What Does Being Born Again Look Like

Introverted1293 · Jun 8, 2021

Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

Albion · Jun 8, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

Being 'born again' does not make a person into a totally different person, but he now WANTS to do what is right, knowing that he is one of God's own and a disciple of Christ.

He may be tempted, much as he was before, but now he knows his purpose.

pescador · Jun 8, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

Don't worry so much about becoming a totally different person. In case you're not familiar with John 3:16 (perhaps the most famous verse in Christendom) and the verses immediately following...

"For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God."

God loves you! He is not trying to make you into somebody else! Just believe in Him and let the Holy Spirit direct your life from within. Don't worry about the details, but focus on doing God's will.

Handmaid for Jesus · Jun 8, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

Yes, there will be a lot of change, but you will welcome it.
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I have prayed for you that you fear be removed. Amen.

Tree of Life · Jun 8, 2021

Being born again means being restored to who God created you to be. The more you live in sin and unrepentance, the less you resemble your authentic self as God created you to be. Jesus talked about being born again in terms of coming home if you think about the parable of the prodigal son. Living a Spirit-regenerated and Spirit-filled life will certainly be a life of radical change and everything about our lives will change to become more like Jesus as time goes on. But you're changing anyway. Life is not static. You will either change in a bad sense and degenerate into a selfish and self-destructive sinner. Or Jesus will change you to become a penitent sinner and one who resembles Him. Start the journey!

Akita Suggagaki · Jun 8, 2021

I remember for me the first thing that changed was I no longer wanted to use fowl or offensive language. The changes were related to sensitivity to others.

Introverted1293 · Jun 8, 2021

Albion said:
Being 'born again' does not make a person into a totally different person, but he now WANTS to do what is right, knowing that he is one of God's own and a disciple of Christ.

He may be tempted, much as he was before, but now he knows his purpose.

Thank you very much.

Introverted1293 · Jun 8, 2021

pescador said:
Don't worry so much about becoming a totally different person. In case you're not familiar with John 3:16 (perhaps the most famous verse in Christendom) and the verses immediately following...

"For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God."

God loves you! He is not trying to make you into somebody else! Just believe in Him and let the Holy Spirit direct your life from within. Don't worry about the details, but focus on doing God's will.

Thank you

Introverted1293 · Jun 8, 2021

Handmaid for Jesus said:
Yes, there will be a lot of change, but you will welcome it.
2 Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

I have prayed for you that you fear be removed. Amen.

Thank you for the prayer

I want to change. But I am afraid of what he may change in me. But thank you for the prayer.

Introverted1293 · Jun 8, 2021

Tree of Life said:
Being born again means being restored to who God created you to be. The more you live in sin and unrepentance, the less you resemble your authentic self as God created you to be. Jesus talked about being born again in terms of coming home if you think about the parable of the prodigal son. Living a Spirit-regenerated and Spirit-filled life will certainly be a life of radical change and everything about our lives will change to become more like Jesus as time goes on. But you're changing anyway. Life is not static. You will either change in a bad sense and degenerate into a selfish and self-destructive sinner. Or Jesus will change you to become a penitent sinner and one who resembles Him. Start the journey!

Thank you

This was very helpful.

Introverted1293 · Jun 8, 2021

Akita Suggagaki said:
I remember for me the first thing that changed was I no longer wanted to use fowl or offensive language. The changes were related to sensitivity to others.

Thank you for sharing that.

Jeffwhosoever · Jun 8, 2021

Some have a drastic immediate change like my best friend Wayne, but others like me merely start on a new road of gradual change that occurs as you exercise faith in the Lord and grow as a Christian though applying yourself to Scripture, to church, and to striving to live a life that is worthy of your calling.

FutureAndAHope · Jun 8, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

The bible speaks of a war between the flesh (sinful part of us) and the Spirit (God's Holy Spirit). Being born again opens us up to the awareness of God, but it is what we do with that awareness that determines our outcome.

Jesus said:

Mat 26:41 Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

As we spend time with God, the Holy Spirit's desires increase in us, and our sinful desires diminish.

Rom 8:12-14 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

We need to put to death, fight against our earthly desires, and fill them with the Spirit's desires.

The same-sex attraction will go away only if you fight against it, and replace it with God's desires, for purity. i.e. you would not replace same-sex attraction with inappropriate content as an example, that is replacing sin with sin. You must fight off all sin, and move toward purity. There is a fight but you can't just give in to desire.

longwait · Jun 9, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

I think you will also start to see/perceive things differently. Here is a verse from the Acts of Peter to support that.

XXXVIII. And when they had hanged him up after the manner he desired, he began again to say: Ye men unto whom it belongeth to hear, hearken to that which I shall declare unto you at this especial time as I hang here. Learn ye the mystery of all nature, and the beginning of all things, what it was. For the first man, whose race I bear in mine appearance (or, of the race of whom I bear the likeness), fell (was borne) head downwards, and showed forth a manner of birth such as was not heretofore: for it was dead, having no motion. He, then, being pulled down -who also cast his first state down upon the earth- established this whole disposition of all things, being hanged up an image of the creation (Gk. vocation) wherein he made the things of the right hand into left hand and the left hand into right hand, and changed about all the marks of their nature, so that he thought those things that were not fair to be fair, and those that were in truth evil, to be good. Concerning which the Lord saith in a mystery: Unless ye make the things of the right hand as those of the left, and those of the left as those of the right, and those that are above as those below, and those that are behind as those that are before, ye shall not have knowedge of the kingdom.

This thought, therefore, have I declared unto you; and the figure wherein ye now see me hanging is the representation of that man that first came unto birth. Ye therefore, my beloved, and ye that hear me and that shall hear, ought to cease from your former error and return back again. For it is right to mount upon the cross of Christ, who is the word stretched out, the one and only, of whom the spirit saith: For what else is Christ, but the word, the sound of God? So that the word is the upright beam whereon I am crucified. And the sound is that which crosseth it, the nature of man. And the nail which holdeth the cross-tree unto the upright in the midst thereof is the conversion and repentance of man.

Here Peter is speaking while he was crucified upside down. (The first man born head downwards he is talking about here is Cain) Peter is talking about his fallen state that what he thought was good is actually bad and what he thought was bad is truly good. Isn't this true? Isn't the evil manifesting in this world right now? We were blind to it all these decades and centuries. We called those who could see and perceive the truth conspiracy theorists. What we thought was innocent was truly evil and vice versa. Many don't want to wake up and don't want to have anything to do with the truth but its forced upon them in this season and time.

coffee4u · Jun 9, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

Being born again should mean your spirit can now commune with God's spirit. If you are being open to him he will put it upon your heart that dong, saying, thinking something is sinful or that you should go and do something. If you are sinning you should feel uncomfortable doing it, your conscious should prick at you.
God doesn't take over your thoughts and body though, you are still you.
Your body and soul can choose to not listen to the spirit and shut it down because your body or soul wants the fruit of sin more strongly than your spirit wants to reign, to be pure, to remain sinless.

Matthew 26:41
"Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak."

A fleeting thought isn't sin but dwelling on it and acting on it it is.
James 1:15

15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

We are told that Jesus was tempted, yet he didn't sin.
Hebrews 4:15

15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.

While it's possible for same-sex attraction to be lifted it may not be. Every person struggles with some form of sin, they are just different ones. Struggling and overcoming sin actually helps build and grow us. 11. Twelve Steps to Conquering Habitual Sins (Genesis 20) | Bible.org
It isn't the attraction that is sinful, but allowing it in the given moment to grow and to act upon it. You can still be attracted but sinless the same way a heterosexual person is still a heterosexual but does not sin in it by remaining celibate.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10
8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
Paul struggled with whatever this was and God did not remove it.

I believe when we keep committing a sin its really because some part of us does not truly want to let it go. We may be saved but we are as said before, still body and soul(mind) and it wants what it wants. Don't think your struggle is any worse than any other type of sin though, it isn't. We need to label sin as sin, recognize it and repent of it but also not think we are better or worse than others. It would be a rare person who does not have some particular sin they struggle with.

aiki · Jun 9, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

Why would it scare you to become the person God made you to be? He created you to know, love and glorify Him, which you can only properly do from a born-again condition. Would you rather be cut off from your Maker, destined to an eternity apart from Him, alone in the dark torment of hell forever? It seems to me this prospect is far scarier than living according to God's design for you.

Same-sex attraction, like all sin, is symptomatic of a life not under God's control. Being converted, saved, born-again will not in an instant eradicate all the sin from your life. But it will put you in a place where you can finally live in freedom from Self and the sin it produces. As you walk with God, coming to know Him better and better, deepening progressively in your love for Him, and submitting yourself more and more to Him, sin in all its forms - including the sin of homosexuality - will fall away from your life.

When a person is saved, a host of spiritual things become true of that person immediately. They are placed in Christ, clothed in his perfect righteousness, justified, sanctified, redeemed, (1 Corinthians 1:30) adopted (Romans 8:15), made a co-heir with Jesus (Romans 8:17), seated with him in heaven (Ephesians 2:6), freed from the power of the "old man" - old, fleshly, rebellious, shortsighted Self - and made a bondslave of God (Romans 6:6; Romans 6:22). It takes a lifetime to reflect all of these things in one's life, however. But, by the work of the Spirit within, one may be transformed becoming a holy, peaceful, loving, stable ambassador for Christ, living according to the truth of one's identity in the Savior rather than according to the impulses of the flesh.

Anyway, Paul the apostle answered your question in his letter to the Corinthians:

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 (NASB)
9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals,
10 nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.
11 Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB)
19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

Introverted1293 · Jun 10, 2021

Jeffwhosoever said:
Some have a drastic immediate change like my best friend Wayne, but others like me merely start on a new road of gradual change that occurs as you exercise faith in the Lord and grow as a Christian though applying yourself to Scripture, to church, and to striving to live a life that is worthy of your calling.

Thank you very much. That is very encouraging.

Introverted1293 · Jun 10, 2021

FutureAndAHope said:
The same-sex attraction will go away only if you fight against it, and replace it with God's desires, for purity. i.e. you would not replace same-sex attraction with inappropriate content as an example, that is replacing sin with sin. You must fight off all sin, and move toward purity. There is a fight but you can't just give in to desire.

That's the hard part. How do we replace our sinful desires with God's desire is the question. Do we pray for it? I have always believed that we are not in control of our own desires. But maybe I am wrong. I mean, do scare ourselves into God's desire by constantly reading about hell? But I think that I know what to do. I think it has something to do with what I feed my mind everyday.

Introverted1293 · Jun 10, 2021

longwait said:
Here Peter is speaking while he was crucified upside down. (The first man born head downwards he is talking about here is Cain) Peter is talking about his fallen state that what he thought was good is actually bad and what he thought was bad is truly good. Isn't this true? Isn't the evil manifesting in this world right now? We were blind to it all these decades and centuries. We called those who could see and perceive the truth conspiracy theorists. What we thought was innocent was truly evil and vice versa. Many don't want to wake up and don't want to have anything to do with the truth but its forced upon them in this season and time.

Yeah, it's hard to hear the truth. Sometimes we try to twist the truth into what we want, instead of what God wants.

d taylor · Jun 10, 2021

Introverted1293 said:
Will we change our tastes in movies or completely be a different person? I mean, will everything completely change? It scares me to become a totally different person.

I have same-sex attraction. Will I end up being attracted to women if I am truly born again? Will I not struggle with same-sex attraction?

You have three examples in The Bible, in the parable of the soils ( i place in bold).

“Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are the ones who hear; then the devil comes and takes away the word out of their hearts, lest they should believe and be saved. But the ones on the rock are those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away. Now the ones that fell among thorns are those who, when they have heard, go out and are choked with cares, riches, and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to maturity. But the ones that fell on the good ground are those who, having heard the word with a noble and good heart, keep it and bear fruit with patience

When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it,then the wicked one
comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”

The sower sows the word. And these are the ones by the wayside where the word is sown. When they hear, Satan comes immediately and takes away the word that was sown in their hearts. These likewise are the ones sown on stony ground who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with gladness; and they have no root in themselves, and so endure only for a time. Afterward, when tribulation or persecution arises for the word’s sake, immediately they stumble. Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful. But these are the ones sown on good ground, those who hear the word, accept it, and bear fruit: some thirty fold, some sixty, and some a hundred.”

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