Well apparently by changing your mind. Which i guess does not mean like you changed your mind about what to have for lunch. You have to die, daily. Which is not some singular, religious act, but is different every day, some piece of your thinking that was not producing fruit should be replaced by a better idea. And this is hard, because those old things we thought and did, we did for a reason; they produced a result that suited us--or at least one of us, as we all have a spirit, a soul, and a body. We all have one on our left shoulder, and another on our right, whispering; and these are not ever going to go away, these are "free will." That third guy, "the observer" some call it, it somewhat harder to get to, i guess. We are described, repeatedly, as "2" in Scripture; "two men in a bed," or Cain and Abel, or male and female...which is of course mis-interpreted for us, into the physical, even though the Book is strictly about the spiritual. And the Book even explains why this is done, so that "seeing they will not see," which is not talking about someone else, some bad guy, it is talking about me, whenever i am mature enough to realize it.
And a lot gets made of making some declarations in a building one day, among some congregation of people, whom you have been assured are born again. And they have the vernacular, they have at least appropriated the lingo, they got sin--got a lot of that one--and confession, and repentance--even if they are maybe light on what comes after that; but they got the foundation idea down, as Book knowledge, anyway--and it is kind of up to the individual to connect that vernacular with messing up, and saying your sorry, a simple apology, and professing the will to not do that again, and being willing to make it right. It's hard because the focus on sin is often, even usually, misdirected, onto your symptoms, so you spend the next 10 to 50 years navel-gazing, listening to other people tell you that you are naked, some kind of way, you need to quit smoking or whatever, which God is of course not doing at all, God reaps what He sows, and He knows you will too.
So at this point you are fully engaged in trying to save your soul; you are completely in your Cain, plowing your own ground, firm in the belief, now, that the Cain and Abel story is about blood sacrifice, when it is not; no blood is ever mentioned there, or anywhere near there, except in connection with murder. But the tares have taken effect at this point, and you have been assured that those are just "weeds," which you have been taught to associate with other people, and assiduously trained to pull up, every chance you get; not "false wheat, mind-altering crop" that a market exists for right now, today--people buy those right now, today, for their psychoactive effect, but you would have trouble even finding this definition on google now. I've seen it get buried over the last several years, i don't think it's even on the first page anymore. "Weeds" is what you get, even from Wikipedia. Thank you for playing.
So after a year or so of that, you got yourself a pretty good definition of "born again," you think, which invariably, without fail, tells you that the congregation you stumbled into is "saved," and anyone who disagrees with any of their--now your--beliefs is "lost," and of course you believe it, Muslims can't possibly be "saved," because they do not hold their mouth right at "Jesus," and never mind all that "Any spirit that confesses that Christ has come in the flesh is from God" in your Book, or that "You must follow Christ, or be doomed" in their Book, nope, those don't count, because of course you are a Patriotic Christian, because that's the only kind, right, and you have, naturally, Pledged Allegiance to a Flag, and you saw, with your own eyes, some atrocity that some Arab guy did on tv, and you heard him say "Allahu Akbar," and never mind all that putting your eyes on the unseen, when the seen has already told you all that you need to know, and all your peers are agreeing.
Why change your mind when everyone agrees? Or at least you and all of your peers, who have definitely "left the world," at least in some fashion, but notice that you really didn't come back to earth, your inheritance, you got cloistered some kind of way, and you are like on the moon now or something, some artificial satellite, you got cut out from the herd and separated, and now you are a sheep headed for slaughter, only you don't know it, and the verses that plainly describe you, and me, we are ignorant of those, because we did not find them for ourselves, someone helped us, and the blind leading the blind cannot possibly apply either, because after all you got blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, you did all the things that got pointed out to you to do for "born again," you held your mouth right in all the right places, and got wet at just the right time, and even gurgled and cooed, so you, my friend, are in. Even got re-wet, just to be sure. Lol.
anyway, that was my path, don't know about you. Sure, you can accept Jesus with your mouth, from fear of hell, and leave Egypt a Free Man; you even get some gold, on your way out. But my advice--which is irrelevant, mostly--is that if you find your self re-laying the foundation, over and over, repeatedly talking about sin and redemption from it, sin, repentance, redemption, sin, repentance, redemption, wash, rinse, repeat, over and over, and convinced that Christ is coming back for you, and that you are waiting on Christ for something, for your "born again" life to start, all i can tell you is that you now have seven spirits that were worse than the first, which i know is a hard thing to read, and really hard to apply to yourself, i guess. I still have some, myself. And God forbid you should get the tickle, and go get a formal education on the Book; and i do mean "God forbid." I got Scrip for that if you need.
So right now, my guess is that you are born again when you can agree with a little child on some solution to some problem, or in seeing fruit in someone strange to you, that does not talk like you or look like you (after you get over yourself, of course, which even young children and dogs have to do, once they have been immersed in your domain, and are naturally suspicious). Or seeing no fruit in someone, but treating them the same way as the fruit guy, which is really hard if they also appear different. Which there is a lesson in there; if you look and sound the same as everyone around you, you would be amazed at what you can get away with; and there are those who raise this to an Art.
And you better believe that wherever you are, spiritually, you are broadcasting it to people who understand the Book--which i don't yet; i just started reading It, again--but when you talk about Rapture to someone who has stepped out into the air, and met Him already, someone who has felt the Breath (which you can do, today, it isn't a mystery, or a puzzle, you just forgot; little kids do it all the time), for example, don't doubt that your joints have been separated from your marrow, meaning that you are revealed, by your interpretation of the Book.
