Rebirth

FRI., FEB. 25, 1983, 3:24 PM
FT. WORTH, HILTON

You are here, o son, in another state, with another opportunity to stimulate thought regarding the spiritual “side” of health. I may give you some further ideas on that before Sunday, but this afternoon I’ll turn your spiritual attention to Rebirth.

Rebirth is both a unique and special happening and an almost day-to-day occurrence. The term “birth” implies the entrance into a new state or condition, and it is both an event and a process. The physical birth of a baby is a process that begins at some imprecise moment when the baby begins to move toward the birth canal and some minor contractions commence… and can involve some amount of time. Still, on the birth certificate there will be a time of birth… a particular minute within an hour on a particular day and date. So, the principle is established: birth and rebirth are, at the same time, particular events and potentially long processes.

Let’s deal with spiritual birthing first. “You must be born again.” John’s gospel records Me, as Jesus, telling Nicodemus this truth. In your own physical birth there is no conscious spiritual quality… no experience with Me that you can remember. With some people the first conscious and remembered moments are in worship or in instruction relating to Me, and the rebirth process begins. With others, these same experiences may have no particular spiritual quality. For yet other folk early experiences are strictly secular.

For those I designated first, being born again, or born into personal, spiritual relationship with Me, the Lord, comes slowly and naturally, and there is very little trauma associated therewith. Through constant association the birth of a spiritual relationship “just happens”, and it is difficult to mark the transition with a date or time. It seems to be just a natural evolution.

Your own rebirth was more evolving than dramatic, though you can link it with a particular process, a part of your Menlo Park Church experience. Some, of course, do have a memorable, discernible rebirth experience that is like the final moment of a hard labor. It is dramatic in the remembrance, and it is appropriate for many of these to tell others of this phenomenal happening.

The essence of being born into this spiritual awareness is the knowledge (relatively absolute… an interesting combination) that I am directly involved in your life, from the outside and from the inside, and that the life you are living in the earth has a number of purposes, the continuing one being to develop spirit more fully, and to truly “see and hear” Me in all of the events and experiences of life.

“…the continuing one…” is the clue to another aspect of rebirth. I have told you, as I have told some small number of Christians (but not all, by any means) that eternal life extends both ways, and that some souls do experience rebirth into the earth plane more than once (some numerous times). With such persons, then, being born again is another physical event and process, and the spiritual rebirth also a repeat.