ewcreation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17.How does it happen? How does God transform our lives? The Bible calls this experience “thenew birth” or being “born again.” To be born again means to be radically transformed from deepwithin by the power of the Holy Spirit. It means to have a new way of looking at things, a newpower operating in your life, new desires, new impulses, new joy and peace in your life.The human mind cannot understand it, but we become overcomers through the Spirit. We’reborn again, powerfully changed, with a new power working in our lives. The Spirit has uprootedanger, bitterness, lust, and addictions and replaced them with love, joy, peace, and longsuffering.The Spirit’s power liberates us from the bondage of habits that destroy our souls. 2 Corin-thians3:17 puts it this way: “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” The Spirit’s powerfrees us from the chains of sin which bind us while drug medication deals only with symptoms. Ifa person is depressed, certain pills may ease that depression. But no psychoactive drug can showyou WHY you’re depressed, what lies behind your anger, or what contributes to your anxiety. Inour rush to just medicate the mind, we forget that pills don’t give us the wisdom or insight we needto deal with our problems and grow through them. But the Holy Spirit works in us to do preciselythat. He’s the Spirit of revelation, and His revelations can produce dramatic results.One more thing God’s Spirit does is fill up our lives with good things. Look at Galatians 5:22-23:“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,self control.” Those good qualities the Holy Spirit reproduces inside us. That’s how we keep growing.The Spirit moves us down a path that leads to abundant life&#...
