“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.”
My wife and I were recently on vacation in Estes Park, Colorado. We had a beautiful cabin located within the YMCA of the Rockies at the mouth of Rocky Mountain National Park. Each morning I sat outside on the porch with an amazing view of the Rocky Mountains. Most mornings were still, with practically not a sound except for an occasional Steller’s Jay or an Albert’s Squirrel moving around. However, one morning, the wind was blowing. Now, I’ve heard the wind blow in Northern Lower Michigan all my life. It just kind of sweeps over the trees like a blanket. And this was different.
The wind I heard in the Rocky Mountains was unlike any wind I had ever heard. It was like an entity moving from one place to another. It flowed up the mountainside and down into the valley. It zipped from one treetop to another. It would suddenly appear, although I could not see it, accompanied by a loud rushing sound and then quickly fade away like a shadow. And there were more than just one “winds.” Winds were swirling all around – moving like invisible imps over the rocky landscape.
Suddenly, a Bible verse jumped out in my mind…Jesus said in John 3:8, “The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going.” What was Jesus teaching about here? What was He comparing the wind with?
To find the answer, we have to go back up to the beginning of the chapter. Jesus was teaching the Pharisee Nicodemus about the second birth. “You must be born again,” Jesus said. “Born again of the water and the Spirit.” The allusion was to Christian baptism and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Acts 2:38). Nicodemus must have been scratching his head because he asked, “How can a man be born again when they are old?” Jesus repeated his statement saying that one cannot see the Kingdom of God unless they are born again. More head scratching and Jesus relieved Nicodemus’ confusion by quoting the above verse about the wind. Then He went on to say, “So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”
Just like the winds in the Rocky Mountains swept randomly and invisibly throughout the environment, God’s Holy Spirit moves and works in our lives supernaturally, out of sight, and inconspicuously. Just read through the Bible, and you will see how the Holy Spirit worked in people’s lives. Sometimes the Holy Spirit worked “loudly” like when Ananias and Sapphira dropped dead in Acts 5; and sometimes “quietly” when the Spirit would not allow Paul and his companions to enter Bithynia in Acts 16:7.
The Holy Spirit can work in your life too. Scripture teaches that God’s Spirit is a gift we receive when we are immersed in water baptism (Acts 2:38; Acts 19:1-6). Just like the wind, God’s Holy Spirit is powerful, invisible, and you can’t pin it down. Like the mountain winds that stir the still air, God’s Spirit moves through our lives—often unseen, but always transforming everything it touches.