Степан

Stepan

The birth from above or being born again begins first of all when listening to the word of God and believing in it, which becomes clearer under the leadership of the Holy Spirit that the Messiah, the Son of God Jesus Christ has come to save all mankind. As a result, there is the abandonment of slave sinful life and the beginning of a new life without the bondage of sin. Man becomes different and he decides to follow Christ without being enslaved by sins or sin, because he no longer does them and leaves them. Yet it is impossible to leave sin on one's own, especially the so-called besetting sin or sin, which is hard to leave or the one that they do not know about. Therefore, it is necessary to ask the Father of Heaven that he helps by the Holy Spirit to discover such a state. Those who do not see sin or do not realize that they are sinners cannot be born again. Sin leads a person to a miserable state, to weakness and awareness of his spoiled nature, if, of course, a person begins to understand what it is. The one who will seek the truth from all his heart sooner or later will know that there is а sin and not somewhere else at the other end of the world, but in him and that he does sin. All this arises under the influence of the audible word of God and the action of the Holy Spirit on the basis of the saving sacrifice of Jesus Christ. And then, if he wants to free himself from this state, the birth from above may begin.

Born again is described in the following passages:

Цитата из Библии:

John 3:5 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.
7. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

James 1:18 Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.

Rome 10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

1Pet 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

Hebr. 12:1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

Luke 15:13 And not many days after the younger son gathered all together, and took his journey into a far country, and there wasted his substance with riotous living.
14 And when he had spent all, there arose a mighty famine in that land; and he began to be in want.
15 And he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country; and he sent him into his fields to feed swine.
16 And he would fain have filled his belly with the husks that the swine did eat: and no man gave unto him.
17 And when he came to himself, he said, How many hired servants of my father's have bread enough and to spare, and I perish with hunger!
18 I will arise and go to my father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee,
19 And am no more worthy to be called thy son: make me as one of thy hired servants.
20 And he arose, and came to his father. But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him.
21 And the son said unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son.
...
32 It was meet that we should make merry, and be glad: for this thy brother was dead, and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

Where is the moment with the prodigal son, when we can say that he was born again or revived? This is verse 20, he got up and went with the earlier decision of repentance. First, there are prenatal contractions, where the flesh and our spirit fight, there is a struggle for leadership, then a push is needed, the last push and a cry of a newborn appears. This is our spirit. As a result, we can express this in one word about being born again, and this will be repentance, true not feigned, the first repentance, which will lead to the exit from the dead state.

Now, when the "child" on this path will breathe correctly, eat mother’s milk, sleep and grow, he will grow into an adult and independent person. The flesh at this time starves, atrophies and turns into a dwarf. Without a parent, our spirit can die. For this, there is the Holy Spirit, as our Parent and Mentor on the way to God.

And here for some there is a difficulty. They thought that after repentance, all sinful feelings would disappear instantly and seeing that this did not happen. Feelings are confused with sin. Is this a mistake? - no, it is necessary to continue to go to God further, for 100 feet the cries of sinful flesh will be heard barely, and for 1 mile they will completely disappear. People often do not know this and think that they have not repented. Having trodden on the spot, they can turn back on the sinful path, then, having come to their senses again, having understood the situation, they turn back to God. So for some it can take years, some make one turn.

Our nature or we ourselves are dual: our spirit and flesh, not meat, as I say - both spiritual. But flesh cannot go to God with our spirit. The Father at this time reaches out His hands and takes our spirit into His restored fellowship. At this time, our spirit receives the abandoned food of our father’s bread, and the flesh begins to starve or scream for food, which is expressed in us by sinful feelings, which, even after repentance, we still run amok, but this is not a sin.

To be born again is to be born of the word of God and the Holy Spirit. In the quoted passages, one can easily see that water is equated with the word of God. Christ brought the parable of the two sons, as it is called about the prodigal son. This is a very good example of being born again. There you can watch it.

A son has left his father or a man has left God. When Adam bit the forbidden fruit, then our spirit, which God lusts to envy, as His own Son, Adam died, did not literally disappear, but separated and left God. At this moment, we lost direct communication with God. That son no longer communicated with his father. Then our spirit died, at the same time a new flesh or a new spiritual substance appeared that resists our spirit and does not want to communicate with God. He moves from his father and squanders his fortune to please his lusts. We become, as it were, completely carnal, the flesh dominates. As it is written in Gal 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

The flesh, planted by the devil, does what our spirit, through our conscience, tells us not to do, and condemns such acts. At that time, we don’t understand this quiet voice, and if we do, the desire for a feeling of "freedom" from the influence of our father inspires us to feats for which it then becomes excruciatingly painful.

If I may say so, two spiritual people appeared in us: spirit and flesh. Flesh is not meat, but that which resists our spirit, i.e. a spiritual being with similar desires, like our spirit. He desires, meat cannot desire, brains or a person is needed which can expressed through. At this moment, we turned away and went away from God. It is the same that the prodigal son took all his estate and squandered it, and he did not have money for existence.

What is the birth from above in the case of the prodigal son? This happens when our spirit, realizing its fallen state, stops and decides to go back to Godhead, comes to its senses, as was the case with the prodigal son. Sinful food becomes disgusting and you want real father’s bread. The mud of a swine swamp clouds life. This is not repentance, but the recognition of one's sin; there is also not yet a birth from above.

If in one word we can express a birth from above, then this is repentance. Real repentance when a person forsakes sin. Repentance is when our spirit, after stopping, turning around, took the first decisive step to go back to God-Father and went, which is always accompanied by a cry or cry of the birth of a new child. Our spirit at this time is born from above or born again. Who gives birth to us? The Holy Spirit sows the word of God in us, it acts and leads a person to the realization of his sinful life. The Holy Spirit through the bathhouse water of the word of God washes us, renews or revives us from a dead state to a living one. Thus, the lost fellowship with God is restored, was dead and and is alive again; and was lost, and is found.

At the pivot point ‟our flesh dies”, it cannot cross the line of repentance, but it also does not disappear and remains with us always when we live on Earth, because we still sin after that. It is written that those born of God do not sin, but we know from the Scriptures that we sin a lot. I explain it simply. Answer the question: who was born of God or born again? - our spirit. This is our spirit who cannot sin. Who sins then? - my flesh or not our spirit, born of the devil. He is not ours, because initially God created us with our spirit. Then some will say: it means that I am not sinning, but the flesh. That is true, but, unfortunately, the flesh and our spirit are our "I" or myself. When it is said that a person born of God does not sin, this applies to our spirit, to my part, and not to me as all. I am still composed of another of our spirit - the flesh. But in the end, I also sin, but not our newly born spirit in me, which God loves jealousy. The spirit born of God does not sin, but the flesh sins. On the one hand it’s easy to understand, but on the other it’s hard.

It is written: 1Cor.12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether [we be] Jews or Gentiles, whether [we be] bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. Many of the Baptists consider this to be a baptism with the Holy Spirit. They say, Christ through the Holy Spirit baptizes in the body of Christ. John the Baptist said: Matthew 3:11 I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and [with] fire. From this they concluded that John baptized in water in repentance, then, like this, Christ will baptize into the body by means of the Holy Spirit. This clearly shows the logical discrepancy in the construction of expressions. John says that I baptize in water in repentance, and they say, Christ baptizes by means of the Holy Spirit into the body. Moreover, for such an explanation it is necessary to add that which is not written, the Scripture does not say that Christ baptizes, but the Holy Spirit baptizes into the body. Such addition to the written word of God is unacceptable.

Born again is not the baptism with the Holy Spirit ether. There is an opinion, especially among Pentecostals, that being born again is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. The baptism with the Holy Spirit began on the day of Pentecost after the resurrection of Christ. In the Old Testament, no one was baptized with the Holy Spirit, and therefore, if the baptism with the Holy Spirit was a born again state, no one from the Old Testament would have been saved, because if someone is not born again, he will not see and will not be in the Kingdom of God. The example of the robber also confirms this, he was not baptized with the Holy Spirit, but according to Christ, he will be in the Kingdom of God, where no one will go without being born again. So, the robber was born again on the cross.