“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from” (John 3:8).
The wind was howling around the corners of the house the other day, charging through the woods, scattering scurrying leaves. I looked outside at the tall trees with their sturdy trunks swaying in the roaring disturbance, their bare branches waving high above their heads. How forceful the wind must be, to move those huge, heavy limbs like that!
Wind makes its presence known to our senses. We watch it flutter flags, we hear it whisper in the pines, we feel its icy fingers brush against our cheeks.
Jesus compared the wind to the moving of the Holy Spirit in the lives of those who have received new life from God. Being born into this world gives us a visible physical body. But when we’re born again into God’s kingdom, He breathes into us eternal life that cannot be seen with physical eyes. We hear His Spirit sometimes as a quiet whisper into our thoughts, other times in a stronger feeling, urging us to do what’s needed.
We perceive God’s Spirit working in our lives as He answers our prayers, and in the blowing winds of changing attitudes in others’ lives. Sometimes unexpected happenings lead us to conclude, “It must be God—there’s no other explanation!” Like the wind, we can’t see Him, but our spirits feel the effects of His power.
Help me to be sensitive, Lord, to the wind of Your Spirit.