Father Andrew ended his address last week by saying that our personal relationship with God is all that matters. This is why we were created.

In Genesis 1:2: ‘The Spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made.’

Jesus says unless a person submits to this original ‘wind hovering over the water’ creation, an image of the visible and invisible, a baptism into a new life, it is not possible to enter God’s kingdom. We need to be born from above by allowing the Holy Spirit to dwell in us.

The word Spirit means breath. We need to breath invisible oxygen to live physically. Jesus says we also need to be born again of the Spirit to allow God to live in us. ‘Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.’ Jesus likens the Spirit to the wind: ‘it blows wherever it pleases, we hear it but cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.’ It can be a mighty hurricane or a gentle whisper, can move a sailboat or blow seeds to new places. It is invisible, mysterious and cannot be controlled.

John 3:16 ‘For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, so that everyone who believes in him, may not perish but may have eternal life.’

Jesus spoke these words to Nicodemus, a highly educated Pharisee, teacher, and prominent leader among the Jews. Nicodemus recognised that Jesus was a teacher sent from God. He visited at night so as not to be seen by other Pharisees who saw Jesus as a threat. Jesus told him we are born of flesh and blood, but we are also born of the spirit of God. We need to be born again to acknowledge, accept and connect with that spirit of God within each one of us. God wants a personal relationship with each one of us. That is all that matters!

Jesus explains to Nicodemus that we need to be born again in the spirit to experience heavenly things in our lives. To be part of the kingdom of heaven as well as of earth. ‘If I have told you about earthly things and you do not believe, how can I tell you about heavenly things.’

God’s kingdom is eternal. When we live according to the Spirit of God within us and not our own wills, we join in the kingdom dance and our priorities change. We see things differently knowing that we have access to all the security we need through the creator of the universe. We cease to rely on ourselves for our security but on God’s provision.

Every week we say in The Creed: ‘We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who has spoken through the prophets.’ Let us allow the Holy Spirit to speak to us and through us and guide us to step out in faith as Abraham did to seek the promised land.

Angela Stewart, Lay Minister