TD Jakes - Truth Induces Labor
Jesus tells the religious Pharisee Nicodemus he must be born again—not as a conversion slogan from the Reformation era, but as a radical call to leave the comfort of old traditions and cliques for new growth in truth. Once you truly know God, you cannot unknow Him; truth induces labor, forcing you to choose between staying in the fading womb or being birthed into your greater destiny.
The Origin of "Born Again"]
This term as we use it today, born again for conversion. You know, you must say I am a born again Christian. Who are you? I am a born again Christian. Bless God, I am a born again Christian. Are you born again? Yes, I am born again. Glory to God, I am born again. Have you been born again?
Using that term in that way did not start with the Bible. Born again is not mentioned in the synoptic gospels at all. John is the only one who mentions it. The only time it is mentioned elsewhere is in First Peter. And when Peter mentions it, it is a completely different Greek word.
So Matthew, Mark, and Luke do not mention it at all. Born again did not become popular as an indication of conversion until the Reformation age with Martin Luther and the ninety-five theses. And as he introduced justification by faith, this term born again became popular within the context of conversion where people come down to the altar, they give their life to Christ, and they walk back and say, I have been born again.
That is thousands of years after the Nicodemus conversation. You do not see it anywhere for thousands of years used in that way. And all of a sudden it makes us have to go back and rethink this for a minute.
What does it really mean to be born again? I am not talking about the Christian colloquialism that evolved out of Reformation where you say you are a born again Christian. I am not telling you you have to stop using it like that. I just want you to understand that this conversation is not happening between Jesus and a sinner.
Nicodemus is a religious man of the Sanhedrin court who has worshiped Jehovah all of his life. He is a Pharisee, the highest order of religiosity, but he has perceived the truth that cuts against the grain of his peers.
The Comfort of the Womb
And this is our problem. We all want to go to the next level. We really want to go to the next level. We want to walk in truth, we want to walk in revelation, we want to move into our destiny and into our purpose as long as it does not create conflict.
We get in these wombs, we get in these wombs, and we lay back and get comfortable. Everybody likes me in my womb. Everybody understands me in my womb. I am accepted in my womb. I get along with my little clique.
And the socialization of the womb retards our ability to hear God speak to us on the next level. Because if we change, they will not like us. If we grow, we will not fit in.
That is the problem with birth. One of the problems with birth is when you grow, you cannot fit in. And some people would rather walk away from growth just so that they can stay.
Any time you are more concerned about what people are going to think of you than you are going to the next level, you get stuck in the womb.
There is a scripture I love. It says for this is a day of rebuke out of trouble, for the children have come to birth, and there is no strength to deliver. You have to be strong to deliver.
Truth Induces Labor
Nicodemus has received a truth that contradicts the environment that he has gestated in. Truth will create contradictions.
You cannot grow and stay. If the baby keeps growing, mama is going into labor. The only way the mama does not go into labor is if the baby stops growing, and then it is dead.
So, I want to ask you this morning, do you want to grow or do you want to stay?
Nicodemus says to Jesus, I perceive that thou art a rabbi sent from God. No man can do these things except God be with him.
And Jesus says ye must. You cannot stay. You know too much. If you did not know what you know, you could stay where you stayed. But you have messed around and stepped into a level of truth that is going to push you into the next dimension.
Once you know something, you can never unknow it. You can never unknow it.
Have you ever run into somebody that you had run into? And now they are with somebody else. And you with somebody else. And you meet them at Walmart. And you say, hi. But you know, and you can never unknow what you know.
Can you imagine what it is like to experience God? Once you have experienced God, I do not care what you drink. I do not care what you smoke. I do not care what club you are going to. You will never be one of them because you can never unknow.
You Must Be Born Again
I cannot tell you how many people that I loved that I had to leave behind. That I enjoyed. That have done me favors, and I have done them favors. But I had to leave them behind.
Not because I think I am so suchy much, but the cost of their fellowship meant I had to dumb down what I knew in order to be accepted.
What used to be funny was not funny anymore. And what used to be true, was not true anymore. And where I used to be happy, I was not happy anymore.
Ye must. Not you might, not you oughta, not you are eligible, not you could be born again. Ye must.
Truth induces labor. Ye must. Once you have tasted, once you have touched, once you have known, once you have experienced, once you have had, you must.
Nicodemus, this may mess up your job. Ye must. You might get thrown out of your clique, but you cannot know that I am sent from God, and then go back and dumb yourself down into acting like you do not know. Ye must.
There are some of you you are doing what they are doing, but you are not thinking what they are thinking. You got on the uniform, but you got a different mindset.
You know all the colloquialisms, but you are thinking different. You look the same, but you are not the same. A change has come in your perception.
Truth brings about change. Truth brings about transformation. Truth will make you make a decision. Ye must. You must be born again.
Jesus Speaks to the Baby
Most of the time when you get ready to have a baby, you talk to the mother. But in my text, Jesus talks to the baby.
The only way I am at the mercy of the baby is if I am losing the mother. Mother Israel, her pulse is getting weak. The traditions are fading away.
Birth is traumatic for the mother and the child. When they get through having the baby, they both die.
You remember when Rachel was having Benjamin, and she was dying? And as she was dying, she pushed out a king.
Jesus is standing right on the cusp of a transition. So are you. You are coming to the end of an age. You are coming to the end of an era.
What brought you here cannot take you there. You cannot practice the traditions of your past and evolve into the calling of your destiny.
The pulse of your past is weakening. You have to get out before the whole system shuts down. Ye must.
Some of you have spent all of your energy trying to keep mama alive. You do not know that mama’s past has ended. Her path has ended. Her purpose has ended.
What brought you here in your career will not take you there. But if you refuse to let mama go, you will stunt your growth. Ye must.
Truth Sets You Free
The reason you have been stuck is because your story is not your truth. What you are telling yourself happened is not what happened. It is the story you tell yourself.
I know it is not true because it would have set you free. And all it did was make you bitter, angry, mad, jealous, accused, point your fingers, frustrated, be upset at other people.
And the Lord is going to give you truth this week. I want the truth whether I was the victor or the villain.
I am not afraid of dying. I am afraid of not living first. I am afraid of not doing what I was born to do.
Truth induces labor. There is something God wants to do in your life and in your heart that you were put here to do that is bigger than what you are doing right now.
Bigger does not necessarily mean richer or more famous or more popular, bigger means more important, more important to God in His plan for your life.