Spiritual Transformation: The Born Again Experience
Greetings, brothers and sisters. This is Dr. James Perry continuing with our series where we seek to explore the deeper meanings of our relationship with Jesus Christ. Over the years, the heavenly Father has revealed many revelations of spiritual truth to me, and I want to share them with you. Today, we ponder our lives as we seek to understand the nature of spiritual transformation-the born again experience.
And now, sit back and listen to today's message.
Spiritual Transformation-The Born Again Experience
Jesus said," 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.” John, Chapter 3, Verse 5.
Brothers and sisters, in today’s broadcast, we consider the phenomenon of spiritual transformation-the born again experience. Human relationships are known by personality interactions. These interactions range from the physical to the intellectual up through the moral and the spiritual. As these personal interactions proceed, both participants are effected by them. Neither of the participants are the same afterwards. They are changed in some way. Often these changes are very subtle, and are not apparent over the short run, but the long run reveals these changes. Occasionally, there is a marked change in one of the participants.
When a human child is born into the world, initially, the interactions are strongly shifted in the direction of the parent. That is the child undergoes more change than the adult, and the rate of change is greater. There are several reasons for this phenomenon. One reason is that the child initially does not have any ideas to exchange, and the parent serves as the source of these ideas, as well as the model for the growing child. The greater the differences in the two actors, the greater the rate of change.
As the child matures, and begins to generate ideas of their own, the rate of change in him, in respect to the parent declines, and the child begins to effect the parent more and more. It would appear that soon an equilibrium would be reached where no further change to either of the participants would be forthcoming. However as experience has shown, this is not the case. The changes continue. And what we have is a dynamic ever shifting equilibrium, always in the whole moving towards ever higher ideas and even ideals.
Were it not for the presence of an absolute source, an infinite source, and an eternal source, then would the relationships run down, but the spirit of the Father ever produces new ideals and stimulate the mind to new ideas. The human is not the sole interacter with other personalities. The heavenly Father also interacts in relationships, ever uplifting and transforming all relationships.
To examine this further, let us take a look at good and evil in the world. The good is that which is done in the correct way; the evil is that which is done in the incorrect way. Nothing which exists is intrinsically evil. It is the misuse of that which exists that constitutes evil. When evil is returned for evil, the net result is more evil. When evil is endured passively, the result is continued evil. But when good is returned for the evil, the net result is the diminution of evil. This reduction of evil occurs because evil is only a temporary time-space reality while good is an absolute reality which is eternal in its manifestation, though it manifestation may be delayed by time and conditioned by space. In any contest between a higher and lower level of reality, the higher level will always win out over the lower level.
If the interaction of human personalities brings about changes in the human participants, imagine what kind of changes occurs in the human participants when they interact with the infinite, eternal, and absolute unchanging Personality who is the heavenly Father. With an absolute personality to interact with, the human personality can only become like the personality it interacts with. Active communication and fellowship with the spirit Father causes the human personality to become spirit eventually. To do the will of the Father is to essentially become like the Father.
Just as the human manifests his life outward, and is more conscious of that life as he interacts with others, the heavenly Father manifests his life outward through the soul, and the soul is more conscious of this life as it interacts with others. This consistent interaction with the Father of all personalities causes the manifestations of the soul to take on divine and eternal qualities in its interactions with other personalities. It in effect causes the soul to be born again, born of the Spirit
The qualities of love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance increase more and more in the life reactions of the human who persistently does the Father's will. Since the Father's life is infused in the life of the true believer, trying to separate the Father’s life from the soul is impossible. Therefore our consciousness of the Father at any given time or place equals the degree that we are like the Father in spirit as revealed in the life of His Son Jesus. “Whosoever has seen the Son has seen the Father.”
To do the Father's will is a humbling experience, but we are only humbled so that we can be truly exalted. The humbling experience teaches us to become more trusting, faithful, and absolutely dependent on the Father while at the same time we become more compassionate, sympathetic and helpful to our brothers and sisters.
This concludes today’s message on understanding the nature of spiritual transformation. We hope you find something in this message to ponder and pray about as you go about your day.
Until next time, this is Dr. James Perry.
Your Kingdom Come; Your Will Be Done!
Inspirational Messages of Light
By Dr. James Perry
Spiritual Transformation: The Born Again Experience
