Being Born Again

Being born again is a term that is used quite frequently around the world to express the spiritual awakening of people to the life of God. It can also represent an action of God to reveal himself and fill a person with His spirit. Jesus referred to this terms by saying, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again." (John 3:3) The words "born  again" can also be translated as "born from above". Nonetheless, this term is representative of a much greater event than just praying a "sinners prayer" and thinking you have been born again. There is a much greater need to be recognized than just thinking that you must change the way you are living and drawing a line in the sand.

There are many times when I look back at the time I consider to be the spiritual awakening of my soul and consider the event a new beginning or regeneration of my life. It happened when I was 27 years old and I remember the time and event with clarity. It was a definite "waking up" of my whole being. As if I had been in a semi-conscience state of existence before then. My "born again" experience was vivid and real as I came to a spiritual awareness of who God was and who I was. A reality of how sinister and dark I had been and how full of light and life He was overwhelmed me.

Could this experience be the only way that being "born again" happens with people? I looked and read again what Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God without being born again." (John 3:3) And Peter says,"...be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38).These seemed pretty clear to me that something had to change or happen with distinct purpose on the part of receiving something or something being added to the essence of my being.Something that I was not able to do within myself or with my resources alone. This event and change had to be generated from the life of God and be imputed into me through his power. Being born from above was not just going to be something that happened without some cognizance on my part. I would experience something that was real and definate.

So, I asked a couple young men if this something had happened to them. One said, "I don't remember anything like that happening to me" and the other spoke of a spiritual warmness that flowed over him while performing a foot-washing for another young man. I tried to be open minded and think if this was what Jesus was talking about and if these young men had experienced a "born again" event. I concluded that they probably did not. But then there really wasn't any definition of how this was going to happen when Jesus spoke about it. Just that it would need to happen for a man to enter into the Kingdom of God.

I looked up "born again" on the internet and there were lots of definitions of what that ment and alot of different things denominations thought about it. I'm not sure I feel comfortable with any of them but some were close to what I think it is. Then again maybe I don't know either. I believe I do. I believe I have been. I have a very real sense of God in my life continually and feel his leading most of the time. There are times when I am on auto-pilot and don't consciously think about it. But I do know that I had a meeting with God and it was a real event and it changed me so dramatically that I could no longer do the things I was doing before. I could not go on talking the way I had been used to talking with every other word a cuss word and I could not dismiss the thoughts I was thinking about people and my heart would melt every time I saw injustice and injury to them. The very thoughts I had been used to thinking passed away and thoughts of joy, peace and love filled my mind.

Whether or not the words "born again" are directly related to my experience or not I had something happen that changed my life forever. It was a meeting with God and he put something in me (His spirit) that changed me. That I know is true. I would guess if you are reading this and you don't know what I am talking about, then you may not know God personally and you may want to cry out to Him and ask him to reveal himself to you. That is of course, if you want to be born again and be joined together with His spirit and become one with him. If not, I would suggest doing nothing.