“Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God! That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Don’t marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born anew.’ 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. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

John 3: 5-8

These few verses are part of Nichodemus’ question about how to become a Christian and the miracle of the new birth of a person who comes to God. We cannot enter the kingdom of God unless we are born of flesh into this world, and born of the Spirit of God in spiritual life. So Christians are people who are born into this world by the water of natural birth, and born into the kingdom of God, thought the work of the Holy Spirit. The flesh alone can never enter into the kingdom. Before we are born of God through the Spirit, we are dead to God. Our souls have no spiritual life and we do not sense God, or want His presence, or see our need to repent and be changed.

The powerful working of the Holy Spirit is what resurrects the soul, and brings us to a place of repentance for our sins, and gives us the faith to believe. The change is so deep and thorough, that it is called the “New birth.” Becoming a Christian is an amazing new beginning that happens to a person who is seeking God with all their heart. The Spirit works in our minds and hearts to see our need, and feel the horror of our failures and sins.

When we see this, we then seek forgiveness for them, because without forgiveness there is no salvation to God. We turn to God. We search the Scriptures for answers, and the Holy Spirit guides our search, and we find the answer in Jesus. He is the one that can forgive us, for He has died and paid the price for our sins. When we come to Him, there is full and free forgiveness and we are born again.

This whole work in our lives is the work of the Spirit of God. This working is at the will of God and according to His purposes. The Holy Spirit speaks and prompts, as He pleases. No one can tell His purposes and we can’t predict His ways. The wind blows in our world and we cannot predict it. So with the Spirit of God. He will work out His purposes and He will bring many souls to repentance and faith.

We cannot tell what He will do. We pray for other people that they will believe and find this new life in Christ. We must spread the message and be ready to tell the good news to whoever asks us. This is God’s work and is indecipherable to the human mind. It is a work that cannot be stopped, and a work that will spread to everyone who God is changing.

When we are born of the Spirit, we have a whole new life and way of thinking. We can now relate to God, and we can see the effect of the Holy Spirit in our own lives and the life of other people. Our lives are now directed by the Holy Spirit, and we learn from Him and the power of God rests in us.