Blueprint on Being Born Again
“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’ (Matthew 7:21-23)
When it comes to the New Birth, there are specific instructions given by Jesus on how to enter into heaven. Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3:5). Even though Jesus gave the exact blueprints on how to be born again, instead of the authentic born again experience, many people settle for a “sinner’s prayer” and never truly receiving the forgiveness of God and walking in the fullness of the Holy Spirit. People go through the formalities of repentance and might have a tinge of remorse, but not enough of a repentant heart to change. We even find leaders in the body of Christ who have incredible accomplishments on the outside, yet their private lives are full of darkness. This is heartbreaking. Many will come to Jesus that day thinking they were alright with God, but things were not alright. While we’re on the other side of heaven, its war. There are unseen, demonic forces coming against us every single day to rob of our salvation. Jesus even revealed to us from the parable of the sower that the enemy’s job description is to steal the word of God from our hearts. This means that Satan can literally steal the truth from us. Salvation was not a one-time event, it’s an ongoing, intentional journey of trusting in God’s finished work and His Word over our lives. While the enemy tries to steal, kill and destroy us, God has come to give us life and life more abundantly (John 10:10).
There’s a difference in being a “cultural Christian” and being a “born again believer.” We have a notion that going to church, singing some songs every Sunday constitutes being “saved,” but that is no different from other religions who practice the same things. We must be Born Again, where we fully trust in Jesus Christ and Christ alone for our salvation. The robber on the cross never opened the doors of church even once, but he was saved, because of his wholehearted love for Jesus. Being a “Christian” doesn’t get you into heaven, being “born again” does, because it gets heaven into us through the Holy Spirit. Too many people half-heartily say a “sinner’s prayer”, get some “fire insurance,” but still live like hell and expect to get into heaven. It doesn’t work that way. Our relationship with God is a journey. Salvation is a process. Our first prayer to confess Jesus as Lord was the starting line, not the stopping point.
Some doors are operated electronically and you need a four pin passcode to enter in. In the same way, there’s a 4 pin passcode to enter into the Kingdom of God. It was anticipated in the gospels, assumed in the epistles, but clearly articulated in the book of Acts. The four steps to being born again are as follows:
Repent from sin towards God
Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ
Be Baptized
Receive the Holy Spirit
If we try to get into the Kingdom of heaven any other way, it would be impossible. We will show up to the doors of heaven one day, only to be shut out, because we never followed what was clearly mandated by God through Jesus Christ. Carnal Christians who look Christian, but live like the devil will not get into heaven, nor will cultural Christians/Catholics get into heaven. Jesus clearly revealed the at one must be BORN AGAIN in order to see or enter into the Kingdom of heaven. If there is anything to examine in this life while we have the breath in our lungs and the life in our bodies is whether or not we are born again. If you are not born again, follow the words of Jesus before it’s too late.
We need to give new believers a proper start in life. (The way we begin is so important). We must use New Testament language, this leads to New Testament thinking. A text out of context becomes a pretext for our own thinking.
Where in the Bible do we get instructions on evangelism/Born Again Experience?
Gospels too early (Jewish/Christian transition period)
Epistles and Revelation too late (written to Christians)
So we look in Acts (In particular chapters 8 & 19)
I believe that in these last days, God is bringing about a holistic understanding of the BORN AGAIN EXPERIENCE. Emphasis of the born again experience differs in different Churches. Liberals emphasize Repentance. Evangelicals focus primarily on Faith (believe). Sacramental churches focus on water Baptism and Pentecostals on the Holy Spirit. We need all four steps to birth someone correctly into the Kingdom of God. We can’t simply pick and choose verses for our salvation. Our disregard for the text from oversimplification will shipwreck our faith. We need all four elements for a strong life in God.
We need a holistic understanding. God is sovereign, but he’s not going to MAKE you saved. He won’t ever force his grace upon you. Grace is a free gift to be RECEIVED. God has His part and we have our part. God cannot do our part, nor can we do God’s part. God provided salvation when Jesus hung on the cross, so that we can be forgiven, but we must do our part by actually believing and receiving it. Some people are waiting on a supernatural experience and never receive it, because they are waiting on an experience that already happened 2000 years ago at Calvary. To be born again, we must fully trust in the finished work of the cross and respond to God through genuine repentance, wholehearted belief, water baptism and the receiving the Holy Spirit. Even in ordinary human relationships, it takes both parties to make it work, God has done His part. Now, it’s our turn to do ours by receiving what God has done and walking in our inheritance. The hindrance to being born again is believing there is a hindrance. There can be several factors that won’t allow you to receive God’s love, including guilt, shame, condemnation, love for sin and unbelief. But when these hindrances are removed through repentance, the love of God would be realized.
It’s fascinating that Jesus referred to this salvation experience to a birth and said that we must be “born again.” Being born again isn’t about getting into an argument over what constitutes the new birth. Different camps from different thoughts, theologies and denominations may argue about when a person actually saved, but we can’t treat the born again experience as some formula, but a freedom that Jesus is inviting us into. We must dive into what the text says and do whatever God tells us to do.
When Jesus said, you must be born again, He was giving us a huge hint on what the Born Again experience is like. He’s basically saying that its like a birth. The birth is a very holistic experience. Every aspect of the birthing experience is needed for a healthy baby. The coming of out of the birth canal and cutting of the umbilical cord is a representation to repentance and belief (out of the darkness into the light), the first washing of the baby is connected to water baptism and when the baby takes the first breath is a representation of receiving the Holy Spirit. We would never argue on when the baby is born, but we will ask the question if everything was done correctly to birth a healthy baby. The question shouldn’t be, “Is the baby born when it comes out of the womb?”, but the question should be: is he/she alive?
The Born Again experience also addresses all three person of the Godhead. Repentance is towards the Father. A great illustration of this is from Luke 15, the parable of the prodigal son. It was when he “came to his senses,” and decided in his mind to change (repentance), which became his first huge step towards the right direction. Belief and Baptism is towards Jesus Christ, trusting that only Jesus died for sin and has the power to wipe away our past. To prove that He is God Supreme and has the authority and power to forgive sin, He died our death on a cross to satisfy the wrath of God against sin and on the third day, He broke the power of death by rising from the dead. There is no one like Jesus. Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius — they are all still in the grave. They possess no power to forgive sin or give us a power over death.
Lastly, receiving of the Holy Spirit is critically important, because Jesus said, "unless you are born of WATER and the SPIRIT, you cannot be born again.” One must receive the third person of the Godhead, God the Holy Spirit into our inner sanctum for us to be regenerated and completely revived. When we stop at a sinner’s prayer, we short change ourselves of the glorious riches of the inheritance we have in God. Therefore, it is critical that as believers, evangelists, pastors and leaders we must help new believers experience the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, who is separate from Jesus Christ. He is one with Christ in essence, but He is a separate in person. This is the glory and mystery of the Trinity. Jesus is in heaven, waiting to return a second time, but before the second coming, God has sent us the Holy Spirit to fill us and empower us to finish the mission Jesus gave us to do.
We are called to be Spiritual Midwives to help birth people correctly into the Kingdom of God. If we don’t help people to receive the Holy Spirit, people will remain carnal and not spiritual. If there’s a people who should be the most spiritual, it should be the church, because we have been given the Holy Spirit. But the enemy knows this and it’s no wonder that the subject of the Holy Spirit gets every scrutinized and attacked, because once the Holy Spirit is received, it’s game over for the enemy. Take a look at the Book of Acts. When the Holy Spirit came, He turned cowardice disciples into courageous witnesses of the gospel. It’s heart-breaking to meet people who claim to be “spiritual.” Many have left the church, because they find more power outside of the church — in witchcraft, fortune tellers and mediums than Christians inside of the church. It’s heartbreaking to see so many people under this deception, because was God’s idea for us to be Spiritual. When God created Adam and Eve and breathed into them His breath, the ruah Hakodesh, the wind, also known as the Person of God, the Holy Spirit, they became living beings. When they sinned against God, the Holy Spirit vacated their inner sanctum. Therefore, Jesus comes and breathes on us again. But if we do not teach people on the born again experience, we will only add to the mass exodus of young people coming out the church as they leave their “religion.” To relegate Christianity down to a religion is one of Satan’s greatest masterpieces. The only way to break this Spirit of religion is to invite people into an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ by receiving the Holy Spirit. It takes God to know God, but many people are trying to access God by other means calling it “spiritual,” but one day, they will be rudely awakened to the fact that they had relationships with demons, rather than the one true God, Jesus Christ.
My wife gave birth to four of our beautiful children. With every birth, I’m reminded of how painful it is to give birth. One must literally sacrifice one’s body to give life to another. In the same way, Jesus shed his blood so that we can be born again in His Kingdom. For our last two babies, we’ve had a midwife to help us deliver our children. Delivering a baby is not an easy process. We are called to stand in the gap as a intercessor between Jesus and unbelievers, so that they can be correctly birthed into the Kingdom. There would be nothing more devastating to see a baby die in the process. In the same way, we cannot treat the born again experience lightly. We help birth souls correctly so that may give people the proper start in their walk with Jesus in the power of the Holy Spirit. We cannot afford to give people a simplistic gospel. The gospel is simple, but it’s not simplistic. We must examine the scriptures and diligently study on how people were born again in the early church and continue in the faith that Jesus died for, so that we will not waste our time doing church programs and see many taking the wide road to destruction and be cut off from the very source of love and life for all of eternity. We must get this gospel under our skin and save as many people as we can while we still have breath in our lungs.