“Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural: and afterward that which is spiritual.

The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.

As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we must also bear the image of the heavenly.” 1 Corinthians 15: 46-48

I do truly believe that one of the toughest obstacles that many of us overcome in accepting Christ is the obstacle of own our humanism.

It certainly was for me and my analytical mind, and growing up in the generation that vehemently taught us the old adages that we were to take care of our messes and lie in the beds that we made.

For me, it was really difficult to comprehend the love of a God that says though your sins be as scarlet I will make them white as snow, to just accept free forgiveness and trust in him, accepting that we do nothing for ourselves nor can we.

Which is why that scripture is so important, as all scripture is, but this gives us insight into the feelings and struggles that we endure in that valley of decision.

“And another of his disciples said unto him, Lord, suffer (permit) me first to go bury my father.

But Jesus said unto him, Follow me; and let the dead bury their dead.”  Matthew 8: 21,22

Now I really don’t believe that this was Jesus refusing to let the man attend his father’s funeral.

It was the man wanting to postpone his service to the Lord, you know take care of everything he had planned and then follow Christ.

Jesus referenced the dead burying their dead because even though we are alive, in that our bodies have a heartbeat, function, and are breathing until our spirits are awakened in Christ, we are dead.

We must be born again, we are born of our mothers, but we are born into the world, born in sin and then we become spiritual.
It is so hard to even wrap our heads around the concept until we are saved and made new.

These are not just simple words used to convey a thought of newness, new path, new lifestyle.

No, when scripture tells of the newness in Christ, it literally means being new.

We become a new person; the old sinful person is as it was dead, and we are literally reborn in Christ.
The old person, completely ignorant to spiritual truth who only understood the ways and logic of this world whose ways, thoughts, behaviors, lusts and deeds only reflect the spiritual death offered by this world.

I’ll put it this way, many believers knew even before accepting Christ that there was something so much greater than what we could see, hear, or even feel.

It’s that knowing in your soul that even that when we are taught in schools and by society to believe that life was haphazardly created by the big bang and that all living creatures just formed themselves through evolution from one such creature who had no creator, we know within ourselves that this is just not so.

It’s in the knowing that even though the world teaches that death is death, and that death is final, that we should do what we want in this life because we only have one to live, to never mind consequences because there are none.

We are taught by the world that there is no afterlife so that when we lose those that we love that loss is forever, but we know within ourselves that love is much too strong to ever die and there surely must be something more to our stories.

It’s when the world screams survival of the fittest, and that only the strong survive and that it is okay to kill our own kind and use the lives of innocent animals to needlessly experiment on in feigned benefit to mankind, the dollar is the bottom-line and that the bottom-line is all that matters, and we know within ourselves that none of these things are right.

It’s when being young we may think to do wrong but somehow those plans are always foiled and foiled for our good.

Years ago, a young guy was telling me a story from his life, how he had set out to do something shady and circumstance prevented him from accomplishing his plan, he was laughing and said that he couldn’t even do wrong when he tried, and I thought, yes, because that is not who God created you to be.

He had been afforded complete mercy that prevented him from doing those things, and as he grew in wisdom and came to Christ, he began to realize this, and he was thankful that his plans were overruled.

That my dear friends are many of the ways that our spirits begin to awaken, realizing that the things of this world are backwards to the things that should be.

When you cherish mercy, truth, and true justice above any thing this world can offer.

When you believe humans should show kindness, compassion and care about someone other than number one.

“We love because he first loved us.” 1 John 4:19

When having integrity and honesty are more important than having popularity and social media status, your word means something and it means something because these values mean something to you.

Those who are of God do care for these things and even if they are not yet aware of who they are in Christ, they feel these things because they are of Christ.

Those who are spiritually dead care nothing for these things, they are dead to compassion, mercy, forbearance.

It means nothing to them because they have no hope in anything, they have nothing to hold to, nothing to believe and believing that this life is all that there is would truly be the most miserable of all existences.

We are born as helpless babes, we learn to roll over, we then crawl, then we walk, and soon we run.

The same is true spiritually.

Isaiah 40:31: ” They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.”

We must never settle only for what the world tells us is possible. Scripture teaches us that with God all things are possible.

“There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?

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 ye 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.” John 3: 1-8

One thing I love about this account is that Nicodemus came by night, he was not quite ready for his Sanhedrin buddies to know he was talking to Jesus.

Jesus being incredibly gracious and kind, never once said, “Look, come back and see me when it’s daylight.”

He is truly so gracious that he really will meet us where we are.

Nicodemus knew in himself that no one could possibly do what Jesus did without God himself being with him and Nicodemus had to get outside of his comfort zone, way, way out of the zone, by talking to Jesus he was going against his friends, his job, and those with which he ruled.

Up until this point, I am sure he felt like all of us do before we know Christ, that we are who we are and life is what life is, but as Jesus explained, we must be born again because we have been born of our mothers, but we are not spiritually born until we are born in his Spirit.

We can only be born in His Spirit by accepting His salvation for our lives.

Then and only then do we even begin to know who we truly are and who he created us to be and begin to remotely understand that there is an entire realm of human existence that we never even knew of because just as he said, the world does not know Him because the world cannot know Him.

If you have not accepted Christ, get on up.

You will never know what true life is until you are truly alive, doesn’t mean we never have another problem, doesn’t mean we will not suffer, fail, or hurt again. It means it all those things and despite all those things you will know the love, presence, and fellowship of God.

Think about that, God, the God of the universe and he is so real, the world doesn’t believe that because they don’t want to believe that.

Like he told Nicodemus, it’s like the wind blowing the leaves, you see the wind as it blows and it blows wherever it wants and even though it is invisible and we can’t naturally see it, we do see that it is there, we hear it, we see it, and we know that it is really there.

We see his hand in all creation, if we care to look. We, as His sheep, hear our Shepherds voice and a stranger we will not follow, in His presence and fellowship we know He is there.

Although we are talking about reviving from spiritual death to life in this life, this scripture which I have used many times is on my heart so strong, I know it’s for someone.

I pray God’s anointing will let this be the encouragement you need today, here it is, the main resurrection from the actual dead, given to all those who did chose life and rebirth in Christ.

It is a beautiful description of the rise of the dead in Christ and the rapture of the church.

“Thy dead men shall live, together with my dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in the dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out her dead. 

Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were but for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.” Isaiah 26:19,20

Thank you for reading!  Till next time, love & peace and blessings to you.

Φλογιζω NBJ 2026/Rev. N. Brown Johnson