The Wind of the Spirit

As I am writing this I am sitting in front of a fan. It’s an oscillating fan, the kind that rotates around to blow air in a semi-circle. I’ve been working on a sermon about Pentecost as described in the New Testament in Acts chapter 2. So the wind from the fan I am feeling is kind of a cool thing (get it, “cool”?)

“When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting”- Acts 2:2

This is the day that the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to believers who called upon the name of Jesus. And the elements that Luke (the author of Acts) uses to describe this event were with wind and fire.

                But I have been focused on the wind the past few days. Sometimes we don’t like wind. It can blow your hair around (although truthfully I don’t have this problem anymore), or it can blow over trees, and even cause damage. But there is some kinds of wind that we do like. When I am sitting on the beach I love to feel the sea breeze blowing. On a hot summer day when we are sitting on the porch sipping ice tea we love to feel the cool breeze blowing. As I am sitting on this couch writing this I am thankful to have the fan blowing on me. And the reason is because without the fan today I wouldn’t have any “wind” in the house.

                I have spent the past few days with my hand over vents trying to feel something blowing, but to no avail. And when I have felt a little air moving, it’s been warm air-not what you want when it’s almost 90 degrees outside.

                But the wind from the fan is comforting. It’s what I need. Without it I would be sitting here sweating.

                Maybe today you feel a little stagnant in your life. Maybe you need to feel a fresh wind blowing in your soul. That’s what the Holy Spirit does, God in us. Teaching us, comforting us, directing us.

                When Jesus was preparing his disciples for this event he told them that He must go away so that the Holy Spirit could come. So we often think about Pentecost as the arrival of the Holy Spirit.

                But Pentecost really isn’t about arrival. It’s about return. Pentecost is about the return of the Son in the form of the Spirit. And this same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead now lives in you (see Romans 8).

                Fire and wind.

                And as the Spirit breathes a fresh cool life into your sweaty overworked and stressed out existence, this same Spirit will plant and grow holiness by cultivating in you the fruits needed for daily living (see Galatians 5).

                God’s Spirit is a gift to all believers, for “all who call on the name of the Lord will be saved” (Acts 2:21).

                May it be so today.