a profound act of love and self-sacrifice, Jesus became the singular gate to heaven.

All who choose to believe this truth, and turn to Him, are baptized, a ceremony of immersion in water symbolizing the death of their sin-stained spirit, and the birth of a new spirit. A spirit now undefiled, created by God’s own Holy Spirit.

This is what Jesus, the Bible and Christians call being born again.

Jesus said,

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

John 3:3 (NASB)

Nicodemis, the Jew to whom Jesus was speaking, was, as we say today, bumfuzzled by that statement:

Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born, can he?”

Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

John 3:4-6 (NASB)

Outward signs don’t tell the whole salvation story.

Christianity outwardly looks like a matter of whether you believe Jesus was the Son of God, what religious rules you follow, and what church you attend.

Those are all true, yet none of these alone seal the deal that makes you a child of God and a bona fide, legal citizen of heaven. Only one thing can do that: being born again by the power of God’s Spirit.

What has shaped your spirit?

Is your human spirit become a creature of the world you’ve grown up in? Hitched to whatever spiritual forces seemed to help you along or satisfy your nagging desires? Is your human spirit stirred and ruled by the motives of a spirit of ambition, or fear, or lust?

Or, is your human spirit a holy chip off the old block? Spun from the same DNA as the Holy Spirit of God?

Only people whose spirit bear that DNA, and who are seal together with the Spirit of God, will enter heaven.

The Apostle John, a man who walked the earth alongside the man Jesus, composed the words we now call the gospel of John in the Bible. Testifying of what he saw with his own eyes, John said:

There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He [Jesus] was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.

But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:9-13 (NASB)

And why was this magnificent, crazy scheme God’s will?

In short, God the Father loved you and me and all His creation too much to let them live an eternity apart from Him. And everything shared so far provides the backdrop, the context to that famous statement made by that Apostle John

For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.

He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

John 3:16-18 (NASB)

Bottom line: you choose what spirit will guide your heart, and carry you to your eternal home.

This is the binary choice you must make: the Spirit of Jesus Christ [aka, the Holy Spirit], OR any other spirit, NOT of Jesus.

When your body dies, and your spirit is set free, it will either join the Lord in His glorious heaven, or go to a nasty place of torment Jesus called hell, which He described as a place where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched. (Mark 9:47-48 NASB)

So if you thought hell is a place you go to die…. no. What makes hell hell is that the torments there just keep tormenting. They cannot kill your eternal spirit, which just keeps suffering.

The unholy spirits on display in the world are not happy, blessed, or free.

The prevailing spirit among a lawless, selfish culture today is one of permission to do anything one pleases. It is a perversion of freedom as God gave it. It is a spirit that never allows for peace, joy, or satisfaction. It is the spirit that drives addiction, that desperate need to feel really good.

God created us with that need, but His answer to that — which is also very addictive — is JOY. Authentic, life-nourishing, steadfast joy is something other spirits can only offer in cheap imitation, satisfying body or soul only for the briefest of moments, then leaving that appetite hungrier than before.

It is no accident that the Bible is chock full of promises from God to satisfy His creation. To give them joy, to bless them with every good thing. But all these things come not from self-effort; one does not earn or merit them. The promises of God are fulfilled only by connection to God Himself.

That is the part of the good news (the Gospel) of God that matters NOW, before death comes knocking.

Making the crucial choice as to the final destination of your eternal spirit is only half of the good news. The other half is God’s promise of abundant life now, in all your days on terra firma. Much of the New Testament, including the teachings of Jesus, are focused on describing this life for you.

It is a life based entirely on being connected to, even filled with, the Holy Spirit. God doesn’t just offer life in heaven; He offers a life shared with Him, that begins NOW, that flows to you from the Holy Spirit. And that is why, in the book of Acts, the apostles followed Jesus’ instructions to be baptised in His Spirit, and made sure everyone who received His salvation were baptised in both water and the Spirit.

In contrast to what every other spirit roaming the universe can offer you, here is what the Spirit of Christ offers:

Jesus described the Spirit’s activity in you as being like a stream or river of living water. A river flows through you, child of God. As the waters of God’s heart flow to you from the Spirit, they reach every part of your heart/spirit that you open to Him.

If fear, anxiety, grief or hopelessness describes the state of your soul and spirit, then the offer of love, peace, joy and kindness is leaping out of the dusty pages of your Bible and calling your name.

If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, “From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive.

John 7:37-39 (NASB)

The choice is yours.

The Spirit who brings all the goodness of God’s heart with Him is inviting you, holding out the redemption of Jesus Christ. The invitation is to come to His heart. Come to His table. Come to His healing power. And, incredibly, come to share His life.

As we learn to walk with — and learn from — the Spirit of God, we become ever stronger in love, and in other good character traits like kindness, faithfulness and that underrated but all-important trait of self-control. The kind of self control that knows the freedom we possess is a license to love others, not love ourselves at everyone else’s expense.

That’s what happens when you ask Jesus the Savior to baptize you in His Spirit. Your newborn spirit becomes the dwelling place of His Spirit, and that’s when the river begins to flow. Streams of living water will carry every good and perfect gift of God into your heart. As you become nourished by His fruit in you, you will become one who offers that fruit to others.

It’s a win-win; a cycle of life, love and goodness. A life that begins the moment you join with His Spirit; a life that has no end.