Jn 3:7,8 ,“Do not be amazed that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’ “The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
Jn 3:11 “Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.
Rev 3:19 ‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.
Jn 6:63 “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.
Is 30:21 Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left.
Jn 10:9 “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.
I put the above verses together, because they all show the same exact thing!!
Jesus stands and the door and knocks, and if 'ANYONE' hears His voice and opens up to Him He will come into them. More specifically He sends His Holy Spirit to you to talk to your spirit! So if you are "born again" you have been hearing from the Holy Spirit - which would be hearing the sound of the wind (Holy Spirit). And note that you should be hearing Him in "words"!!! Those words of our Lord Jesus Christ which comes through His Holy Spirit are life to you!!!!
And note again - you should be hearing those words "whenever you turn to the right or to the left"!!
Yet also note that "you will go in and out"!!!!!
This is the reality of knowing the Lord - that you hear Him knocking, open up to Him and eat what is being served - and that means hearing "words" - that small voice of the Lord! Those words are spirit! The words in the Bible are not spirit, they are ink on pages!! Many of them were once spiritual words spoken to those who wrote the Bible, but that was before they were written! The were written so that we might open up to Jesus Christ who has been always standing there specking to everyone that could be considered anyone! And when you start hearing Him you are going to at some point get instructions, even instructions as to when to turn to the right or left.
However - with all that said you 'WILL GO IN AND OUT..'
So it is that sometimes you are into hearing Him tell you when to turn to the right or to the left, and other times when you are not into that!!
Now you don't want to harden your heart to hearing from Him. In fact. you should spend some time everyday called "Today" listening to Him.
Heb 3:7,8 Therefore, just as the Holy Spirit says, “TODAY IF YOU HEAR HIS VOICE, DO NOT HARDEN YOUR HEARTS AS [fn]WHEN THEY PROVOKED ME, AS IN THE DAY OF TRIAL IN THE WILDERNESS,
Yet people do harden their hearts, and of course they did that before and after the cross, as can be seen above! Indeed, the statement to Nicodemus about being born again was made before Jesus had gone to the cross!! The Lord had always always wanted people to just spend some time "Today" walking and talking with Him. Since creation He was always the Lord of lord, and King of kings, and also fully God so that He is everywhere, even right there trying to speak so mankind! So it has always been just a question of whether we are going to opening up our hearts to Him??
So, it is the foremost command has always been, "Hear, O Israel"!! Yet when Israel said, "Let not God speak to us" at the mountain of God then the Law was handed down. Yet that was just to teach men that they couldn't follow the Law of God. Men's righteousness could never match God's righteousness. So the Law was meant to turn us back to listening to Him. We are not the same creature without Him in our lives as we are with Him in our lives!! Yet having Him in our lives means listen to Him as our Lord!! And that means getting instructions, even instructions as to when to turn to the left and to the right!!
Let me give you an example, which should be understood already.
The Lord used to take me around yard sales on Saturday mornings. Most Saturdays for years we (Him and I) would do yard sales together. He would tell me, "turn left and the light" - then "turn right by that yard sale sign", and He would lead me to the yard sales He wanted me to go to. As I would pull up He would tell me where to park. He would point out things about the yard sale before I got too close to it. He might point out how neat is was, because that would give me an idea about how much they valued what they were selling. He pointed out all sorts of different things, and would show himself to be God. He might say something like, "offer them $20 for all the books they have", and that before I even noticed a book there.
I remember Him telling me that the guy running the sale was a pastor. So I told the man, 'Sir, you are a pastor". The man responded, "No, I am just a youth pastor." I had to laugh to myself. God considered this man a pastor. I had no way of knowing that except God had told me. Yet the man says, "No" making God a liar, then contradicts himself saying that he is a youth pastor, thus confessing himself to be a pastor and proving that the One I hear from is correct not matter how much we get blown around.
The point is that we can hear from God. He can and does talk to us. Yeah- the Holy Spirit is not the only spirit around, but leaning on your own understanding does not make you more correct. Now I explained to the man that God had told me that he was a pastor, and indeed He was. Yet even after that encounter was that pastor going to start listening to the Lord for himself?
I don't always listen to the Lord for myself!! I go in and out of that. The Lord gave me the freewill do decide which I want. I can harden my heart against hearing from Him, and just make it about leaning on my own understanding. Or I can choose to spend time with Him and hear Him by faith. He is the door, and I can go in or out. Because I am a person, I can harden my heart, or I can also just get busy and not listen to Him.
So how important is this "Born Again" thing? You either decide to let Him in or not!! the 'Born Again' was to point out to people - like in the case of Nicodemus - that they have not ever let them into their lives. That was also the case with the Lord giving me a word of knowledge about that Pastor- youth pastor. The whole purpose was to get him to consider seeking the Lord our God who is there to talk to us people!!! And you can be a Pharisee, Pastor, or just a youth pastor and still need that pointed out to you!!!