The Word: John 3: 3- 4(KJV)
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Dig Deeper:
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Think about it
UNDERSTANDING THE NEW BIRTH
We are starting a new series on the New birth this month. It is to help us go back to the basics of what being born again means. Nicodemus a Pharisee came to Jesus at night, Jesus told him the entering qualification for making heaven is to become born again.
So what does it mean to be born again?
Romans 3: 23
23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Sin in the garden of Eden led to spiritual death. Man consists of 3 part: The Spirit, soul and the body. The three parts are very important. The body gives us the license to live on earth. If the body is to be significantly damaged, you have to exit, No one has the right to live here on earth without the body. The soul is also important in that even if you have a body but your mind, emotions are not working, then you can’t live a fulfilling life. Your spirit is crucially important because without your spirit you cannot contact the spiritual world. The spirit of man is what died when Adam sinned and needed to be recreated. Hence why Jesus said: unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Growing in grace
When a man becomes born again, his spirit is recreated, his body is thesame, his soul is thesame.
So a man does not necessarily grow taller or shorter because he has become born again. And in most cases, his likes and dislikes, temperaments and will does not necessarily change because he has become born again. Now the body grows through physical feeding. The soul grows through information that we feed it. What we read, what we see, what we expose ourselves to determines the growth of our soul. The spirit grows through spiritual exercise: praying, studying the word, fasting.
The 2 parts of man: Body and spirit always strive to dominate. The body wants her way. The body wants food, sex, comfort.
Galatians 5: 16 – 17
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
If we give in to everything the body wants and feed the wrong stuff into our soul, then the spirit will be weak. If however we feed the spirit man the word and prayers and we feed the soul with the right information, then the body will be subdued.
Nuggets:
Being born again is the entry point for making heaven, but we then need to develop our spirit man daily
Our memory verse for Jebruary 2018
John 3: 3
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Let’s take a few moment to learn our memory verse for this month by heart. It can be memorised in 2 lines:
Line 1: Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Line 2: Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Once you say it a few times it will stick.
Prayer focus: Our prayers for the next level project:
Let us pray for the global climate, against flood, fire, hurricane, earthquake etc. Let’s pray for a special and a new anointing
On Grace:
Masterlife Workbook: The Church is embarking on weeks of discipleship workbook study: Masterlife now on the 2nd workbook: The Disciple’s personality
