{"id":5317,"date":"2026-03-25T15:07:14","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:07:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/?p=5317"},"modified":"2026-03-25T15:07:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T19:07:14","slug":"the-holy-spirit-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/25\/the-holy-spirit-part-ii\/","title":{"rendered":"The Holy Spirit Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here<\/a>
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Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.<\/em>
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Like all fans of Purdue\u2019s basketball team, I found myself groaning last Sunday afternoon when C.J. Cox\u2019s right knee suddenly bent in a direction it was never meant to go.
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The Boilermakers\u2019 starting guard \u2013 arguably the team\u2019s best defender \u2013 went down at the end of a fast break. It was a long time before he got up again.
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Cox\u2019s status for Purdue\u2019s Sweet 16 matchup against Texas tomorrow night \u2013 and hopefully a crucial Elite Eight contest after that \u2013 is very much up in the air.
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My alma mater is now \u201cnext man up.\u201d I\u2019m willing to be that man.
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What if I decided to go to Coach Matt Painter and advertise my availability?
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I could do a short private workout \u2013 you know, just your basic one-on-one drills and a chance to demonstrate my three-point shooting range.\u00a0I\u2019d let him see what I can do.\u00a0Then I\u2019d say, \u201cCoach \u2013 can I call you Matt? \u2013 don\u2019t sugarcoat it.\u00a0What are my chances of taking the floor against the Longhorns?\u201d\u00a0
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I think he would say something like, \u201cMcDonald, you must be born again.\u00a0Literally<\/em>.\u00a0Start by coming into the world in the 21st<\/sup> century instead of the middle of the 20th<\/sup>.\u00a0Get yourself some different chromosomes \u2013 a father who was six-foot-six instead of five-foot-nine would help.\u00a0If you can pull that off {and if you actually start exercising}, give me a call.\u201d\u00a0
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It appears I\u2019ll have to settle for a seat on my couch tomorrow evening.
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In John chapter 3, Jesus is approached by a man named Nicodemus \u2013 a Pharisee who is deeply impressed with his teaching.\u00a0What would he need to do to become part of Jesus\u2019 team?
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\u201cYou must be born again,\u201d Jesus says (John 3:3).\u00a0
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This is not a compliment.\u00a0Jesus is being entirely realistic about Nicodemus\u2019 chances \u2013 and our chances as well \u2013 of joining his community of lifelong learners.\u00a0
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Nicodemus is taken aback.\u00a0\u201cYou don\u2019t mean I have to start over again in my mother\u2019s womb, do you?\u201d\u00a0No, Jesus is talking about spiritual rebirth.\u00a0We cannot participate in Jesus\u2019 vision for the future unless we display new capacities, new motivations, and an entirely new nature that is capable of responding in a healthy way to God.
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And that\u2019s never going to happen through a rigorous self-improvement program.\u00a0We cannot personally conjure up the medicine we need to cure our sin-sick souls.\u00a0\u00a0
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
The Greeks had two different words for \u201clife:\u201d bios<\/em> and zoe<\/em>.\u00a0Bios<\/em> is the root of the word biology.\u00a0Everyone who arrives in the maternity ward has received the gift of physical, organic life.\u00a0But the tragedy of our broken world is that not everybody experiences zoe<\/em> \u2013 spiritual existence as it was meant to be.\u00a0
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Jesus declares that the reason we are here is not to improve our biological circumstances.\u00a0All of us are called to be reborn into real, lasting life<\/em> \u2013 zoe<\/em>, that is \u2013 through a relationship with him.
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And that can only happen through the work of God\u2019s Spirit.
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That\u2019s why it\u2019s impossible to imagine the Apostles\u2019 Creed without the words, \u201cI believe in the Holy Spirit.\u201d
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Jesus says, \u201cI tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit.\u00a0Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit\u00a0gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, \u2018You\u00a0must be born again.\u2019\u00a0The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit\u201d (John 3:5-8).\u00a0 \u00a0
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We\u2019re so used to hearing about \u201cborn-again Christians\u201d \u2013 and may well have been turned off by some of the foolish things self-identified reborn Christians have said and done in the name of Jesus \u2013 that we might have overlooked what the New Testament actually says about rebirth.
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When we abandon ourselves to Jesus, God graciously puts a brand-new nature into our bodies.\u00a0God doesn\u2019t get rid of the old hardware.\u00a0We still have the same bodies and genetic blueprints we had when we came into this world.\u00a0But now our goal is to run the old hardware with the brand-new software of the Holy Spirit.
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And as with any systems upgrade, we can expect some start-up struggles and compatibility issues.\u00a0
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So, what changes as a result of spiritual rebirth?\u00a0
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Your eye color will remain the same.\u00a0So will your fingerprints.\u00a0Your time running your community\u2019s annual 5K race will not automatically improve.\u00a0Nor will you be empowered to go shopping for a new family of origin.\u00a0Your cooking skills will be, well, pretty much what they were before.
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But being indwelt by the Holy Spirit means that you will experience a genuine desire to please God \u2013 an aching hunger to learn and grow. Your identity will begin to undergo a major renovation.\u00a0You may have grown up believing you had to take care of number one, because no one else was ever going to do that for you.\u00a0But now you\u2019ll experience fresh motivation to pursue God\u2019s agenda instead of your own.
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Here comes the tricky part.
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When someone is born again, does that mean their same old problems disappear?\u00a0No, it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0But now they have an indwelling Problem Solver who is equal to anything they are facing.\u00a0
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When we experience rebirth, does that mean our most wretched habits are automatically banished?\u00a0No, it doesn\u2019t.\u00a0It\u2019s true that many followers of Jesus experience immediate deliverance from something that has burdened them for years \u2013 an addiction perhaps, or an inability to forgive, or a thought pattern that has crushed their spirit.\u00a0
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Most of us, however, find that the same old wounds and painful memories are still lurking around somewhere.\u00a0
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But that\u2019s not the end of the story.\u00a0Now the redemptive work of the rest of our lives begins.\u00a0Equipped with fresh power and fresh hope, we learn to surrender more of ourselves to the Spirit \u2013 the very One who promises to provide substantial healing of our hurts and hearts.\u00a0 \u00a0
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It doesn\u2019t happen all at once.\u00a0But by God\u2019s grace, it does indeed happen<\/em>.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0
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I recently read about a humble follower of Jesus who said, \u201cI am not really born again.\u00a0I\u2019m in about my second trimester.\u201d\u00a0
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Maybe you\u2019re there, too.\u00a0But that\u2019s OK.\u00a0
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The midwife of the Holy Spirit will make sure you\u2019re safely born into a whole new way of life.\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here\u00a0Throughout the season of Lent, we’re taking a close look at the Apostles’ Creed – one of the earliest and most concise summaries of what followers of Jesus believe.\u00a0Like all fans of Purdue\u2019s basketball team, I found myself groaning last Sunday afternoon when C.J. Cox\u2019s right knee suddenly bent in a direction… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5318,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1080,1091],"class_list":["post-5317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apostles-creed","tag-born-again"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5317"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5319,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5317\/revisions\/5319"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}