Children of the Wind

  In Scripture, the Holy Spirit is sometimes referred to as "Wind" or "like the wind".  I love this picture because the wind is a mysterious force.  We can feel it, we can see it's effects, but it is invisible.

  The Spirit is much like the wind.  He is powerful, mighty and we can see his works and might.  We see the effects of the Spirit, yet he is invisible.

  In the book of John, we see an exchange between Jesus and Nicodemus on the issue of being born again.  Nicodemus is perplexed by the idea of a new birth or being born again and so Jesus is explaining it in a simpler way.  He says:

"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." (John 3:8 ESV)


  Wind is powerful.  Wind is strong.  The wind changes things, yet people have no idea where it came from or how it came about...it just happens.  For us who have witnessed a storm, or any wind moving, bending or changing things, this is easy to accept.

  The same is true for everyone who is born of the Spirit.

  The Spirit is powerful.  The Spirit is strong.  The Spirit changes things, yet people have no idea where it came from or how it came about...it just happens.

  The world sees a drug addict turn to Jesus and lives the rest of their life free from addiction.  The man addicted to porn encounters Jesus and never looks at porn again.  The angry woman, rejected by her earthly father despises marriage, meets Jesus and her heart is changed.  The sinner meets Jesus, is changed and releases the burden of their sin.

  Born again.  Change.  New Birth.  New creation.  All made possible by the death of Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit.

  The word for spirit in this passage is also the word for wind.  When you see the word wind in the beginning of the passage, it is the same word used for Spirit...the exact same one.  So, when we are children of the Heavenly wind, that is the Spirit we change.  We don't go back in our mother's womb.  We don't get a new physical birth.  We are born of the Spirit of God.  When this happens, we change.  Our nature has shifted from sinner to saved.  Our chains have been released from Sin and now we can take up Jesus burden, which is lighter.

  The wind is mysterious, so is the Spirit.  The wind can be dangerous, so can the Spirit.  The wind is unexpected, so is the Spirit.  The wind doesn't warn you when it will make a change, the Spirit doesn't always.  The Spirit in the believer is one of the most amazing things about God, that he would choose to dwell in us.  That he would choose to give us the power to live the Christian life.   That He would teach us by His Spirit.  It's amazing.  I am a child of the wind, the Spirit of the living God.

BEWARE: sometimes the wind makes changes we don't like.  Breaks things we have become accustomed to in life.  The Spirit does the same.  He may move us to change.  He will give us new desires, desires to read His Word, desires to serve Him only. Will you yield to His promptings?  Will I yield to His promptings?  The wind doesn't hold back, neither does the Spirit.  Are we willing to ride the winds of change that the Spirit will bring to our hearts?  Will we release our burdens and take His upon us?

  Being a child of the wind means we too are dangerous, we too have power...not of our own but from Him.  We are not weak robots who are on this earth to simply go to church once a week and call that our "religious requirement".  We are to be Warriors, listening for where the wind (The Spirit) would have us go.  Speak to those who need his touch.  Pray for those who need his healing. 

  Being a child of the Wind is an adventure, an exciting ride.  Am I ready?  Are you ready?

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What Do You Want?

Think of the first thing you would expect Jesus to say to his first disciples.

  What did you come up with?

Me, I would expect a profound statement of his purpose, or a simple, easy to understand illustration portraying who he is and why they should follow him.

  Was your thought similar?

  Actually, Jesus didn't pronounce himself as anything to his first disciples, John the Baptizer did.  Nor did Jesus make bold claims or share any super astonishing truth.

  Jesus first words to his first disciples were: What do you want?

"The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, 'Behold, the Lamb of God!' The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them,  "What are you seeking?" And they said to him, "Rabbi" (which means Teacher), 'where are you staying?'" (John 1:35-38 ESV, emphasis mine)

  Jesus sees them following him after John's pronouncement and asks them what they want from him.

  This may not strike you the same way it struck me and in fact you may think it's pointless to point out, but to me, Jesus is asking a deep question. 

These men were just following John, a crazy, sugar and bug eating woodsmen who was demanding repentance before the Messiah came.  John declares to them that the one they have been waiting for is here, and "Behold" it's Jesus.  They then proceed to follow him, without asking.  He walks by, they without hesitation run after him once they hear John's proclamation.

They have made finding the Messiah and then following him their life's goal.  They don't appear to have families yet, both are assumed to be young and they follow Jesus. 

  Jesus doesn't mince words, he goes deep and asks a simple question: what do you want?

You've been waiting for the Messiah, have you?  Why?  What is it you expect or want from the Messiah?  What would the purpose of you following the Messiah be?  Do you want fame?  Do you want glory?

  It's a profound moment for these guys.  What do they answer?

They simply want to hang and be with Him.  That's how they answer.  They say: "Where are you staying?"  In essence, where are we going?  Can we stay with you?  Can we eat meals together?  They want community with Jesus.  They want to know Him.  They want to ask questions.  They simply just want to be with Jesus.

Reading this story yesterday made me wonder: what do I want?

  If Jesus were to turn back and ask me what I wanted out of following him...what would I say?

Well, now, following him is kind of my profession...but that's a cruddy answer and not what I want from following him.

I would hope my answer would be the same as the first two disciples (who were Andrew and the other was suspected to be John himself), which was: to know you, to be with you.  Is that my answer?  Not every day, no.  However, I desire it to be.

So I leave it to you: What do you want?

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Missing Jesus

    "The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God". (John 1:9-13 ESV)

  I've been re-reading through the book of John and I continue to get hit with some great things in this book.  John is, I think my favorite author of the Bible.  He wrote John, 1-3 John and Revelation, all of which are books I deeply enjoy and grow much from reading.

  Here, in the opening pages of John's Gospel, we see something very interesting happen.  God Himself comes to earth and many miss it.

  John shares this beautiful story of God coming into human history, dwelling among the people (John 1:14 ESV) and he shares that we was not received by His own people.  In essence, they missed Jesus, God come from Heaven, putting on flesh to live among them and they miss him.

  What a thing to miss.  What a sad testament to the greatest teachers of the Bible history has known.

  I think the question needs to be answered: who missed Jesus?


  Here, one must look at the totality of Jesus' life in order to find the answer.  Some people did receive and find Jesus, others did not.  The group that seemingly missed Jesus the most however were the religious Bible Teachers of the day.  The guys who knew the Bible inside out, anticipate the Messiah the most and preached sermons on Saturdays for years on end...those were the guys that missed God.

  When I see this played out in the story of Jesus, I automatically start calling those guys bone heads and ask: "How could you miss Him?"  Yet, I have their same title today: Religious Leader.  I am a leader in Christianity.  I am a Pastor, I am a Bible teacher.

  Once this reality sinks in, a get a bit humbled.  I now start to think: would I have missed Jesus?  Maybe I would have.  Maybe I struggle with the same things the Pharisees did. 

Maybe I need to ask now: Why did they miss Jesus?

  Here again, we need to look at all 4 Gospels, the total picture of Jesus life.  What did Jesus call them out on the most?  What did he suggest through his rebukes was the reason they missed it?

Self-righteous Pride

These men were very worried about their appearance.  These men wanted the respect and love of the people.  These men desired to control the mass populace with their rules.  They earned it, they assumed because of their amazing life.  The deserved God's love and the unwavering loyalty from the people because they served God and they lived their lives for Him.

  Yet, whose applause did they live for?  Who did they seek to give the honor, praise and glory to?  Why in fact did they dedicate their lives to service to God?

  I think deep down they desired to serve God, but their pride and the motive of self won each time.  They loved the honor they received.  They loved how the masses followed their new regulations, which were added onto the Law from God.

  Jesus shook this group up.  His coming was not as they expected.  These men were so blinded by what they "predicted the Messiah would look like" that they missed Him.  They had wrongfully assumed that the box they build for the Messiah would fit and anyone who didn't fit the box was obviously (to them) not the Messiah and no one (not even God Himself) could deter them from this.

  Now, with that in mind, I can look into myself and ask: would I miss Jesus?

  Have I added to the Bible for control of others?  Have I desired the applause of men over God?  Do I try to fix and clean my appearance, while ignoring my heart?  Have I boxed God in so much that I couldn't let God himself bust my box?

  The answer is sadly yes.  I do care too much what others think.  I do try to make myself look nice and neat on the outside while my heart is a mess.  I have boxed God in and I like the way my boxed God functions.

  God desires to break my box.  He desires to call me out and make me different than I ever thought possible.  He is expanding my box.  He is calling out my heart and demanding that I think less of other people's opinions and think more of His opinion.  I do NOT want to miss God.  No matter how busy I may get, no matter how hard things get, may I not Miss God!

Do you struggle like the Pharisees?  Have you boxed God in?

May You also come to see Jesus and walk in the promise that seeing Him brings: being called a Child of God!

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