February 26, 2013 (Tuesday)
“You can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit”–Jesus to Nicodemus (John 3:8 NLT)
I am writing this at 4:00 p.m. Monday, February 25. The wind is blowing fiercely across Texas at this hour. It has been doing this all afternoon.
Jesus told Nicodemus, “The wind blows wherever it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going” (John 3:9). Nicodemus did not know, but we know today. The earth is doing its thing: trying to equalize everything. The low pressure of a storm in the plains above us on the map is grabbing all the high presssure it can find, and the movement of this air is causing quite a stir across the state.
The illustration that Jesus used to teach Nicodemus about the work of the Holy Spirit, however, is still perfectly valid today. The word for “wind,” “breath,” and “spirit” is the same in Greek for all three. As the wind was mysterious in those days, the movement of the Spirit is still mysterious today.
When the Holy Spirit moved upon my heart and I received Jesus as my Savior and Lord, something mysterious happened. As the wind blows across Texas today, so the Spirit of God moved in my life. And when I accepted Christ, something happened to me. Yes, it really did. I was changed from within. As Jesus put it, I was “born anew.” Now I have been born twice: physically and spiritually.
Science can explain the wind these days, but it will never be able to explain the New Birth. Here is how the Bible puts it: “Anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun!” (2 Corinthians 5:17 NLT).