Hi nairalanders, i want to ask what is the strange and sudden feeling i hear pple talk about after conversion(being born again) I dont think i have felt such. How does it feel and whats the prove of conversion.

Pastor AIO i sure also need ur help on this one, because i have read a lot of your posts and find them really true.

Thanks

Donpuzo aka Dogman

@ Donpuzo
The proof of conversion is an immediate change of life.The evil things that displease God that I used to do,I do them no more.That is a born again person.Old things are passed away and every thing becomes new.You just feel it like you've being given a clean slate to start life with.Another chance.You'll notice in you that your conscience is more tender and willing to obey God.People who know you will begin to question you asking what happened to you.Its a wonderful change.And then there is the witness of the Holy Spirit assuring you that you've being saved and on the other hand,the devil and his agents try to deceive you that nothing has happened to you.devil tries to bring back the guilt and to convince you strongly that God cannot forgive you.But the gentle Spirit of God tells you peacefully and builds an assurance in you that you are saved.Thats why its many times necessary to tell more matured christians in church of our new experience or submit to immediate discipleship/convert class so that they can help nourish you with the sincere milk of God's word and make you a strong Christian.Being born of God means you do not commit sin again.1John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.You loose your taste for sin and you begin to walk in the light. Sure temptations will come but with faith in God and feeding on God's word,telling others about Jesus and prayer,your victory is more certain than Obama's

Donpuzo:

Hi nairalanders, i want to ask what is the strange and sudden feeling i hear people talk about after conversion(being born again) I don't think i have felt such. How does it feel and whats the prove of conversion.

Pastor AIO i sure also need ur help on this one, because i have read a lot of  your posts and find them really true.

Thanks

Donpuzo aka Dogman

Hi Donpuzo,  I don't know about the strange and sudden feelings that people talk about either. But what I do know is that Jesus says, in John  chapter 3,  that unless a man be born from Above he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  When questioned further about this he went on to make a distinction between the spirit and the flesh.  What is the distinguishing thing between those in the flesh and those of the spirit?  Jesus answered, The Pneuma blows where it wants, but though you are aware of it in the present you neither know where it is coming from (it's past) nor where it is going (it's future).  In other words the Spirit's action is SPONTANEOUS.  Furthermore everyone that is of the spirit is like this, ie Spontaneous.  Ultimately this means to be free of your circumstances.

To further illustrate this let us consider the Flesh, and human neurology.  Every action can be explained and predicted by a prior event (or set of prior events in the past) and/or an intent to be accomplished in the future.  For instance, imagine a boy is lying on his bed playing a computer game when all of a sudden he jumps up and rushes to his table furiously and picks up a book which he starts to read.  Why the sudden action?  With further investigation it can be ascertained that he heard the gate of the house creaking open and he heard the familiar sound of his dad's car coming down the drive.  His Dad had warned him that he needed to spend more time studying his school books. 
Such behaviour is understandable.  The sound of his Dad's car (which he heard with his physical senses) prompted the reaction  of him jumping out of bed and rushing to pick up a book.  The behaviour is totally explained by his history.

But what if there was no sound of an opening gate or sound of Dad's car coming down the drive.  What if you asked him why he jumped so suddenly and he responded that he didn't know but the spirit moved him to do so.  That is unreasonable behaviour from a earthly/nonspiritual point of view.  Madness in fact, a folly, foolishness.  I actually dislike having to use the term unreasonable to describe it because I believe that the word Reason has been misappropriated today.  Reason originally means Logos, from which we also get the word Logic, another misappropriated term.  True Reason and Logic come actually from the Spirit and not from the Flesh. 

There is so much to say on this subject so rather than write one long tedious essay of a post, I reckon it would be better if we developed it as a dialogue with the banter going back and forth. 

Just one last thing that I want to say.  Being born of the spirit does not mean that the desires to sin are no longer there, or any of the promptings of the flesh.  Any one who says so is either a liar or is just passing on word bites that they've learnt from Liars.  The Flesh continues to exert influence or attempt to.  This is where Faith is called for, cos very often the promptings and inspirations of the spirit can be diametrically opposed to that of the flesh and it will take faith to make that leap contrary to what 'makes sense' to the fleshly thinking.  As long as we are in the flesh, the impulse to sin will never leave us.

Speak on Pastor, this issue of being born again is grossly mis-understood by the pentecostal movement.

Thanks PASTOR

To be born again is to hate sin with passion. It is not about pretence like some will do. It is a genuine repentance from sinful acts. It is disociating oneself from every ungodly activities. It is a commitment to make heaven at all cost. When you are born again, you should expect that the wiorld may hate you, you will be persecuted. All this might be as a result of a change in your life. I wish to undescore here that the physical appearances sometimes could not be used to judge a born again. It is only expected that a true child of God should be moderate in their dressing. Wearing turttle neck and putting head gear to cover ears does not confer to one the state of being born again. A positive change in your attitude is the first noticeable thing, then followed by your interest in the things of God.

One of the things that baffles me the most about bible interpretation is the translation of the phrase γεννηθῇ ἄνωθεν (gennethe anothen) as Born again. It should be born from above.;  And there is no where else in the bible (that I'm aware of) where the word another is translated as again.  it is always translated as from above or from the top. Where did Born Again come from?

Is it because Nicodemus asked if a man was to enter the womb again after being born?   

Or is the phrase taken from the mystery cults of the era where gods like dionysus are said to be reborn and their devotees expect to experience the same rebirth?

Doesn't Jesus make what he is saying clear when he says:

He who comes from above is above all. He who is from the Earth belongs to the Earth, and speaks of the Earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

Here again the word anothen is used. 

It seems clear to me that what Jesus is saying is what every traditional yoruba man knows.  That Aiye pe meji.  Existence is Dual.  There are two aspects to existence.  The physical and the spiritual. 

The very phrase 'born again' is a misnomer and an error not to even talk of the pentecostal religious movement that it has engendered.