Everyone who is born of the spirit

It makes Christ to say: "The wind bloweth where it listeth; so is not the Spirit, but every one born of the Spirit".

It affirms of him who is born just what is affirmed of the wind, a thing the Savior never did. These facts are sufficient to show that the rendering "wind" is wrong. All we have to do is to translate "pneuma" here, as is done in the latter part of the verse and elsewhere in the New Testament.

The verse then reads: "The Spirit "pneuma" breathes where it pleases and thou hearest the voice thereof, but canst not tell whence it comes nor whither it goes. So by hearing its voice is every one born of the Spirit" "pneuma".

The meaning is: The Spirit breathes where it wills and you recognize its manifestation by its voice; by the words spoken by men of God as the Holy Spirit gives them utterance. Here are the lessons for disciples that I find from these passages. Jesus clearly teaches that the Holy Spirit will be within the believer.

And this Holy Spirit will be the indispensable source of eternal life and unseen power. If you were raised in a Christian home, you might not have experienced the "before" and "after" as vividly as those who were converted from the world. Consider what Paul says about our state prior to the new birth.

Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath. You've got some friends who are lost, who are "without hope and without God in the world" Ephesians It may be difficult for you to understand why your friends can't see God.

But Jesus told Nicodemus that the Kingdom of God is spiritually discerned. Without the new birth, without the Holy Spirit, our friends are blind.

Your friends are blind, lost, and groping for what they cannot see. But in Lesson 3 we learned that the Holy Spirit convicts and convinces people so they can come to Christ. Your assignment this week is to pick out two or three lost friends and pray for them that the Holy Spirit will open their blind eyes and help them see Christ.

If the Holy Spirit prompts you to witness to them, do so. Record all this in your journal. Father, so often I take for granted being born again. I hardly think about the alternative you have saved me from: eternal dryness away from your life-giving presence. And too seldom do I think about the living water that I can share with those around me through your powerful Spirit. Forgive me. Please change my thinking. Thank you for the gift of life you have implanted in my through your Spirit.

Let your life pour out from me continually. In Jesus' name, I pray. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit.

Also found in John ; Its seventy members were presided over by the high priest" Brown, John The passive can mean either, "born," as by a mother, or "begotten," as by a father.

The same meanings are possible for the Hebrew root yld Brown, John Nicodemus takes the word in its feminine sense of being in one's mother's womb. But elsewhere, the idea seems to be "beget" in the masculine sense. We get our word "spore" from this word. The expression, therefore, was not only common, but, so to speak, fluid John Grand Rapids, Moreover, Hellenistic mystery religions made use of the terminology of rebirth.

Odeberg The Fourth Gospel Interpreted in Its Relation to Contemporaneous Religious Currents in Palestine and the Hellenistic-Oriental World Uppsala, argues that the water stands for the celestial waters, viewed in mystical Judaism as corresponding to the semen of the fleshly being.

Thus to be born of water and the Spirit means a rebirth by means of spiritual seed as in 1 John Systematic theologian Wayne Grudem puts it this way: "Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us" Systematic Theology , p. A single copy of this article is free. Do not put this on a website.

See legal, copyright, and reprint information. My books are available in paperback and Kindle from Amazon. What does it mean to be born of Water and Spirit? Last updated on April 8, Karl Dahlfred. A work of the Spirit How does one receive this cleansing from sin and new spiritual life? Share post. Share on facebook.

Share on twitter. Share on telegram. Share on whatsapp. Share on email. He was unable to conceive of any but a second physical birth. His mind could not grasp spiritual things. Now Jesus had made clear that the kingdom of God is something that can be seen, but not until or unless one is "born again.

Jesus then came quickly to the point - that the kingdom of God is not of this present human life in this present world. It is not of this time or age! Here is the crux point that explains it all. Jesus said to Nicodemus, "What is born of the flesh is flesh: and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Man is now flesh - human. He is material substance. Read it again in verse 6. When born again, he will BE spirit - a spirit being, no longer human. He will be composed of spirit - of spirit composition, with life inherent - self-containing life.

Jesus explains this further to Nicodemus: "The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don't know where it comes from and where it is going. Wind is compared to spirit. It is invisible. That's why mortal flesh, as we are now, cannot see the kingdom of God.

Those who inherit it, will be spirit - normally invisible to eyes still human. He may, now, become only an HEIR, not yet an inheritor! Leading up to this verse, Paul had made it clear. He was of the earth, earthy - human. He was flesh - not spirit. He was born of the flesh. When one is born of the Spirit, he will BE spirit. Paul is here explaining the same truth. We cannot BE born as spirits in this present age.

That is YET future! Sahoulyah Shumenyah I've come to the understanding that we as believers, aren't restricted by those elements that are physical, fleshly, nor anything else that may be associated with the realm of our physical presence. To be as the wind, one would have to be living through the Spirit, giving life to all we encounter, going to and fro, without inhibitions, nor restrictions. Brian Stewart Let's take a look at exactly what is being said here.

John Leading up to this Jesus is conversing with a man named Nicodemus about how to see and enter the kingdom of God. Being born of the water really needs no explanation as Baptism is the only explanation. This brings us to the verse in question. Jesus gives two qualities or characteristics of the wind. You can hear it. You can NOT see where it comes from or where it goes to.

When a person is born of the Spirit you will not see it come into them, but there will be a sound thereof.