Jesus is teaching profound things to Nicodemus here in John 3 and, though much of it is veiled in mystery, the key principle is summed up with these words: “Spirit gives birth to spirit.” You cannot birth any spiritual change in yourself by yourself. Neither can you for anyone else. You did not enter the Kingdom of God by your own efforts; nor will the Kingdom come through you by your efforts alone. We are always in a position of response to God’s Spirit. God will have begun something in you. You are only reading this now because God’s Spirit led you to this point. Your life can be transformed, but you cannot make this happen. And you don’t need to because it is already happening. What you need to do right now is respond to what God is doing in you. What we do in response to God is a little like raising sails on a boat to catch the wind. We do not move ourselves along, but we must still do something to ensure that we can allow the wind to push us along. God is acting upon you, but you won’t know it until you ‘raise your sails’. For me this means being still before God, it means allowing time to reflect and read Scripture, it means spending time in worship and acknowledging God, it means stepping out of my busyness to intentionally connect with God, to seek God and to surrender myself to him. Seek God; ask him to fill the sails of your heart with his Spirit.
How will you respond to God today?
Read John 3:1-15
