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Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3, ESV).
When God created the heavens and the earth, along with Adam and Eve, the world was perfect. Everything needed existed — for thirst, water; for hunger, food; even everything for the biorhythmic cycles of humans, the sun, and the moon.
Creation was perfect, but what happened when Adam and Eve sinned as a perfect world didn’t contain an antidote for sin. God’s warning came true: “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16-17).
Since there was no solution for sin, death entered the world, and death continued without hope until Jesus did the seemingly impossible…
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, “You must be born again” (John 3:5-7).
The natural world needed a solution for sin, and since nothing in it could meet that need, Jesus, from outside the natural world, had to be born. The supernatural was needed. Jesus continued explaining a new birth…
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him (John 3:16-17).
Being “born again” means supernatural invasion!
But the supernatural doesn’t stop with “being born again,” as indicated by another supernatural statement in John 16:7: “Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you.”
Another supernatural invasion now occurs when a believer accepts Jesus. Peter promised in Acts 2:38, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”
If we were born again by a supernatural invasion of grace and continue to grow in Christ by another supernatural invasion of the Holy Spirit, shouldn’t our lives reflect our new nature? Is receiving the Spirit something only taught and confined to the first century, and today only something that we talk about?
Shouldn’t there be miracles? Shouldn’t we be supernatural?
After 40 days of fasting, Jesus began His ministry by giving His job description…
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed (Luke 4:18).
We can summarize what Jesus did on the earth as saving the lost, healing the sick, and setting captives free. Jesus’ job description is our job description today. We were born again by the supernatural, continue in holiness by the supernatural, and should find ourselves invading this world as emissaries of the supernatural.
Let’s ask for the power of Jesus to be manifest through us.