The Born Again Experience

Before I was born again I leaned into my feelings instead of turning to Jesus Christ, it got me into trouble, even making things worse.

After I became born again my trials didn't go away but I didn't bring more trouble on myself, I was at peace without companionship and godly love from another human being.

After I became born again my perspective changed about my trials giving me the strength and resolve to trust Christ through them. The joy of the Lord remained through the trials and contact with wicked people who wanted to deter me from following Christ.

Make no mistake, when you have become a new creation and no longer think the way you used to think be sure that the devil will double down on the hatred against you. He will attempt to cause people to accuse you of past forgiven sins. He will attempt to discourage you from moving forward hoping you will become lame and broken over sins that no longer exist and that God has done away with.

In the garden, the devil convinced Eve that God had withheld the truth from her and that she need not listen to Him.

After becoming born again the devil will attempt to use feelings to convince you that your sins of the past were never forgiven, that they were too big to ever be forgiven.

When the devil does this quote scripture in his face, tell him that the thief on the cross knew he was wicked but defended Christ and was saved, even without any works to help himself, He was on His way that very day to paradise with Christ.

No sin is too big to be forgiven when we confess it and desire to be cleansed by Christ. Anyone who attempts to make you feel "less than" or "guilty" over past forgiven sins is being used of the devil and must be disregarded as an enemy. Sadly some of these people will be in the church, they are pretenders and haters without love and without compassion toward you because they have never been born again.

If you want to maintain your peace and joy you must remove the haters from your life, perhaps after you speak the gospel to them and leave their own fate with them.

Never worry about defending yourself, simply agree that you were a sinner and praise God for His forgiveness and cleansing. Leave it at that, no excuses, no justification, no groveling over what God has cleansed permanently. Using Scripture is always good,

Luke 7:47 "For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but the one who is forgiven little, loves little.”

The greater our sins were the more grateful to God for His forgiveness. We know that we deserved death, but the one who thinks their sins were not so big, are still worthy of death.

Until we have a proper perspective of our sinful nature we cannot be humbled enough to come with a contrite heart. That is a crushed heart over our sinfulness, the only way God will forgive and cleanse us from sin is through our crushed heart.

We must have a lowly view of ourselves to be saved. The more a person "prides" themselves on themselves the less likely they are to become born again.