WINDS OF HOLINESS

THE SYMBOL OF THE WIND


The Word of God compares the Holy Spirit and His movements to that of a wind. There are many titles and names of the Holy Spirit. But we mention six symbols: wind, fire, dove, river, seal and oil. These are symbols the Bible use in regard to the Holy Spirit. Many people know the Holy Spirit to a certain extent but they do not fully understand His personality. But we can get to know Him more through the symbols.

In Hebrew the word for the Holy Spirit is Ruah, which means wind, the wind of God. In the New Testament, the Greek word for Spirit is Pneuma, which means wind or breath. The Holy Spirit is like a wind. 'When He moves He is like the wind. The Bible wants us to understand the Holy Spirit by means of symbols. The principal symbolism of wind is that it is all about us. You can go anywhere and the air and the wind is there. You cannot survive without air. Everywhere we are surrounded by air. And this indicates a characteristic about the Holy Spirit - His omnipresence. The Holy Spirit has the supernatural ability to be omnipresent, to be everywhere at the same time. That is a tremendous aspect of His whole being. It is the Holy Spirit who makes the Father and the Son present in the reality of our lives. It is through that invisible power and presence of the Holy Spirit that God perceives all things and governs all things. God the Father has a specific location on the Throne. Jesus is on His own right hand. There are two thrones in the chambers in the heavenly places. Because of the omnipresence of the Holy Spirit, the Father and Son knows all things.


2 Kings 5:26 Did not my heart go with you when the man turned back from his chariot? The word heart has also been translated as spirit. It was through the Holy Spirit that gave Elisha the word of knowledge. Psalm 139: 7 Where can I go from your spirit and where can I flee from your presence? You see God knows all things. It is through the Holy Spirit that brings about the omnipresence of God. On the day of Pentecost the Spirit came upon them in the wind.


The second fact of the Holy Spirit as wind is that He is invisible. You cannot see the wind. You can only see dust particles or water drops. John 14:17 The world cannot receive the Spirit because it neither sees nor knows Him. The reason they do not know Him is because they do not see Him. You see the world knows the historical Jesus. But the world does not know the Holy Spirit. Jesus says they will know the Holy Spirit because they believe in him and he dwells in them. We will know Him because He is the wind. In John 3: 8 Jesus describes the wind, which is the Holy Spirit. You can't see Him but you could sense His influence, His manifestation. We can't see the wind. What you actually experience about the wind is when the wind blows on an object and the object moves. So it is the effect of the wind that tells us the presence of the wind. Jesus said the same thing about the Holy Spirit. You can't see Him but you can know Him. Because when He moves you can sense His movement. You could sense His voice.

The third point is He could manifest His presence in different degrees and different levels. It is just like the wind - sometimes it is just a breeze, light, soft and gentle. And then it can be very strong making every thing move. Sometimes you call it a hurricane. Other times it is a typhoon. But you still feel the wind, no matter how light or strong it may be. The most important thing for us to know is what causes the Holy Spirit to move or not to move. What laws does the Holy Spirit follow? What actually brings forth the work of the Holy Spirit? It is the force of hunger and thirst. When you are hungry for God, He manifests Himself even more and you feel Him even more. The less a seeker of God you are, the less you feel God. When you are hungry for God and seek the truth, this creates a spiritual vacuum and it opens the way for the Holy Spirit like a wind moving in your life.

Acts 2 The apostles waited and prayed 10 days in order to grow in their hunger and desire for God. They had built a spiritual appetite. Spiritual appetites can be built up by prolonged seeking of the Lord. That is why when the Holy Spirit came He came like the wind. There was such a vacuum created that the Holy Spirit moved with such force. There must be a tremendous hunger and thirst that can bring this about. Acts 10:1 - Cornelius had the appetite for God to pray daily. And he grew in this appetite by fasting and almsgiving. And when they heard Paul preached to them, the Holy Spirit came upon them at once. God creates the hunger and desire in our lives but natural things can dissipate them. Preoccupation with natural things to satisfy our appetites and desires will diminish our spiritual appetites. That is why we have to live as if this world doesn't belong to us. We must keep our spiritual desires intact. Otherwise we will never be able to experience the Holy Spirit anymore.

The only wind of the Holy Spirit is going to move will be in direct proportion to your hunger and thirst for Him. Those who came to Jesus were hungry in the spirit. Unless the Spirit of God moves like a wind, there will be no creation, no healing, no miracles, no signs and no wonders. It is the Spirit of God moving like the wind that brings its creative force. Genesis 1: 2 the spirit of God hovered over the waters. He had a part in creation. It was the same spirit God breathed into Adam when He made Adam. Only where there is a movement of the Spirit can there be life. Without that movement there will be no life.

You know there is nothing about us that is not the work of the Holy Spirit. Everything about us is the work of the Holy Spirit. Your breath is the symbol of the Spirit dwelling in you. Into your hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit. What do you do when the Holy Spirit starts moving in you? Flow in the Spirit, move with the wind of the Spirit. Wind can be blocked. In many places where the land is flat, they have to plant trees to prevent the wind from picking up the topsoil and carrying it away what they need for agriculture. In the same manner, you can prevent and control the action of the Holy Spirit in your life by quenching Him, by not flowing with the movements, by the exact way you want to flow.

There are two ways you can block Him. The first is by grieving Him and the second is by quenching Him. But if you allow Him to move in your life He will move to the point you can't block Him anymore. You can't stop a tornado. The Holy Spirit can move you when He is building you up. He will just blow and move things. Don't block Him. If you allow Him to continue He will carry you.

Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Mark 1:12 Immediately the Spirit drove Him into the wilderness. There is a difference between being led and being driven. When you are driven you are being carried. And Jesus flowed with the Spirit until the Spirit could carry Him. Every time Jesus moved in the Holy Spirit something wonderful happened.

Mark 6: 51 Then He went up into the boat to them, and the wind ceased. And they were greatly amazed in themselves beyond measure, and marveled. The wind ceased because there was such an anointing. Wherever Jesus went the Holy Spirit was the one moving Him.

Matthew 14:32-33 And when they got into the boat the wind ceased. Then those who were in the boat came and worshiped Him, saying, "Truly you are the Son of the God." There was something that He brought into the boat. It was the presence of the Holy Spirit flowing out of Him.

Luke 8: 24 And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, "Master, Master, we are perishing!" Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. Jesus rebukes the wind with His words: His words are more powerful then the natural wind.

John 6:63 It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life. When He spoke the same wind of the Holy Spirit came out from Him. He was being driven by the wind of the Spirit all the time. His words contained the Spirit of God because He contained the Spirit of God. He was filled with the Spirit of God. The Spirit did not only lead him but everywhere He went the Spirit drove him.

As the hunger for God increases in our lives, the Holy Spirit can take a hold of you until you are literally driven by Him to do the things of God. Paul says the love of God compels me constrains me to do what God commands Him. And when it moves in such intensity that is when signs and wonders occur. And we need to develop this hunger in our lives. The hungrier you are for God the greater His presence will be in your life. One reason why the Spirit Of God moves so mightily in David's life was because he was hungry for God. As the deer panteth after the water brooks, so my soul longeth after God. 2 Samuel 23.2 The Spirit of the Lord spoke by me and his word was on my tongue. It was God's word that was stirring in his life.

2 Timothy I: 6 Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God that is in you through the laying on of my hands. Paul was not asking the spirit to stir but Timothy himself must stir up. How do I stir up the gift of God in my life? By allowing the wind to begin. When you release the Spirit of God in your life you begin to pray in the Spirit to sing in the Spirit. The more you pour forth the vacuum inside you is filled. As you build that into your life when we all get together, we will have a great wind stirring in our midst. Something always happens when believers get together. The Spirit moves stronger because the force of the Holy Spirit blowing in our lives begins to combine. And the corporate anointing of the wind is the Spirit of God. And we tap it by hungering after Him, longing after Him and thirsting after him. Then we shall be stirring up that gift within us.

Genesis 3: 8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. How did God walk? It was the wind that came. When God manifests His presence, when God moves and flows there is a wind. But the tragedy is that even after Adam entered into fellowship with God that he could hear the sound of God and he used to respond to God after the fall, he now after the fall runs away from the sound of God. Ever since that day the world cannot know Him because the world did not see Him and understand Him. You can only know the presence of God through the wind of God in the person of the Holy Spirit. There is no possibility of experiencing God without experiencing the person of the Holy Spirit.

John 20: 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Jesus gave the Holy Spirit to his disciples by breathing on them. Ezekiel 37: 5 Thus says the Lord God to these bones: "Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. The bones come alive when the breath of God enters into them. This breath is the wind of the Holy Spirit blowing and giving new life and revival to the church. Revival is always due to the wind of God.