You can read Part One
to see the difference between false hopes and the real deal experience of being
born again. Born again is an event to surrender
control of your life to God, but it also includes an ongoing commitment to
inner person change in becoming a disciple of Christ. Being "born from above" is a journey of radical and
continuous transformation that cannot be fully explained in the natural
realm.
In the natural realm,
we consider maturing into adulthood a positive thing. In the spiritual, however, "adulthood" becomes a hindrance to transformation. The better off we think we are, the less open
to change. The more we think we know,
the less likely to be open to renewing our minds with God's truth . The more mature we are in our own
understanding, the less likely we are to choose God's wisdom over our own. I think Jesus had this in mind when he said,
“I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will
never enter the Kingdom of Heaven"
(Matthew 18:3; NIV).
Jesus didn't say we
must become better adults. He said we
must become children. Being "born
again" means we must consider ourselves babies, and continue the process
of "growing" and learning the remainder of our lives. There is no "full grown" adulthood
in spiritual life. We grow, and the
spirit part of our being has a greater influence on our character, but never
reach an "old age" phase in spiritual life. Growing spiritually means we surrender more and more of our
natural (physical) being over to God's control.
Spiritual re-birth
doesn't automatically fix the problems we face in our natural world
existence. Struggles in a marriage, for
example, always involve two people, and only one person changing will not
automatically make the marriage better.
Relationship problems are generally complex, and may even be aggravated
by oversimplifying with a weak claim of God's intervention. If you have a bad habit before you
"meet Christ," you still have the bad habit (or at least the tendency
to revert) after you "come to the Lord." A pastor friend of mine says, if you're a dummy before you
"get saved," you're still a dummy after you're "saved." "Believing in Jesus" is not a
once and done thing. Believing the
message of the gospel includes entrusting your life to the Author of the
message for daily application to your circumstances. Some phrases in quotes above, often become expressions people use
to hide behind their ongoing need for surrender to God.
Sometimes after
deciding to surrender to God a particular behavior or relationship issue, it
may even appear as though things are going backwards instead of forwards. Complying with God involves re-aligning our
life path with to His wishes. If
we've stepped into a path that leads
further away from God, it may mean a short backtrack to get on the right
path. The natural world principle of
sowing and reaping may apply to our physical circumstances (see Galatians
6:7-9). But if things seem to be
betting worse instead of better, take heart in the promise that, "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from
the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
He chose to give us birth through the
word of truth ..." (James 1:17-18).
For most of my life I
thought of born again from the conversion "event" perspective
only. Recently, I've been challenged
with "accepting Christ as Savior" to be a day to day, moment by
moment context of continual surrender.
In my counseling I work with many people who have experienced great pain
because of false beliefs and expectations about being born again. I've watched many Christians flounder with
lack of identity and purpose in life because they haven't fully embraced the
need to surrender more and more of their heart to the Holy Spirit's work to
change. The prophet Isaiah describes
them as "who have eyes but are blind, who have ears but are deaf" (Isaiah
43:8). Spiritually opened
eyes and ears are just the beginning of a journey of newly inspired action on
what is seen and heard. Born again
means your vision and perspective are ever aligning more and more with an
outlook from above. When this alignment
happens, seeing and hearing more clearly will produce more positive results, or
at least better responses, to your natural world existence.
The prophet Isaiah
prophecies of rebirth in his writings. Isaiah continues, "See, I am doing
a new thing! Now it springs up; do you
not perceive it? I am making a way in
the wilderness and streams in the wasteland" (Isaiah 43:19). Think of your heart as the wilderness and
your mind as the wasteland. Being born
again is for the purpose of restoring your connection with God at core of your
being and for the refreshing waters of life to renew your thinking processes and
belief systems so that your resulting actions bear "good fruit" (see
Galatians 5:22-23). The Apostle Paul
reiterates this theme many times in the New Testament. He plainly says that born from heaven into
life in Christ is, "to be made new
in the attitude of your minds; and
to put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and
holiness" (Ephesians 4:23-24; NIV).
This change begins as a Holy Spirit work in your heart and continues as
a Holy Spirit work throughout your life time.
Hell is real. Believing in Jesus will save you from
hell. But that is the LEAST it will
do. We are put on this earth to enjoy
God and worship Him by surrendering to the wonderful gift of life he
gives. Our eternal life, begins at
conversion, and the "forever with God" part starts then. The "living forever" part includes
the rest of our earthly lives to give new invaluable purpose and meaning on a daily basis.
Are
you facing challenges that don't seem to get resolved no matter how hard you
try? It could be that you're trying TOO
hard. Or perhaps you're at the other
end of the spectrum feeling powerless to do things you know are right, so you
don't take any action at all in the direction of godliness. In either case, the root issues are the same. True change can only happen through
surrender of control to God. The
messages that converts the heart is the same message that empowers the ongoing
conversion. The gospel that saves from
sin is the same gospel that mends brokenness that still lies within. Come to Jesus and keep coming. Never stop coming. That's what you've been born to do! by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry
