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Many church people today claim that they are born again and that they possess the Holy Spirit of God in their hearts. Oh, how beautiful it will be if all Christian believers were genuinely born again.
The recreation of your spirit or heart by the Holy Spirit is called regeneration or spiritual renewal. In other words, it is what we call the born again experience. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ spoke to Nicodemus about as recorded in John 3:1-8.
Now, a person’s spirit can be recreated when they are forgiven and freed from the bondage of sin by Christ Jesus through the power of His blood. This occurs when we hear the gospel of Jesus Christ preached to us, and we sincerely believe in Him, repent of our sins and confess them, and confess Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
This is what our Lord wanted Nicodemus to understand. He taught him that a person must be born of water and the Spirit before he could see and enter the kingdom of God. The expression, “Born of water and the Spirit”, means to be converted by the Word of truth, that is, through the preaching of the gospel by the power of the Holy Spirit.
In Ephesians 5:26, we learn that water is the Word of God. As the person is saved, the Holy Spirit moves to dwell in his heart to seal him up, making him a born again Christian and a candidate of heaven.
But people indwelled by the Spirit of Christ Jesus cannot hide the outward signs of their new creation in Christ. When you are born again, you will personally know that you are a changed person. Your way of life changes; you experience God’s awesome presence in your life.
When the Holy Spirit is in you, in most cases, you will develop a great love for the Lord Jesus Christ, talk to people about Him or preach about Him, and devote yourself to Christian ministry.
Moreover, you will worship God in songs with reverence, your prayers will be full of adoration and thanksgiving to God, you will develop great interest in studying and meditating on the Word. In other words, you will develop a strong desire for the Word of God so as to equip you to share it with your neigbours, and you will develop hatred for sin.
Many have experienced these things. I pray that you also will be truly born again and be filled with the Holy Spirit as you read this book, and cause you to manifest His gifts and fruit in Jesus’ mighty name!
By James Quansah
