Being born again is something we are called to pursue but it's something that happens to us, not something that we can do for ourselves, right?
Anyway, I believe that I am "born again" but I don't KNOW that I am and even if I did, I would NOT exclaim "I'm born again!". It just seems self-serving to me.
Am I wrong to feel that way?
Did you receive confirmation by the Holy Spirit? If you are born again,
you must have experienced a change in you, your world view, a.conscious awareness that God is and has been with you all along, leading you up to that day you had this
Divine appointment.
You pray and know God answers your prayers.
You sense the presense of the Holy Spirit and His direct influence over you, your words, your behavior.
He brings to mind instantly the WORD of God that you have held in your heart, scriptures that are relevant in the exact moment when you need them, as you are witnessing or ministering to others. It is like He takes over your thoughts, directs them and a stream of words comes out after which you know that wasn't you, had never done that before and you simply say, that was the Holy Spirit working through you.
And when this day of enlightenment happens ( and some may not recognize a specific day), but certainly
the change in direction from not believing in Christ to this certainty of belief, which is what the gift of faith is:
Now faith is the assurance (title deed, confirmation) of things hoped for (divinely guaranteed), and the evidence of things not seen [the conviction of their reality—faith comprehends as fact what cannot be experienced by the physical senses]. HEB. 11:1AMP version
So a Christian can see a time in their lives when they were rebellious towards God, the Bible and lived by their own rules and ways, loved their sin (and likely not aware that it was sin). They might have been invited to church by someone and they held up their hand and said, "No thanks, that's your thing... not for me"!
Their door was shut, they weren't interested.
Then as God drew them closer, He opened up their eyes and they began to see things differently. Now faith comes by the Word and so you were either hearing it or reading it and
you began starting to agree with it. The many doubts over time started to dissolve as
God revealed Himself to you and began to answer your prayers.
You began to discern scripture, not in a superficial way, but deeper, richer meaning came forth, like a light went on.
You began to examine yourslef and received godly sorrow, realizing that you were a sinner and needed forgiveness.
So you prayed asked for forgiveness.
Your turning towards God and away from your sins and old ways was
repentance.
So then you started to love Jesus/God and take this new relationship very seriously and joined up with a good teaching church because you needed to learn more, have things explained to you by someone who is Spirit-filled and has been on this spiritual path and properly educated. It is like school for newborns. Kids go to kindergarten, because they need to learn basics and guided.
So it is God's way for you to win you over, become equipped and send you out.
You also need to be surrounded by other believers who come alongside you, love you and help you get acclimated.
God works through all of them to assist you. As you grow, you become hungry for the Word and can't seem to get enough of it. You are not only attending church but also mid-week Bible studies, listening to sermons on the radio or now online.
Does any of that sound familiar?
