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From Heaven With Love

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    The Mystery of the New Birth Explained

    Jesus continued: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” By nature the heart is evil. See Job 14:4. No human invention can find a remedy for the sinning soul. “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” “Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.” Romans 8:7; Matthew 15:19. The fountain of the heart must be purified before the stream can become pure. He who is trying to reach heaven by his own works in keeping the law is attempting an impossibility. The Christian's life is not a modification of the old, but a transformation of nature, a death to self and sin, and a new life altogether. This change can be brought about only by the Holy Spirit.HLv 107.4

    Nicodemus was still perplexed, and Jesus used the wind to illustrate His meaning: “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.”HLv 108.1

    The wind is heard rustling the leaves and flowers, yet it is invisible. So with the work of the Holy Spirit on the heart. A person may not be able to tell the exact time or place or trace the process of conversion, but this does not prove him to be unconverted. By an agency as unseen as the wind, Christ is constantly working on the heart. Little by little, impressions are made that tend to draw the soul to Christ. These may be received through reading the Scriptures or hearing the Word from the living preacher. Suddenly, as the Spirit comes with more direct appeal, the soul gladly surrenders to Jesus. Many call this “sudden conversion,” but it is the result of long wooing by the Spirit of God—a patient, protracted process.HLv 108.2

    Wind produces effects that are seen and felt. So the work of the Spirit on the soul will reveal itself in every act of the one who has felt its saving power. The Spirit of God transforms the life. Sinful thoughts are put away, evil deeds renounced. Love, humility, and peace take the place of anger, envy, and strife. Joy takes the place of sadness. When by faith the soul surrenders to God, that power which no human eye can see creates a new being in the image of God. The beginning of redemption we may know here, through personal experience; its results reach through eternal ages.HLv 108.3

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