“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8, NIV

What is easier, walking into the wind or with the wind at your back?
When do you get better mileage: driving into the wind, driving crossways to the wind, or with the wind blowing from behind you?

We may not be able to see the wind, but we can see and feel its effects.

What if we added “world” to wind in the verse above:
“The world-wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the world.”

If I try to walk within the constant wind of the world,
I am blown hither and yon, back and forth, here and there.
I am constantly bucking against the wind as I try to move forward in my life.
Each step is affected by whatever way the world-wind decides to blow that minute, hour, day, or week.
It is exhausting and discouraging, and it takes longer to do less.
I am tempted to think, “Why do I even bother to try?”

The world-wind blows me in the direction of the unholy;
I am propelled hopelessly about,
and I do not even know that my weariness and weakness
result from the drag of walking into, instead of with, the Holy Spirit wind.

But, what if we are born of the Holy Spirit?
What if we are guided by His wind, His breath, His ruach?

How do I step into God’s sheltering presence, out of the gales of the world, and into his stillness?

Push the off button on my tech.
Take a break from my frenzied schedule.
When I need shelter from the whirlwinds of worry and pain,
I can move under His feathers into the stillness God provides for me (Psalm 91:4).

In that space, I feel His gentle breeze on my cheek;
So I wet my finger and hold it up to see which way he is nudging me.
In my God-space, leeward of world-winds, His ruach guides me in the way He desires for me.
His love flows into me and fills me so that I overflow,
and trickle His love into the world
so its gales splash drops of God’s love on my neighbors.

When I am born into God’s Spirit,
I am born in His flow, and walk in the direction of His wind, His breath, His ruach.
It moves me ahead; its give me power;
and everything I do, everything I must do, becomes easier
in God’s strength and authority.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Galatians 5:25