Project Description

2014/07

Wind of the Spirit

The influences and work of the Holy Spirit are often set forth under the metaphor of wind. As wind has a cleansing, refreshing and controlling nature, so the Spirit in His operation purifies the heart, making the soul to grow as the lily and cast forth its roots like Lebanon and be fruitful like the garden of God.

By the acting of His almighty breath, our physical life was produced (Genesis 2:7) and the same almighty breath quickened our souls when dead in trespasses and sins, forming spiritual life within us. When the church of Christ is in a languishing condition, the breathings and influences of the Holy Spirit are necessary for her reviving again. Why else would we pray for the breathings of this wind? Our prayer is, “Wilt thou not revive us again: that thy people may rejoice in thee?”(Psalm 85:6). “Awake, O north wind and come thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out” (Song of Solomon 4:16).

Like the north wind the work of the Spirit is sometimes piercing and penetrating, making discovery of lusts and idols that hide in the secret chambers of the heart. Having felt the moving of this wind we turn our backs on that east wind of sin and vanity. Like the south wind, He is also gentle and refreshing, putting gladness in the heart and filling the soul with joy in the blackest and cloudiest day (Habakkuk 3:17-18).

Just as we cannot work grace in our hearts, neither can we exercise it without the renewing influences of the Holy Spirit. They are so necessary when we recall Christ’s express declaration: “Without me ye can do nothing” (John15:5). Apart from the help of His Spirit we cannot do one thing. “We are not sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Corinthians 3:5). We are not able to move one step in the way of the Lord unless the heavenly wind comes with liberty and enlargement. By the help of the Spirit we can say with David, “I will run the way of thy commandments when thou shalt enlarge my heart” (Psalm119:32). It is He that gives power to the faint and increases strength to them that have no might (Isaiah 40:29). We cannot read, hear, pray, praise, or communicate to any advantage and profit unless the wind of God blows upon us. Only then are we as the chariots of Ammi-nadib (Song of Solomon 6:12), a willing people in the day of His power. No longer will we do our duty in a half-hearted, matter of fact way. Dullness, indifference and apathy will flee. Our souls will be like a field that the Lord hath blessed. We will be fruitful in every good word and work.

When this wind blows on the soul we must go in the way of it, yielding ourselves to the conduct of the Spirit speaking in His word. May the reviving, refreshing wind of the Spirit come in power upon our hearts!

Rev Leslie Curran.