You aren’t understanding my post about being birthed in the Spirit, that is my opinion and belief...you don’t understand me.....hence your reply, I get this a lot....no problems, happy discussions with those you do understand.
Spirit gives birth to spirit....which means?
As you can see, we must be born of water and Spirit...very simple to understand imo.
Nowhere are we told that being "born of the Spirit" excludes the mind! That is *your insertion* into the text.
While it is true that Paul said the "Natural Mind" does not receive the things of the Spirit (1 Cor 2), he is speaking of Man's tendency towards following his native carnality, resisting the Holy Spirit. It does not mean the human mind does not receive spiritual things when it is inclined, by conviction, to do so.
I was, for a short time, a member of a Christian Cult--some would not call it a "cult," however. The cult called by detractors, "The Local Church," emphasized an emptying of the mind in order to "pray read" the Bible. Supposedly, in saying the biblical verses, one clause at a time, the truth would just sort of sink in, "by the Spirit," so that the carnal mind is bypassed and the truth is ingested.
This was a great way for evil to get Christian people to stop "studying to show themselves approved by God." They were being directed not to study, but to open themselves up to outside influences, to suggestions to their mind, in an uncritical way. This opened them up, I'm sure, to all kinds of false notions in the name of false "spirituality."
All religious cults, in some respects, do this. They do not want to be judged, critically, by the truth. They want to be believed apart from critical assessment, apart from true religious conviction. And so, they encourage potential converts to just "open their minds" to religious suggestions, basing their beliefs on spiritual feelings.
They don't realize that demons are spirits and can convey spiritual sensations, like the Holy Spirit, pretending to be Him! They become a kind of a "false Jesus."