Spirit Wind

Ancient seafarers went about in ships that used one or more banks of oars. This was because there were times when the wind was silent, and to continue onward, rowers, who were usually slaves, would propel the ship across the waves. However, they could only do this in spurts. At some point, they would exhaust themselves and have to stop and remain motionless in the water. For the sailors, wind filling their sails was treasured above all else. I hear the Holy Spirit speaking in this.

The church today has countless "rowers," but it seems, so little wind. Our rowers can get a lot done. We're busier than ever. We're constantly moving, going out in our witness to a lost culture. We build programs, craft strategies, write books, and hold and attend conferences. We seek to impact both ourselves and the culture with the reality of Jesus Christ. Yet in all of it, we are exhausted. Pastor's, pointing to burnout, are leaving the ministry in shocking numbers. Congregations are comprised of people who may hear His Words of Truth but who rely upon the remedies of the world for depression, addiction, anger, and emotional, physical, and spiritual lameness. We look for rest in the same places that it does. Vacations, 3 day weekends, or escapes into entertainment, sex, and sports. We claim to follow the One we call The Great Physician but have medicine cabinets filled with as many or more drugs as our unchurched neighbor. His Word tells us that the Government of all things is upon His shoulders, but we look to secular governments to care for us, becoming as dependent upon it as those who are without Him. I'm not claiming these are evil in themselves or that a believer can never use them, only that they have come to take the place of Him who is above all things, including these things. Because of it, we exhaust the limits of what we can do and end up "floating" listlessly, without the wind of the Holy Spirit. We've "rowed" with all our might and discovered we have gone nowhere.

Jesus, speaking with the Pharisee Nicodemus in John 3, talks of what it means to be "born again," made new in Christ. He says, "Humans can only reproduce human life, but the Holy Spirit gives new life from heaven. So don't be surprised by My statement that you must be born again. Just as you can hear the wind but can't tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can't explain how people are born of the Spirit." There lies the root of our problem. We want to be able to explain naturally that which is supernatural in origin. God's Kingdom is a supernatural one. We can do nothing by our own efforts to add to it or build it. There are books on how to bring revival to your church. There are ministries that guarantee they can bring in 100 new converts in the coming year. Revival and conversion are the result of the Spirit's work alone, and Jesus said that we cannot know or control the coming or movement of His Holy Spirit. All we can do is place ourselves in a state where we are ready to receive His fullness when He moves, and that state is one of emptiness so that He may make us full. 

Have we been at the oars long enough? Are we exhausted enough, empty enough for Him to now fill us? Have we had enough of human activity that takes us nowhere? Can we instead, in brokenness and at His cross, seek His face, His heart, and His Spirit until He comes, filling our long dormant sails, carrying us to we know not where? In all of it made new, renewed, transformed and empowered. The wind is blowing. Let it fill your sails.

Blessings,

Pastor O