Conception Before Birth

One of the greatest spiritual maladies that has befallen the body of Christ today is the universally accepted teaching that someone is born again BEFORE they are baptized with the holy Ghost with its accompanying sign of speaking with other tongues. It is called “accepting the Lord as your personal savior,” or “confessing Jesus with your mouth,” or “praying the sinners prayer,” or just plain old “getting saved.” in any event, none of the above are scriptural except for confessing Jesus; which in reality can only be done by those who HAVE been baptized with the Spirit, because we are told that “The Lord IS that Spirit” (II Cor. 3:17). Rom. 10:9 was written to believers in Christ who were ALREADY baptized with the Spirit into Christ, and who ALREADY had “the word [of God] nigh [them], even in [their] mouths, and in [their hearts]: that is, the word of faith, which [Paul] preached” (Rom. 10:8). Nonetheless there is but ONE new birth experience that Jesus suffered, died, and rose again to provide; and that is the ONE experience that joins us to Christ, puts us into the body of Christ, and enables us to “put on Christ” (I Cor. 6:17; I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). That experience my friend, is the one that these scriptures reference, which is the baptism of the holy Ghost, which is evidenced initially by the sign of speaking with other tongues, even as it was in the beginning (Acts 2:4). None of the aforementioned Christian traditions of the ‘born again’ experience are in the Bible, and none of them are legitimate. In many cases, people are just told to “take it by faith” that they have been born again, which is to say without any tangible evidence of the experience at all. If someone can be satisfied with that, then there simply is nothing that I or anyone else can do for them. Hopefully they will come under a true conviction of sin, and want something real. But in many other cases, people HAVE exercised true faith in Jesus, and they HAVE experienced something tangible, miraculous and real BEFORE being baptized with the holy Ghost. This is where the real problem is, because these people have proven that they DO want something real, and in fact have GOTTEN something real. I myself was miraculously delivered from drug addiction, alcoholism, a cursing raging temperament, and severe depression; in an instant, by calling on Jesus for these things. It was a glorious thing, but it was NOT the new birth experience.

So what was it that happened to me, and what is it that so many people experience before being baptized with the Spirit with the sign of speaking in tongues? It is the same exact thing that takes place before there can be a birth in the natural realm - conception. Hearing and believing the word about how Jesus came from heaven to suffer, die, and raise from the dead to take our sins away and give us eternal life, is the sowing of a seed. Jesus clearly stated multiple times that this is the case (Mat. 13:24; Lk. 8:5,11; etc.). The sowing of seed is what takes place BEFORE seed is CONCEIVED in the womb of a woman. That is in the natural process, and so it is in the spiritual realm. When the seed is sown into a woman’s womb, and it connects with the right element, there is a CONCEPTION of life, but that does NOT constitute a birth. It does however constitute something that is supposed to LEAD TO a birth. When the word of truth about Jesus connects with faith in someone’s heart, and they exercise that faith like I did, something is going to take place; and that something is a conception of spiritual life. It is real, just as the conception in the natural realm is real; but as the conception in the natural is NOT the birth, neither is it in the spiritual. So where is this in the Bible, you may ask? Look at the Samaritans in Acts 8:5-13. Philip preached Jesus to them, and it says that they BELIEVED on Jesus. The scripture also says that these people experienced miraculous things as a result of their faith. They were healed miraculously of incurable conditions, had devils cast out of them, were delivered from sorcery, and had GREAT JOY as a result of these things. But in verses 14-16 it definitively says that they had NOT yet received the holy Ghost. Understand that this is the same holy Ghost which the scriptures says washes us from sin, and thereby justifies and sanctifies us (I Cor. 6:11). This is also the same holy Ghost of which the scripture says, “Now if any man have NOT the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his” (Rom. 8:9). So the fact that the Samaritans believed on Jesus and experienced miraculous things, does not mean that they had been born again yet. And it is interesting how Phillip and the apostles could have known that these people had not yet receive the Spirit, even though they had tangible, evident faith in Jesus. It was simply because they had not manifested the sign that they were all familiar with that accompanies the new birth, which was and is speaking with other tongues.

If you can read verses 17-19 of the story, and not acknowledge that it is absolutely evident that the Samaritans spoke in tongues and were moved by the power of God when Peter and John laid hands on them, then there is nothing I can do for you. If that is the case, then of course you are welcome to disbelieve the obvious. But you will have to answer one question; that being, How DID Philip and the apostles know that these people had not received the Spirit, after experiencing so many miraculous things by faith in Jesus? Oh yeah, and you need to answer this one as well: Why did Simon the sorcerer offer money to Peter, so that the same thing could happen to people when HE laid hands on them, that happened to the Samaritans? Remember, he had already seen a number of evident miracles wrought by Philip, and had never offered money for any of them. Yes that is two questions after all. The truth is my friend, the Samaritans were CONCEIVED by the Spirit upon believing on Jesus and exercising their faith, and they were “born of the Spirit” when Peter and John came and prayed for them (Jn. 3:5). You may also like to add this to the equation as well: Somehow EVERYONE KNEW after the apostles laid hands on these people, that they surely had received the holy Ghost NOW! Jesus likened his disciples and the sorrow that they were going to incur through his death, to a woman in travail with a child, before he left them. At the same time he likened their experience that was yet to come, of being baptized with the Spirit, as the joy that a woman has after the child is delivered in birth (Jn. 16:16-22). They, like the Samaritans, and like anyone who has EVER believed; were conceived of the Spirit before they were born. ln fact Jesus had told them at the same time in Jn. 16 that they could not receive the holy Ghost until AFTER he went away, which dispels the common notion that the disciples of Jesus were born again while he was yet with them (Jn. 16:7). So in the case of the new birth, as with all truth, and as true men of God have always shown; the spiritual truths of God can be explained by the natural creation of God. The scriptures are in perfect harmony with that as well: “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Rom. 1:20). The modern Christian traditions of being born again have only served to fulfill a very bleak, dark prophecy of the body of Christ today: “Give them, O LORD: what wilt thou give? give them a miscarrying womb and dry breasts” (Hos. 9:14). So also has this come to pass among God’s dear people today. Amen.