“4 Have you suffered so many things in vain — if indeed it was in vain? 5 Therefore He who supplies the Spirit to you and works miracles among you, does He do it by the works of the Law, or by the hearing of faith?”
How many today in our Lord’s church have become snared by works to appease God and men? There is a lot of religious works that are just plain vanity. Consider the dictionary definition: 1. excessive pride in or admiration of one’s appearance or achievements. 2. The quality of being worthless or futile.
The Lord will not accept the results of works that come out of our efforts. Our efforts will not bring reward from God’s presence. Many suffer in vain, not knowing the word of God. It is God who supplies His Holy Spirit to work in us and through us to His glory. It is the Spirit of God who works miracles among us. Our works of the flesh stop the supernatural work of God from manifesting among us. Human effort, trying to keep God’s righteous Law in our efforts will always cause frustration and a great deal of unrest.
Listen to Paul in Philippians 4:19, And my God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus (NKJV). It is God’s joy and favor to provide!
We are to hear in faith, we are to respond in faith, and then the Spirit of God goes into action and works miracles among us. I know because it is the story of my life. The mission trip our team just returned from is one of those stories.
Our Baja, Mexico team has made many friends throughout Baja. We enjoy the fellowship and friendship of many leaders in the Body of Christ throughout North and South Baja. Last year, when COVID hit, we began to hear of great suffering in the body of Christ throughout the Baja’s. We had so many requests from pastors and no way to respond to those requests for help.
Our team went to prayer, and within two weeks, the Lord supplied finances to buy thousands of pounds of food staples, and an 18 wheel truck, a driver, and many workers to bag the food. We delivered thousands of pounds of food to seven cities.
There was not one experience, but three times the Lord supplied. In this last trip from April 22 to April 27, we delivered over Seventy Thousand pounds of food staples to churches throughout Southern Baja. We helped many widows of pastors who had passed away from COVID-19. We held a conference for dozens of pastoral leaders of churches, calling them to unity in obedience to God’s Word of Unity and His plan for reaching the lost with the Gospel.
The Law could never have accomplished what Christ has done. The release of the Spirit of the Father and the Spirit of the Son in the believer’s life is purposed to do exploits for our God and His Christ through the believer. We must begin in the Spirit and finish in the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that we fulfill Heavens’ perspective and Heavens’ will! This takes us back to basics!
Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to inquire of the Lord about all that was happening through Jesus’ teachings and miracles. Can you imagine what was going on in Nick’s mind as he tried to reason what he was hearing and what he saw in the light of his knowledge of the Old Testament Scriptures? His mind must have been in a significant swirl. Nicodemus had a strong intellect but had never encountered the Spirit of God as he now was experiencing, through the teachings of Jesus and the miracles He performed. Even demons were manifesting and coming out of the Jewish people. Boy, did Nicodemus have a lot of questions for Jesus?
John 3:1-21 tells the story. “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 2 This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.
(I believe that Nicodemus was a sincere man. I do not believe that he was trying to trap Jesus, but was challenged by confusion between what he had been trained in as a Pharisee concerning the Law and what he was hearing and seeing in the ministry of Jesus. Many in the church are like Nick. What they have been taught does not align with what they read and observe about Jesus).
3 Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” 5 Jesus answered, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter 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 Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’
(Most of the church world is not familiar with the term “born again”). Many, who are listening to my voice may be familiar with the term, but most Catholics and High Church type Protestant denominations are not. Religion and the work of the Spirit are two different subjects. For Nicodemus, this was a mystery, an unheard-of doctrine, and a phenomenon never before suggested. For many believers today, faith simply is trusting what another has told you concerning the faith. True faith must become personal by becoming our faith!
Jesus declares an absolute need, “born of water and the Spirit.” My best understanding is that anyone born of Adam, coming through the birth canal with water bursting and giving way to human birth. The human birth produces a candidate for a New Birth of the Spirit. This is not for “Angels,” but sons of Adam that become sons of God. Verse 6, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” It is essential to understand the “New Birth.” It is our Spirit that is “born again.” Our human Spirit was dead in trespass and sin. In the Garden, God breathed the breath of life into Adam, and he became a “living soul.” When Adam and Eve sinned, the first part of their life that died was their spirit man. The spirit given by God now was disconnected from a relationship with God. God began the process of redemption with the death of innocent animals. Blood was shed, establishing the “sacrifice of the innocent dying for the guilty forever.”
Paul says it this way, “not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life” (Titus 3:5-7 NKJV).
Jesus goes on to explain to Nicodemus in verse 8, The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” 9 Nicodemus answered and said to Him, “How can these things be?” Nicodemus is trying to scrutinize Jesus’ teachings through his natural reason. Jesus is trying to give Nicodemus information that will help him to understand.
The next verse is challenging; 10 Jesus answered and said to him, “Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not know these things? Many of us have been in Sunday school for many years. We think we know. We think we understand. But when the things of the Spirit begin to happen, it can put us into a tailspin because it does not make sense to our natural reasoning. This is especially true when it is brand new to our experiences.
Jesus’ reply, 11 Most assuredly, I say to you, We speak what We know and testify what We have seen, and you do not receive Our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Whatever you think that you know, it does not even come close to what Jesus wants to show you by His Holy Spirit. Try this one on for size: 13 No one has ascended to heaven but He who came down from heaven, that is, the Son of Man who is in heaven. The Son of man was always in heaven in the Father and of the Holy Spirit. The Father predetermined that the Son would one day come from the woman as recorded in Genesis 3:15, “And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” This was fulfilled in the birth of Jesus and the Cross of Jesus and completed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who was the firstborn from the dead. The Bible calls this the “regeneration” in Matthew 19:28 and speaks of the “Son of Man seated on the throne of His glory.”
Jesus sums things up with Nicodemus as He reminds Nicodemus of the Old Testament story of Moses lifting the serpent in the wilderness: 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 18 “He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. 19 And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. 20 For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to light, lest his deeds should be exposed. 21 But he who does the truth comes to light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they have been done in God.” NKJV