You have much to learn…. Life will not be long enough to learn all, but you are gaining that Spirit-Vision which replaces the eyes of your mortal body when you enter into a life of fuller comprehension with My Father and Me.
~ A. J. Russell
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” 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?” Jesus answered, “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.’ The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
~ Jesus, full of The Holy Spirit, in John 3
Nicodemus said to Him, “How can these things be?”
Oh beloved, it is true. We like to point the finger at Nicodemus. But there are times where we are just as dense…
Jesus answered him, “Are you the teacher of Israel and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know, and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
And then one day we do. We look at the death-pole upon which He was lifted up, and this One so mighty to save pulls us out of pit into which we have fallen. There was no way out. And suddenly we are standing in the clear and free from the wretched hole we were in.
And then it gets better.
He is so good to us. His Life, now ours, forever. His strength, poured out onto us, and into us, and through us – by His Spirit. At first we don’t know it. We are still in some sort of recovery from the injuries incurred while dead in our sins. And then He begins to lift our branches up to the Light that we might take in the nourishment of The Son, and begin to grow.
We go through seasons and rhythms of His grace. The work He does has pulse and flow and cadence that only He knows. But we get to experience it. The wonder of it all – at first – seems like it will simply be a passing wave of high emotion like we used to have in the past. And with the waves of feeling at first, we sometimes worry that the old crashes we used to have will not be far behind. Then, they do not occur.
We come to find that everything (read every thing) He is doing in our lives is working together for good. And as we begin to actually believe that He does Love us, we begin to Love Him back. Truly. Deeply. Profoundly. Oh, our love is but a shadow of His Great Love – but it is true Love for the first time in our life.
And then it hits us.
This is real. This is never going to end.
In that moment, we find that we are now – forever actually – in the Presence of the One who pulled us out of the pit. He freed us that we might simply have the freedom to enjoy His friendship and love Him. We can hear Him in His Word to us, and in a growing conversation about everything. We were, in that pit, astoundingly alone. We are now, in Him, never alone – ever again.
So, in this new space, comes what we were always and ever looking for: Love, Joy, strength, clarity, hope, power, freedom – and peace. We know now, beyond any doubt, that we are alive in Him forever, and we now simply want to do nothing other than share this same Love He has given to us with others.
And as we move out into the fields to find people stuck in their own pits, we come to an understanding, as a preacher has said, “the fact that sometimes God is hidden and sometimes manifest will ground you in your faith and help you to have a more consistent walk with Him. Some days you will feel very close to God, and other days you won’t – but it won’t matter because you will know that you can live, enjoying God’s presence when you feel it, and enjoying living in your faith when you don’t.”
Said another way, we know Him. We no longer simply believe in some good god. We know the goodness of the One who is our best Friend, and so we come to a place where we trust Him fully, even when we cannot sense His presence or His work around us. Just like we know a good friend or spouse and do not have to keep tabs on each other every millisecond – we know that He is with us. Completely.
Can we see it beloved? We were not just saved from a pit. We were saved into an eternal relationship with G_d. In fact, the relationship is eternal life. And being that we are already in eternity with Him, we are secure. Nothing can separate us from Him. He has grown us into mature believers that simply know. And in the knowing, we can weather any circumstance He allows in our lives – and reach out to others that they may know Him exactly the same way.
This is The Gospel. And it is very good news!
