The challenge of the New Birth in Christ (or what is widely regarded as the born-again experience) is to be able to enter into the power of the Kingdom life, with its array of privileges, and be partners with God in the rulership of the world and the entire universe.
Anyone who desires this must, at the very least submit themselves to a process of personal self-deconstruction. This process or journey which must be embarked upon after the initial step of “receiving Christ into one’s life” is that which culminates in the dethronement of the soul as the controlling core of a person’s life, and the enthronement of the control of the Spirit of God through the human spirit.
This, however, cannot be accomplished solely by an individual. The life must be submitted to God in a relationship of intimacy, which entails the renunciation of a self-determined course of life, and the embrace of a selfless life rooted in the divine will.
The deconstruction process, usually a struggle, is orchestrated and supervised by the Holy Spirit with the active cooperation of the individual involved. One way in which the process can be triggered is a desire constantly expressed in prayer that the will of God be done, i.e. fully established in all areas of one’s life. That the Kingdom or the total rule or dominion of God comes and be firmly established and expressed in even the minutest details of one’s life. This usually serves as an invitation to a journey of personal discovery that takes the individual beyond the realm of the crowd.
The whole ramification of the process and its culmination, leading to the bestowal of the new life in the form of the very nature of God, are all subject to the exclusive, sovereign prerogative of God. And whenever the process of the New Birth comes full circle, the one involved begins to reflect a new kind of righteousness or if you like, morality – that which is of God and can only be lived by His power. God’s righteousness is a world of difference from the sort of morality being espoused by men; it is the power of life made possible by the Holy Spirit of God.
Genuine New Birth experience ushers a person into the glorious experience of the righteousness of God made possible by Christ. He “ceases from his own works” and enters into the rest and liberty peculiar to those who have been endowed with the power to function as “sons” of God, i.e. those who are exactly, just as He is.
Any form of “christian” life lived without attaining this level can merely have been lived on the fringes of true success as intended by the LORD. One common area of deception, one that makes the loss of the true spiritual life to pass unrecognized or unappreciated, is when or where the believer in question has frequent occurrence of “miraculous experiences” or what we call “supernatural manifestations.” A person could be healed or even be a vessel of healing, might be very active in the local church, could be a “Pastor” or a “prayer warrior “of note, might even have prophesied and written books, among such other “good” distractions, without ever touching the true life or the real blessing.
When the group of disciples Jesus sent out came back rejoicing that the demons were subject to them, although the LORD Jesus offered thanksgiving to the Father for the feat, He however told them pointedly not to rejoice on that note alone, but they should rather rejoice that their names were written in heaven (Luke 10).
This is not about some literal names adorning some physical location called heaven. The lesson here is that the interest of the LORD, and what should be the main focus of all disciples is that our nature (for that is what name signifies in spiritual things) should become harmonious with God’s heavenly nature; that the LORD should find us worthy enough of being invested with His holy and divine nature which is heavenly in quality.
Heaven, to be sure, is not some physical location but a realm or a state of being that can be accessed while still living physically here on earth. That is the desire of the Lord for us in sending Christ to redeem us (i.e. from our “earthy” or “earth-limited” nature). To be like Him therefore is our only true and most prized heritage.
Olushina Adisa sent in this piece from London, where he resides with his family