By Treva Susuras

Have you heard the saying “a new creation in Christ” or maybe the phrase “born again?” Well, let me explain just what that means. When we accept Jesus into our lives as our Lord and Savior, we are getting a fresh start. Everything that we were before that time is past, and from that moment on we are brand new. We are washed in the blood of Jesus Christ. Born again in spirit. Let me explain as simply as I can.

We are made up of 3 parts - Spirit, soul, and body.

When we accept Jesus as our Savior our spirit man is made instantly perfect. It is cleansed. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come.

Our soul on the other hand has some work to be done. It holds our mind, will and emotions. Even though the spirit has been cleansed the soul has not.

Our mind holds our thoughts. The way we think has a lot to do with our past. What has happened in the past has taught us how to react in the present. Sometimes that’s good and sometimes not. If we were mistreated in our past by someone over and over it can cause to think thoughts like, I’m worthless, I deserve to be treated that way, I will never measure up, and so on. We might allow someone to continue to treat us badly or even end up with a spouse that is abusive. On the other hand, this can cause us to build walls to protect ourselves, because we feel rejected, we reject others. Someone calls you a crybaby, that can cause you to hold in hurt and never show tears again. But according to the bible, I have been created by God, I am a new creation in Christ. I am wonderfully made. God knows every hair on my head.

The will is setting your heart and soul after either God or self. God has given us the right to choose. Either I will serve myself or I can find out what it is God expects of me and go after that. My will/ my want, God’s will/ God’s wants. We have to decide who we will serve, God or self. God’s will is always best. He sees our whole lives, He knows what we need even before we do, and he loves us more than we can ever imagine. In the long run , what we thought would be best for us can turn out to be the worst and visa versa. Our will takes over and we think we know what we need better than He does. Does our will run after sinful things. We are all born with a sinful nature and our will is to pet the flesh even if it is sinful. Sin always cost us. It may feel good at the time but there is always a price to pay. If I am walking in sin, that is not God’s will, it’s mine, petting my flesh. Here you can see the mind and will working together. When we put our mind and will together, you can see the trouble we can get ourselves into. Our mind says, this is how I handle this” and our will jumps in to make it happen. Now this brings us to our emotions.

When we are small or maybe even before birth we can feel emotions. Say if a parent never wanted a child and spoke that throughout the pregnancy, the child while still in the womb hears and feels. It has already begin to feel the emotion of being rejected and can even bring on a spirit of rejection ( thats for a later topic) . There is always an emotion for every action we go through. Sometimes bad and sometimes good. What do we do with that emotion. We put it in our emotional closet till the closet is full. Then when something happens we open the closet door to put another emotion in and its so full already, an emotion thats already in there falls out, like anger, hurt, being sensitive and so on.

There is so much more on this and We will get more into detail on each one, but for now think about it, put your mind, your will, and your emotion together and know that is how you have learned to live your life so far. This is without Jesus or the word of God. Might be you have been in church your whole life but never had a real relationship with Jesus and you rely on what you have always relied on, yourself.

Ok now back to the topic, 2 Corinthians 5:17 (NLT) This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone, a new life has begun.

When you accept Christ, a new life begins. You spirit man awakens and is perfect. But, remember we are spirit, soul and body. So the soul (mind will and emotions) have not changed. We are a new creation and we have the opportunity to change our lives but it will take some work. You might be thinking, why do I need to change? Well there are many benefits to being a born again believer, ( again, another topic). You are obviously interested or you would not have read this far. So our spirit man has changed, now we work on the soul. Romans 12:1-2 (TLB) And so, dear brothers, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living sacrifice, holy- the kind He can accept. When you think of what He has done for you, is this too much to ask? Don’t copy the behavior of this world, but be a new and different person with a fresh newness in all you do and think. Then you will learn for your own experience how His ways will really satisfy you.

We have not talked about the body. Ok, well the body is your body. I’m sure you figured that out but did you know that a healthy spirit and soul can lead to a healthy body?  When we live the way God wants us to live, we can expect to have a body that is healthy.

So there you have it. As you continue to grow, read your bible, apply it to your lives, and learn in the Spirit, this will change your will, and your emotions. ( you may need to reach out for help for inner healing on the emotions, I can help you with that) you will begin to change. And there it is, you are a new creation in Christ, old things are gone and the new life begins. You are born again in the Spirit and whatever is in your past is in your past.

Thank you so much for reading. I hope this helps understand some things. I will be explaining more on some of these topics. If you need help of any kind or you would like to talk to someone please call us at 281-868-0537.