I love wind. I love to feel it on my face as I stand outside, and especially as I sleep.
Did you know that in both the Old and New Testaments God’s Spirit is described as wind? When Genesis 1:2 describes the Spirit of God “hovering over the waters”, the Hebrew word used for ‘Spirit’ means ‘wind’.
Then, in John 3:8, Jesus spoke of the wind as “blowing wherever it pleases,” and said that a man “hears its sound but cannot tell from where it comes or where it is going.” So, Jesus characterizes anyone who is “born of the Spirit”.
Just as the Spirit of God is characterized as a wind, so too we are told to be blown by the “right kind of wind”, which means there can be a “wrong” kind of wind as well. For example, storm winds can tear apart home, and even send ships sent out to sea to the bottom of the ocean. In that regard, the Lord warns us in Ephesians 4:14 not to be “tossed about by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.”
Let me encourage you this Christmas season to stop, feel, and experience the wind. The Spirit of God is moving all over the earth and the Lord wants us to stop and feel His presence, even if we are in the darkest part of the night.
Most of all, I pray that you CATCH THE WIND OF GOD. That is to say, may you be truly born of the Spirit of God and personally understand who God is through His word, the Bible.
I pray that, during this Christmas season, you would come to understand that God loves you so much that He sent His only Son into the world as the only solution for your sin. May you personally come to this understanding so that you too may be “born of the Spirit” and truly feel the presence of God in the wind!
-Scott Brawner