Jesus said … Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3
It is God, by HIS Spirit, Who reveals Jesus to us.
We could read the Bible all our lives and “study” of our own minds and not be born again. In the Bible many were religious and fought Jesus.
Paul was one of great intellect and very learned in religious things, but was fighting Jesus by persecuting the people of God.
Paul says of HIMSELF … Phil. 3 … 1 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe.
2 Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. 3 For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.
4 Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:
5 Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee; 6 Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
7 But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. 8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, 9 And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:10 That I may know HIM, and the power of HIS resurrection, and the fellowship of HIS sufferings, being made conformable unto HIS death; 11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
Paul set out with papers from the Jewish authorities which authorized him to bring followers of Jesus back to Jerusalem in bonds.
Acts 9 … 1 And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went unto the high priest, 2 And desired of him letters to Damascus to the synagogues, that if he found any of this way, whether they were men or women, he might bring them bound unto Jerusalem.
3 And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven: 4 And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
5 And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.
6 And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?
And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.
7 And the men which journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no man.
8 And Saul arose from the earth; and when his eyes were opened, he saw no man: but they led him by the hand, and brought him into Damascus.
9 And he was three days without sight, and neither did eat nor drink.
10 And there was a certain disciple at Damascus, named Ananias; and to him said the Lord in a vision, Ananias. And he said, Behold, I am here, Lord. 11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus:for, behold, he prayeth, 12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
1
3 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name's sake.
Paul is born again. Now Paul becomes an adversary to the Jews who once “loved” him.
It is the same with us.
But no man can get this for himself. Being born again is from God.
Jesus said: No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day. 45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of (from) the Father, cometh unto me. Jn. 6:44-45
You can’t get there by teaching of man. You can’t get there by your own learning by reading Bible.
Paul said those people can have “a form of godliness”, they can look godly and even sound like people of God … but they are “ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” II Tim. 3
I was baptized in water when I was 15. I was born again when I was 37. After I was born again, I heard from the Spirit of God, “Be baptized.” I was on a plane landing at the airport in Albuquerque, NM (USA) at the time I heard this from the Holy Spirit.
My Church of Christ cousin was meeting me at airport.
I said to Jeanne, “If you can arrange it, I will be baptized this afternoon before I return to Dallas.”
Jeanne replied in a shocked voice, “But you’ve already been baptized.”
I said, “Yes … but I wasn’t born again. Now I am born again.”
As we drove along the road, I spoke of many things of God. Jeanne listened carefully, then she said: “I believe you are of God … I just don’t know how you can be.”
The last time I saw Jeanne, she was 93-years-old. She still did not understand what it was to be born again. She told me it is all just a matter of making up your mind and doing what is right.
She had no sign at all of spiritual understanding though she had been in Church of Christ since she was a baby.
Paul explains: I Cor. 2 … 6 Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: 8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. 10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit:for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
11 For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.
13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
14 But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. 16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct HIM? But we have the mind of Christ.
From Juliett Walton, Member of the Body of Christ …
When my brothers and I were
young around 5 or 6 our parents took us to a Baptist church that was located up
the hill from our house in Seattle. Both parents attended with us. We
would attend Sunday school class and then the main service.
Years later after I
had left home and moved to Denver, I was born again at the age of 32. I would
send my mother information on what I was reading and so forth. Years later
my mother spoke of being born again. She told me that one day she went down stairs into the
basement and something happened.
She could not explain it, but something happened. She was born
again. I noticed the change in her. I remember her saying "you must be born again".
This is what Jesus said in
the book of John.
John 3:3 …Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Church going people are blind as bats (they cannot see) unless they are born again.
I Jn. 1 …This then is the message which we have heard of HIM, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in HIM is no darkness at all. 6 If we say that we have fellowship with HIM, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
Before I was born again, I lied to people to make myself look better. I thought nothing of lying if I felt it would benefit myself.
After I was born again, God would not let me lie. Nor would God let me walk in hypocrisy, giving partial truths and leaving out things that made be look bad.
Now the Spirit of Truth was in me. I could not live in lies and hypocrisy. I had to live in truth.
I was stopped by God many times when I tried to color the truth.
Once I was on a plane back to Dallas from doing a week of Christian TV broadcasts.
God spoke to me by HIS Spirit and said: “Don’t do any more TV talk shows.”
I already had two more scheduled: Dallas & Phoenix
I thought surely God would want me to honor my word and do those shows.
But not so … When God said “Don’t do any more TV talk shows,” God meant don’t do any more TV talk shows.
I began thinking of how I could get out of these two shows which were already scheduled. What can I tell the hosts of these shows?
As I thought of various excuses, the Holy Spirit said to me: “Why don’t you just tell them the truth?”
From Pam Padgett: (teacher and Member of the Body of Christ)
I had a great-aunt who was very active in the Baptist church throughout her life, frequently attending services and volunteering to do things at the church such as cleaning the church building.
When she was in her 80's there was a family reunion which I attended. At one point, this great-aunt got up and asked for everyone's attention.
She then told with great joy that she had recently been born again! She had thought for years that she was born again, and knew that other people had thought this as well. But she hadn't really been born again until now.
Now she was born again!
Sitting next to me was one of this great-aunt's daughters. As her mother spoke, she leaned over to me and said she didn't know why her mother kept saying this, that of course her mother had been born again years before. She mentioned how her mother was "always" at the church doing various things.
(This daughter couldn't understand what her mother was doing and saying. I don't think she was born again so this seemed foolish to her ...
But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 1 Corin. 2:14)
My dad and sisters had also attended this family reunion. I later said to them how wonderful it was to hear what Aunt Eunice had shared. None of them seemed to have noticed what she said.
But it caused me to rejoice to hear what she shared, what God had done, and the joy she now had as a result. It was a though she couldn't keep from telling this, even when others didn't believe her. Because of God (not anything she had done) she was now born again!
In the parable of the tares, when the good seed brought forth fruit, the tares became visible ...
Matthew 13:24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field: 25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. 26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.
As this aunt brought forth fruit, sharing what God had done in her life, truth about her daughter was also seen ... that she wasn't born again (the tare became visible) ...for she couldn't understand what her mother was saying and doing and wanted her to stop doing this.
We may have various things in common with other people, and it seems that we are like them. But when we bring forth fruit from God, those who are not of God become apparent. For what we share from God makes no sense to them, and they often despise what we say and try to stop us.
From Joan Boney
In 1975 … I had a young friend who had been a Catholic . Then he left Catholic church and was born again and he just never stop talking about being born again .
I thought he was crazy .
He would carry on about being a Christian
I thought, "well isn't everyone". I certainly would have called myself a Christian .I was baptized in water when I was 15 ...at the time this happened I was about 37 ... Bill was at least 10 years younger than I.
Then on August 5, 1975 I was born again and taken into heaven twice in the night as I was asleep. Now this made sense to me ...One morning we were having breakfast. Bill was sort of like a St. Bernard puppy dog in personality ...happy bubbly ... a great big guy.
As Bill was eating I said to him, you know, Bill, you're really right. This being born again is wonderful!
“What I really like best about it is that thing that happens to you when you are asleep ... where you are taken into heaven in the night.” By that time I had been taken into heaven twice in the night as I slept.
Bill said “What are you talking about...?” I said, “I don’t know what it’s called. It's that thing where you're with God... you're with Christ ...the Holy Spirit's there and you become one with Jesus.
Bill stopped eating and looked at me and said, “What are you talking about ?”
Up to that point I thought that it happened to everyone who became a Christian.
It is amazing when you are going to church and have been baptized and think you're a Christian and you're not... and then you become born again
You don't understand being born again until you are born again, and no one who isn’t, doesn't understand, and can’t.
My friend David who died of ALS said he just walked out on his porch one day and something happened to him . David said, "I didn't think much about it". (This is like Juliett’s mother)
I know another woman who has a similar story something happened to her. She had been a drunkard and after this "something happened" she told her husband she was going to quit drinking and he sort of said “Yeah right”… but she knew something had happened to her and she was changed inside. (After this, she had the power to quit drinking! The power of the Holy Spirit. She had tried and failed many times before this.)
The stories of being born again are so exciting if we are born again!