I will begin by telling you of a wonderful story in the book of John and unlike other stories this one is not repeated in the other Gospels and the only account of this incident is in the Gospel of John. You will not hear this story being mentioned in Mathew, Mark or Luke...
It is a story about a staunch member of the Pharisees who comes serreptitiouslly by night like a thief, to see Jesus. This dude was a core member of the Sanhedrin, the highest body of a religious order, at a time when Israel was a theocracy. Israel was ruled by Rabbis and here comes the highest of them to seek Jesus out under the cover of darkness.
This fellow who was well schooled in the religious scriptures, had Identified something in what Jesus taught that he knew to be in his own scripture, but somehow he had been failing to put the pieces together and neither of his colleagues could join the dots to the questions he had.
Anyways he furtively comes to see Jesus and below is John's Account of the story
John 3:2-11, Msg Bible
There was a man of the Pharisee sect, Nicodemus, a prominent leader among the Jews. Late one night he visited Jesus and said, "Rabbi, we all know you're a teacher straight from God. No one could do all the God-pointing, God-revealing acts you do if God weren't in on it.
How can anyone," said Nicodemus, "be born who has already been born and grown up? You can't re-enter your mother's womb and be born again. What are you saying with this 'born-from-above' stuff?
Jesus said, "You're not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this original creation--the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life--it's not possible to enter God's kingdom.
When you look at a baby, it's just that: a body you can look at and touch. But the person who takes shape within is formed by something you can't see and touch--the Spirit--and becomes a living spirit."So don't be so surprised when I tell you that you have to be 'born from above'--out of this world, so to speak.
"You know well enough how the wind blows this way and that. You hear it rustling through the trees, but you have no idea where it comes from or where it's headed next. That's the way it is with everyone 'born from above' by the wind of God, the Spirit of God."
"Nicodemus asked, "What do you mean by this? How does this happen?" Jesus said, "You're a respected teacher of Israel and you don't know these basics? "
"Listen carefully. I'm speaking sober truth to you. I speak only of what I know by experience; I give witness only to what I have seen with my own eyes. There is nothing secondhand here, no hearsay. Yet instead of facing the evidence and accepting it, you procrastinate with questions. "
"If I tell you things that are plain as the hand before your face and you don't believe me, what use is there in telling you of things you can't see, the things of God? "No one has ever gone up into the presence of God except the One who came down from that Presence, the Son of Man. "
In the same way that Moses lifted the serpent in the desert so people could have something to see and then believe, it is necessary for the Son of Man to be lifted up-- "
"and everyone who looks up to him, trusting and expectant, will gain a real life, eternal life. "This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life."
What I make of the above passage is that Nicodemus represents Man and as always Man prefers to go with that which is tangible in this 3d world, that which can be proven by scientific means. To him that is more solid and more believable. Spiritual things have no place in the lives of many today, and even in the so called "Spiritual- Places" of gathering, its the proven things that are beheld by the eye weigh more than the truth of the bible.
Nicodemus like many a person did not know of any other kind of birth. While he had been schooled in theology, he knew nothing of the birth from above nor of the things of the spirit.
We know that a bean seed begets beans, because the life-germ is in the seed. If you follow the trail of any bean seed backwards it leads you to the very first bean to ever be created, which finally dissolves into God the Father- The Source and somewhere in there you can trace it to His creative Imagination (Christ - the creative power of God and the wisdom of God - I Corinthians 1:24). Likewise all flesh came from one source, and we know that it is God the Father. The word "Father" means "source" or Foundation or to found. All created things came from, one source "Father". Even a machine that is invented first lurks somewhere within the Imagination of men whether in part or in full, before it is physically manifested. That one source is The Spirit and He alone exists in this life and dwells in all created things and by Him were all things created. That Same Spirit dwells in you and all men as the "I AM"....(he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world." ---I John 4:4). Though things may outwardly seem many, but the spirit beneath them all is one and solely dwells in and sustains all life.
It doesnt matter if flesh continues to reproduce and multiply, there is only one Spirit sustaining all and through whom all things consist. There may be trillions of human beings out there and many spiritual forms, but only One Spirit exists and sustains all..."For as the body without the spirit is dead..." (James 2:26).
At the human level, in the flesh the closest you can harness or gain advantage of this one spirit in you, is understanding your human Imagination closely and deeply....for... nothing will be restrained from you, which you have imagined to do." (Genesis 11:6)....only God can be unrestrained, and God is in you as the Christ or as your "I AM" which your human Imagination.
That fact that, that one Spirit is described by numerous names like Jesus, "I am", God, yahweh, almighty... etc does not change its identity or form or give it multiplicity for ...The LORD our God is one LORD:" (Deuteronomy 6:4)...in Him alone is .."One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Ephesians 4:5-6).
Back to being born, you have read in John 3, that, that which is born of flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit, remains Spirit. It simply means that one Spirit distributes or extends himself as always into all that which is manifested including all flesh to sustain it, while the flesh has its own reproductive multiplication system like one cell splitting into two. Now to the Flesh, that which is Spirit is intangible like the wind. Though flesh may die out or depreciate, The Spirit is immortal, that is the being that you truly are. It is the immortal you and you will never cease to imagine whether inside or outside the body.
Paul in the 9th Chapter of the book of Romans differentiates between the birth from above (Spiritual birth) and the only Birth that Nicodemus and most scientists know about - the birth by flesh. Paul explains how there are two kinds of descendants to Abraham, i.e. Those resulting from sexual transmutation and those resulting from the promise. Isaac who is of the promise personifies that which is born of The Spirit while Ishmael is that born of flesh which cannot inherit God's kingdom. Paul states that "we are named out of Isaac." Here is his explanation from the RSV Bible,
"But it is not as though the word of God had failed. For not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel, and not all are children of Abraham just because they are his descendants; but "Through Isaac shall your descendants be named. This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as descendants." (Romans 9:6-8).
To acknowledge that, and establish it as your identity... as your foundation for all things, i.e. that you are a son of God, equally Spirit as your Father is "the awakening" point this is what being born again means, to know that you are The Christ, or that the same Spirit that was in Christ is also in you. That all you need while in this realm is to continously renew your mind and adapt to His mindset..."Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:" (Philippians 2:5). That is to truly pray in His name and not in your given earthly identity. You pray as Him....because as he is, so are we in this world." (1 John 4:17). When you speak as Him, the world responds to Him...that is why you use the Name of Jesus.
Now to the man of Flesh (Carnal Minded man) the characters he reads about in the bible...are just that i.e historical examples from which to draw moral and logical refferences. Numerous verses about certain stories regarding certain individuals are quoted left, right and centre but in truth they do not represent the eternal states of consciousness. Lets examine a few verses.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." (Romans 9:13)
...to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace." (Romans 8:6)
... set before you is life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that ...you... may live:" (Deuteronomy 30:19)
..."See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out of my hand." (Deuteronomy 32:39).
"I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things." (Isaiah 45:7).
At every turn in the bible duality will always be presented in the lives of many bible characters to show you that the bible is actually about you not these characters. That its your biography as you are the operent power of all life's phenomena by virtue of being the Spirit dressed up in the human flesh.
It is okay for you to deny that you are God, because to be man you had to forget who you are so much so that you would easily think you are only human. God became Man that Man might become God. For God to become Man, He had to forget Himself totally and to do that, a deep sleep, involving this dream of life had to be placed upon man, otherwise all men would be like Jesus - born awake. Genesis 1:26 says "...Let us make man in our image, after our likeness... But in strong's concordance (translating hebrew to english) it is supposed to say..."Let us become man and have dominion" but the scholars in those days could not figure out what it meant so they assumed what they wrote saying "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion ...
As much as many have denied it, it is who we are one way or the other...and those who soon learn how to adapt have become established in this "I amness" and are truly able to we'll radiate the glory and love of God and the less destructive they are by ceasing to continously misappropriate and misallocate their Identity and their foundation.
...They know not, neither will they understand; they walk on in darkness: all the foundations of the earth are out of course." (Psalm 82:5). No man knows how to exercise His authority if he is insecure about his Identity or is building on wrong foundation. If you do not know that God dwells in you, how can you do His works or exercise His power? If it is external, it remains so....if its within you it will radiate from inside out.
Throughout the bible, Characters like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah, there is only ONE spirit at play and only one story unfolding in all men, and that is the story of - "I AM" personified in many forms and described by these numerous characters.
Great men like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Elijah are not just individual persons as we are, nor as deemed by tradition or religion. These Bible Characters are but eternal states, representing states of awareness or consciousness in much the same way we understand the state of wealth, poverty, anger, wrath, beauty, peace, war, health e.tc.
These individuals embody the states which they depict with the stories concerning their lives. Each individual personifies a state that happens to be his dwelling place. The stories about these men would not serve any other relevance short of guiding us the "gods" in using the bible to navigate earthly life in this human form, browsing from state to state. Ye are gods; and ALL OF YOU are children of the most High." (Psalm 82:6).
Few of us acknowledge that each man born of a woman has a history prior to being born, only that the details of that story were erased when the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept...(Genesis 2:21)....and to this day no account of Adam being awakened is recorded anywhere in scripture. The lives of these men therefore represent the eternal states of consciousness we all have to go through or navigate through. We either occupy several or all of those states in this lifetime.
One known Character in the Bible who went through almost all these states of consciousness and manifested Man in almost all dimensions is none other than King David. Be it blood, loneliness, adultery, wealth, war, peace, meditation, sonship, parenting and every aspect of life that God would ever want to occupy in the body of a man ....David lived it. Our Journey on earth in these bodies is like the story of the prodigal son. We navigate the states we choose until we finally return into the source.
No wonder God said through David that ...I will tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to me, "You are my son, today I have begotten you." (Psalms 2:7).
The same words are resonating through every man that is awakening or being born again. To understand that you are spirit and that while you are here on earth in this body, there are various states that you will occupy, good or bad and that those states are embodied in your flesh, through your will power ... Since you are the operent power is what makes you "self-begotten"... I have begotten you today is what the Spirit within you will say.
All eternal states are given tangibility by you as you enter each of them... And the ultimate end of your journey through these states is finally arriving at the State called Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of the power of God, and the wisdom of God." (1 Corinthians 1:24). That is the final state to embody and personify...and it belongs to the man who believes all he has and is, is all that God has and is ....With men many things are impossible; but with God all things are possible." (Matthew 19:26)...yet...all things are possible to the man who believes. " (Mark 9:23). Therefore the man who believes has attained the title of Jesus...He is like God because to both states (The believing Man and God) nothing is impossible...neither to God nor to that man who believes.
So who is the believing man? The awakened one...the one who is born from above....The one who has arrived at the ultimate state...who says I and the Father are one....who knows He is the Christ....the MAN WHO KNOWS HE IS "I AM" ( WHO IS IN UNION OR ONENESS WITH IAM). This is the kind of belief where nothing is impossible, it is to the man who like Jesus believes Himself to be God...for God is one ...not two. Each of us has been programmed to finally awaken one day as this man...Jesus Christ
So the Characters of the bible are eternal states of consciousness through which you and I and all men...and that, just as we are all destined to die or be separated from flesh, we will all awaken to our I-Amness, we will have to go through these states...passing some or all of them,.. until our Final destination or Climax - Jesus Christ....that is the full formation or the full awakening moment when we return into the Elohim...the compound Name of many intermediaries...many gods...many sons....all summed up as One - the great "I AM"... For "I am" is singular...only ONE. ..
The LORD our God is one LORD;" (Deuteronomy 6:4).
"Now an intermediary implies more than one; but God is one." (Galatians 3:20).
"You believe that God is one; you do well. .." (James 2:19).
We will all have to climax into Jesus Christ... Every man has his day...a day he is destined to awaken and discover He is God who has been in a dream, to awaken into Jesus Christ, for Jesus Christ is nothing less than God Himself... to awaken into Oneness...into The Elohim....The summation...The consummation. Every man has been destined to awaken AS GOD. "He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man's mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end." (Ecclesiastes 3:11).
Therefore the birth from above is not of flesh and blood as these cannot enter or even inherit any part of the Kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21) ...seek first this kingdom ....and get magnetized...attracting the rest (Mathew6:33) To born form above is to discover that you are the life giving Spirit, to awaken as Jesus and his Christ.
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