The True Born Again Experience
The True Born Again Experience
In this world, there are a plethora of opinions about being Born Again, but what matters is what’s in the Bible. It’s sad to say that there are loads of churches that intentionally fly in the face of Scripture. This site stands with what Scripture says about the Born Again experience.
Let’s examine. What is it to be Biblically Born Again?
John 3:5-8
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
Acts 2:38-39
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.
From the Scriptures above, we see clearly a few things. Let’s examine 3:
1 – A person does not enter the kingdom of God without being born of Water and of Holy Spirit (John 3:5)
2 – On the day of Pentecost, Peter told the convicted Jews around him to repent, to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, and that they will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38).
3 – If you repent, and are baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus, you are promised the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:39).
On topic 1:
Some people say that the “Born of Water” here means the womb. This is not so, and the Greek word for water used here is “hydor” (pronounced hudor, and is listed in the Strong’s Concordance as G5204). This is the same water that is referred to when Phillip actually baptized a believer in Acts 8.
Acts 8:36-39 KJV:
“36 And as they went on [their] way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See, [here is] water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?
37 And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.
38 And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.
39 And when they were come up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more: and he went on his way rejoicing.”
In future pages, this will be discussed further, if need be.
On topic 2:
Truth told, unfortunately, the overwhelming majority of churches in modern day don’t even understand the importance of this passage, let alone practice what the Bible instructs us to do in this context. Why does this matter? Let’s take something that’s every day for most people- making food.
Lets use the example of a cook trying to make brownies according to a recipe. The instructions call for their packaged chocolate brownie mix, 2 eggs, some milk, and then to heat it at 410 degrees for 13 minutes.
Now, for this example, the cook doesn’t read the instructions. He just takes the dry mix, puts it in a pan, puts the pan in an oven, and starts cooking. He doesn’t read the directions, so he’s cooking this for 20 minutes. This hard, sugary, semi melted mush of chocolate and flower now sits in what could have been some great brownies. Sure, it tastes kinda like a brownie, but it’s hard, powdery, and not very digestible.
Why didn’t he get the results of those great brownies? He didn’t follow the directions, and therefore he didn’t get the results. He took PART of the recipe, and followed it to a point, but it wasn’t a finished product, because he left a few things out. Therefore, he didn’t get the results he had hoped for.
If we can understand why the guy didn’t get good brownies, why are we shocked when people don’t follow the Bible and consequently DON’T have the results that people in Bible times had?
This story is much like what happens when churches don’t follow the Bible. Ok, it looks kinda- Christian like, we see some references to the Lord Jesus here and there. We see some attempts and doing Bible things such as worship and Bible study, but it’s not warm and welcoming as it should be. It’s often burnt out, distasteful, and nowhere close to as enjoyable as true Christianity.
This leads to topic 3:
If you DO follow the Bible, you DO get the RESULTS! You absolutely CAN receive Holy Spirit baptism, and when you do, you’ll NEVER ever question the existence of God in your life, because you’ll know. You’ll have that true faith that the Bible speaks about in Hebrews 11:1 – the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
See, it’s not a BLIND faith. We do see lots of things, but there is an EVIDENCE to faith that surpasses the eyes. When you experience God in the way the Bible wants you to, you will never wonder if God exists, because you will now have an experience that supports the faith. There are plenty of visible evidences to God’s existence, but that’s not where faith comes from. Let’s examine Hebrews 11:1-3:
“1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
2 For by it the elders obtained a good report.
3 Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”
You want to know if God exists? This challenge, just like the scientific method, works if you put it to use the way the directions say it. If the rules are broken, when testing a scientific method, you can’t possibly expect the same results that the scientist had. Being that is the case, how much more detrimental to the results if you alter the directions God gave us?
With this said, I want to make something clear:
While it is not my desire nor purpose to sell you the gospel or enforce it on you, I want to make it abundantly clear it is my desire that you HAVE this Born Again experience!
If I never did take the Acts 2:38 challenge, I wouldn’t be sitting here writing this. I would likely still be an unbeliever, maybe investigating other religions. I have been 8 religions in my life. I probably would have just kept going and written Christianity off in my journey if I didn’t experience God for myself. But, since God saved me in March 20th of 2005, I have never switched religions again, and never will. I have no need to, God has proven Himself, and He can for you too, if you want to and are willing to follow His directions.