BORN AGAIN
What does it mean to be ‘born again’?
Ask that question to anyone who claims to be a Christian, and you’ll get some interesting answers. But more than anything you’ll get blank looks and averted eyes.
And silence.
By very definition, a Christian MUST be born again. A Christian who is not born again is, by definition, not Christian.
To resolve this dilemma of their flock generally not being born again (which, were it not resolved, would mean forfeiting a tidy sum of money), mainstream “Christian” organizations have devised their own answers and mechanisms around what it means to be born again. In other words, they’ve redefined it.
Roman Catholicism claims that you’re born again at baptism, an event which usually occurs when you’re three weeks old. Evangelicalism claims that you can become born again at a mass altar-call, when you’re ‘slain by the holy spirit’ after voluntarily coming forward to receive said spirit. Other denominations claim that you just have to ‘pray’ the ‘sinner’s prayer’ and then, like magic, you’re born again (even if you don’t really feel born again).
Given the lack of authenticity of these ‘rebirths’, it’s no wonder that mainstream Christianity is in the state it’s in. Mainstream Christianity comes across as fake because it is fake.
To be spiritually reborn means to have God’s spirit come and live with you, not just sometimes (as with the Old Testament prophets) but all the time (as with Jesus). God’s spirit replaces the worldly (demonic) spirits in you. Those spirits are driven out and God’s spirit comes in. No other spirit can share a place in your soul with God’s spirit.
You either have God’s spirit, or you don’t.
You’re either born again, or you’re not.
There’s no middle ground here. There’s no “I think I am” or “We say you are, so you are.”
If you’re born again, you know it. There’s no faking it. There’s no thinking “maybe I am, maybe I’m not”.
Your life changes dramatically for the better.
When you’re born again, you increasingly see as God sees, and you experience ongoing joy that grows and grows and grows and grows the closer your will aligns with God’s. You align your will with God’s by choosing what you know is God’s will (i.e., doing the right thing). You do the aligning, not God. God’s job is to guide you into doing the right thing, not force you into doing it.
You can also choose not to align your will with God’s, but this would not be wise. Do this enough, and you’ll lose grace. Jesus tells us about a room that is swept clean of demons, only later to be filled with more and worse spirits. This can happen to any born-again. Be warned. Being born again is spiritual rebirth, spiritual rebirth is grace, and grace can be lost.
Be warned.
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Being born-again is an exorcism and the true starting point of your journey to heaven. But because those who are born again are yet in the world, they are still ‘burning off’ what doesn’t belong in heaven and can’t be taken there. Being born again doesn’t mean you’re automatically perfect like God or that you’ll never again sin; it means you’re striving for perfection and that you’re less likely to sin than someone who is not born again.
As long as you have free will, you can sin. Being born again doesn’t take away your free will. You’ll have free will as long as you’re in a mortal body, so as long as you’re in your mortal body, you’ll have the capacity to sin.
This doesn’t make you a ‘sinner’. It makes you a saint with the capacity to sin. Big difference there. Jesus had the capacity to sin, but nobody in his or her right mind would call Jesus a sinner. When you’re born again, you become like Jesus. Anyone who calls born-agains ‘sinners’ does not know what he/she is talking about and is actually blaspheming the holy ghost (which is not, according to Jesus, a recommended course of action).
Born-agains are saints, not sinners.
When you’re born again, your values reflect God’s values. This doesn’t happen by learning; it happens automatically with no effort on your part. For me (being born again from atheism), my values changed instantaneously, 180 degrees, 100%. No-one preached to me; my values simply changed.
I used to think as the Western world thinks and value what the Western world values (pro-homosexual rights, pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia, etc.) because I had the world’s spirits (demons) in me. Suddenly, after God exorcised me and his spirit entered me, I rejected everything I used to hold as self-evident or “enlightened” or “modern”. These changes came as part of the package deal of being born again. They took no effort on my part and have remained ‘who I am’ since the day I was reborn.
When you’re born-again, your sins are wiped clean away. Your soul is a ‘clean slate’. Jesus died so that you can be born-again, so that God’s spirit can take its rightful place in your soul. You have been reunited with God. The kingdom has come. God’s spirit is with you night and day, helping you do the right thing (i.e., make the right choices) so that you can make it to heaven. Being born again doesn’t mean you’re automatically getting into heaven. Being born again is a prerequisite for getting to heaven, not a ticket there.
Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying.
There are lots of liars who call themselves Christians. Some of them lie on purpose (wolves in sheep’s clothing) and some of them lie because they’re genuinely clueless about the kingdom (blind leading the blind). Paul says to test the spirits; don’t believe everything you’re told; test what they say against scripture and against what God’s spirit teaches you, one on one.
Don’t be fooled.
You are to follow only Jesus, not people. You are to be dependent only on God, not people. You are to look only to God for help and healing and comfort, not people.
Be like Jesus. That’s what it means to be born again.
CHURCH
Mainstream Christianity is made up of wolves in sheep’s clothing and the blind leading the blind. Jesus preached from the temples and synagogues; he didn’t join the congregations. We are to follow Jesus’ example in everything we do. If you’re in a mainstream commercialized ‘church’, get out. The only church you need to be a card-carrying member of is God’s church, of which you’re an automatic member when you’re born again.
All commercialized churches today are nothing but sanctimonious two-bit social clubs set up to fleece the flock. They’ll fleece you of your time, your money, your energy, and your spirit. They’ll load you down with guilt and feelings of obligation, fill your head with lies, and ultimately rob you of your rightful inheritance in God’s kingdom, if you let them.
In Revelation, we read about Jews who call themselves Jews but are instead the synagogue of Satan. The same can be said of mainstream Christian organizations today. Not one of them is of God.
Paul in his letters and John in Revelation talked about God’s church in various locations. None of those churches had any particular name; they were simply known by their location (i.e., the church in Ephesus or the church in Philadelphia). The fake Christian churches today all have ostentatious or downright demonic names (being named after “saints” instead of God, teaching people to pray to saints instead of God). Denominations are, every single one of them, of the devil. Not one of them is of God.
Let me repeat that and let it sink in – not one of the mainstream commercialized denominational so-called Christian churches is of God. Not one.
There is only one true church, and that’s the spiritual collect of all born-agains who are alive today on Earth. Admission to that church is granted by God alone. If some members of that church gather in a certain location, they would be referred to as “the church in Minnesota” or “the church in Niagara Falls”. But there is still only one true church. That church needs no special name or administrative body or infrastructure or incorporation papers. It doesn’t meet on a particular day or at a particular place or time. It doesn’t need a building. It doesn’t need an altar. It doesn’t need offerings.
It simply is.
God’s church cannot be destroyed because it was not built by man’s hands: it was built by God.
Wherever there is a truly born-again soul, there is God’s spirit, and there is his church.
BALLOON
Sometimes the longest journeys are the ones you take in between thoughts. You find yourself in a different place even when you didn’t know you were going anywhere. All of a sudden – there you are, far from where you were even a second ago. And how you got there is not with a ticket to ride but a momentary lapse in will. You let God take the reigns – and – off you go!
I have been travelling for the past several weeks, by train, by bus, and by plane. I have spent hours poring over route options and price points. In so doing, I have gotten where I planned to go, sometimes with delays, sometimes with detours. I eventually arrive, tired, and sticky from the heat. Most of the time there is a bed waiting for me, but not always. Sometimes there is just a chair in a waiting room, and counting the hours until the train or plane or bus arrives to whisk me away to the next bed or waiting room chair.
But always, in my mind, I stayed more or less in the same place.
Until now.
God often springs the biggest news on us when we least expect it. We can pray as fervently as we want, but God holds onto our personal version of the transfiguration until he knows he has our full will, not just our attention. Many times, in prayer, God has our attention, but our will we’ve already pointed in the direction we want to go. We’re like a prayer train lumbering full speed down the track, when instead we should be like a balloon, drifting with the wind.
Tonight, in between thoughts and plans and schedules and bookings, I momentarily turned into that balloon. It wasn’t my intention to do so; I just let “me” lapse for an instant, but it was long enough for God to catch hold and release me in the direction I need to go.
Jesus died on the cross long before his body did. Part of him was already in heaven even while the nails were still being hammered into his wrists and ankles. Our will, when aligned with God’s, can travel spiritual light years in an instant. This is not our doing. The best way to get where you want to go is to stop planning the best way to get there.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 