Introduction

If you cherish your soul and would like to keep it, then being born again is of vital importance. By being born again you save your soul from death. And you receive eternal life.

In this guide I explain in a very practical way what it means to be born again. And I show you in a step by step manner what you have to do to be born again and why this is a big deal. In addition, I answer the most frequently asked questions about this underestimated and misunderstood subject. And I conclude with tips and recommendations to get you on your way with your new life.

After reading this guide, you will know exactly how you can change your life for the better starting today. And what exactly you have to so you can start straight away. This guide is for anyone who has ears to hear and eyes to see. All the information in this guide is inspired and quoted as much as possible from the Bible. This means that you can refer to everything yourself in your own Bible. The advice is to actually do this. Don’t have a Bible? Download a free Bible app or take a look at this website. If you are old school? Here you can buy a Bible from $9.99.

Contents

1. What exactly does being born again mean & why is it important?
2. How to be born again & what is happening to me?
3. Why would I want to be born again?
4. How can I prepare for being born again?
5. Tips & recommendations for a new life

1. What is being born again?

To be born again, also called regeneration, means to be born again into the kingdom of God. In contrary to being born into the world. Being born again is therefore not a natural but a supernatural or spiritual birth. When you are born again you have received the gift of eternal life from God. Through your faith in Him and the repentance of your sins. 

Why is being born again important?

If you want to enter into the kingdom of God. Then this can only be done by being spiritually born into His kingdom. There is no other way.^{Joh 3:3} This means you have a choice and there are only two options. Either you choose to become a child of God. Or to remain a child of the devil.^{Mat 13:38} Both crave for your soul and one of them will get it. The devil takes it from you, and God desires it of you.

Where does regeneration come from?

For this, we have to go all the way back to Adam and Eve. Because they disobeyed God and allowed themselves to be seduced by the devil, Adam and Eve have sinned. For this reason God has cursed Adam and Eve. And as a result, we are now all slaves to sin.^{Joh 8:34} We are descendants of Adam and Eve and we all live under the same curse.^{Rom 3:23} This curse is punishable by the inevitable death penalty.^{Rom 6:23} However, God loves us so much that He sent His one and only son Jesus Christ as our savior from the curse. If we believe in Him as our one true savior. Then we will not die but receive eternal life.^{Joh 3:16} 

To be born again, also referred to as salvation, is a gift from God to us sinners to give us the opportunity to become whole, holy, and righteous again in order to return to His kingdom.

Why has God given us regeneration?

God equals love. Love is unconditional but love also means justice. If you love God, you keep His commandments. His commandments are a declaration of love, just as marital vows are between two people. And not laws of oppression as some imagine. If you break His commandments, God can do nothing but banish you from His kingdom. After all, if you cheat in a relationship it is not without consequences. But even if you have broken His commandments, His love for you remains untouched. Just as a cheating partner can be forgiven, so does God give you an opportunity to return home.

Because you chose not to obey God’s commandments. You have sealed your banishment by God. For you are no longer righteous and find yourself in the slave houses of other gods. But by being born again you break yourself free from all your iniquity by believing that your Father can break every chain of bondage.

While there’s nothing for you to deserve His grace. God has made regeneration available for you in response to your disobedience. Because God has never forgotten you, loves you unconditionally, and waits for you to return home with open arms.

How does being born again lead to my salvation?

God has given us regeneration by allowing His son Jesus to take upon Himself all the sins of the world. Jesus did this by dying and then rising again from the dead. Jesus conquered death because He was without sin. It is sin that leads to death. And by rising from the dead, Jesus demonstrated that through his righteousness, death has no power over him. Just as sin has no power over you, if you believe in Jesus and His resurrection. Your faith will lead to a baptism of repentance, symbolizing the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. You die with Christ under the water and resurrect with Christ out of the water, into the kingdom of God. After receiving the Holy Spirit you are righteous again, just as Jesus is righteous.

Is regeneration coming from God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit?

God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are one. This means that they are identical to each other. God is formless and Jesus is God in the flesh. Jesus was completely human and at the same time completely God. And when we are filled with the Holy Spirit, it means that we get Jesus or God in us.

Regeneration has been made possible by God, actualized and demonstrated by Jesus and given to us sinners through the receiving of the Holy Spirit.

2. How can I get born again?

Before becoming born again, there are a number of steps. These all have to be executed. This does not have to be done in a specific order or within a specific time.

What are the steps to regeneration?

The steps are as follows:

• You openly come out to repent of your sins;
• You get baptized in water by immersion;
• With all your heart you believe in Jesus and His teachings;
• You receive the Holy Spirit;

It is essential that you acknowledge Jesus Christ as the one true God. That you believe that it is God who has come into the flesh as Jesus Christ. And that Jesus died for you so that you can receive salvation through your faith in His sacrifice.

When you’ve gone through all these steps, you’re a saint in God’s eyes. You are spiritually resurrected from the dead with Christ. God sees you as he sees his son. Congratulations, you are now born again. Your life will never be the same again.

Are you open to change?

In case you can’t imagine the concept of regeneration. Or if this sounds unbelievable to you, then you still have a lot to discover. This information is life-changing for a reason. Regeneration tends to turn your whole life upside down. But is it the truth? Only you can answer that question. And this starts with an open mind.

Do I owe myself the truth?

Maybe the best question is whether you owe it to yourself to find out the truth. Because suppose you knew you were living a lie. Would you ignore the truth and stubbornly continue under the illusion? Or would the truth, in this case the Word of God, deserve your attention? If only for the duration of this article?

What does repentance mean?

Contrary to what many people think, repentance is not an initiation, inauguration, or ceremony into a religion. Repentance is the realization and acceptance that you have sinned. Followed by an explicit declaration of intent that you no longer are willing to do this.^{Eze 18:30} In other words, turn around, turn your back on sin and strive to walk only the right path from now on. Which path is that? The path that Jesus walked, the righteous path. If you repent from sin then you are a follower or disciple of Jesus Christ and no longer of sin. Nothing more and nothing less.

What is sin?

Sin is transgression of the law.^{1 Joh 3:4} Which law? The laws of God, namely the Ten Commandments. Have you ever broken one? Then you’ve made yourself guilty of breaking all commandments.^{Jam 2:10} The Bible says that all injustice is sin.^{1 Joh 5:17} And before we can go to heaven, we must have justice.^{Mat 5:20} God says: “Be perfect as I am perfect^{Mat 5:48} and holy as I am holy.^{1 Pet 1:16} So it is sin that keeps us from being born again and entering the kingdom of God.

What is baptism in water?

With baptism your sins will be “washed away” by the water,^{Act 22:16} forgiven and forgotten. This does not happen by the water, but by your faith in the fulfillment of God’s promise. What promise? The promise of forgiveness of your sins. This happens because of your faith and obedience as a result of hearing the good news. ^{Joh 3:16} So you heard God’s promise, understood it, believed it, and then acted upon it. With this you answer God’s call to come home. And for this you will receive forgiveness for all the sins you have committed.

What happens to me during baptism?

Spiritually, this does something to you. For the first time in your life, you let go of everything. Everything you believed, what you stood for and what was important to you is now subordinate to Jesus. This is a strong proclamation. With it you explicitly indicate that from now on Jesus is your master. And that your will no longer has the highest priority but is subordinate to His will. Now you are a servant of Jesus and the kingdom of God. You are now in the right state of mind to receive the Holy Spirit and be born again. For you are now clothed with righteousness and set free from the bondage of sin.

What does faith mean?

This seems like a simple concept and it actually is. Only for unbelievers this may be the hardest thing to grasp. After all, an unbeliever believes in something or someone other than God. Whether the person is aware of this or not. And faith is like a foundation. On which everything that identifies a person is built.

In essence, everyone is a believer

It doesn’t matter if you call yourself an atheist, scientist or Buddhist. It’s all faith and therefore religion. I understand that this goes against the general viewpoint, but the reality says otherwise. Namely, all three beliefs or worldviews tell us something that is immeasurable. After all, an atheist believes that God does not exist. A scientist might believe that the universe started out of nothing. And a Buddhist that we reincarnate into an infinite cycle of life. In short, everyone believes in something immeasurable and therefore everyone is religious. Even an agnostic is not excluded because the person cannot deny his or her own existence. An agnostic acknowledges not having an answer to life but obviously has an opinion about it. After all, the person calls himself an agnostic. And an opinion without belief is an impossibility.

Human doctrine versus divine doctrine

The Bible, although written by men, is inspired by God. The Bible contains about 900 prophetic predictions of which about 800 have been fulfilled. Prophecy proves beyond doubt that God is the true author of the Bible. All other books, religions, philosophies and beliefs come from man simply because God’s signature is missing. It boils down to this. Everyone serves a god. Whether you realize it or not, everyone lives for something. One is more concerned with this than the other. And so perhaps they have a more concrete idea of exactly who their god is. Nevertheless, whether your god is made of wood, shapeless or if you worship mainly yourself, you serve this god with all your heart. Faith in the context of this article means whether you acknowledge the God from the Hebrew Bible as the one true God.

What is baptism in spirit?

To be born again, you must receive the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God in the spirit and your body is His temple.^{1 Cor 6:19} At least, as soon as you give permission. If you believe in God with all your heart. And ask Him to baptize you or fill you with His Holy Spirit, then He will fulfil His promise.

Unclean spirits

But if you ask with a heart full of unbelief, you will not be filled with His spirit. And you will never be born again. By not allowing the Holy Spirit to enter your heart, you are leaving your temple doors wide open to unclean spirits. For the Bible teaches us that we are dealing with spiritual principles.^{Eph 6:12} It boils down to a war raging in the spiritual realms over your soul. And since most people aren’t aware of this, we’re easy prey. Because we unwittingly leave our temple unguarded. While the devil, and his army of demons, does his utmost best to intrude into as many people as possible.

A summary

So regeneration consists of:

• Confessing sins and repent from them;
• Baptize into water by immersion;
• Believe that Jesus has spilled His blood for your salvation;
• Baptizing in spirit;

Furthermore being born again gives:

• a clean slate (sins are forgiven and also forgotten)
• you’re holy in God’s eyes now
• you receive eternal life

If this doesn’t sound interesting enough, read on.

3. Why would I want to be born again?

Jesus His Second Coming was prophesied 2000 years ago. And when He is back on earth He will separate the lambs from the goats. Or rather the believers from the unbelievers. Jesus promises eternal life and the devil has death as a consequence. So the question is: “do you want to live or do you want to die”? 

For whom is regeneration?

Regardless of religion or ethnic background, receiving God’s promise is for everyone who believes in Him. There is nothing you can do to earn it. It is a gift that you will receive unconditionally once you believe in Him. For if you believe in God, you also believe in His commandments. And recognition of His commandments leads to repentance of sin.

Are all Christians born-again Christians?

Being born again means a change of lifestyle. A righteous lifestyle in which you no longer place yourself above others. This has nothing to do with rituals and religion. For many people this will sound crazy. But that this misconception and general opinion exists among many non-believers. Indicates the degree of indoctrination and its effectiveness. This misconception exists not only among non-believers but especially among Christians. Most Christians are probably not born again. This is because most of them follow human doctrine and human rituals. And thereby disobeying God.

Without having gone through all the steps as described in the Bible, you are not born again. It is your right to believe something else, but that does not make your belief truth. Jesus explicitly states that without baptism in water and spirit you cannot see the kingdom of God.^{Joh 3:5}

I don’t have to change to be born again

Born again or not, I’m not so bad

By comparing yourself to others around you instead of Jesus, you quickly come to this judgment. However, this is a misconception. As long as you can point out someone who is worse than you. Than you always have an excuse not to have to justify your own behavior. With an unlimited supply of excuses as a result. This is the ultimate comfort zone.

The reality is that Jesus has never sinned in His whole life. He also gave His life so that you can be born again. And there’s nothing you’ve done to deserve this. So Jesus has immeasurably and unimaginably high morals and has given the highest sacrifice attainable. Therefore, if you compare yourself to Jesus, you will soon come to a completely different conclusion. At least, if you are honest with yourself.

Becoming born again is not for me

This is perhaps the greatest misconception we sinners can presume. It underestimates the power of Jesus but also that of the devil. The incapacity you feel is the result of fear the devil talks you into. You experience this because, by sinning, you are prone to unclean ideology. Maybe this makes you think about complicated concepts. But it’s as simple as telling a little lie, thinking to know everything better than everybody else or having a ‘me first and then another’ mentality.

Unclean versus clean thoughts

Such character traits come from the dark and not from God. These thoughts only lead to more sinful behavior and ultimately and inevitably to death. On the one hand, we don’t put so much weight on, for example, a little lie. But on the other hand we don’t think we are capable of changing that behavior either. But as soon as you realize that the devil is behind all sin. And realize that Jesus is more powerful than the devil. Then you understand that, with His authority, the devil can have no power over you. Therefore, do not give the devil a foothold under any circumstances.^{Eph 4:27}

A born-again Christian is not alone

When you are born again, it is the Holy Spirit in you who makes sure that you can no longer sin.^{Joh 3:9} Exceptions aside. After all, we will never endure a complete life free of sins. But sin as we did before being born again is a thing of the past. This means that you can change by focusing on Jesus and trusting His authority.

4. Preparing for becoming born again

Regeneration is a choice. Once you’ve made your choice, you can be born again today. For this you must do the following:

• Visit or receive a disciple of Jesus Christ. We at Yeshua Academy are available for you at all times.
• Undergo a repentance conversation with the disciple. In this conversation you confess your sins. You don’t have to go into detail here. And it doesn’t matter if you forget something. The purpose of this conversation is to repent and to express remorse to Jesus. You are having this conversation with Him, even if you don’t see Him. The disciple tests if your repentance is sincere. Otherwise, there is no basis for baptism in water.
• Let yourself be dipped in water by immersion. It doesn’t matter where or in what as long as you can be completely submerged.
• Any demons that manifest are driven out on the spot by the disciple. If the disciple believes that you are free of demons, you can proceed to the final step.
• And that’s prayer for the Holy Spirit. The disciple asks God to fill you with His spirit. This can be quite spectacular, but some don’t feel it at all. However, it is wise to test whether you are actually filled if the filling is not very convincing. It is therefore advisable to try to speak in tongues. The disciple will assist you with this.

What are the conditions for becoming born again

Regeneration is God’s grace and is a gift. To receive this gift there is one “condition” and that is faith in Him. Actually, this is not really a condition. After all, if you don’t believe in God, why would you want to receive anything from Him?

Love is immeasurable. And faith in Him is a declaration of love. God has declared His love to you through Jesus. In case you can’t appreciate this, you are indicating that you don’t want to receive His love. For a long time God has made the first rapprochement with you. It is now up to you to answer His love. 

How do I know I’m born again?

Once you’ve gone through all the steps, you’re born again. Some are spectacularly filled by the Holy Spirit and spontaneously begin to prophesy. But in many cases there are no clear manifestations. Without clear outward appearances, however, it does not mean that you have not been born again. Remember that regeneration is a gift activated by your faith. If you are too busy looking for evidence for the filling of the Holy Spirit. Then you focus on confirmation rather than on faith. You are looking for evidence because you are insecure. Insecurity is fear. And fear does not come from God. Having said that, it is important to know if you are filled with the Holy Spirit. After all, there are also unclean spirits who imitate the Holy Spirit and deceive you with false manifestations. The Bible says, test all spirits.^{1 Joh 4:1}

How do I distinguish the Holy Spirit from unclean spirits?

A simple analogy for the filling of the Holy Spirit is the filling of a glass of water. We know for sure that the glass is full when it begins to overflow. And so it is with our emotions. When we are angry, we raise our voices. When we are happy we laugh. And when we are filled with the Holy Spirit we speak in tongues. The feeling of overflowing is like a fountain from within that makes us manifest to the outside world. One manifestation is prominent and the other subtle. Also people who have unclean or demonic spirits within them can be identified by these “fruits”. These fruits are the external traits and behaviors with which one overflows. Such as, for example, shame, anger or even violence. However, the fruit of blushing, for example, may be the fruit of both hatred and love. Is it important that such manifestations are examined with a trained eye and especially tested. It is therefore the fruit of the spirit that the spirit can be recognized by. Unclean spirits bear bad fruits. And only the Holy Spirit bears good fruits.

Regeneration without proper baptism

The baptism of repentance was introduced for the first time in the Biblical New Testament. The New Testament is written in Greek. The Greek word used for ‘baptism’ in the Bible is ‘baptizo’. This means immersion. Why is immersion important? Because baptism is a funeral of sin. So you want to make sure someone can be submerged.^{Joh 3:23} Some Christian denominations do not baptize through immersion, but in other ways. These are not biblical baptisms but human rituals. Deviation from biblical doctrine leads you to being cursed^{Gal 1:8-9} and not to regeneration. If you wish to be baptized make sure that you do so at a church, congregation, movement or person who baptizes as described in the Bible. There is no biblical foundation for baptizing in water other than immersion.

An enumeration

Now let us apply what we have already learned and test it against the Bible. And see why some ways of baptizing are actually not baptizims. First a summary to refresh our minds:

• Baptism is a spiritual and thus supernatural burial and resurrection from death into the kingdom of God. It is inspired by God, not man;
• The word baptism comes from the Greek word ‘baptizo’ from the original New Testament dead sea scrolls. This means immersion;
• The Bible explicitly states that the passage through the Red Sea in the time of Moses and Noah’s survival from the flood in the ark were previews of the baptism of the present day;
• Just like the meaning of the word ‘baptizo’ the previews symbolize that sin was completely covered or engulfed by the water. As a result, everything that remained in the water died;
• Your salvation is God’s promise, and it is received only by your faith. Unbelief or ignorance results in no or does not need salvation;

I’ve already been baptized as a baby

Baptism is a choice with Jesus, and the disciple who facilitate the baptism, as witnesses. You confess with your mouth that you will repent of your sins. This means acknowledging that you are a sinner, followed by a conscious decision to change your life for the good of God’s will.^{Mat 18:3}

Baby’s cannot not choose

This is not possible for a baby or a child who is not conscious enough to be held responsible for his or her actions. It is irrelevant how old a child is as long as the child understands what he or she chooses and shows sincere love. A baby baptism cannot be substantiated biblically. A baby has no choice, cannot sin and logically has no need for a baptism because it will surely be saved if it dies prematurely. God cannot and will not hold a baby accountable for not having chosen to be baptized before it died. If a Christian believes that God sends unbaptized babies and children to hell then the person does not understand the essence of the law thus the Christian acts out of fear rather than love. This implies that the parents themselves are not a born-again Christians.

Love is a choice

If God wanted to make sure that everybody choose Him, He would have made robots. However, love cannot be programmed. Love can only be received if someone has the choice not to answer your love. So if God really is love, He can only reach out His arms and wait for us to come to Him out of our own free will. God leaves this choice with every human being. And every person has to decide this for themselves. This cannot be imposed or enforced. Love for God means that you keep His commandments. Not because you have to, but because you want to. The laws are there to keep us on the right path.^{Gal 5:4} From this can be measured where you stand in your journey to perfection.

Being born again is not inherited

The Bible says that those who are born again “are not born of blood or the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but of God.^{Joh 1:13} Our parents may be the greatest Christians in the world but that doesn’t make us born-again Christians. So everyone will have to make a choice for themselves. Love is not inheritable.

I was baptized by sprinkling

There is no biblical foundation regarding baptism by the way of sprinkling of water. All doctrine which is not found in the Bible is human doctrine. It is irrelevant whether there are good intentions behind it or not. The Bible teaches us explicitly that a baptism is a burial^{Psa 32:1} of sin and a resurrection from death.^{1 Pet 1:3} It symbolizes the death and resurrection of Jesus in the natural world. But in spiritual realms we are actually born into the kingdom of God. This makes regeneration a spiritual transformation. In addition, you are only born again when you have gone through all the steps. If you believe in baptism by the sprinkling of water then you literally fail in all four steps to true regeneration. In that case you do nothing as it says in the Bible.

5. Tips & recommendations

Now that you have been born again, your life begins all over again, so to speak. You will have to unlearn most of the things you have learned and you will also have to learn many new things. Here are a few tips.

Tips for a new life

Never forget that you have a helper living within you, the Holy Spirit. In addition, you have the Bible which is the ultimate guide and the starting point for every worldly challenge. It is also wise to surround yourself with other Christians. Not because you cannot hang out with non-Christians anymore, but because Christians build up your faith.

Re-examine everything you believe after being born again

Almost everything you have done in your life you have done from a vision in which Jesus was missing. This means that morality was not at the top of the list. Try to look at everything through Jesus’ eyes and you will see that there is a lot wrong with your life. Let this motivate you to work on yourself and not to be ashamed of it. After all, Jesus has forgiven you and set you free from all shame.

Start with a big cleanup. Be honest with your family and friends and set your limits. The friends you respect are people you can rely on. It’s time to let go of the friends who don’t. They will only persuade you to behave sinfully.

Don’t look at what others are doing, but build your relationship with Jesus

A false start is making assumptions based on what someone else is doing or saying. For example, in case you look up to a person. If you look at others too much it means that you don’t respect your view to some degree. Your opinion is so unimportant that you replace it with someone else’s opinion.

Jesus lives and the Holy Spirit lives in you. Read the Bible and reflect what you read on yourself. The Holy Spirit will reveal to you what you have yet to work on. This can happen through dreams, certain people coming your way or Bible verses that suddenly come to you. So the journey is personal and internal.

Don’t focus too much on the law

A pitfall is that, as a brand new Christian, you want to do everything exactly according to the law. You will simply not succeed in this. Unfortunately, we are trained sinners and we know how to fool ourselves quite well. The important thing is that we strive for perfection but at the same time we don’t put unnecessary pressure on ourselves. So it is better to intend never to lie again while at the same time having the sobriety that you will not succeed in doing this for the rest of your life. Therefore, measure your progress on lying less and less instead of striving for a perfectly clean slate. The best way to practice this is to train yourself to speak the truth as much as possible.

Focus on the positive

Another tip is not to focus on one specific sin such as lying. If you place Jesus’ will above your own will and place all your other born-again brothers and sisters above yourself, then the law is self-evident. Actually, there is no more law to take into account. After all, the law is only there because we give ourselves the highest priority over someone else. If you really love then you breathe the law, you and the law are one. Another way of seeing it is that the law is actually just a declaration of love.

Be brave, strong and above all persevere

As soon as you’re born again, your life starts all over again. This is an insane revelation and literally life-changing. Not only in your acting but also in your thinking. Everything is different and now you see everything with a renewed perspective. Prepare yourself for many revelations and ‘aha moments’.

The journey is different for everyone

Where one person easily turns his or her life around completely, there begins for another a long battlefield. It’s not always easy to let go of your old life. Besides, we are all seriously addicted to our sins. Expect attacks from the devil in this early point of regeneration. After all, your faith is still fragile and can still go in all directions with the right triggers, persons and environment. Everyone has moments of relapse. In some people this is a bit stronger than in others. However, no one can be compared to another. Everyone’s journey is unique. What we can share is each other’s passion for Jesus. Especially in these times it is advisable to surround yourself with people who build you up instead of people who do not.

Recommendations for a good start

For more information I always recommend you to read the Bible yourself. Nowadays this can be done very quickly with the help of a Bible app. A free Bible app is YouVersion and here you will find all the Bibles in all languages and in most languages the audio version is also available. This way you can read and hear at the same time. Or just listen, for example on the train or in the car.

Check the information in this guide especially with your pastor or other Christians. I recommend that you always confirm all the information yourself with several reliable sources.

Finally

The fact that you have come to the end of this article means that you have an open attitude. This is all you need to turn around and choose Jesus today. Take a close look at your life and test it against the morality of Jesus. This guide will give you everything you need to make a good assessment of your situation. Then take this judgment for what it really is. Don’t reason with it but take responsibility for it. You are now faced with a choice, a conscious choice. You can no longer unlearn what you have learned. Therefore, choose Jesus today and change your life forever.

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About the Author

Steve