Reading the above scripture certainly made it seem a valid concern so I asked them if being exposed to God’s truth and being converted is the same thing, and how do we know if someone is genuinely converted and well on their way to the Kingdom. (See Parable of the Sower Matthew 13) Many make those first steps. But what makes for conversion? How did they know if those who left the Church had God’s Holy Spirit? Can we really know? Or is it only God who knows? Can one be baptized and not receive God’s Spirit or is there something else we don’t know? How could fifty percent of the people in God’s Church fall away and be truly converted? Were they just in it for social reasons or did they actually know and understand the truth and willfully turn away? I answered that I was sure a few, maybe…but all of them? Well almost all of Israel God led out of Egypt died in the wilderness but God doesn’t want that anyone should be lost. (John 6:39, 40; 18:9; Matthew18:14) Did He call all these people knowing they would fall away?

We find the answer in Hebrews 6. All Christians have received the Holy Spirit, and have a degree of enlightenment sufficient to accept Christ as Savior, but what about the rest? There are five crucial things mentioned in verse 4 and 5: enlightenment, tasting the heavenly gift, received the Holy Spirit, tasting the good Word of God and tasting the powers of the world to come.

Three of the above are not tasted upon conversion and baptism. The word `tasted’ is translated from the Greek "geusamenous"; it means to come to know and to take in. It is the experience of having consciously taken part of. The same word is used for Christ when it was said he "tasted death", which He did consciously experience. Those who have taken in, with fullness, the Christ in their lives are perhaps those who have tasted the powers of the world to come. It was Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians 1:17-22.

It does not mean that salvation should be taken for granted because what Paul is saying, is those who are enlightened and experienced in Christ cannot be renewed to repentance without bringing shame to Jesus Christ. There is no room for repentance for such a transgression, and perhaps no wish to repent either. There are some who come into the Church without ever being fully committed and don’t fully understand what they are doing. They are the ones who spring to life but have no root. Those who are not committed, such as those with dull ears or as babes, can not experience the fullness of Christ.

Let’s understand, though, that once we have fully experienced Christ, there is no turning back.

To continue to explain the above scripture written by Paul to the Jews who had previously sacrificed animals. It was an ingrained part of their traditions. Paul said they were still spiritual babes on milk and needed to grow up and realize that Christ was the sacrificial lamb who died for their sins. He did not want them to go backward in their faith and go back to sacrificing animals. It was like crucifying Christ all over again. Paul was warning them but encouraging too: "Even though we speak like this, dear friends, we are confident of better things in your case—things that accompany salvation. God is not unjust; he will not forget your work and the love you have shown him as you have helped his people and continue to help them. We want each of you to show this same diligence to the very end, in order to make your hope sure. We do not want you to become lazy, but to imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised" (Hebrews 6:10-12 NIV).

The young women had good questions and made me think deeply about baptism and conversion. It also made me think on the gift of the Holy Spirit and the other four key ingredients and what they should mean in all of our lives, and what love and protection it affords all those who come in contact with God’s true Church. As parents, with much love, we do whatever it takes to help our children succeed, how much more God the Father and Jesus Christ!

We can sit in Church every day and read our bible daily, nevertheless, it takes the Spirit to open our eyes, the Spirit that God gives ever increasingly to us if we seek Him daily. It takes that remarkable gift to discern between truth and untruth. It gives us understanding. It guides us in every way through the potholes of this human life. It let’s us know when we’re about to do the wrong thing. It’s a small part of God living within us, but it is the divine that makes all the difference. The apostle Paul declares that the Holy Spirit and the human spirit bear dual witness to the fact that we are children of God (Romans 8: 16). And apparently God knows our heart and where we are at in our lives spiritually. He gives us what we need and withholds if necessary.

I told the young women we need to look at what we do know. Repentance and baptism are serious…we need to take the gift of the Spirit seriously, to treasure and not neglect it, to ask God for more of it, to stir it up, to listen to its guidance, to yield ourselves to the divine part of ourselves.

I don’t know if we stop on occasion to realize and get on our knees and thank God for the gift of the miraculous transforming power of the Holy Spirit or if sometimes we take it for granted. The most important thing for us to learn is to treasure what an awesome gift we do have, that the Creator God of this great universe died in order that we may have it, and that inside each of us is a part of the Divine. God's Spirit is the power that liberates us from being "slaves of sin" (Romans 6:16-18). Indeed, God's Spirit profoundly changes people if we are truly onboard! Paul wrote that "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering [patience], kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control" (Galatians 5:22-23).

I also told the young women they should be really serious about taking that first step of baptism and to commit themselves to this way because God tests us continuously to see if we will obey His voice. I told them to never take lightly the incredible gift we have been given. It will not always be easy. (Read Romans 8, God’s Spirit in us.) And pray that we may go a few steps further to taste the heavenly gift, taste the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come.

"If you love me, you will do as I command. Then I will ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit who will help you and always be with you. The Spirit will show you what is true. The people of this world cannot accept the Spirit, because they don’t see or know him. But you know the Spirit, who is with you and will keep on living in you" (John 14:15-17).