Monday morning was an extended prayer-walk on Dunstable Downs. Jack the dog (see picture) accompanied me, although I am not sure he did too much praying.
The wind was the strongest I have ever experienced up there. At the top I could lean into the wind at quite an angle. In fact is was hard to walk forward at all, and I nearly lost my footing several times. In the picture you Jack’s fur is being swept up smooth on one side and normal on the other. He loved it.
As I was pondering on all this a scripture came to mind,
“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 NIV)
I could hear the sound of the wind all right. I fact, I couldn’t hear myself talk it was so loud. Then it occurred to me that I have always thought of the wind of the Holy Spirit as being gentle. A refreshing wind, a cooling wind, a guiding wind.
But what if the wind of the Holy Spirit is more powerful than that? What if it is the kind of wind that opposes you to the point of not being able to walk against it? Or what if it is so powerful that when we allow it to push us forward we find ourselves moving at an accelerated pace towards maturity and fruitfulness?
That is a picture of the wind of God which fits the Bible’s description much more accurately. Passages like,
“And the LORD changed the wind to a very strong west wind, which caught up the locusts and carried them into the Red Sea. Not a locust was left anywhere in Egypt.” (Exodus 10:19 NIV)
“You snatch me up and drive me before the wind; you toss me about in the storm.” (Job 30:22 NIV)
“Praise the LORD, O my soul. O LORD my God, you are very great; you are clothed with splendor and majesty. He wraps himself in light as with a garment; he stretches out the heavens like a tent and lays the beams of his upper chambers on their waters. He makes the clouds his chariot and rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds his messengers, flames of fire his servants.” (Psalms 104:1–4 NIV)
“The earth reels like a drunkard, it sways like a hut in the wind; so heavy upon it is the guilt of its rebellion that it falls—never to rise again.” (Isaiah 24:20 NIV)
Some of those images are a little frightening. But that is the power of our God. His wind is unstoppable and irresistible. What if the wind of his Spirit were available to assist me? Not the weak and feeble breeze that barely shifts the smoke from a chimney, but the majestic gale that changes landscapes? It seems to me that the Holy Spirit’s wind is able to move anything, change anything, direct anything to a better place in my life if I allow it. I’ll be attempting to walk with the Spirit’s wind and not against Him in the future.
