I was about to write about something else today, but the Lord wanted me to write about being born of the spirit. The leaders back then and today don’t understand this. Jesus tried to explain this to Nicodemus, and he couldn’t understand it. Let me explain this to you and when you get an understanding of this, you will begin to see things in a different light.
John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.” 3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 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 told Nicodemus, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Here Jesus was explaining the difference between the two. Everyone has been born of the flesh. Everyone has been born into Adam. Being born again is being born of the spirit, born into Christ. That’s why Paul was trying to explain that you are a new creation. To be born of the spirit is twofold. If you don’t pay attention to when Jesus was born again you will miss it. I want to stress that Jesus told John when He was about to be baptized, “Permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Jesus knew that the Kingdom of heaven is righteousness. So to be baptized is to fulfill all righteousness.
John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 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.”
Romans 14:17 for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
Now the first part is the baptism of repentance. Repentance is changing your mind, turning your back on your old way of living. The second is to be baptized from the Kingdom. Jesus was baptized from the Kingdom when the Holy Spirit came upon Him like a dove. Paul told the Romans that the Kingdom of God is in righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. This can come to people in different forms. Peter in Acts 10, he preached the Word, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit fell upon them. Afterward, they were baptized by water. Here’s a point I want to get across to you. Everyone is born of the flesh. Those who are born again by water and spirit have a choice. You can live from your old man which is the flesh. If you do so, you don’t believe, because the righteous who are from the Kingdom are being born into the Kingdom, and will live by faith. Those who choose to live from the spirit have put off the deeds of the flesh. They are living through Christ who strengthens them. We all have a choice and will have to answer for that choice, but in all your getting, get understanding so you can understand the ways of the Kingdom. Be blessed, my friends
Acts 10:44 While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 And those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also. 46 For they heard them speak with tongues and magnify God. Then Peter answered, 47 “Can anyone forbid water, that these should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?” 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then they asked him to stay a few days.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.