Daily Bread - Oct 30 2006
John 3:5 - "Jesus answered, with absolute certainty I assure you, without being begotten of water and of Spirit no one is able to enter into the kingdom of God."
To be born of water is more difficult to understand than being born of the Spirit but one thing is for certain they both speak of a spiritual new birth. Nicodemus was not surprised by the expression of being born of water for it had been a practice of the Jews to receive Gentiles as proselytes through water baptism. What did take Nicodemus by surprise was the idea of actually being born from above. God demands a thorough spiritual purification and new creation, which may only be accomplished by the operation of the Holy Ghost.
These two agencies of water and of the Spirit are brought together in the prophecies of Ezekiel "Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all of your defilement and from all your idols. And I will also give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give to you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes; and you shall keep my judgments and do them" (Ezekiel 36:25-27). There are two other applications of water: - one being water baptism a symbol of being baptized into Christ, His body and His death; and the other an allegorical representation of the Word of God (Isa. 55:10-11; Eph. 5:26).
Blessings,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
www.abidingplace.org
About Me
- Carol L
- San Diego area, California, United States
- I started this blog back in 2005, but in 2006 began dedicating it solely for the purpose of posting email messages called, Daily Bread, sent out Monday through Saturday by my pastor, Mark Spitsbergen. These daily emails contain fresh revelation that Mark gets from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit for that day for the church that God has called him to pastor, Abiding Place. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6), and He says, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life." (John 6:63). For the Word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
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