Our outside church service in the park today got rained out. That's only the second time that's happened that I can remember in over seven years. You can't control the rain, anymore than you can control the wind. I wonder what things would be like if we could control such things. Would the world be a better place? Somehow I doubt that in the hands of selfish mankind that we would be greatly benefited by the ability.

In the Bible, the Hebrew word "ruwach" and the Greek word "pneuma" are both words used for the word "spirit." Pneuma and ruwach can both mean "breath" or "wind" too. I can see why words like that are used for the word spirit, especially in the case of the blessed Holy Spirit.

Things characteristic of the Holy Spirit can be described using His creation of wind as an example. John 3:8 says, "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

The wind has no visible form. The Holy Spirit is invisible. We can't see the origination or the destination of the wind, and neither can we see either of these things of the Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is the very presence of God, and His presence is known by the effect He has on the lives of men and women. He transforms us, sanctifies us, teaches us and daily encourages us and renews us. He renews us.

The wind is powerful and goes wherever it goes and you can't stop it or control it. The Holy Spirit is very God, in action. Unlike the wind, He has a definite purpose to wherever He goes, because He is a God of peace, not of chaos. He came to the Prophet Elijah in a still small voice after a rock smashing wind and ground crumbling quake had altered the face of the mountain around him.

The Holy Spirit can bring us to God by breaking a lifelong drug habit or by raising us in a loving Christian environment, or by breaking through the phony, hardened moralistic shell we use to exclude Him. We can shield ourselves from the wind, but the wind is more powerful than we are and we can't control it or change the fact that it exists.

We can insulate ourselves from the moving of the holy Spirit too, but He is the most powerful One there is, and we can't control Him or change the fact that He exists. That's good news for us, because the only thing He wants for us is to know His peace for eternity.

Jer 29:11-12 "For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope."