The birth of a baby is a joy, a mystery, an excitement, a time of trial and pain, a journey, and a profound, eye-opening blessing. This is just as true in the spiritual as it is in the physical. In John 3, Yeshua speaks to Nicodemus, a leader in the Jewish World, and says:
“Amen, amen I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” (John 3: 5, TLV)
When we are born of the Spirit, we have a Father. It is He that initiates the birth; He plants that seed of redemption. We can think of the sum of all our life experiences, our world, as the mother of our spiritual birth. (If you want to explore that idea further, you should listen to John Mathew’s sermon from Nov 7, 2020.)
We say that a baby has been “born” when it is separate from its mother. In the same way, spiritual birth is the separation of the new baby from the world of their existence to that point. Birth, both physical and spiritual, is a separation. However, there is also a new beginning that takes place at that moment. Only after the baby separates from its mother, can the relationship between the father and child begin. Though it was the seed of the father that empowered the baby to be born, it is only at the moment of birth that father and child truly meet and begin the process of relationship. So too spiritual birth is the way in which Unity and relationship with the Father in Heaven begin.
In many ways the spiritual birth that Yeshua is speaking of to Nicodemus though vital, is not the goal—it is not the end. When we have physical children the birth is not the goal; the goal is the life. In the same way, after birth, union with the Father begins. When we meet the Father, we come to know Him, obey Him, and love Him. This is the true measure of spiritual birth and growth. We see this all over Yeshua’s prayer for His followers in the Garden just before his death.
“Just as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You, so also may they be one in Us, so the world may believe that You sent Me. The glory that You have given to Me I have given to them, that they may be one just as We are one— I in them and You in Me—that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me and loved them as You loved Me.” (John 17: 20-23, TLV)
This call to unity with Him, and with one other, is the theme of spiritual growth. The goal of spiritual birth is spiritual growth—separation from the World that leads to Unity, becoming ONE with the LORD.