You Must be Born Again.

Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
John 3:5,6

As I said before, when I was born of my parents I received their nature, I received the nature of the flesh; and I cannot serve God in the flesh. “God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” And before a man can worship God he must be born of God; he must be born of the Spirit. Then with this new birth, with this new life, he can serve God; then the yoke is easy, and the burden is light.

A man may as well try to fly to the moon as to serve God before he has been born of the Spirit; it is utterly impossible. The natural man is at enmity against God; his natural heart is at war with God; it always has been, and it always will be. And not only that, but you cannot make it better.

God never mends, He creates anew; therefore don’t be trying to patch up that old Adam nature. God says, “It shall never come into my presence.” Therefore God has just set it aside. But He tells us how we are to come into His presence, and how we are to get into His kingdom. This is worthy to be borne in mind. You cannot educate men into it. That is what the world is trying to do. But he that climbs up by some other way than the Lord’s way, the same is a thief and a robber. You had better be born into it in God’s way.

We have a law in America that no man shall be President of the United States that has not been born on American soil. We have a great many Englishmen come to America, and a great many men from all parts of the world, and yet I have never heard one complain of that law. They say America has the right to say who shall be President. I come here to your country, and I do not complain because you have a Queen to reign over you. What right have I to complain? Has not England a right to say who shall rule it, and who shall be its Queen? Foreigners have no right to interfere.

And I would like to ask you this question, Has not God a right to say who shall come into His kingdom, and how we shall come?  A man must have a spiritual nature before he wants to go to heaven... Heaven cannot have any attractions to a man until he is born of the Spirit.

The Light of the World.

"The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 

He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God."  John 1:9-13

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible:

"No man is left without some direct communication of light from the Father of lights. That light may be quenched, the eye of the soul may be blinded, the folly of the world may obscure it as a cloud disperses the direct rays of the sun; but a fundamental fact remains - the veritable Light illumines every man."

His own people did not receive him "...in the terrible record of his rejection by his own people, by his own disciples, by the theocratic chiefs, by the assembled Sanhedrin, by the very populace to whom Pilate appealed to save him from murderous fury."

"Which were born not of blood',.... Or bloods, in the plural number. The birth, here spoken of, is regeneration, expressed by a being born again, or from above; by a being quickened by the Spirit and grace of God; by Christ being formed in men; and by a partaking of the divine nature; and by being made new creatures, as all that believe in the name of Christ are."

http://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/john/1.htm

The Wind and the Spirit.

"Do not be surprised I said to you, "You must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants and you hear the sound of it but do not know where it comes from or where it is going; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit."
John 3:7-8

The wind is a powerful force. It blows the seeds and pollinates the earth with plants, it causes the waves to roll on the sea, it keeps the air clean and moves the sand dunes. We cannot see it, but we can see what it does.

We cannot see the Holy Spirit, but we can see the results of his work on human beings. He begins to whisper to us as children, moving upon our minds to do good and think good thoughts. He leads us to people, books or movies that tell us about God. We consider these things and he impresses us with the truth. If we turn ourselves towards the Spirit of God and surrender to God we are born again. We enjoy spiritual things, we enjoy doing right, we change slowly into God's image.

When did our conversion begin? Who can say? Jesus seems to say we cannot pinpoint the exact time. I thank God he works so hard for us. I thank him for his patience. I thank him for his deep love.