How do you know you are born again? and influenced by the holy spirit

[evangelical]

How do you know you are born again?
And influenced by the holy spirit?

Was your life changed by the holy spirit?

What did you expect to happen with your religious understanding?

 

[Kei]

By being baptized.

We are expected to be brought to life spiritually from being dead. It is beginning of the Christian life, being filled with the Holy Spirit and thus growing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

 

[TheLittleLady]

Because I have been baptized, born of water and of the spirit.

I have received the fullness of the Sacraments of Initiation from Confirmation.

Christ gave us a Church and the Sacraments are the vehicles of Grace!

 

[Reuben_J]

How do you know you are born again?
And influenced by the holy spirit?

Was your life changed by the holy spirit?

What did you expect to happen with your religious understanding?

Born again? There is a difference in using this term. What you mean really is about being changed by the Holy Spirit, to leave out the old, and to take on the new (life).

Catholics do not like to be asked this question because of the different understanding of the term. In any case, to answer your question, we can only reasonably know that we are ‘born again’ because we experience the change from our ‘old life’ to a ‘new life’. Where once we lived a life of sin but now we live a life of righteousness, which we would hope to last.

The Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus as the Paraclete, Advocate, Counselor and Comforter. As such, He gives us power to live that new life. On our own, we are nothing but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can know the Father and able to call upon the name of Jesus and say that He is Lord.

God bless.

 

[whichwaytogo47]

By being baptized.

We are expected to be brought to life spiritually from being dead. It is beginning of the Christian life, being filled with the Holy Spirit and thus growing in the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Not 100% true. You must be born of the water and the spirit. There’s also baptism by fire and desire. Lastly, there’s also a baptism by blood (i.e. martyrdom).

Baptism by water encourages you to follow in the Spirit, but it doesn’t guarantee that you will. You can still give up your salvation and be in Hell. A cathechuman by contrast that is never baptized but desires baptism will be saved. This is accepted by the Catholic faith. It’s so important to get people to desire the Holy Spirit and seek to be born again, baptized or not. That said as soon as someone has the desire, they are to go and be baptized. Ideally, a father or a friend will insist that the individual be baptized with said desire so that the individual can be saved. Furthermore, hopefully the individual can seek to desire the following of Christ and to live life as a Christian (i.e. a Christ follower) which is best helped by having others that are also Christ followers.

The Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus as the Paraclete, Advocate, Counselor and Comforter. As such, He gives us power to live that new life. On our own, we are nothing but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can know the Father and able to call upon the name of Jesus and say that He is Lord.

Yes, the Sacraments convey their own grace. But you must also trust in the Holy Spirit as no one can do it on their own. God can allow us to be tested if we have the Holy Spirit help us and aide us when we need Him most. I do definitely wish that I had waited to be confirmed in adulthood thru RCIA.

 

[Reuben_J]

Reuben_J:

The Holy Spirit is promised by Jesus as the Paraclete, Advocate, Counselor and Comforter. As such, He gives us power to live that new life. On our own, we are nothing but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we can know the Father and able to call upon the name of Jesus and say that He is Lord.

Yes, the Sacraments convey their own grace. But you must also trust in the Holy Spirit as no one can do it on their own. God can allow us to be tested if we have the Holy Spirit help us and aide us when we need Him most. I do definitely wish that I had waited to be confirmed in adulthood thru RCIA.

I notice you mentioned RCIA. Are you already confirmed? In any case, welcome home.

We are given the Holy Spirit by virtue of our Baptism. The reality of course, is many Catholics do not live a victorious life in the Holy Spirit or that they even know God and live as they should. Thus the Holy Spirit that is in them lay dormant and inactive and their Baptism does not make a difference in their lives.

A child’s pastor and spiritual teacher, first and foremost, are his parents. What often happen, this responsiblity usually is given to the Sunday school teachers and sometimes nearly non-existence spiritual education at home. Probably the parents themselves do not practice much or with little knowldege about the Church’s teachings.

If the parents only give fifty percent of their knowledge to their children, and the latter will get even less as they grow up, we can be sure that they would not be strong in their faith or the Holy Spirit works in their lives.

So they need to activate the Holy Spirit. They need to stir the Holy Spirit and allow Him to move their lives.

God bless.

 

[whichwaytogo47]

I agree with you. I was confirmed in 11th grade at 17, but I don’t know who my patron saint was. I sponsored a friend thru RCIA and he came into the Church. He was baptized earlier. I think that sometimes not having the Holy Spirit and the desire to get it thru baptism can sometimes be much stronger than one who already has it but it lays dormant. That’s why I’m not 100% against the Protestant view to wait to get baptized till one believes that their sins are cleansed by Jesus’s death on the Cross as it means that one does not take for granted the receipt of the Spirit and thus it remains active instead of becoming dormant. I’d hope that said Protestant would come into the Catholic Church & their kids could be received after being baptized by RCIC.

I am trying to say that by getting the water and the Spirit, in this case the spirit means that it is no longer dormant. Getting the spirit is where you make it undormant. I think Catholics need to strive to remove its dormant status.

 

[Reuben_J]

I think I understand what you’re trying to say. And sure, the Holy Spirit can work in anybody. He moves as He will.

Have a blessed journey in faith.

 

[whichwaytogo47]

Thanks, most definitely.

 

[guanophore]

We know that the Holy Spirit is at work if the fruit of the Spirit is evident in a person’s daily life. Peter also gives us criteria;

“For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;7and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But whoever does not have them is nearsighted and blind, forgetting that they have been cleansed from their past sins.” 2 Peter 1;5

 

[HeDa]

What I really like about the Catholic faith is that we renew our baptism promises every Easter vigil and also before receiving First Holy Communion and the Sacrament of Confirmation. Every time we enter the church we bless ourselves with holy water as a reminder of our baptism. It is living baptism every day and not as a one time event.

Priests renew their priestly vows in front of the bishop during the Chrism mass usually on Thursday before Easter (or a couple of days earlier if the diocese is geographically large). Their vows is not a one time event either.

What is needed is good, solid Catholic teaching that doesn’t end until we take our last breath. The Holy Spirit will make its presence known when we least expect it. Before then, we know that the Holy Spirit is given in Baptism and in a special way during the Sacrament of Confirmation. I think everyone needs to have a moment when they decide that they want to follow Christ and not “just because my parents took me to church and told me to believe in Christ”. As a Catholic, I wouldn’t call that moment “born again” though.

 

[guanophore]

How do you know you are born again?

And influenced by the holy spirit?

14For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. 15The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship.f And by him we cry, “Abba,g Father.” 16The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children. Romans 8

We have an inner witness of the Spirit giving us confirmation that we are adopted into sonship.

 

[goout]

How do you know you are born again?
And influenced by the holy spirit?

Was your life changed by the holy spirit?

What did you expect to happen with your religious understanding?

Baptism is

the gateway to life in the Spirit (vitae spiritualis ianua),4 and the door which gives access to the other sacraments. Through Baptism we are freed from sin and reborn as sons of God

Although baptism is an event, the unfolding of grace is ongoing through that gateway.

Someone said the way to become docile to the Holy Spirit is to live like Christ. As we become like Christ we experience the Holy Spirit.
That’s the way it has worked in my life.

 

[LostSheep7]

I’ve been told recently by some people of my former “church” that I’ve never been born again since I converted to the Catholic Faith.
Most protestants have a very subjective and emotional view on “being born again”.

 

[hazcompat]

Mystical Prayer in the Holy Spirit

This reading on mystical (contemplative) prayer, taken from Bonaventure’s Omnia, 5, 312

Christ is both the way and the door. Christ is the staircase and the vehicle, like the throne of mercy over the Ark of the Covenant, and the mystery hidden from the ages. A man should turn his full attention to this throne of mercy, and should gaze at him hanging on the cross, full of faith, hope and charity, devoted, full of wonder and joy, marked by gratitude, and open to praise and jubilation. Then such a man will make with Christ a pasch, that is, a passing over. Through the branches of the cross he will pass over the Red Sea, leaving Egypt and entering the desert. There he will taste the hidden manna, and rest with Christ in the sepulchre, as if he were dead to things outside. He will experience, as much as is possible for one who is still living, what was promised to the thief who hung beside Christ: Today you will be with me in paradise.
For this Passover to be perfect we must suspend all the operations of the mind and we must transform the peak of our affections, directing them to God alone. This is a sacred mystical experience. It cannot be comprehended by anyone unless he surrenders himself to it; nor can he surrender himself to it unless he longs for it; nor can he long for it unless the Holy Spirit, whom Christ sent into the world, should come and inflame his innermost soul. Hence the Apostle says that this mystical wisdom is revealed by the Holy Spirit.
If you ask how such things can occur, seek the answer in God’s grace, not in doctrine; in the longing of the will, not in the understanding; in the sighs of prayer, not in research; seek the bridegroom not the teacher; God and not man; darkness not daylight; and look not to the light but rather to the raging fire that carries the soul to God with intense fervor and glowing love. The fire is God, and the furnace is in Jerusalem, fired by Christ in the ardour of his loving passion. Only he understood this who said: My soul chose hanging and my bones death. Anyone who cherishes this kind of death can see God, for it is certainly true that: No man can look upon me and live.
Let us die, then, and enter into the darkness, silencing our anxieties, our passions and all the fantasies of our imagination. Let us pass over with the crucified Christ from this world to the Father, so that, when the Father has shown himself to us, we can say with Philip: It is enough. We may hear with Paul: My grace is sufficient for you; and we can rejoice with David, saying: My flesh and my heart fail me, but God is the strength of my heart and my heritage forever.
Blessed be the Lord forever, and let all the people say: Amen. Amen!