Born Once, Die Twice; Born Twice, Die Once

The title of this tells it all. 

If we have never received Jesus Christ, and the work on the Cross of Calvary that was completed through Him, then when we die physically.

That is it.  Our eternal state is sealed. 

John 3: 3-7:

“Jesus answered and said to him, (Nicodemus, a man, and a ruler of the Jews) ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”

Nicodemus said to Him,

“How can a man be born when he is old?  Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”

Jesus answered,

“Most assuredly, I say to you, (like truly, truly or verily, verily that Jesus used too at times) he was emphasizing the truth and authority of what He was about to say, indicating it was a statement of great importance and certainty. 

(This is not a casual statement by Jesus.  It is mandatory to listen and learn, with eternal emphasis.) 

Meaning Hell or Heaven: our choice. 

Jesus continues,

“Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.  That which is born of the flesh is flesh, (water birth naturally) and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”

(The born-again message of the rebirth from death unto life in the spirit, from darkness unto light, and from Hell to Heaven, eternally.) 

 

Jesus continues again,

“Do not marvel (be surprised at what He says) that I said to you, you must be born again.  The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes.  So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

The analogy of the wind: 

The Holy Ghost being compared here, is like the wind, which blows where it wants.  The verse emphasizes that the Spirit’s work is free and cannot be controlled by humans. 

The wind’s effects are observable and can be heard too.  The wind itself is invisible.  Similarly, the Spirit’s work in salvation (John 3:3) is felt, but cannot be fully understood. 

The wind’s path is unpredictable, and so is the Spirit’s work in our salvation. 

The wind’s effects are perceptible, and so are the effects of the Spirit’s work in salvation. 

This is beyond human control, and so is the new birth. 

The best example is my story. 

 

I was the worst of the worst, in my opinion. 

Driven by death in my family, I became a psychotic, demon- possessed drug addict. 

Mom’s death from cancer at my ripe young age of 15, started the dominoes to fall. 

My daddy’s murder, three years after mom died, put me over the edge. 

I committed two attempted murders in the span of time from 1974-1976.  One was a shooting I perpetrated against my best friend.  The second, while on probation, was against a police officer. 

 

I was a self-destructive, angry, addicted, broken-hearted young man. 

I had great excuses for becoming a sinner who was beyond the pale. 

However, on Mother’s Day Morning, in 1977, while in the most notorious prison in Texas back in that era, I heard the Wind of the Holy Spirit. 

He met me in my cell when I was by myself. 

He spoke to me in my heart. 

Not verbally, but in my heart of hearts.

I did not know it was Him yet, but I knew it was supernatural.  It was, to me, more than a wind.  It was a CAT 5 hurricane of the Spirit. 

I felt it.  I could sense it.  I could understand it, to a degree. 

I was going to commit suicide within seconds. 

But I was arrested by the Holy Ghost. 

 

He spoke clearly into my heart. 

“Joseph, I love you, just the way you are.” 

Rather than jumping to my death off the third floor (tier) of this prison block, I made my way, (gently being led by the Holy Spirit who arrested me spiritually that morning, unlike my physical arrests in my past that were violent) to the Prodigal Son Chapel inside this prison and then, gave my heart to Jesus Christ through repentance. 

I was truly Born Again in the Spirit of God. 

 

Just like a bullfrog and the butterfly, they went from a tadpole to frog, and from a caterpillar in a cocoon, to a beautiful butterfly. 

The cocoon, in my opinion, is like a resting place or protective place of growth.  From a safe place, to a free place, to fly away into the Heavens. 

For me, I was in a dangerous place, not in a cocoon, but in a maximum-security prison, and was transformed in the Spirit to a new man in a holy place called church inside a prison. 

 

The good news is, you do not have to be an addict or a prisoner in prison to know Jesus.  He would not want you to suffer the way I did. 

I did it to myself. 

My sin took me farther than I wanted to go, kept me longer than I wanted to stay, and cost me more than I was willing to pay. 

In God’s eyes, there is not a sin that we can do that is so big that God can’t forgive.  But there is no sin too small, that does not need to be forgiven. 

The blaspheming of the Holy Spirit is the only unpardonable sin.   

I wrote this:  Thank God for the children who were either raised by loving, nurturing Christian parents early on, and as they grew, they maintained their walk with God, all their lives.  Or the young person who, around the age of 12-14, sensed the winds of the Holy Spirit showing them their need to be born again as well.  Under conviction, they surrendered to Jesus.  Without the damage of addiction, incarceration and insanity I went through.  This is a better testimony, in my opinion because they have avoided, with God’s help, the lifestyle I was in and that was so destructive.   

 

It is like going into God’s auto body and mechanic shop for repair. 

Some of us only have, in our minds, dings and a few dents and in need of a tune up because our spark plugs are a bit dirty. 

Then, like me, some need a new engine, transmission and a fully paint job because I have made a wreck out of my life. 

 

It cost me more than money to know Jesus.  I needed the shop for repairs and rebuilding by God. 

It would be better to spend less time in the shop, because you understood the need for Christ early on.  You have avoided a bunch of heartache. 

Does not mean you won’t have trials.  You will. 

Because Jesus is your Lord, you will overcome without the spiritual scars I have.  

Mine were self-inflicted. 

 

You are either a caterpillar or a frog. 

Frogs go from one lily pad to the other when they are grown.  As a tadpole they swim and eat until their metamorphosis.  A little caterpillar crawls, and avoids many predators, but ends up in a safe place (church as a child) growing and growing and eventually sprouts wings and flies into God’s Will. 

Both are born again. 

But I think I was the frog.  Hopping from one broken heart to the next addiction, and even prison.  I did not learn as a tadpole what to do. 

I was like the frog put into a pot of cold water, and then having the heat turned on slowly.  I did not feel the effects of addiction and brokenness, because it was hidden in the cold water of pain. 

Once I got acclimated to the water, the heat of life was turned up (prison) and before I was totally scolded and burned alive, I jumped out of the boiling waters of life and the trials that come and found refuge. 

I cooled off and received Christ. 

The frog had metamorphosis from tadpole to frog.  I had mine too. 

But it was tadpole to frog, frog to boiling water, and then the hot water to the cool hands of Jesus the Christ. 

I am glad I was not just born one time in this life, from my mother’s womb only.  I am grateful I had the honor from God to be born-again, so I would only die once in this flesh. 

If I had not met Jesus when I did, I would have died twice.  Once in the flesh, and the second time, without Christ as Savior and my name written in the Lamb’s book of Life, I would have died twice.  The second time would have been for eternity, with no hope of ever being with the Lord again. 

My fate would have been sealed. 

Eternal damnation and separation from God forever, in a place called Hell. 

 

Where are you at?  Where do you live spiritually? 

 

Are you a caterpillar waiting for a lizard to eat you? 

Are you a frog or tadpole getting swallowed up in sin? 

Jesus said,

“YOU must be born-again.”

 

If I were you, and I am not, I would run to the cocoon, or swim to the lily pad and grow up. 

Born once, die twice; Born twice, die once. 

Your choice. 

Hop into His arms.  Fly to His resting place.  He wants to hide you under the shadow of His wings and hold you in the palm of His hands.  Nail scarred hands.   

Wounds that never heal, remain a scar, beyond the flesh wound.  It is a scar deep inside our soul. 

 Wounds that are healed by Jesus, may have a scar.  But the scar is only a reminder of our sin.  It is under the Blood of Jesus. 

Forgiven. 

The scar never goes any deeper than the memory of sin. 

Why remember it at all? 

It is gone, as far as God is concerned.

Copyright © 2025 by Joe Wilkins