Day 7: The Wind of the Spirit

We have studied the problem of sin and God’s promise to forgive us. Today, we are going to deal with another question that is basic to our spiritual life: how to become a child of God.

We will turn, firstly, to a conversation between Jesus and a religious leader of His day, a Pharisee named Nicodemus. This conversation is recorded in John's Gospel, chapter 3, verses 1-11:

"Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; this man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, 'Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to Him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?' Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said to Him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know, and bear witness of that which we have seen, and you do not receive our witness.'" (NASB)

It's interesting that, though Nicodemus was obviously a sincere, good, intelligent and educated man, he just could not understand what Jesus was talking about. And yet, obviously Jesus was talking about one of the most important things in life: an experience that He describes as being "born again" or "born from above" or "born anew." All those are legitimate translations.

This experience is so important that Jesus declares to Nicodemus that, unless a person has this experience, unless he has been born again, he cannot see and enter the kingdom of God.

He explained to him that there are two different types of nature. There is a fleshly nature, a physical nature, and then there's a spiritual nature. He said, in essence, "I'm speaking about a birth that produces a spiritual nature that you have not yet had." Jesus gave an example of this from the wind, from one of the most familiar things in our physical world. Jesus said, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

We need to bear in mind that, both in the Hebrew of the Old Testament and in the Greek of the New Testament, the same word means 'wind' or 'breath' or 'spirit'. So, when Jesus talks about the wind as an example, He's also directing us to that which the example illustrates, which is the behaviour of the Holy Spirit.