How To Be Born Again
I’ve waited my whole life to write this article. I think I finally have the insight to write it now. I’ve read the KJV Bible from cover to cover. Some pages I have read dozens of times. Others only once or twice. But I am always seeking scriptures that give guidance on “how to be born again”. Before today, I had a few pieces of the puzzle. After today, I think I have many of the puzzle pieces to share with you. Allow me to walk you through how to be born again – backed up by scripture – but explained in words that most can understand.
Once upon a time a Pharisee came to visit Jesus by night. This was a man of the Sanhedrin in Jerusalem. His name was Nicodemus and he was a well respected member of the Jews. He sought out Jesus to learn more about his fascinating doctrine. Nicodemus was the first to be taught by Jesus “how to become born again” …
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
John 3:3 KJV
I highly encourage you to read all of John 3 on this topic. I want to highlight yet one more specific verse from this Chapter …
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.
John 3:8 KJV
We can see that Jesus is giving some tips on how to be born again. But now I want to talk about free will. I think free will is key to understanding this. Out of free will, one must choose to believe in the Son of Man, the Christ, the Messiah, Yehoshua, Yeshua, Emmanuel, and in our current English tongue Jesus as your savior. Did I cover all the names? I hope so lol. This is what is defined in Acts 16:31 …
And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 16:31 KJV
These scriptures from Romans 10 are relevant too …
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Romans 10:9 KJV
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Romans 10:13 KJV
I would argue that believing and calling upon the name of the Lord is what saved one of the thieves hanging on the cross next to Jesus. And maybe that alone will work for some others – but Jesus says not all …
Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
Matthew 7:21 KJV
So now we can say with some certainty that the qualifications to be Born Again can actually vary from person to person. For some, just believing on Jesus will do. For others, doing the will of the Father is required. I want to emphasize 3 little words right here. “DOING THE WILL”. Let’s analyze it further.
After studying the Bible for years, I have been combing the scriptures to cover all bases to be Born Again myself. I had a big revelation about this today. I’ll walk you through it. Here we go.
We are born “the first time” into this world with free will, doing whatever we choose. When we are BORN AGAIN, from that point on, we choose to align our free will with the will of the Father. Your old self did whatever it wanted. You were your own god. That very much aligns with Aleister Crowley’s Thelema actually. Have you ever heard the phrase “do what thou wilt is the whole of the law”? Well, that is the highest commandment of the Thelema religion, which is the exact opposite of Christianity.
When you freely choose to align your free will with the Father’s free will THEN you are Born Again.
From that point on, your goal should be to stay “in sync” with the Father as much as possible. You are now like the wind (as Jesus described in John 3:8 about this topic), moving with power, in the direction the Lord pleases, on his desired timing.
It reminds me of a concept called “drafting” in auto racing. In auto racing (NASCAR, Formula One, etc) a valuable strategy is to stay on the bumper of the car in front of you to reduce wind friction. We want to do the same in life! The Father is the lead car. We are tailing. We want to be following the Father closely. He knows the best way to win this challenging race and we want to tail him to victory.
But there is possibly more needed, as far as I can tell. We can’t forget about Jesus – who took an absolute beating for us. You need to love Jesus for taking a massive hit for you. You see, you likely racked up a lot of sin, and you probably will rack up some more – although your sinning should drastically reduce from here on out! After all, you’ll be syncing up your free will to the Father’s free will, right? But you still need to love Jesus for taking a brutal hit for your sins. He is our redeemer. But Jesus has a special way of measuring love …
If ye love me, keep my commandments.
John 14:15 KJV
This is mentioned a lot by Jesus in John 14 specifically. John 14 and Matthew 7 are keys to understanding this, but now we have all the ingredients to bake this cake.
HERE IS HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN …
- Sync up your free will with the Father’s free will.
- Love Jesus for taking the hit for your sins.
- Read your KJV Bible so you know Jesus and the Father better.
The 10 Commandments are a great starting place. I suggest listening to all of Matthew / Mark / Luke / John on audio book in a weekend or two. You will then be off to a great start. It’s not that tall of an order to get started!
Now let’s talk about what can go wrong. If you choose to “disconnect” from the free will of the Father, then you have gone back to your old ways. You have become your own god once again. Disconnecting from the free will of the Father is commonly referred to as “backsliding”. See Jeremiah 3:22, Jeremiah 8:5, Jeremiah 14:7 for some backsliding scriptures (and I’m sure you can find more).
I have tried to give you the keys, but we can investigate the topic a little further if you want. What I have said about “syncing up your free will to the Father’s free will” is valuable to understanding some other scripture as well. For example …
- The concept of “the new man” / “the new woman”. This is described in Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3. The old man / the old woman is your first born state – which did whatever it wanted. The new man / the new woman is your second born state, which is born again, which is you choosing to have your free will aligned with the Father.
- Denying yourself / Crucifying your flesh / dying to your flesh / denying your flesh / taking up your cross daily. All these things are describing the struggle to keep your free will synced up with the Father’s free will (which obviously isn’t always easy).
- The Comforter / Holy Ghost / Holy Spirit is like our own personal co-pilot on board this flesh suit, helping us fly in sync with the Father.
Just a quick note in closing. For the longest time, I had such a hard time understanding how am I supposed to “die to the flesh” in any practical sense. I’m walking around in a flesh suit on the Earth! That is the reality of the situation! How am I supposed to “die to it”? Now I have this perspective. When we are born into the world, your old brain serves your flesh. But when we sync up to do the Father’s will, our new brain strives to serve our Creator, conducting missions for the Father. Now it makes much more sense to me!