You must be Born Again
by Ann Robinson-Worley
This is devoted to be a Testimonial of how God can use an average, everyday individual if they simply obey the Holy Spirit. If God can use us in this manner He can also use you! As you read these chapters I pray that they will inspire you to obey the Holy Spirit in your everyday walk with Him. I had been saved from my childhood. The bible says if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Romans 10:9 I believed that Jesus was my Lord but I knew something was missing. I knew I needed more to enable me and equip me for my walk with the Lord. Nicodemus also knew that he was missing something and out of curiosity he went to Jesus at night to inquire of Him.
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 and said to him, “Most assuredly, 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, “Most assuredly, 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 the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” John 3:1-8
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. Romans 8:5-11
Jesus was telling Nicodemus that the signs and miracles can only be made manifest through individuals who have been born of the Spirit. He said that although you cannot see the wind blowing you see the results of it if there is a storm. The Holy Spirit blows and moves as HE wishes but we cannot see Him with our eyes but we see the evidence of HIS blowing in the signs,miracles and wonders that HE does.
John the Baptizer spoke of how Jesus was the only one who could baptize an individual with the Holy Spirit and Fire. Had Nicodemus realized who Jesus was He would have been baptized in the Holy Spirit much sooner rather than later. John said, I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. Matt 3:11 After Jesus rose from the dead He made sure that his disciples were baptized in the Holy Spirit and fire and He did this by breathing upon them.
Jesus came and stood in the midst, and said to them, “Peace be with you.” When He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. John 20:19-22 Jesus spoke to his disciples that the Holy Spirit was the manifestation of the promise from the Father.
And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, “Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” Acts 1:4-8
the promise came to the disciples as they were in fervent prayer. When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. Acts 2:1-4
The disciples must have wondered what is this wind and where is it coming from ? My first encounter with the Holy Spirit was somewhat unusual as well. It came after a time of much prayer and longing for more of God. I was reading the book of Acts one night in my bedroom and I was praying and crying out to the Lord and telling Him that I wanted what they had in the book of Acts! I told him that I wanted to see the signs and miracles and wonders like they saw.
I told him that I was grieved that I was not seeing these things happening in the churches that I had been attending and if He was the same yesterday,today and forever then I should be seeing these things still happening in the church today. I looked up from my bible and my bedroom was filled with a cloud of smoke. It was so thick I thought that the rental house I was living in at the time was on fire so I went to my bedroom door and opened it and tried to smell with my nose the burning embers the smoke naturally results from and I was puzzled that I could not smell anything burning and turned around and gazed again behind me into the cloud and I exclaimed "You must be the Holy Spirit! " and as soon as I did I felt electricity go through my whole body and a strange language came into my head and I naturally spoke it out of my mouth like a child attempting to speak its first word. As I spoke the word I felt the fullness of the Godhead come to live inside of my heart. I felt different. Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.
In 1996 an Evangelist named James Maloney cancelled a crusade in Argentina to come and minister at a particular church because God showed him a vision of a woman clothed in a cloud of Glory and God spoke to him that he was to lay hands on this woman and anoint her for a mighty ministry because God had chosen her . He pointed at me and called me out of the congregation and started prophesying the ministry over my life. After the service, I approached him and told him that I was that woman that he saw in his vision because of the manner with which the Holy Spirit revealed Himself to me when Jesus baptized me.
Many are called and invited into the Kingdom but only those whose hearts are drawn by God can come. All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. 39 This is the will of the Father who sent Me, that of all He has given Me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. John 6: 37-39 No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. John 6:44
I had experienced what some had experienced in the Old Testament when the Cloud would fill the temple and the Priests could not stand to minister because of the Glory but I knew nothing of this story for I had just recently went out and purchased my first NIV study bible and had just began to read it. " And when they lifted up their voice with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of music, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endures for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD; So that the priests could not stand to minister by reason of the cloud: for the glory of the LORD had filled the house of God."
2 Chronicles 5:13-14
The Lord had answered the deep cry of my heart. I told Him that I wanted what they had in the book of Acts and I was now born again. It was as if I was a small child learning a new language but as I spoke the one word more words would come to me until a new prayer language was coming out of my mouth. For he who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men but to God, for no one understands him; however, in the spirit he speaks mysteries. 1 Cor 14 I did not realize at the time that it was the Holy Spirit that was giving me this new prayer language. In Acts it says, "They were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance." Acts 2:4
The Holy Spirit became my Teacher. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me. John 6:45 He began waking me up at night and telling me to grab my notebook and I wrote down the scriptures He would tell me to turn to in the bible. It was like I was taking a crash course learning new lessons I had never known before and He would allow me to read the scriptures and I would write down what He was lecturing on. The subjects were to help me grow in Faith and Love. he knew that even though I had been born again if I did not walk in love then He could not accomplish in and through me what He desired to accomplish. Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail; whether there are tongues, they will cease; whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. 1 Cor 13:1,8
