Training
1 Corinthians
Heaven’s Wind Blows
For centuries it has been used to grind wheat
and draw water from wells dug deep into the earth. More recently it has been
farmed and harvested to produce a more environmentally friendly electricity.
There is enough of it in the
If you haven’t caught my drift yet, I’m talking
about wind – the movement of air that you say you see when the trees bend or
when your hair whips you in the face. You can’t really see the air moving,
though. You just see its effects. The weather report may says it is blowing from
the northeast, but talk to someone from there and they’ll say they didn’t send
it – it came from somewhere else. No one can say where the wind starts. You just
experience its effects.
Your colorful kite gets sucked further up into
the sky and tugs ferociously on the string. The green leaves on the trees clap
their applause on a bright day as the boughs bend a little in the breeze. The
American flag hanging on the pole waves at you in a breeze and then snaps on a
windy day.
The wind makes things happen. You can’t see it,
but you can see its effects. The wind always has an effect.
“Wind” is the word the Bible uses for the
mysterious yet mighty one we know as God the Holy Spirit, the third person of
our Triune God. We can’t see him but we can see his effects. We can’t pinpoint
his exact location with radar technology but we can experience his effects. We
can’t harness his boundless energy but we can harvest some of it as our own
source of power for peaceful and productive living.
Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is independent.
You cannot dictate to wind where it should blow. It does what it wants. In the
same way we cannot dictate to the Holy Spirit. The apostle Paul writes, “All
these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one,
just as he determines.” (1 Cor
Human understanding cannot comprehend him.
Scientific technology cannot contain him. Yet the Holy Spirit miraculously blows
his life-giving breath. Sometimes he may gently whisper to a little baby
welcoming the child into God’s family through Holy Baptism. At another time the
Holy Spirit may sweep an unbeliever off his feet and blow him right off the
pathway to hell and put him on the lighted path to heaven.
At times the Holy Spirit may gust through an
inspiring sermon or may lift you up in an enlightening Bible devotion. Sometimes
in the rushing whirlwind of a pipe organ’s air the Holy Spirit gropes for open
ears and hearts to fill with Christ-centered music. The Holy Spirit will propel
you through his Word and sacraments to do good works of service.
However, there is often a stale smell in your
home, a spoiled stench in your vehicle, a sour stink in your workplace. That
smell isn’t coming from the sippy cup of week old milk you found under your sofa
or the dead fish someone put in your car as a joke or a moldy food someone left
in the work refrigerator. The stink comes from each of you as you sit and stew
and rot in your sinful flesh. Your smell will be offensive when you won’t listen
to God’s commandments, when you are rude to others on the road, or when you are
inconsiderate of the feelings of others.
This is exactly when we need the wind of the
Holy Spirit. The Spirit will plead with you to inhale him in worship, devotions
and Bible studies. With one big exhale together we confess our stale and sinful
failures. We empty our souls of the stink of our sin and then Heaven’s Wind
Blows and we are filled with the Holy Spirit’s breath of life-giving
forgiveness, comforting peace, and energizing power.
You may enjoy Hannah Montana and Spongebob
Squarepants or Desperate Housewives and Lost or the family of ESPN networks. But
when you are only filling yourself with the things of this world, you’ll end up
like a Styrofoam cup tossed around by the wind with the other trash. You’ll be
blown this way and that by whatever fills you at the moment or blows the
hardest, only to be aimlessly lost. But when you seek spiritual knowledge, you
hook up to the nozzle of the Holy Spirit found in the Bible and Heaven’s Wind
Blows into you like blowing up a balloon. The Spirit fills you with knowledge
and releases you, taking you places, giving you a direction that you may not
choose or understand but he does, propelling you through decisions and hardships
that would otherwise overwhelm you.
Life is like a race. The race began when you
took your first breath. The race will end when you take your last breath. In
between, we are running a marathon. We are going to get blisters from all the
problems we have to deal with – divorce, disease, depression, death. We are
going to get tired and want to quit. We will feel overwhelmed by all the noises,
distractions, and pain around us.
Don’t give up. Heaven’s Wind is blowing and the
Holy Spirit is pushing you to the finish line. He will give you a second wind
like a burst of energy to a tired runner or a wind gust that carries your wimpy
tee shot over the sand trap and onto the green. In this sinful world, it is easy
to run short of spiritual power. But we will keep going, not by our own breath
and stamina, but by the Spirit’s breath and stamina because Heaven’s Wind Blows
on us, pushing us to the finish. Fight the good fight. Keep the faith. Always be
prepared. Finish the race. For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will
be saved.
Wind power is bountifully available in our
nation. The state of
Jesus told Nicodemus, “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) You may not
see or hear or feel the Spirit’s wind blowing, but you will see its effects.
Open the sails of your Bible’s pages this week and catch the Spirit’s own breath
that empowers you to speak gently, kindly, and the truth in love. Listen for the
gentle, constant whisper of baptism’s promise that fills you, from infancy, with
faith-filled spiritual knowledge. Use it in your decision-making.
The Holy Wind tugs at your soul like a kite and
will keep you focused heavenward. Hang on! The Holy Wind cools you off when
you’re hot and bothered worrying about what you can’t control. It feels better.
The Holy Wind breathes fresh life into you so that your faith finds inspiration
for another difficult task. Rejuvenating!
Experience yet another second wind in the body
and blood of Christ refreshing your life with the fresh air of forgiveness and
the powerful gust of Christian obedience. The Holy Spirit enflames each of us
with greater faith and with special skills to go out and tell the world about
the wonders of God. The Holy Spirit moves us to sacrifice our valuable resources
for the work of the church because our resources are even more valuable to those
who do not yet believe. The Holy Spirit breathes into us the air of God’s grace
and goodness we need to live now and forever.
Ezekiel, God’s handpicked prophet was placed
into a valley of dry bones. (Ezekiel 37) Perhaps it was a mass graveyard or an
old battleground that had yet to be cleared. There were bones everywhere. Back
and forth they went, Spirit and prophet, peering at, stepping gingerly around,
inspecting up close these parched bones lying on the valley floor.
These bones symbolized the nation of
Shhh! Did you hear it? There it is again, and
again, it's getting louder. Ka-chuk, ka-chuk, ka-chuk. What a clatter, what a
commotion, what clamor as those dead, dry bones around Ezekiel rattle together.
“I prophesied as the Lord commanded me,” the prophet excitedly explains, “and
breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet – a vast
army.”
What a transformation! What an awesome display
of the Lord's boundless power! Old, dead bones now quakin’ and shaken and taken
over by the Spirit of the Lord ... jumping into formation, if not jumping for
joy! A restoration of lost and lifeless
The Holy Spirit takes us who were once dead in
sin, dried-up old bones and makes us alive in Christ Jesus. But He doesn’t just
make us alive. He causes us to live – to live for Christ. We live for Christ
doing good works that bring glory to His name and show that we are God’s living,
breathing, active children. At church, these good works that glorify God may be
singing loudly, praising persistently, and paying attention despite
distractions. At home, these good works that demonstrate we are God’s children
may be listening to our parents, not fighting with our siblings, and paying
attention to the needs of our spouse. At our place of employment, these good
works that show that the Holy Spirit has made us alive for Christ may be
cleaning the lunchroom, working hard, and actively living our faith so that
everyone around us knows exactly who we are and what we are – a once dead, now
alive soldier in the army of the Lord.
The Holy Spirit has breathed life into us. Call
it revival. Call it renewal. Call it rejuvenation. We are alive in Christ. We
are living for Christ. It is new life for old bones.
Heaven’s Wind will Blow us just like it did in
the
So enjoy the air. The weather forecast calls for
the air around