Being born again is more than a literal statement. Being born again is a spiritual blessing. Being born again is a gift of adoption. It shows that God chose us to be members of his family and we are no longer destined to roam the earth homeless. By accepting His offer to be our Father, we entered His Home and are no longer Gentiles. We have become part of His chosen family. We have been reborn of the Spirit. See John 3:1-10.
To reiterate yesterday’s Post, ‘we are no longer destined to hell.’ Our Walk is redirected and aligned with the destiny God created for us.
Will we walk down the new path? That is a personal question that only you can answer. Most of us weave on and off the trail to our destiny. The beauty is, we can re-center ourselves on the path and can ask for help if needed. God responds by saying, do not look to the left or right. Listen to my voice.
Being born again cannot be literal. Our human body is birthed one time and is not a voluntary act. It is the end process of pregnancy. Our spiritual rebirth is voluntary and is permitted as the result of free-will. What is the purpose of constructing a robot and not allow it to become intuitive? The intuitive nature is what allows the robot to choose direction and paths. The same is true of us. God created us to join Him in a (biblical) relationship. The relationship needs free-will, or it cannot be defined as a relationship.
The dictionary describes a relationship as the way in which two or more concepts, objects, or people are connected, or the state of being connected. According to Bible.org, the word, “biblical” is an adjective and describes the relationship as one that meets the criterion of the Bible as it describes and delineates the principles that should characterize any relationship.
Our relationship is both biblical and personal. It began the moment we realized our need 
for Him, and admit we are sinners, and in faith receive Jesus Christ as Savior. The first relationship we had with God was when He created Adam and Eve, to set up two-way communication. They walked with Him in the garden and talked directly to Him. Do to the sin of man, we became separated and disconnected from God.
I feel comfortable in saying that the Lord longed for an on-going relationship with His people and had to reset how He would accomplish it. He decided to send Himself to earth in the form of Jesus to experience mankind incarnate. He gave us a gift when He allowed Jesus to be hung on the cross. The gift is another example of free-will. Jesus during the crucifixion process momentarily operated under the free-will clause, asking God, ‘why, why do you deny me.’ Jesus then thought about the consequences of not going through the crucifixion and said, ‘but your will be done and not mine.’
I bring this into the discussion because I believe God, knowingly accounted for the prospect of free-will being turned against Him, as in the case of Adam and Eve and eating the apple. It worked on His behalf when Jesus denied himself and followed the 
path God designed to reunify His relationship with us. He offers the reunification to all of us. The gift was placed deep within us before birth, in that He knew us long before we were born. My experience with longing for relationship entered early in life. It always felt that something, a nagging desire, existed within me to know God more deeply. Like most of us, this is a deep-seated feeling, one that initially cannot be defined. It is not until later in life that this feeling was more than an emotion. Earlier in life when I attended children’s church and Summer Bible Camp, I learned about Christ. My soul was being fed and putting a frame around this longing.
Interestingly, this did not automatically create cognitive thoughts about entering a deep relationship with God. I pondered how to accomplish this, but I do not believe it is within our purview to do so. One day during service, an altar call was made, and my
soul cried out. I then went forward to receive Christ as my Lord and Savior (physically and spiritually) and then entered the relationship he offered me before I was born. (Clarification – You don’t have to wait for an altar-call, you can read the scripture aloud in a room by yourself or in front of others.)
Through this process, I received a spiritual blessing and a personal relationship with God. I can go to God in prayer; He is my Counselor, Psalm 16:7; Psalm 32. I can cry to Him. I can share my fears and most private thoughts with Him. He is All truth. He is my Comforter, John 14:16. I can go to Him when I am ill. He is my Healer, Jehovah-Rapha/ Yahweh-Rapha, Exodus 15:26. I can go to Him when I am 
lost. He is my Shepherd, Jehovah-Rohi/Yahweh-Rohi, Psalm 23:1. I can go to Him in times of need. He is my provider, Jehovah-Jireh/Yahweh-Jireh, Genesis 22:14. I can go to Him when I have sinned. He sanctifies me and makes me Holy, Jehovah- M’Kaddash/Yahweh-M’Kaddesh, Leviticus 20:8; Ezekiel 37:28. I can look to Him for security. He is my Father, Elohim, Genesis 17:7; Jeremiah 31:33. His is a short list of the names of God. It is important to know the rest, though not as important when speaking with Him in prayer. A name defines us but is not used as part of the salutation throughout conversations and therefore not a requirement in communicating with God. Exposing Jesus’ name protects us from the attacks of the evil one. He is Jehovah-Palat. He is my Deliverer., Psalm 144:2. The Lord’s name is a strong tower. I can run into it, Proverbs 18;10. He sees me. He is Jehovah-El Roi, Genesis 16:13, He is YHWH, Jehovah, our Lord, and Savior. It is by His great Mercy that I am Born Again. Being born again is not and can not be a literal act. Being born again is spiritual. It is our admission to ‘home’.
ReBlog – https://wp.me/p98Coa-yY
Images – Google Images; YouVersion. Bible.com
Scriptures – Biblica.org; Biblegateway.com
Resources – 100 Names of God. Daily Devotional. Christopher D. Hudson, 2015; What are the Different Names of God and what do they mean? Got Questions.org. 9/2018
Thank you for visiting my Young Christian Warriors site and dailyinspiration-lisasthoughts.com, at the moment there is some duplication. I am working on merging the two to create one great site. Please bear with me through this process.
man to prosper. All of our senses are tuned into the shiny things of this earth that are constantly bombarding us. We are in a constant state of warfare; tug and war. Our choices are this world or the heavenlies.
that I needed to make decisions to walk away from some things, refocus, and galvanize others. in short, reaching my spiritual destination is the focus of my life.
We are looking for our level of dependency on the Lord and whether we heard his voice and instructions and acted accordingly. This is a process, but first, we must ask ourselves, do we know how to identify Gods voice because if we cannot, we cannot be obedient.
Jesus said, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
At times we hear the evil one mimicking the Lord’s voice nudging us to do or say something that is not consistent with the Word of God, and sometimes we follow the flock that does not belong to the Lord.
Fruit of the Spirit or Gods’ laws. We have to learn to identify which voice we are hearing. It is not exactly black or white, there is a third voice, our own, which sends us down a pathway fit for fools. You may ask, how do we avoid the pitfalls? The answer is, we learn His voice by reading the Bible, studying scriptures, researching commentaries, going to Bible Study and discussing the Word with others more mature in how to apply the Word of God in their lives. This is a lifelong process, but like Olympians, we may fall, stumble or fail, but we get back up and correct our weaknesses.
Each week or month, recap your experiences that you have written down. How often did you identify the quiet voice as the evil one, how often was it the folly of your own making, and how often was it the quiet voice of God. Applying this process provides you the tools to manage your behavior while eliminating negative behavior. This process is similar to the steps Harm Reduction uses where you identify the attributes you want to maintain as those you want to eliminate.
Consecration is not so much a ceremonial time as it is a commitment, a time of inspiration and gratitude. Lent is more sacrificial, in that Catholics and some Protestant denominations use this time to attain God’s blessing, which is antithetical because the New Testament teaches that grace cannot be earned, grace is the gift of righteousness.
In essence, we give up our own claims on ourselves and put ourselves in Gods hands.
