In the conversations recorded in Gospel of John 3–4, Jesus quietly overturns how we often imagine spiritual growth. We tend to think discipleship begins when a person decides to follow God and then gradually learns how to live better. Jesus describes the opposite: God first places His life inside a person — and everything else flows from that life.
To Nicodemus, Jesus says a person must be born of the Spirit. Spiritual understanding is not achieved; it is given. Just as physical birth creates physical life, the Spirit creates spiritual life. Before a disciple obeys God, he or she must first be made alive to Him.
Then Jesus tells the Samaritan woman about living water — a spring within that wells up to eternal life. The Spirit who begins life continues it. The believer does not depend on repeated emotional moments or sacred environments to stay close to God. The source now lives inside. Faith becomes sustained rather than restarted.
Because of this inner life, worship changes. The Father seeks worshipers who worship in Spirit and truth. Worship is no longer a performance or location, but a relationship — the response of a heart that actually knows God.
Finally, Jesus looks at the surrounding villages and speaks about the harvest. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me.” The life of the Spirit does not end in personal renewal; it moves outward into God’s work. Disciples discover that obedience nourishes them, and mission becomes participation in what God is already doing in others.
The pattern is simple and profound:
born by the Spirit, sustained by the Spirit, and sent by the Spirit.
Christianity is not merely believing in Christ —
it is Christ living His life in us, and then through us.
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