Monday Apr 19, 2021
Born again: What this means. How you can tell if you are born again.
Jesus Ministries, Joan Boney ...
Being born again means, we are changed instantly by God.
A young man told me he walked out on his back porch and "something happened."
A woman, who was a long time drunk, said one day "something happened" and she had a great desire to read the Bible after that happened. She told her husband she was going to quit drinking. He didn't believe her because he'd heard her say that before. But this time the power of God was in her to enable her to do those things she could not do before.
In my case, the Holy Spirit spoke these words to me: "Joan ... you know those mistakes you've been making all these years? Those weren't mistakes. Those were sins."
After I heard the word of God, by the Spirit of God, I believed and was instantly changed by God.
I read a portion of Bible (Deut. 18:9-12) to my mother one day and she thought about that which I read to her and she said, "Well ... I guess we'd better not do that anymore." And instantly she was changed by God.
My uncle wrote to me and said: "Your mother is changed. She is really changed."
My dad was born again instantly by God when he was in his 70's. All of a sudden he wanted to go to church.
Jesus said to Peter: Mt. 16:17 Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.
It is not that we learn things and change. We are instantly changed by God and are given the Holy Spirit to live in us.
II Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
No man can do this for himself. He can go forward at church and be baptized and do what they tell him to do to be a member of their church group, but he cannot change inwardly as those who are born of the Spirit of God change. Being born again is an act of God, not an act of the will of man.
Countless numbers are members of a church group, but few are born of the Spirit of God and changed instantly into completely new creatures by God HIMSELF.
Being born again is instant change caused by God and not by mental learning of man. And it is having the Spirit of God living inside of you now to lead you and guide you.
These statements will make no sense to the vast number of church goers who have not been born again by the Spirit of God.
They think we learn everything by acts of our own will, by reading the Bible.
But we cannot understand things of God by reading the Bible until we have been born again by God.
Jesus said: Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3
Paul says they are: "Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." (II Timothy 3:7)
But we cannot understand things of God by reading the Bible until we have been born again by God and have the Spirit of God in us to guide us and teach us. It is HIS Spirit causing us to change and to be recreated in the image of God.
The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (Gal. 5:22-23)
We cannot obtain these "gifts" by copying others who have these gifts. These gifts of the Holy Spirit are given by God and are not a learned thing but rather a part of the new creation which God causes us to be when HE lives in us.
I Corinthians 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?
When we were born as babies from our natural parents, we did nothing to cause ourselves to be born. Neither can we cause ourselves to be born again. We are children of God by the will of God and born of HIS Spirit and recreated by God in HIS image.
As Jesus was born of the Holy Ghost, we also are now born of the Holy Ghost when we are born again.
And as Jesus could hear from God the Father now we also can hear from God the Father by HIS Spirit who now lives in us.
As we inherit traits from our natural parents, now we inherit HIS characteristics by being born of HIS Spirit.
We are changed by God and we are no longer like that person we once were.
Have you experienced that instant change from God? If you have, you know it. And others see that change in you also.
That is what being born again is. We now have living in us God's Spirit.
I Corinthians 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
It is not that we try to be godly. We are godly, for God lives in us now, for we are born of God our Father and have HIS Spirit in us.
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* For writings on additional subjects, click here: Jesus Ministries Exhortations Blog
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