On the contrary. It is a commandment of God and those who have been born again will desire to follow God's commandments. I do not believe as was pointed out in the Catholic's doctrine that we receive the Holy Spirit through baptism. You are baptized simply because you are a new creature and it is evidence of your rebirth. The only reason I want to be baptized is because God has planted that desire within me.
Additionally, I do not believe you have to maintain your fellowship with God. God does that for you simply because He has given you a new heart and spirit. Old things pass away. All things become new.
Can any of you please explain how man "cooperates" with God in the "new birth" process?
The Catholics and the Orthodox doctrine states that the Holy Spirit comes at Chrismation.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04215b.htm
http://www.oca.org/OCchapter.asp?SID=2&ID=52
"In the sacrament of Chrismation we receive "the seal of the gift of the Holy Spirit" (See Rom 8, 1 Cor 6, 2 Cor 1:21-22). If baptism is our personal participation in Easter -- the death and resurrection of Christ, then chrismation is our personal participation in Pentecost -- the coming of the Holy Spirit upon us.
The sacrament of chrismation, also called confirmation, is always done in the Orthodox Church together with baptism. Just as Easter has no meaning for the world without Pentecost, so baptism has no meaning for the Christian without chrismation. In this understanding and practice, the Orthodox Church differs from the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches where the two sacraments are often separated and given other interpretations than those found in traditional Orthodoxy. "
Oh my dear HarleyD, we've been round and round on this before. Do you truly not know how we explain cooperation or are you just baiting us?
So what's with the Holy Spirit descending upon Jesus at His baptism?
You think all of the other relationships in the world, where you have to work on pleasing the other party, are incorrect models for the only truly important relationship?
God is a big punching bag who takes whatever we do to Him in stride?
SD
Does God plant that desire in everyone in the world? If not, are you saying that the "catholic" church is not really "catholic", but limited to whoever He plants his desire in? I don't understand.
Man cooperates either through his own faith (as a rational adult) or through the faith of others (from infancy through the age of rationale). Jesus worked miracles under the same auspices - the faith of the one to receive the miracle, or the faith of those surrounding.
"The only reason I want to be baptized is because God has planted that desire within me."
__________________________________
Thank You!
That's exactly what happened after I was saved. I had a desire to be baptized that built up within me.