"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).

Right from the beginning there is an association between the Holy Spirit of God and the wind. Genesis 2:2 records how the Spirit moved across the primeval Earth's waters in preparation for God's creative work. This moving on the waters brings to mind the words of Genesis 8:1 "God made a wind to pass over the earth," and the flooding waters retreated. The wind is a life giving force in Ezekiel's vision. "Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live." (Ezekiel 37:9-10).

But God also employs the wind to cause judgment. "And upon Elam will I bring the four winds from the four quarters of heaven, and will scatter them toward all those winds" (Jeremiah 49:36). The wind brought great hardship to Job even as hurricanes have in modern times (Job 1:18-19). We note that while there is a peculiar unpredictability about the wind, yet God is in control of it. "And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree" (Revelation 7:1).

Christ, in our text, likens the wind to the Spirit-filled person. Indeed when the early church was filled with Spirit, "there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting" (Acts 2:2). Just as the wind obeys God's command, so believers should be moved by the Spirit to do His will. DW