Sound of the New Birth

I have just a few words today on the inseparable sign of the new birth. When the believing Pharisee Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, Jesus told him something about being born again that is just totally overlooked by almost all who profess faith in Christ: “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:7,8). Now the reason that this statement of Jesus is so important is because whatever he was talking about here is something that is true with everyone every time the new birth is experienced, as he said. To get the goods out of this saying we need to look at the meaning of some words here as they are in the original Greek language. First off the word ‘wind’ is taken from the Greek word ‘pneuma,’ which is the exact same Greek word that means ‘spirit.’ The next key word is ‘bloweth,’ and it is taken from the Greek word ‘pneo’ which means “to breathe.” The next significant word in the passage is ‘listeth,’ which is from the Greek word ‘thelo,’ which is defined as “to will,” or “to have in mind.” Up next the word ‘sound’ is taken from the Greek word ‘phone’ which is defined as ” “a sound or tone,” and as “a voice,” or as “the sound of uttered words.” Okay, those are the words that we need to understand in the context of the original language, and now I would like to put them together and see what we have. With no manipulation of these words, and with no changing of them from the original text, what he was actually saying was, “The Spirit breathes where it will, and you hear the sound of uttered speech thereof; but you can’t tell where it is coming from or where it is going: So it is every time someone is born again.” So what we have here is a statement by Jesus which shows that the Spirit of God emits an audible sound with everyone who is born of the Spirit. And again I remind you that the scripture says that it is THE SPIRIT which makes this ‘sound’ when it breathes into a person.

The sound that is invoked by God’s Spirit every time that someone experiences the new birth is none other than “speaking with other tongues as the Spirit [gives] utterance,” even as it was when the Spirit first came from heaven on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:4). Those first hundred and twenty believers were visibly and audibly moved by the power of the holy Ghost that day, and that is what Perter was referring to when he said, “For these are not drunken, as ye suppose, seeing it is but the third hour of the day.” And also, “Therefore being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed forth this, which ye now SEE AND HEAR” (Acts 2:15,33). This truth that the Spirit speaks through someone in its own inspired utterance is also evidenced by the following scripture from Galatians : “And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father” (Gal. 4:6). The word ‘crying’ here comes from the Greek word ‘krazo,’ which means “to cry out” or to “cry aloud.” This Greek word is never used for anything except to designate an audible sound or voice. So again we see that it is THE SPIRIT that cries or speaks out of a person with an audible sound when it comes into our heart upon being born again. And it is noteworthy that the word ‘abba’ is the Greek word for ‘father.’ So again it is clear that when God truly becomes our father through the new birth, the Spirit audibly declares us to be children of God. The Spirit crying out of us in another language upon being born again, is very much akin to a baby crying out loud when it is born. As Jesus said, this takes place every time someone is born again, so it is certainly safe to say that if this audible sign is NOT present every time someone is SUPPOSEDLY born again, then the truth is that they are NOT born again; or at least not according to Jesus. And this is a very important point to study, seeing that Jesus said in the same conversation with Nicodemus; “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (Jn. 3:3). Amen.