Before a person is born of God

So it is with the person who is born of God. Before that great change is wrought, although he subsists by him in whom all who have life live, and move, and have their being (Acts 17:28), yet he is not sensible of God. He does not feel. He has no inward consciousness of his presence. He does not perceive that divine breath of life, without which he cannot subsist a moment. Nor is he sensible of any of the things of God. They make no impression upon his soul. God is continually calling to him from on high, but he does not hear. His ears are shut, so that the voice of the charmer (Psalm 58:5) is lost to him, however wisely he charms. He does not see the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14), the eyes of his understanding (Ephesians 1:18) being closed, and utter darkness covering his whole soul, surrounding him on every side. It is true he may have some faint dawnings of life, some small beginnings of spiritual motion. But as yet he has no spiritual senses capable of discerning spiritual objects. Consequently he does not discern the things of the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:14). He cannot know them, because they are spiritually discerned (1 Corinthians 2:14).