|
"Jesus
answered and said unto him, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." -
John 3:3
Most of us are familiar with the term "born again" and
many equate this term only with Christianity; i.e. "born again
Christian." But ... Christians do not have an exclusivity on
this terminology. The great Emmet Fox penned a little book titled,
"Born Again." And when we understand that being
"born again" is part of the unfoldment of a healing
consciousness ... it becomes a meaningful term.
John 5:5Jesus
answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God."
As we examine the statement from
John 5:5 we realize that the Master Mind Jesus was referring to
Mind. Water symbolizes the "cleansing of the mind" ...
water being pure and clean. But, this purity has nothing to do
with man-made ideas of right and wrong ... but instead, refers to
cleansing our mind of the false beliefs that separate us from the Power
and Presence of the Infinite. In other words, the things we have
learned from the world that deny God. The world has taught us to
give power to all manner of things ... but All Power is of God ... there
is no power in people, places and things except for the power that we
give them ... and when we give power to anything ... we deny the Power
of God.
We have learned so much nonsense from the time
we were born into this life on Earth. We have learned that people
can give to us and take away from us. We have learned ridiculous
things like shame, blame and guilt. But none of these things
benefit us ... for they are not of God.
We have all heard the statement, "I may
not be what I ought to be, but I am sure better than I used to be"
... what makes us think that we are not exactly what we ought to
be? Wherever we are in life ... whatever we are doing ... and who
we are ... is precisely where we ought to be ... doing precisely what we
are supposed to be doing .. and being precisely what we are supposed to
be ... but .................... we are still growing ... we haven't
stopped ... but whatever changes occur in our lives ... they are
precisely the changes that are supposed to be.
"Born again" means nothing unless we
examine our beliefs. Belief is God ... as beliefs determine our
experiences. Our belief that there is something wrong with us ...
or wrong with other people ... creates an experience with a judgment
that is wrong! We must let go of patterns of thought that create
the illusion of separation from God or Good in order to eliminate
discord in our mind. Nothing is ever wrong ... everything is
always Good ... and our knowing that this is so propels us into
experiences that create more and more Good in our experience.
The true "born again" experience is
to give birth to a greater Truth in our thinking. The Truth that
we must know is that God Is ... and wherever God Is ... Good Is.
To know this we must "double-think" ... we must turn from our
initial thought about a condition, situation or event ... and
"think it to be Good." But, oftentimes we don't.
Not only do we not think everything is Good ... we will tell other
people how awful it is ... and this re-telling of the "lie"
... binds us to the false beliefs and hinders us from being "born
again."
From Emmet Fox: < Why is it that we
make so little progress, compared, that is to say, with what we might
and should make in view of the knowledge that we all, in this movement
(metaphysical study), possess - at least in theory? Why do we not
change day by day and week by week from glory to glory, until our
friends can scarcely recognize us for the same man or woman? Why
should we not march about the world looking like gods, and feeling it;
healing instantaneously all who come to us; and generally "doing
the works"? "Who did hinder you?"
And the reply is that demonstration, like all
other things, has its price; that the price is that be born again, and
that in our secret hearts, too often, that is a price that we are not
prepared to pay. We are in love with the present man/woman, and
all the things that constitute him/her, and we are not prepared to slay
him/her that the other may be born.>
To be "born again" ...
is to forget who we are ... the labels that name us ... and allow
ourselves to be open to the higher Self that seeks to be expressed as
us. As we remember that we
were "born right the first time" ... we realize that all that
we need concern ourselves with is reflecting back to that time in our
life when we were children unaware of the labels that were be attached
to us ... and get into a sense of what it felt like to truly embody
faith, hope and love ... and learn to feel truly free all over again!
And
So It Is!
Maximum
Love,
Rev.
Bates
|
