When were you Born?
Have you ever found yourself coming into hearing bits and pieces of a conversation that two people were having, and thinking they were talking about something or someone, and yet their entire conversation had nothing to do with the direction that you thought they were referring to? This is what has happened with the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Let's review John Chapter 3, to consider what is really taking place here. When asked to quote Scripture, most Christians immediately say John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." When were you born the first time?
When Were You Born?
God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness! Let them rule over the fish of the sea, over the flying creatures of the sky, over the livestock, over the whole earth, and over every crawling creature that crawls on the land." God created humankind in His image, in the image of God He created him, male and female He created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, fill the land, and conquer it. Rule over the fish of the sea, the flying creatures of the sky, and over every animal that crawls on the land" (Genesis 1:26-27 TLV).
"Thus, the heavens and the earth were completed in all their vast array. By the seventh day God had finished the work he had been doing; so, on the seventh day he rested from all his work. Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done. This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created, when the Lord God made the earth and the heavens" (Genesis 2:1-4).
When asked to quote Scripture, most Christians immediately say John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
We see this verse on billboard signs, social media posts, and church signs that give the impression that this is the doorway into Heaven. The interesting aspect of this verse is the conversation that Jesus is having with Nicodemus, a teacher of the word during that time. Almost 2000 years later, this one verse from the entire conversation has brought more conviction to humanity than all the Bible.
"My speech and my preaching were not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught: But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory" (1 Corinthians 2:4-8).
This message that Paul is writing to the church of Corinth is filled with hidden treasures for believers today. Paul shares that he is speaking wisdom among them that is a mystery from God. This mystery was ordained by God unto our glory. It is unveiled only by the Holy Spirit, not by the intellect of man's understanding. This mystery will be evident with the manifestation of power, not just any power, but the power of resurrection Life that raised Jesus Christ from the dead (1 Corinthians 6:14, Romans 9:17).
The natural man cannot perceive the things of God because they can only be discerned by spirit. The Holy Spirit protects spiritual mysteries and the wisdom of God. Without the Holy Spirit unveiling the wisdom of God, man in all his intellectual knowledge of reading, memorizing, studying, and justifying the Scriptures will still not be able to access the power of God, and the glory of God will still be hidden within a people called by His Name.
The foundation of the church today functions in believers who perceive the Christian faith with an ego concept of man's understanding, instead of being led by the Spirit of Christ within them. The two main distortions of the church which have removed the anointing power of the Holy Spirit come from the perception of John 3:16 and the theological doctrine called the Roman Road to Salvation.
In addressing the first, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" (John 3:16-17).
This is a key passage used in almost every denomination to validate becoming a Christian to get into Heaven. "You must be born again."
If this is the key to unlock the wisdom of God, then why didn't Jesus shout it to the world from the cross or at the resurrection? Why was it not mentioned in Matthew, Mark, Luke, or Paul's writings? Why is John the only disciple that brings this event between Nicodemus and Jesus into a written message approximately sixty years later after the cross and resurrection?
Have you ever found yourself coming into hearing bits and pieces of a conversation that two people were having, and thinking they were talking about something or someone, and yet their entire conversation had nothing to do with the direction that you thought they were referring to? This is what has happened with the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus. Let's review John Chapter 3, to consider what is really taking place here.
Nicodemus privately comes to Jesus to have a conversation over who Jesus really is and how miracles are being seen by him and through him. Nicodemus is part of the Temple Council as a Pharisee. He has a high level of understand the laws, teachings, and prophets' writings of the Old Testament. He's acknowledging that Jesus has a very high level of a relationship with God for the miracles to be happening which he can identify with the Old Testament prophets. However, he also desires to know if there is something more, considering that true prophets had not been seen in the land for many years. In fact, almost 400 years. What Jesus says in response to Nicodemus's statement doesn't seem to flow very well in a conversation. Nicodemus acknowledges Jesus as a miracle worker and Jesus responds that you must be born again in order to see the kingdom of God. What does being born again have to do with miracles, signs and wonders?
Out of respect to the intelligence of what's being said, Nicodemus simply responds. "How can one be born again from their mother's womb?" Jesus elaborates on the conversation by stating that this is not about flesh and blood, but about being born of water and the spirit. Jesus is talking about spiritual birth and Nicodemus is thinking about natural birth.
Jesus realizes that Nicodemus is an educated man, and yet doesn't understand the conversation. Jesus tries to encourage him not to be frustrated with his words because it's not up to his own intellect to figure out what Jesus is truly talking about. Jesus says in verse 13, "No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man."
This is a key that oftentimes church doctrines are not incorporating into the message of John 3:16. Jesus is saying that unless one came from heaven, he cannot go back to heaven, including himself - The Son of Man.
We have made this conversation into a doctrine, justifying that if a person says a sinner's prayer of repentance and believes that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that they will have eternal life and go to heaven.
Jesus is having a conversation about seeing the kingdom of God- Heaven- now while on the earth, and while in one's natural body.
Another key to consider in this conversation are the words eternal life, perish, and heaven. As we evaluate these words, let's re-ask ourselves when were you born the first time? Most people consider that they were born on the day that we referred to as their birthday. Society has been going through the evaluation of the law of when did life first start? At the time of conception, at the time of the heartbeat in the womb, or at the time that a child leaves their mother's womb. This is how most of the doctrines of the church also view this conversation. They consider your first birth according to what man's laws have established, and your rebirth as when you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. This is not the conversation that Jesus and Nicodemus are discussing.
Jesus is taking Nicodemus back to the beginning, a man that knows the Torah, and reminds him that humanity was created in Genesis. In the beginning when God completed on the sixth day the creation of mankind in his image after his likeness, God rested with the finished work that all of heaven, all of earth, and all the host were completed. Jesus is reminding Nicodemus of what is already written.
Have you asked yourself that if God completed everything in Genesis 2, where were you? If we are told by the prophet Jeremiah that God knew you before you were conceived in your mother's womb, where were you? If King David tells us in Psalms 139 that God had already formed and created your parts before you even knew them, and that everything about you was wonderfully made, where were you? This is the conversation that Jesus is having with Nicodemus. This is the conversation that is being established throughout John 3:16. To know where you were in the beginning before you were conceived in your mother's womb. You must have come from heaven in order to see the kingdom of God now. Eternity or eternal life is spirit life, God/Divine life, life that is not subject to death. This is the Kingdom of God or Heaven.
We cannot obtain the power and the authority of the kingdom of God today without the Spirit of God through Christ Jesus. It is in Him that we live, move, and have our being-divine life as bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh on the earth. He is the living Word of God made flesh as one NEW MAN, and we are the cells of that body called CHRIST. It is the Spirit of God who gives Divine Life/Eternal Life today to see Heaven in the earth, and to do greater works in the earth than Jesus did, while in our natural body. It is His power and authority that comes from within us to be able to bless, and not curse. This is what Nicodemus was searching for.
Nicodemus recognized that Jesus had divine power and authority in the earth, yet through his personal logic and reasoning of the law, he was stumbling over why he didn't have it too. He was a child of God. He knew all the Old Testament and the history in detail of the people of God to know the right and wrong of situations, and yet the miracles that Jesus was performing was beyond what he knew or understood according to his belief. Nicodemus only saw the beginning of the Torah as history, not as his beginning.
Today, we are realizing that all of Revelation is a memory, an unveiling of what has already been there before. It is an awakening or renewing of what has been hidden in God. Remembering is not new information, but the recovery of what was always there in the beginning. When our spirit is awakened by the Holy Spirit, and the testimony of the word of God validates what we are hearing from the Holy Spirit. We are being washed by the water of the word as we are cleansed by the blood of Jesus. The life of Christ Jesus in us is in the blood that flows through us, awakening the DNA of our divine beginning as a spirit being with God in Genesis 1.
Science has shown us that what we see, hear, create, or even think was already finished billions and trillions of years before.
The form given to us was not created in Genesis 1, but when God chose for us to come from heaven into the earth to be born as a baby, just as Jesus did. The first Adam was formed in Genesis 2. The last Adam, which is you and me, was formed at the resurrection life of Christ Jesus, over 2000 years ago. Our spirit was formed in Genesis 1. Our soul was formed as part of the resurrection life of Christ. Our body was formed in our mother's womb at conception. Do you remember?
When we limit this conversation of Jesus and Nicodemus to a heaven or hell doctrine simply by one verse of John 3:16, we remove the truth that sets us free from ignorance and darkness. We take a message that Jesus was releasing that the kingdom of God is now and making it about someday when we die and go to heaven. God does not use a physical death as a doorway into His presence or Heaven. What must die is what God established in the beginning with the Tree of Knowledge of good and evil that we are not supposed to eat the fruit of. This is the cross!
Unfortunately, this is where most of the doctrines of the Christian church come from, which is why the earth is groaning for the sons of God, to arise and take their rightful authority in the earth, filling the earth with the glory of God. We are not to count any man's sins against them for Jesus already accomplished the judgment of this on the cross, but to uphold the power and authority of the Holy Spirit with the identity nature of God that He is LOVE, LIFE, and the LIGHT of the world.
When we acknowledge Jesus Christ personally, we acknowledge our own true divine identity found in Christ. Today, He is in us as us, ready to release his cleansing of righteousness through love, drawing all men to him who He created in the beginning. You didn't do anything for Him to come in but became aware by the Holy Spirit that He was already there. It should be an aha moment that you realize that you are a King's kid of Heaven. What will perish or be removed is the lie that the old man, the old Adam, or even the devil does not have any rights, authority, or place in mankind. There are only two spirits in the earth: The Holy Spirit/Christ made of the essence of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, faithfulness, goodness and self-control. The other spirit is an antichrist spirit that is hidden in man's ego.
Do you remember? Do you believe?