It’s the movement of air that you say you see when the trees bend or your hair whips you in the face. But you can’t really see the air moving. You just see its effects.
The weather report says it comes from the northeast or the southwest, but ask someone from there and they’ll say they didn’t send it—it came from somewhere else. No one, actually, can say where the wind starts. Yet everyone experiences its effects.
Which is why the word “wind” is such an appropriate word for the Bible to use for the mysterious, mighty God the Holy Spirit. We can’t see him but we can see his effects. We can’t pinpoint his exact location with GPS technology but we can experience his effects. We can’t harness his boundless energy but we can harvest some of it as our own source of power for energetic witnessing.
Jesus, clueing us more into heaven’s promises than nature’s laws, once explained, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit” (John 3:8). In other words, God’s wind blows.
Human understanding cannot comprehend him. Scientific technology cannot contain him. Yet he miraculously blows his life-giving breath.
- Sometimes God’s wind blows in the gentle whisper welcoming a little baby into God’s family through baptism, or nourishing your faith through Bible truths you learned as a child that you don’t think you remember but they’re still in your heart.
- Sometimes God’s wind blows in the breath of an inspiring sermon’s truth stirring your soul, or an enlightening Bible reading at home catches your attention like a stiff blast of wind, or when Holy Communion’s slight breeze embraces you once again.
- Sometimes God’s wind blows in the rushing whirlwind of a song groping for open ears and hearts to fill (and fulfill) with Christ-centered music.
The Holy Spirit fills the sails of each of us with faith and with special skills to be his witnesses and tell others about Jesus, filling us with knowledge and empowering us to speak. The Holy Spirit pushes us to the finish and breathes his energy into us to keep us strong to the end. So enjoy the air.
There will always be fresh air in our world where God is working, breathing, giving new life, filling, whispering, shouting, exhaling his powerful promises. God’s wind blows.
PRAYER: Dear Holy Spirit, your work is the wind of God, breathing new life, whispering precious promises, and exhaling powerful truths. Stir my soul today with the purity of your fresh air, and fill our world with your mighty and mysterious work. Amen.
FURTHER MEDITATION: Want to grow deeper in understanding, and closer in faith to the Holy Spirit? Read these verses and answer the questions.
- Read John 14:15-17. Your love for Jesus wants to keep his commands. Jesus’ love for you goes to the Father, and asks him to give you an agent (advocate). In v. 16, what two things does the Holy Spirit do for you? In v. 17, because you know him, what two other things does the Holy Spirit do for you?
- Describe a moment recently when you noticed the Holy Spirit’s “wind” in your life. If this is challenging, then meditate on these verses, pray through them, and ask the Father to send you the Holy Spirit (v. 26).