The Native Americans call God the Great Spirit and the Bible too says “God is a Spirit” (John 4:24). Though other scriptures teach that God’s spirit is tabernacled in a body—as the spirit of his son, Jesus Christ, also came to be after the resurrection—it cannot be discounted that God is a great spirit among spirits, even the great spirit among us, his spirit offspring. In fact, his spirit contains “the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16), which Jesus inherited and is key to the eventual resurrection of all peoples (see D&C 88:28 – 32).
Listen closely, and in the rushing mighty wind you may hear the glory of your creator (see D&C 109:32). The wind is a fitting teacher of the creator. It moves invisibly through the world, animating and giving a voice to the world of nature as it rushes upon it; through mysterious ways it vivifies and speaks, just as the creator does. Many ancient words for wind are also the word for breath and for spirit. Jesus taught Nicodemus that the wind symbolized spiritual birth when he said:
“Listen closely…one must be born of both water and spirit to walk Creator’s good road. The human body only gives birth to natural life, but it takes the Spirit of Creator to give birth to spiritual life. Do not be surprised that I said to you, ‘You must be born from above.’ Everyone born in this way is like the wind that blows wherever it wants. You can hear its sound, but no one knows where it comes from or where it goes” (John 3:5 – 8, FNV).
The above passage comes from a Native American version of the Bible and refers to sacred themes in refreshing and unusual ways, such as calling God “the Great Spirit” (again, this is true so long as his corporeal nature is not denied). These new angles can be helpful in discovering the truth about the need for the resurrection. There is, of course, in Jesus’ statement the allusion to the ordinances of baptism and receiving the gift of the holy ghost, which ordinances must be taken upon oneself in order to inherit the kingdom of God. But even these ordinances symbolize yet future events in the life of the disciple; just as one must be born before one can die (prefigured by going down into the water), so too one must come up from death before one can endure eternal glory (prefigured by coming up out of the water).
God’s glory will be no more apparent to the inhabitants of the world than when he sends his Son a second time to us, and with him the resurrection of the righteous dead will commence. I believe the resurrection is one of the meanings of the spiritual birthing, or ‘birth to spiritual life,’ to which Jesus made reference when teaching Nicodemus.[1] When you are born of water, you come forth from the womb, a corruptible body of flesh and blood; when you are born of the spirit, you come forth from the grave, an incorruptible body of flesh and bone (see Moses 6:59 and 1 Cor. 15:42 – 45). Hence we must be born of the spirit, meaning resurrected to immortal life, to see in body the kingdom of God—or ‘walk the creator’s good road’ and go where he is—for “flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God…but [in the resurrection,] we shall all be changed” (1 Cor. 15:50 – 52).
Jesus told Nicodemus that ‘it takes the Spirit of the Creator to give birth to spiritual life,’ and hence Paul teaches that “If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you” (Rom. 8:11). Christ, being the first resurrected person of this world, was therefore the first fruits of a process that all disciples will go through as prefigured by baptism: all shall die and then be resurrected by the animating spirit (read: wind) of God. Ezekiel too made this connection between the resurrection and the spirit birth, which is likened to the rushing of wind:
“The hand of Creator was on me, and he brought me out in the Spirit of Creator, and set me down in the midst of the valley; and it was full of bones. He caused me to pass by them all around: and behold, there were very many in the open valley; and behold, they were very dry. He said to me, ‘Son of man, can these bones live?’ I answered, ‘Great Spirit Creator, you know.’ Again he said to me, ‘Prophesy over these bones, and tell them, you dry bones, hear the word of Creator. Thus says the Great Spirit Creator to these bones: Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews on you, and will bring up flesh on you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am Creator.
“So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, an earthquake; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. I saw, and, behold, there were sinews on them, and flesh came up, and skin covered them above; but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the wind, prophesy, son of man, and tell the wind, Thus says the Great Spirit Creator: Come from the four winds, breath, and breathe on these slain, that they may live.’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up on their feet, an exceedingly great army.
“Then he said to me, ‘Son of man, these bones are the whole nations of Wrestles with Creator (Israel): behold, they say, Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off. Therefore prophesy, and tell them, Thus says the Great Spirit Creator: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, my people; and I will bring you into the land of Wrestles with Creator (Israel). You shall know that I am Creator, when I have opened your graves, and caused you to come up out of your graves, my people. I will put my Spirit in you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and you shall know that I, Creator, have spoken it and performed it, says Creator‘” (Ezekiel 37:1 – 14, WEB, changes in italics to match the FNV*).
*I thought it not inappropriate to substitute Lord with Great Spirit as even the Book of Mormon does not deny that God is “the Great Spirit” of the Native Americans (see Alma 18:26 – 28).
[1] Joseph Smith taught that another meaning was that only a person who is born of the spirit, i.e. received the gift of the Holy Ghost, can perceive and understand the structure and mysteries of God’s kingdom:
“It is one thing to see the kingdom of God, and another thing to enter into it. We must have a change of heart to see the kingdom of God, and subscribe the articles of adoption to enter therein” (STPJS, p. 328)
As also confirmed through the recollections of Mormon Pioneer Daniel Tyler who recalled the prophet teaching at his father’s house in Pennsylvania around 1833:
“During his short stay he preached at my father’s residence, a humble log cabin. He read the 3rd chapter of John, and explained much of it, making it so plain that a child could not help understanding it, if he paid attention. I recollect distinctly the substance of his remarks on the 3rd verse—’Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.’
“The birth here spoken of, the Prophet said, was not the gift of the Holy Ghost, which was promised after baptism, but was a portion of the spirit, which attended the preaching of the gospel by the elders of the Church. The people wondered why they had not previously understood the plain declarations of scripture, as explained by the elders, as they had read them hundreds of times. When they read the Bible it was a new book to them. This was being born again, to see the Kingdom of God. They were not in it, but could see it from the outside, which they could not do until the Spirit of the Lord took the veil from before their eyes. It was a change of heart but not of state; they were converted, but were yet in their sins. Although Cornelius had seen an holy angel, and on the preaching of Peter the Holy Ghost was poured out upon him and his household, they were only born again to see the Kingdom of God. Had they not been baptized afterwards they would not have been saved (see Acts, 10th chapter).
“Explaining the 5th verse, he said ‘To be born of water and of the Spirit’ meant to be immersed in water for the remission of sins and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost thereafter. This was given by the laying on of the hands of one having authority given him of God” (“Recollections of the Prophet Joseph Smith,” The Juvenile Instructor, vol. 27 [1892]).
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