Have you been reborn in Spirit

How did you experience it - can you describe it?

Through the truths of Gods' word.

98cwitr said:

I really expected a lot more traffic in this thread.

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So far, 100% of the votes agree on Yes. If there's no disagreement, then what's there to talk about?

98cwitr said:

You mean aside from only 8 votes and 117 views? Maybe what the experience was like, how it differed or was similar to your water baptism, if there were any gifts bestowed upon you. Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Is rebirth of the Holy Spirit is a very private and closed-door topic?

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Ask and then you receive. But not until then. After we receive we hopefully don't regret the asking.

Regeneration is a lot more of a mystery to it's participants than baptism. When described it takes into account various versions that seem almost contradictory at times. My regeneration experience entailed the highest feeling of the holiness of God and the cleanliness of myself that I've ever experienced. My baptism seemed a let down subjectively in comparison to it.

Even as a Pentecostal I never saw nor heard of an individual receiving the designated gifts at the birthing moment. Even from people knowledgeable in them. If received they came later. This was evidence of the salvation experience, not the birth itself. Now the fruits of the Spirit, yes. These are akin to physical genetics received from your parents. Growing like arms and legs.
Yeah buddy, good times.

98cwitr said:

You mean aside from only 8 votes and 117 views? Maybe what the experience was like, how it differed or was similar to your water baptism, if there were any gifts bestowed upon you. Just some thoughts off the top of my head.

Is rebirth of the Holy Spirit a very private and closed-door topic?

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No, but it is a rather ambiguous subject. I've had a few direct encounters with the Holy Spirit, but not in a Baptist church. I'm new to this denomination, and all I know of it comes from the church that I currently attend. This being a Baptist forum, I try to respect the views of the people here by not bringing in Pentecostal elements to the discussion.

You started the thread with a simple yes-or-no question, which was not conducive to discussion. Your questions, just now, are better, but it would have helped if you had started a thread with an example from your own life, so that we would know better what you meant by the question. Being reborn of the Holy Spirit does not strike me as necessarily being an experiential event. I have encountered the Holy Spirit, that enveloping presence that can turn a frigid night into a warm day, that tingling electricity, the visible cloud that moves over the congregation, that comfort and peace, et cetera, but I have not considered that to be the moment of regeneration. In fact, I don't consider regeneration to be a moment at all. My entire life has been a process of regeneration, as far as I can tell. That part of my life where I had the most dramatic experiences of the Holy Spirit seemed, at the time, to be a high point; that is, I thought I had arrived, so to speak, but I regard that, now, as a low point in my development as a Christian. I had those encounters not because of what I had achieved in my personal development, but because I needed a kick in the right direction. I look back on what I was just five years ago, and I see an immature Christian. Twenty years ago I was just a fledgling. What was the moment of regeneration?

The act of baptism is just a rite, but it makes a great symbol of washing off the sins of the past and emerging clean. I love that my daily ritual includes a shower, like a daily baptism, because I feel that the act of regeneration is not just something that happens at the moment of accepting Christ, but it is a daily occurrence, putting off the old sinful nature and following Christ. There are no laurels to ride on. Being able to live according to God's righteousness to any degree at all is evidence of regeneration. Such a life runs counter to the animal tendencies of the world, driven primarily by greed and pride. The unregenerate can act the life, but the underlying motivation still goes back to the same old greed and pride, and the moment that kind of life ceases to profit them, they cease to live that life. The unregenerate also assume a deductive fallacy about the regenerate, which is to say that they assume that the regenerate are only acting the part, with the greed and pride being the secret motives. The lesson, here, is that if the church seems to be full of hypocrites, then it is more a condemnation of you, rather than them.

At any rate, it's a big subject to start with a yes or no question. It would be like asking, "are you awake?" and expecting people to describe the biological mechanics of being alive.

98cwitr said:

The fact that last night we had 8 votes and 117 views indicated that a vast majority did not want to answer the question...I wonder why that is.

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I don't think that's 117 viewers, but 117 views, which is quite a bit different. You might be surprised how many times I looked at it, myself alone, and I still haven't cast a vote. My initial reaction to the question was something like this:

Oh, dang.

That's the honest truth. By the way, don't make too much of it if you get several more views without any new votes. Have you voted yet?

Well if you havent then the OP should have at least given instructions on how. I mean what is the point of this thread? Sorry not getting it.
OP could do an outreach, its your thread so its your opportunity.

I mean really, whos going to say no. Esp on a baptist forum.

You could ask this same question on the new christians forum.