The wind was blowing right down from the Arctic this week. The Americans said it came from Canada, but the Canadians reported it came from Russia.
And we were experiencing extraordinary variations in the weather. One morning I was driving in to a breakfast appointment in minus 28 degrees Celsius (minus 18 F). It was so cold schools, government offices and many businesses just shut down. The day before, it never got above minus 26 the whole day. We had some frozen pipes at our place, but thankfully jacking the heat up managed to thaw them out.
Fast forward a couple of days, the wind had changed direction, and it was above freezing and sunny. We left our coats in the car when shopping, and turned the heat back down.
We cannot control the wind. Tranquility, the lack of wind, appeals to me because it is predictable and safe.
When it comes to the kingdom of God, there is a stability which comes from the principles of truth which God has established. They never change. The unpredictability comes from the fact that the Holy Spirit cannot be put in a box. And the Holy Spirit is a wind.
This is what messed Nicodemus up. He was trying to put the miraculous nature of the second birth into the old, predictable categories of natural birth. Jesus made this statement to him: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (John 3:8).
Now think about this for a minute. The Holy Spirit is the “breath” or wind of God (Genesis 1:2). When we become Christians, we are filled with this wind, and he blows us where he wills. The result is that it can be said of followers of Jesus that you do not know where they come from or where they are going, for “so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
This does not mean Christians are meant to lead unstable lives, always running off to do different things. It is talking more about a mentality. One of the main reasons churches decline or die is a refusal to change. We get stuck in the old comfortable ways, and fail to notice that God and his world have moved on. The wind is blowing, but not in our lives or churches.
And so I challenge you to ask God whether you are allowing your life and security to blow in the wind of his Spirit? Where have you become so stuck in your ways you can’t hear his voice any longer or feel his breath moving you?
Jesus promises to provide the best security we could ever find, but he never promised we would be comfortable.
Most of our closets and storage spaces would benefit from a strong wind blowing through them and cleaning them out. The same is true of our Christian mindset. Allow the Holy Spirit to blow through your nice settled life. If the Spirit has not blown through your mind, he won’t blow through anywhere else in your life. What a tragedy if all people said of us was that we had never made a major change and our ways, both coming and going, were utterly predictable and had been as long as anyone could remember.
We are people of the Spirit. If you want to experience all God has for you in this life, you had better start to learn to move with the wind and let it blow you where it wills. “So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
CONSIDER PARTNERING WITH DAVID & ELAINE CAMPBELL IN HELPING TO SUSTAIN THEIR ACTIVE MINISTRY.
AWAKENING MINISTRIES // FOUNDATION of FAITH Project
Foundation of Faith Project is strengthening generations in faith and bringing beautiful changes to the communities around them. Through teaching, mentoring and coaching, many are finding out who they are and who they are destined to be. They are bringing more to their world. David Campbell is the key leader in this initiative and you can support him financially directly through Awakening Ministries.
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