“…So Is Every One That Is Born Of The Spirit.”
By: Simeon Young, Sr.

John’s close-up of Jesus and Nicodemus allows us to see the lines in their faces. We are close enough to listen in on their, whispered conversation. With a glance over his shoulder, Nicodemus condemns Jesus with faint praise: “Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him.”

Jesus brushes aside the patronizing words of this spiritually dull teacher of religion and says, “Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus asks, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”

This question takes the conversation to a new level, and Jesus says: “Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of flesh is flesh; and that which is born of Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again.”

We must understand that Jesus is telling Nicodemus that he is not saved. Nicodemus believes he is saved because he is an Israelite, and is thus in the kingdom of God. Jesus is telling this high profile member of the nation of Israel that he must be born again of water and Spirit to even see God’s kingdom, and that his natural birth and religious standing count for nothing. What a blow to his ego!

But Jesus is not through with this lost churchman. He says to Nicodemus: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The teacher still doesn’t get it, so he raises his hand and asks, “How can these things be?’ The Teacher of the teacher, with a hint of surprise says, “Art thou a master (teacher) of Israel, and knowest not these things? … If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?”

One of the “earthly things” was the allegory of the wind. There are numerous emblems of the Holy Ghost in Scripture, including: oil, fire, the dove and water. But as far as I know, there is only one emblem of the Spirit-filled believer himself the wind.

Jesus likens salvation, or entrance into God’s kingdom, to being born, and then He describes what it is like to be “born of the Spirit.”Jesus is not describing the Holy Ghost, per se, but the Spirit-filled believer himself. he is like the wind. “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”

To understand that Holy Ghost-filled believers are like the wind is a revelation with exciting implications.

A person born of the Spirit is free.

‘The wind bloweth where it listeth . . . “The wind is free to blow where it wants to … where it pleases … where it wills. You can’t handcuff the wind.The Eskimos tried in vain to stop the wind by dropping huge stones on the wind spirit, and by shooting it with rifles, and by pouring water on it. You can’t snuff out the wind.

Jesus said, “It is like that with everyone that is born of the Spirit.”A trained psychologist who makes a living helping uptight people get rid of their hangups, walked into one of our Holy Ghost churches and said, “I’m paid $100 per hour to help people be as free with their emotions as you Pentecostals are.

If you have the Holy Ghost you are free. Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free” (John 8:32.) Religious critics responded and said, “We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest Thou, Ye shall be made free” Jesus said, “Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”

Paul said to Spirit-filled believers: “Being then made free from sin, ye became servants of righteousness” (Romans 6:18); “But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life” (Romans 6:22); “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Romans 8:2); “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty’ (2 Corinthians 3:17); “Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage” (Galatians 5:1); “Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty, only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another” (Galatians 5:13).

Nothing and no one can stop the born again believer. We are free and irresistible like the wind.

A person born of the Spirit is audible. “Thou hearest the sound thereof. . . ” Jesus explained to Nicodemus in down-to-earth terms that just as you can hear the wind blow, so you can also hear every one that is born of the Spirit.”

“And when the day of Pentecost was fully come . . . suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing might wind . . .” (Acts 2:1-4). A large crowd gathered and the people were astounded because “every man heard them speak in his own language” (verse 6). They asked, “how hear we every man in our own tongue?” (verse 8).

“And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost. For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God” (Acts 10:46).

Every person filled with the Spirit talks in tongues. There are no exceptions. None! Zero! Zilch!

A person born of the Spirit is mysterious.

” . . . but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth . . .” The wind is also a mysterious force of nature. Those who study the winds are awed and baffled by this powerful natural phenomenon. Some primitive cultures believed the wind originates in a hidden cave that is shrouded in mystery.
The born again believer is an enigma. There is no plausible explanation for the way a Spirit-filled person worships, fasts, prays, attends church, pays tithes, loves, responds to negative situations and forgives. A Holy-Ghost filled person defies description and definition. There is a mystique about anyone who is genuinely filled with the Holy Ghost.

Paul said: “For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God. . . ” (1 Corinthians 2: 11).

Peter said that we are “a peculiar people . . .” (I Peter 2:9). He also said sinners “think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you” (1 Peter 4:4). On the day of Pentecost, the people were confounded, amazed and doubtful. But verse 37 says, ” they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?” Shouldn’t people be asking that same question of Holy Ghost-filled people today?

The Above Material Was Published In The Indiana Trumpet, January 1996, By Simeon Young, Sr., P. 11. This Material May Be Used For Study And Research Purposes Only.