From Dream to Deliverance
Monday, October 4, 2004
My Prayer Today
Heavenly Father, Pour out Your Holy Spirit on me right now, that I may live as one who is, indeed, born again. Thank You for the truth of Your Word that teaches me that You have given me and all who trust in Jesus a new life! Live in me today by Your Spirit that all I think, say and do will bring You glory and praise! This I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.
God's Word For Me Today
John 3:1-21
1After dark one evening, a Jewish religious leader named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, 2came to speak with Jesus. “Teacher,” he said, “we all know that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous signs are proof enough that God is with you.”
3Jesus replied, “I assure you, unless you are born again, you can never see the Kingdom of God.”
4“What do you mean?” exclaimed Nicodemus. “How can an old man go back into his mother’s womb and be born again?”
5Jesus replied, “The truth is, no one can enter the Kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit. 6Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. 7So don’t be surprised at my statement that you must be born again. 8Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.”
9“What do you mean?” Nicodemus asked.
10Jesus replied, “You are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don’t understand these things? 11I assure you, I am telling you what we know and have seen, and yet you won’t believe us. 12But if you don’t even believe me when I tell you about things that happen here on earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven? 13For only I, the Son of Man, have come to earth and will return to heaven again. 14And as Moses lifted up the bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so I, the Son of Man, must be lifted up on a pole, 15so that everyone who believes in me will have eternal life.
16“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17God did not send his Son into the world to condemn it, but to save it.
18“There is no judgment awaiting those who trust him. But those who do not trust him have already been judged for not believing in the only Son of God. 19Their judgment is based on this fact: The light from heaven came into the world, but they loved the darkness more than the light, for their actions were evil. 20They hate the light because they want to sin in the darkness. They stay away from the light for fear their sins will be exposed and they will be punished. 21But those who do what is right come to the light gladly, so everyone can see that they are doing what God wants.”
Reflecting on God’s Word
If you could do one thing over in your life, what would it be? Why?
A Deeper Exploration of God’s Word
What is Nicodemus’ response to Jesus’ challenge that to receive eternal life a person must be born again? (3:4)
What explanation does Jesus give Nicodemus in response? (3:5-7)
Understanding God’s Word
What does it mean to you to be born again as Jesus explained it to Nicodemus?
Applying God’s Word to Our Lives
What role do you need the Holy Spirit to be playing in your life, that He is not playing right now?
Thoughts...Born of Water and The Spirit...
Nicodemus didn’t get it! He didn’t understand how a person can be “born again.” His problem was that he thought Jesus was speaking literally—which He was, but not in a physically literal kind of way! Jesus meant that just as we are born physically—through a natural process involving water, we must be born spiritually, through a supernatural process involving the Holy Spirit! Jesus doesn’t tell us exactly HOW we are born again, only that we MUST be, and that God initiates the process through the Holy Spirit. Nicodemus was still confused as we’ll see tomorrow, but Jesus pressed forward with His message: new life comes from a new birth!