Day 17 - Born Again by the Spirit

Read John 3:1-8

It is interesting how the enemy does not have a single original creative bone in his body all he can do is present a counterfeit. The world in our day is proclaiming the gospel of wokeness. Being woke is a counterfeit of being born again. In the world one awakens to all their flesh has to offer. In short, they awaken to fleshly thinking and fleshly living.

The spiritual phenomenon Jesus speaks of in the Gospel of John 3 is being born from on high. It is the real and genuine act of God’s Holy Spirit giving birth to the spirit of man. The result couldn’t be a more drastic difference from what the enemy offers. When man becomes born again, he literally becomes a new creation! The Spirit reveals to us through the apostle Paul “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. (2 Cor 5:17)”

Jesus tells us that He now gives to us His Holy Spirit who will mysteriously dwell in us. “And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever— the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you (John 14:16-17).” A direct result of this is man becomes awakened to a loving relationship with his Creator.

One of the immediate effects of the Spirit dwelling in us is the breaking away from the hold that sin had on us. “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. What fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life (Romans 6:20-22).”

The world’s counterfeit awakens one to unrighteousness. Being genuinely Born Again awakens us to righteousness. And the truth is, as Jesus said, we cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven unless we are born again.

by Richard Perea