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BORN AGAINJoh 3:7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 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. Jesus gave us two allegories here in order to understand being born-again. These are His allegories, they are not private interpretations... The Wind: We can HEAR it, and we can hear the sound made by things moved by it. We can't see it, but we can see it's results, and we can SEE THINGS THAT ARE MOVED BY IT. And we can most definitely FEEL it. Jesus created the phenomenon of the wind, that we might recognize the phenomenon of being born of the Spirit. Birth: When a baby is born, the cry of it's voice, or the SOUND of it's breathing, is the first and most obvious EVIDENCE THAT A NEW LIFE has entered into the world. If a baby is not breathing, it will not live. The voice, and the sound of breathing are nothing more than the evidence of moving air (wind) inside a person's body. Jesus likened receiving the Holy Spirit to being born again. When we are "born again" and "speak in tongues" as the Spirit gives the utterance (that is- not of ourselves), it is an outward "sign" of our "spiritual birth." "Tongues" are comparable with a natural birth because "tongues" are the sound that is heard, just as the breath sounds, or crying, of a baby is what assures doctors that a baby is breathing. A baby breathing on it's own is the sign that a separate, and new life, independent of the mother, is born- same in the spiritual, as in the natural, and that according to Jesus. BTW- "as the Spirit gives the utterance" we interpret, and experience, as meaning NOT of ourselves- IOW- NOT by making ourselves gibber, but rather, to speak as the power of the Holy Ghost inspires, or, "as the Holy Ghost gives the utterance." We can make fans to blow the "wind" around, or we con hook people up to iron lungs, or give artificial respiration and make them breath, but neither of those would equate to the god given new life as in either a birth, or being born-again. In other words- beware of man-made imitations. (For more on this, if you have a chance, please read the item I wrote on the main difference between a so-called "Charismatic" experience and a "Pentecostal" experience at my web site.) 1- SCRIPTURES ON TONGUES |