In case you don’t remember your birth, it’s a traumatic process. Babies gets squeezed, pushed, and pulled, and thrust from a dark, warm, peaceful environment into a blinding, cold, cacophony of chaos. Or something like that.
Since physical birth is such an ordeal, why would we expect our spiritual rebirth to be any different? Jesus said, "You must be born again” (John 3:7). Billy Graham said it too, but Jesus said it first. There is a point of entering from the kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of God, and it’s called being born again. We also call it salvation. But don’t think this is an easy process. It is anything but that. You see, when we are born again, our old nature is killed off. That’s right. Paul describes it this way: For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with. (Rom. 6:6). But boy oh boy, our old sin nature doesn’t go quietly. Have you ever seen a chicken get its head cut off? If not, maybe you’ve heard about it. You can probably see it on Youtube if you are really interested. But when that chicken gets it head cut off, it still flops around, flapping its wings, and sometimes runs around the farmyard. Despite all the commotion, that chicken is dead. It’s head is chopped off! But its body doesn’t know it yet and it’s putting up an awful fuss. Here’s the way A.W. Tozer puts it:
"The ancient curse will not go out painlessly; the tough old miser within us will not lie down and die obedient to our command. He must be torn out of our heart like a plant from the soil; he must be extracted in agony and blood like a tooth from the jaw. He must be expelled from our soul by violence as Christ expelled the money changers from the temple. And we shall need to steel ourselves against his piteous begging, and to recognize it as springing out of self-pity, one of the most reprehensible sins of the human heart."
If you are born again, but have never experienced this sort of struggle, it may be because you have not once and for all decided to surrender those things that usurp God’s rightful seat on the throne of your heart. May Mr. Tozer’s prayer be ours as well:
"Father, I want to know Thee, but my coward heart fears to give up its toys. I cannot part with them without inward bleeding, and I do not try to hide from Thee the terror of the parting. I come trembling, but 1 do come. Please root from my heart all those things which 1 have cherished so long and which have become a very part of my living self, so that Thou mayest enter and dwell there without a rival. Then shalt Thou make the place of Thy feet glorious. Then shall my heart have no need of the sun to shine in it, for Thyself wilt be the light of it, and there shall be no night there. In Jesus' Name, Amen."