Wind Blows

John 3:8 ESV

Series: Wind of God

I’m not certain how our body knows, but God created many of us so that we know when changes are coming. I do not know if everyone has that same experience, but I’ve always had it. My Grandmothers had it. My Mother has it. My daughter has it and I think my granddaughters have it. I say I think because both of my granddaughters have the same “look” of knowing in their eyes.

When the wind changes from summer to fall it doesn’t change at the same time every year, but when the wind changes a new season is coming. I can only speak for myself but God also warns when emotional changes are coming. I’ve learned that God prepares me for the change.

John 3:8 tells us, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

I believe it’s a component of grace. There is an element in grace that is elegant and refined. We do not obtain the grace of God on our own. We receive grace when we turn to Jesus God.

Some receive the blowing of the wind of the Spirit ever so gradually and some receive it in full force suddenly.

Once we receive what God has for us we allow the beauty and love of God to change us.

I received the Spirit when I was 12 years old when the great wind of God filled me. In my mind it was going to be like any other night when I got on our church bus to go hear Billy Graham at Arrowhead Stadium, but the hurricane like wind that swept through my soul changed everything. I’d been in church all my life so I knew facts about Jesus but that night I received grace that catapulted to a new kind of life. It began my journey of being a disciple.

In For All The Saints: Evangelical Theology and Christian Spirituality by Dallas Willard we are told, “Discipleship is a life of learning from Jesus Christ how to live in the kingdom of God now as he did. If you want to be a person of grace, then live a holy life of discipleship, because the only way you can do that is on a steady diet of grace. Works of the kingdom live from grace.” (p. 51).

I received grace that night, but it wasn’t a one time thing.

This grace of God Jesus is unending and eternal.

Daily. Minute by minute I am given grace. The real truth is that I need God’s grace. Every minute of every day I need God’s grace. I don’t always know I need it but God knows.

For example yesterday I was sitting with a group of women and one of the women began to tell us what we need to do and how we need to live. Without knowing it she crossed a serious invisible boundary I have. I do not tell others how they should live. I tell of God’s love and grace I’ve been given. I tell that God is my helper. If and only if they ask, I tell them how they can receive the same help.

Her words how I should live were not of God and I knew it. As she spoke I could feel the wind of the Spirit blow a boundary line between us. The Spirit was warning me her words were not of God.

Now, she’s highly educated and very bright and she sensed something had happened and she went into attack mode. She made it clear that no one, not even God controlled her life. I started praying and she knew she lost me. She became angry and lashed back but the Spirit stood firm.

When I left the circle I prayed for her. Before that moment I believed she was a believer because she had been pretending to be a believer. But by her action and the look on her face she as much as announced that she did not believe. Of course, only God knows her truth but her actions spoke eons.

During the conversation God gave grace. The wind of the Spirit stood firm and revealed truth.

Now I know how to pray for her.

Discipleship is defined as learning and living the truth of Jesus God. My primary action is through praying and telling.

God revealed truth. At the right moment God will reveal how  to tell. For now I need to pray for her.

Deborah

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