The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. John 3:8 NABRE
Jesus is teaching one of the Pharisaical leaders, Nicodemus, about His mission and in particular about new birth from above. Nicodemus does not understand what Jesus is saying about being born from above and Jesus further explains about the Spirit. For Jesus the Sprit is a powerful being from the kingdom of God, who can be the path towards being born from above. It is the Spirit who leads all people to the kingdom of God, working in people’s lives and guiding with a gentle nudging towards God. Jesus uses a play on words in wind and spirit because the Greek (the oldest text available is written in Greek) word for each means both spirit and wind. Jesus describes the wind blowing where it will, making sounds, and we can even feel it on our skin, but where does it comes from, what generates the beginning of the wind. Jesus’ postulates we don’t know.
There are mysteries unexplained, requiring faith, being born from above is one of these mysteries. Nicodemus who shows wisdom seeking out Jesus to understand Him, cannot understand new birth. There are many models describing the stages of life; early childhood, middle childhood, early adolescence, late adolescence, etc. is one example. A characteristic of most models of development is to leave one stage and enter another, the old stage must die, or fade away. In fact, much of life is about dying to become new, to grow. Jesus wants us to understand, we have to let go of what we cling to if we want to go forward. His way of saying it is we need to be born from above, which means our old self has to die first.
When has growth happened in your life? Have you been born from above?
Jesus wants us to understand, we have to let go of what we cling to if we want to go forward. His way of saying it is we need to be born from above, which means our old self has to die first. Click To Tweet#bible #godisgreat #jesus #christianity #dailybibleverse @youversion #BeAnEncourager #born #growth #John #everybodyalways #god #jesuschrist #jesussaves #godisgood #dailydevotion #biblestudy #scripture #bibleverse #verseoftheday #cross #last #gospels #loveeachother #godisgreat #thisVineyard #youversion #everythingalways