Just a month ago, I turned 49.

And today I turned 30. Yes!!

How??

Today, 30 years ago, April 7, 1996, at Easter, I was born again.

In the baptismal font.

In the death of Jesus I have laid aside my physical life, and I have risen spiritually with Jesus in his resurrection.

When I was baptized, I didn't yet know exactly what supernatural effect that would have on my life; I will tell you that later.

But at that moment, I had given my life to Jesus.

Jesus bought us and paid for us with his blood on Golgotha. He redeemed us from death.

And although he has a total right to our lives, because he bought us free from slavery, he wants your life only if you are willing to give it voluntarily.

God is love, and love is voluntary. Jesus voluntarily gave his body for us so that we can live.

For our spirit has been dead since paradise.

And if you want to live, then you may give your whole life to Jesus. You may truly give him everything. Your sorrow, your marital problems, your loneliness, your good or bad financial situation, you may give him your joy, your pain or sickness, your broken soul. Everything. There is nothing too ugly, dirty, or broken for God not to be able to change it.

Just as the Israelites were delivered from slavery in Egypt, and then had to flee through the Red Sea because their enemies were hot on their heels.

Just as their enemies, the entire Egyptian army, drowned in the Reed Sea,

In the same way, God wants to set you free, and in the same way, God wants to drown all your spiritual enemies.

If you are stuck, or have problems in your life that you cannot solve, I want to help you see if there are spiritual enemies that God wants to deliver you from.

The Israelites also had to go through a desert process to learn to surrender all their personal burdens to God.

Will you continue with your problems and die in the desert?

Or do you want to learn how to overcome all your enemies and enter your promised land?

What supernatural effect has baptism had on my life?

• God has led / guided my life, even at moments when I did not yet see that something was happening.

• Through my baptism, by laying down my physical life, I have given God permission to change and improve my life.

• Through my baptism, all my enemies have drowned in the water pool.

• By laying down my physical life, God has restored my body, soul, and spirit and united them as one whole.

• Through my rebirth I have become a child of God, and I may live in the rich inheritance of God's kingdom, which God has given me through the death of His Son.

• Through my baptism, I was allowed to overcome my enemies: rejection, death, fear, loneliness. They had already been overcome by Jesus, but I was allowed to overcome them again together with Jesus. But first, I was allowed to discover which enemies I had that were holding me back from entering my promised land.

• Through my baptism, my spiritual senses opened, to hear God's voice, to discover spiritual powers, to receive spiritual weapons, and to be able to discover the entire spiritual world.

• After my baptism, I was spiritually trained to fight in God's spiritual army, for people who cannot yet do so themselves.

• And only after my baptism did I learn that God's love is true love. No, spiritual warfare is not directed against people, but against spiritual powers that we cannot see with our physical eyes.

And God wants to do all this for you too. I am here to help you.

Now that I have turned 30, I see my new spiritual role starting, so plenty to celebrate again. Will you celebrate with me?

A few fun facts about 30;

• 30 can also be expressed as 3 x 10; 3 is the number of (divine) completeness and 10 is the number of ordinal perfection. From a biblical perspective, 30 therefore points to the perfection of the Divine order.

• Jesus was 30 when his ministry began.

• David was 30 when he became king.

• Joseph was 30 when he entered the service of the Pharaoh.

• 30 in Roman numerals is: XXX (X = 10)

• 30 is the sum of the first four quadratic numbers: 1² + 2² + 3² + 4² = 30. This property makes it a quadratic pyramid or a cannonball number. The latter name comes from the fact that a square pyramid can be built with exactly 30 cannonballs.