The basis of All things (part 1)

This is not my writing but i wanna share this to you guys. This is not about me but about us who were being thirst in seeking God.

I know the author, i did not meet him personally but i salute his writings, i just know his life from a person who salute also to his life.

Here it is:

The Basis of All Things
By Gordon Gentry

From the very beginning, God's purpose has been that all things be summed up in Christ. If we then, as
believers, are going to begin where God begins, Christ must be our life. This statement seems
elementary, but it is far from that, for we must know the reality of these words in our lives. Our
experience must begin and continue with God as our life by the indwelling of the Spirit. We cannot
begin where the religious world begins, or we will end up with a "cheap believism" which leaves us in
the natural realm. We must therefore redefine our terms, so that we might move by faith.
We may use the term "new birth," but what does it mean? Man has often defined scriptural terms to
suit his own experience and way of life, but only as God's Word is revealed to us by the Spirit can we
know the true meaning of new birth. God's ways are made known to us by His Spirit, and we enter into
what God has said by faith. We are not interested in what man says that God's Word says, but rather
what the Lord truly does say. Christ is truth, and the Spirit will lead us in Him. Let us go on to allow
the Spirit to give us God's meaning, so that we might know God in reality rather than only in our
minds.

Beginning With God - New Birth

"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you, you must be born anew. The
wind bloweth where it will, and you heareth the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and
whither it goeth; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:6-8). Scripture tells us that to be born
again is to be born of the Spirit. It is a new birth, an altogether new working. New birth is not
repentance, nor is it belief in what Christ did for us at the cross. New birth is something that takes place
by the Spirit, after one has repented and believed.
New birth is receiving a new life. John the Baptist knew what God was doing, when he said, "I indeed
baptize you in water unto repentance: but He that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am
not worthy to bear: He shall baptize you in the Holy Spirit and in fire."
The religious leaders of Jesus' time did not know what God was doing, and neither do the religious
leaders of our time. This is apparent, with all the different religions we see around us in the world
today. Paul gives us the reason in I Corinthians 2:11: "Even so the things of God none knoweth, save
the Spirit of God. But we received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God: that we
might know the things that were freely given to us of God." We do not know or understand the things of
God by the natural mind or its reasoning. We can know the things of God only when we have received
the Spirit. Jesus said, "Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He shall guide you into all truth."
We cannot substitute anything for the indwelling of the Spirit and His revelation to our hearts. The
Spirit's presence takes God's work out of the hands of man and keeps all of it in the Spirit and by the
Spirit. When we look around us today, we see so-called Christians going in so many different
directions. One reason for this is that they are not all hearing God; the Spirit is not indwelling and
controlling their lives. Paul tells us in Romans 8:14, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these
are the sons of God." If we are being led by the Spirit we are being made one, and we have fellowship
one with another. The Word of God is given for us to obey, and obedience will lead us into the
"fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

Christ must be Lord of our lives, and the only way He can be Lord is by the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit. Repentance and faith allow one to be justified before God on the basis of what Christ did at the
cross. All of this is only to prepare the believer to receive the life of God in the Spirit. We cannot have
the life of God unless God comes to indwell each believer as the source of his or her life.
The difference between life and death is revealed in our fellowship. Far too many think that fellowship
is simply agreeing in doctrine. The difference between trying to have fellowship in doctrine, and
experiencing fellowship with one who has the life of God, is like the difference between death and life.
We can never move in this life until we have received life from God and then gone on to know the
Lord by experience through the working of the Spirit. If the Word never gets into our lives in
expression, it remains in our heads and can never bring us into the relationship God has designed. We
must be experiencing God by walking in the light; this is an active and continuing relationship in the
fife of God by the Spirit. One must press on past wrong teaching that blocks the mind, into truth which
is in the working of the Spirit. Faith is the realm in which God is working. Faith brings all things back
into focus, with all things beginning in God and being worked out by the Spirit. No one can ever tell
God what He is going to do or how He should do it. We must recognize God for who He is, realize
what He has done for mankind, and then go on to experience Him by faith. Faith always brings us into
an experiencing of God and what He is doing, because faith begins in Christ and Christ is the finisher
of our faith.
We must accept all that the Spirit brings, and not just what we want or what we have been taught by
man. When the Spirit is in control, nothing is done in the natural realm. We cannot do what needs to be
done in our lives or in the church, in our own strength. It can only be done by the Spirit and in union
with the Spirit.