I want to preach on behalf of spiritual regeneration and against decisional regeneration. The above verses are very clear about those who are born again. Most modern preaching leaves out verse number 13 and emphasizes verse 12 about receiving Jesus. To get saved, it is true. You have to receive Jesus. But, it never says pray to receive Jesus. It says believe to receive Jesus. People think that you need to pray to receive Jesus. This is because they think that salvation is what man decides to do. His salvation is what he does, not what God does to him. One of the greatest messages I ever heard in my life was that God would do something to me, instead of me having to do it. I can remember thinking, "you mean I can sit here and God will move on me instead of me moving on God?" Yes! Well, that sounds good. Me moving on God never worked. It never changed me. I needed God to move on me.

The key to verse 12 is found in verse 13. It deals with the fact that God will give power to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name which were born not of the will of the flesh, but of the will of God. In other words, those who believe on His name are born of God, those who are really saved and really receive Jesus. Not those who pray but those who are born out of the will of God by believing. "Not of blood" means that a person is born again not because he is a preacher's kid or because his daddy was a Christian. In other words, I have not received Jesus because of my bloodline, a Jew, or Gentile, or an American. None of that has anything to do with salvation.

It also says, "not of the will of the flesh." This is referring to the desire of the flesh. The will of the flesh would be the desire that is in the body. I did not get saved because there was a desire in my flesh to be saved. Some say that the flesh will not desire God, but after God gets through with you, the flesh will want God. When I was lost, my flesh wanted God. David even talked about the flesh crying out for God. When God gets hold of you, even the flesh will start crying out for God. God can bring all these enemies under submission. He has the ability to bring even the flesh under the footstool of his throne. This is why you can serve God in your flesh because God has subdued that flesh and brought it under the footstool of his throne.

However, we are not saved because our flesh is willing to have Him. Then the scriptures say, "the will of man." This should be seen not only as the person being saved, but all those who want him to be saved. I was not saved because my Mama, Daddy, Bro. Charles, or Bro. Greg wanted me saved. I was saved because God willed me to be saved. It all comes down to the will of God. Until the will of God is activated in reality, no one is born again. The new birth is produced by the Spirit of God, not by man's flesh, will, blood or any such thing.

I want to show you a verse that I believe ties to these verses. In John 3, Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about the new birth. Jesus is telling us what it is like when somebody is saved or born from above. We know that it is not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God. But what is it like when God wills it? What will that feel like? You have to ask yourself a question. What is it like when God wills a person to be saved? We know that when he wills someone to be saved, it is called a new birth. So, there is a place and a time where God says, "it is now time for you to be born."

John 3:5-8 says,

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of 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. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
 

There are people today who are born into Christianity but not of the Spirit. Are they saved? No! No one can enter into the kingdom unless they have been born of the Spirit. Some have entered into Christianity by a time and a place but what happened at that time and place? Most of them may call it a decision that they made to follow God. They may have even changed the way they lived. But, if it is based on their decision, not God's decision, it is not real salvation. Those who have really been saved and have been born of the Spirit have something in common. It was not their decision, but God's.

What is salvation like? Jesus compares it to the wind that bloweth. We know that in the scriptures the word Spirit is the word breath or air. What is wind made of? Wind is made of air. As a matter of fact, air is present at all times, but wind is not. Wind is power. In the western United States, windmills that generate electricity are found. When the wind blows hard, those turbines spin.

Wind has power but air can be present without the production of power. The Spirit of God is everywhere, but He is not always blowing. He is not always moving in a powerful way. This is what people do not understand about salvation. They think that a man can be saved any time he desires to be saved; yet there is no movement of the Spirit. Those who are born of the Spirit are dependent upon the movement of a powerful wind. Everyone who is born of the Spirit is like the wind that bloweth. It is not just air. It is a blowing of air. It is a powerful moving. Some will say that I am sounding like a Charismatic.

The Charismatics like all the talk about wind. I am not talking about it the way in which they believe it. They have a spirit. We have the Spirit of God! When you feel God blowing, you do not feel it move over your flesh.

No! The wind of God blows down into the soul. It is not just goose bumps going up and down your backbone causing you to say, "Oh, did you feel that?" When the power of new birth moves, it is something that moves down in the hearts of men not across the flesh of men. Do not give me any fleshly wind. I want something that is spiritual going down deep into the heart, moving in the saints and moving in the sinner. Down, way down in the soul, one that is powerful and strong. But, that is not always going on. In order to be born again, it takes a powerful blowing and moving of the Spirit of God.

- Bro. Terry Owen