@Bill -- you mentioned the country of Africa -- lots of spiritual warfare -- that I can believe. Demon possession , probably. There was an older missionary and wife from a church I went to a long time ago. That's what they ran into. Quite a challenging mission field. That's where God led them to serve.
And it's also in This country, In the bigger cities there's all kinds of belief systems. Some years ago, on another Forum, there was a guy who said that down the street from the Baptist church he went to, there was a Church of Satan.
Back when I was growing up, ya just didn't hear of that in this country. It was in 'Africa' and the Middle-Eastern countries. The Real heathens were in the 'darkest of Africa'.
A born-again person's relationship is with God the Father made possible Through Jesus Christ / His death, burial and bodily resurrection. And our salvation is secured by the immediate indwelling of the Holy Spirit upon our accepting Jesus Christ as our personal Lord and Savior. It's our reading God's Word and talking to Him/ prayer that strengthens our relationship with God. Upon our salvation , He becomes our Heavenly Father. Our earthly father and mother brought us into this physical world. And as Jesus was telling Nicodemus in John 3 -- being born Again is a person's Spiritual birth. Nicodemus had thought that being born-again meant being born Physically again. He didn't understand how That was possible. And it isn't. It's the Spiritual birth that's Also needed. And That is salvation.
I was just reading the Roman's 2 passage. The Jewish people are being talked to. Back in the Old Testament - circumcision set the Jews apart. The Jews were God's chosen people. The Gospel unto salvation was to the Jews 1st and then also to the Gentiles (everyone else). Maybe you're Jewish and that would be very important to you. I'm 'Gentile' (Swedish / German). The Jews - as a people group - rejected Jesus Christ as their promised Messiah. So --God's salvation through Jesus Christ was extended to the rest of the world -- Gentiles. God's Word is Now 'put in our hearts'. We're no longer living under set of 'instructions'. Upon a person's salvation, the Holy Spirit puts it in our hearts to Want to obey Him. It's not Burdensome. Having said That -- the New Testament Does give us guidelines to follow. And we will Want to be living in obedience to God's Word. We Do have Christian liberty -- I Can do pretty much anything I'd want to -- but there are Lots of things that Won't be glorifying to God. And that Should be our goal in life To bring glory to God. And When we live like That -- we Will 'stick our as being a bit Odd' to the rest of the world. Other believers Will 'recognize' us 'by our fruits' in our lives. And the idea is that unbeliever Will see a positive difference in our lives and want to know the how's and why's Of our 'difference'. And we Will be laughed at and scorned and mocked by people. That's to be expected. But let's not crumble in the process.
"We' have a strong tendency to want to do 'it' Our way. Even as believers we do that. It's simply in our human nature. So, ya, there's going to be inner struggle all our lives.
And, yes, there Are spiritual gifts that the Holy Spirit gives to each born-again person. A variety of them. We're each a unique person -- God's creation. And He does have a plan / purpose for our lives. And satan is very much in the world, too.
He wants to make believers as ineffective as possible. He knows our weakness and puts them 'in our face' frequently. There's a thick paper back book I read a long time ago. It was describing the spiritual warfare going on around us -- it's invisible but very real. Now, I don't know how the author knew about all of that. Probably some Christian sci-fi but it got the point across. And, well, we Can observe some stuff going on -- some years ago a friend of our older daughter knew a guy in high school. His Mom and Grandmother were into witch craft. It was Halloween and the guy's Mom invited him to a party. He said no, and so she left. Went to the party. After a bit, he called our daughter scared out of his wits. he was home alone and all of a sudden cupboard doors started opening and shutting and chairs were moving around. Apparently that was Their way of showing their son, grandson, all the 'fun' he could be having With them. And they decided to have some 'fun' with him.
Probably what God 'hates' are those who know about Him and Purposely try to direct people Away from Him.
A person who is Shown the truth of God's Word -- and purposely says NO. In a stubborn , openly defiant way. Well -- there's nothing else For him. As long as That person is Alive, there Is hope. There have been and no doubt still are atheists who Do accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. but the person who actually sees God working in friends, family -- lives being changed in positive ways and Still rejects. I've known a couple of people like that. It's sad and scarrie. They refuse to believe that there's anything beyond physical death.
