#16: Be Born Again

Be Born Again

A Lecture in the Voice and Spirit of Neville Goddard

You must be born again.

Not in some distant tomorrow. Not after the body dissolves. Not through any outward ceremony or ritual that the world can see. You must be born again now—in this very moment—by leaving behind one state of consciousness and entering another.

This is the great secret the world has missed. Men read the words spoken to Nicodemus—“Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”—and they imagine some mystical event far removed from daily life. Yet the kingdom is not a place you go to after death. The kingdom is your own consciousness. And rebirth is the only door through which you enter it.

Right where you stand, in the midst of your present circumstances, you are already living in a state of consciousness. That state is your home. It clothes you with your present body, surrounds you with your present world, and determines every experience you meet. If you are dissatisfied with any part of that expression—if limitation, lack, illness, or confusion seems real to you—then you, and only you, must be born again.

Rebirth is not a change of physical form. It is a change of identity in consciousness. It is the deliberate act of dying to the old conception of yourself and rising to a new one. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot remain in the old state and expect a new world. To take your attention away from that which seems so real to you and to place it upon that which you desire to be is to die to one and live to the other. This is the new birth.

You are at this very moment drawing into your world that which you are conscious of being. Your world is the outpicturing of your consciousness—nothing more, nothing less. Man’s world in its every detail is his consciousness made visible. You can no more change your outer world by struggling with its forms than you can change your reflection by polishing the mirror. The reflection changes only when the face changes. Your environment changes only when you change—when you drop the old level of consciousness and assume the new.

This is what is meant by the words, “You must be born again.” Leave behind your present conception of yourself. Drop it completely. Take your attention away from the evidence of your senses, away from the story you have been telling yourself about who you are and what is possible for you. Turn within. Be still. And in that stillness, feel yourself to be the one you want to be.

Do not ask how it will happen. Do not concern yourself with the outer means. The how is not your concern. Your concern is the what—what you will be conscious of being. For consciousness is the father that draws all things unto itself. When you rise in consciousness to the naturalness of the thing desired, you draw its manifestation to you as surely as the magnet draws steel.

You cannot take any part of the old man with you into the new consciousness. All your present beliefs, all your fears, all your memories of limitation—these are weights that bind you to your present level. You must leave them behind as completely as a man leaves his old garments when he steps into new ones. You cannot put new wine into old bottles. The old conception must go entirely if the new is to have room to live.

Go within secretly. Shut the door. The door is your awareness of being. Shut out the old awareness. Close it completely. And in that secret place, assume the feeling of the wish fulfilled. Feel yourself to be the man or woman you long to be. Do not merely think about it. Feel it. Let the feeling become so natural, so real to you, that for the moment the old state is forgotten. In that moment you are born again. You have died to the old and you live in the new.

This is not a one-time event that happens once in a lifetime. You are born again every time you drop an old state and assume a new one. Every time you refuse to accept the evidence of your senses and instead claim the reality of your desire, you are born again. Every time limitation knocks at the door of your mind and you answer from the consciousness of freedom, you are born again. This is the continual renewal that Scripture speaks of—the daily, hourly possibility of rebirth.

You are never bound by your past. The past exists only in consciousness. When you withdraw your attention from it, it ceases to be. The former things shall not be remembered, neither shall they come into mind. You will not even remember the old limitations; they were never part of the new consciousness. They vanish as completely as snow on a hot summer’s day when the sun of your new awareness rises.

Look at your world tonight. Whatever condition seems to hold you—poverty, illness, confusion, failure—see it clearly for what it is: the outpicturing of your present state of consciousness. It has no existence apart from your awareness of it. It lives only because you keep it alive by being conscious of it. Withdraw your life from it. Take your attention away. Refuse to feed it any longer. And in its place, give your full attention to the new state. Dwell there. Live there. Make your home there until it feels natural.

You do this by feeling. Feeling is the secret. Not mere lip service or empty words. Not hopeful wishing. But the deep, quiet, immovable feeling of being the desired state. Feel it until it becomes your natural assumption. Feel it until the old state feels foreign and unreal. When that shift occurs within you, the outer world must rearrange itself to match the new inner reality. It has no choice. Consciousness is the only reality, and your world is its faithful servant.

Many will tell you that this is too simple. They will say that life demands struggle, that change must come through effort and time. Do not listen. The world has always misunderstood this truth. It has always looked outside for salvation when the kingdom was within. It has always sought a savior in the flesh when the only savior is your own awareness of being.

You are the operant power. You are the one who must be born again. No one else can do it for you. No external force, no favorable circumstance, no change in others can accomplish what you alone must accomplish in the secret place of your own consciousness. This is the glory and the responsibility of your being. You are the conceiver. You are the creator. And you create by being conscious of being.

Tonight, choose your new state. Whatever your present difficulty, whatever the seeming obstacle, know that it exists only because you are conscious of it. Turn from it now. Rise in consciousness. Feel yourself to be free of it. Feel yourself to be the one who is already what you long to be. Do not wait for confirmation from the senses. The senses will confirm tomorrow what you accept tonight. The signs follow. They never precede.

You are at this very moment drawing into your world that which you are conscious of being. Therefore, be conscious only of that which you desire to express. Be conscious of health if illness seems real. Be conscious of abundance if lack appears. Be conscious of peace if confusion surrounds you. Be conscious of love if rejection seems to press upon you. Whatever the seeming opposite, take your stand in the desired state and remain there until it clothes you as your natural expression.

This is the new birth. This is the resurrection from the dead. You rise not from a physical grave, but from the grave of your old consciousness. You leave the tomb of limitation and walk in the light of your new awareness. And as you walk in that light, the world you once knew dissolves and a new world corresponding to your new being takes its place.

Do not be anxious about the outer appearance while you are making this inner change. The outer will take care of itself. It must. It is only the shadow of your inner reality. When the sun of your consciousness moves, the shadow moves with it. Your only task is to move in consciousness. Your only responsibility is to be born again—again and again—until the new state is as natural to you as breathing.

You were born into this world through no choice of your own. But from this moment forward, every birth is your choice. Every new state is an invitation you alone can accept. You are not a victim of circumstances. You are the master of states. You move from state to state as easily as a traveler moves from one country to another—by simply leaving the old and entering the new.

The invitation is always open. “Ye must be born again.” It is not a command to struggle or to earn. It is the loving reminder of your own creative power. It is the door standing open, inviting you to step through into the kingdom that has always been yours.

Tonight, accept the invitation. Tonight, leave behind everything that has held you. Tonight, feel yourself to be the one you truly long to be. Do it quietly. Do it completely. Do it with the full faith that your awareness of being is God, and that God is now assuming the nature of your desire.

You will not fail. You cannot fail. For the moment you truly feel yourself to be the new man, the old man is dead and the new man lives. The former things have passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

This is the mystery of rebirth. This is the power that has been given to every child of God. This is the truth that sets you free.

You must be born again.

And tonight, you are.

You have left the old state behind. You have risen in consciousness to the new. You are no longer the man or woman you were a moment ago. You are now the one you have claimed to be. And your world will soon bear witness to the truth of your new birth.

Go in peace. Live in the new consciousness. And know, beyond all doubt, that as you have been born again in consciousness, so shall your entire world be reborn in perfect correspondence to the glory you now feel and know yourself to be.

This is the new birth. This is the kingdom. And it is yours—now and forever.

You are born again.