SermonIndex Audio Sermons
SermonIndex - Promoting Revival to this Generation
Give To SermonIndex
Discussion Forum : General Topics : When the Wind Blows...

Print Thread (PDF)

Goto page ( 1 | 2 Next Page )
PosterThread
TMK
Member



Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
NC, USA

 When the Wind Blows...

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

Here we have it. In one of the most basic evangelical passages in scripture pertaining to spiritual birth and the Spirit-life (John 3) we have an elemental truth that we simply must absorb into our beings and work it out in our lives: People who are born of the Spirit are like the wind-- they MOVE wherever the Spirit moves. This is not just a geographical concept, although it might be. It simply means that when the Holy Spirit is moving, we, who are Spirit-filled believers, move with Him. And in order to move in the Spirit, we must honor the Spirit's presence by yielding to Him and giving Him first place. Mobility relates to life in the Spirit. Jesus said, in effect, that if you are born in the Spirit, you are moving like the wind. It is a life-issue, not a geographic issue, although God might indeed move us geographically. People that move are alive, and people who are alive in the Spirit move with the Spirit.

Consider Romans 8:14-- [T]hose who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. Just as a young child who totters across the floor is a living child of its natural parents, we who are led by the Holy Spirit are children of the Most High.

I believe this truth about our need to be mobile in relation to the Spirit is also shown in this familiar passage from Ezekiel 1:

"When the living creatures moved, the wheels beside them moved; and when the living creatures rose from the ground, the wheels also rose. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, and the wheels would rise along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures moved, they also moved; when the creatures stood still, they also stood still; and when the creatures rose from the ground, the wheels rose along with them, because the spirit of the living creatures was in the wheels."

This passage has always been somewhat mysterious to me, but when I think of wheels, I think of motion. These wheels in Ezekiel's vision moved wherever the Spirit moved. Why? Because the Spirit was in the wheels. If the Holy Spirit is in us, then we better be moving when the Spirit moves. How do we enter into this?

1. We must become people of the Spirit. It's a mindset that says, "Ok- we are going to do this. We are going to be supernatural. This is going to be our language, this is going to be our prayers, and we are going to step out and REALLY start believing that God is real, and He is in our midst. It's an attitude adjustment. We are going to wonder what the Spirit is doing, rather than just wonder if we are going to get through the day.

2. We must be a people of prophecy. Several of you who are reading this have been instrumental in opening my eyes to this concept, and teaching me this concept (although I am a notably stubborn student!). But I have come to realize that we MUST hear God and we MUST manifest His voice. That's all prophecy is, and we must be a prophetic people. We must become a people who have a posture of the heart where we actually care what God is saying when we gather in large groups, or small groups. That is our priority. Whatever God is saying, and whatever God is doing, we want to partner with THAT. Not something else. The manifestation of the Spirit derives from the spoken word. It's just how the Spirit operates. What is God saying? What is God doing? When we find that out, THAT is what we will speak and THAT is what we will do. If we want to be people of the Spirit, we have to really start caring about the Holy Spirit's presence and then start prophesying by getting into agreement with God in what we say and what we do. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and that man of the Spirit, Jesus, was a man who spoke words of the Spirit, and life. He only spoke and did what the Father told him to say and do. That is being prophetic, in a nutshell.

God is moving, and we don't want to move where He was-- we want to move where He is going. God is calling us to be people of the Spirit, not to be people who are committed to our personal lives first, or our particular format, but TO THE SPIRIT. And it takes a lot of courage to go there, because where He is, there are weird things like wheels with eyes studded all over them.

We need prophetic words that are mature and deeply rooted in God that thunder in the house of God and bring fear of the Lord and instruction as to where God is going.

No more excuses- we need to be a prophetic church, and to the extent that we are a prophetic church, we need to be MORE prophetic. Like I said before, this is all fairly new to me, but I have left the dock, if only barely. Some of you have left the dock a good while back, but you still need to head for deeper waters. But regardless of where we are at, we need to be on the move with God, together. There is simply too much at stake to do otherwise.


_________________
Todd

 2016/9/14 8:52Profile
StirItUp
Member



Joined: 2016/6/4
Posts: 949
Johannesburg, South Africa

 Re: When the Wind Blows...

Great word, Todd!

We cannot copy this or that church or this or that minister or this or that move of God, although we can rejoice in whatever He is doing through whoever and can certainly learn from them all.

To each church in Revelation He had something else to say.

What is He saying to us...to me...now?

Blessings,


_________________
William

 2016/9/14 9:03Profile









 Re:

Indeed good word.

-bbs-

 2016/9/14 12:36
JFW
Member



Joined: 2011/10/21
Posts: 2009
Dothan, Alabama

 Re: When the Wind Blows...

Brother Todd,

John 3:8 has been one of my fav passages since I first read it and I've never heard its depths so clearly and intimately articulated in such an urgent and practical way.
So thank you for sharing this and it's very encouraging to see/know you've left the "dry dock" and are moving with and in the spirit:)


_________________
Fletcher

 2016/9/14 15:48Profile
dolfan
Member



Joined: 2011/8/23
Posts: 1727
Tennessee, but my home's in Alabama

 Re:

Todd, the Lord used you in posting this.

I'm at a wit's end on several things right now, and this is like a wind of oxygen to my spirit. I'm so glad He spoke to you to write this and share it here. Thanks for your obedience brother.


_________________
Tim

 2016/9/14 15:54Profile









 Re: When the Wind Blows...

beloved Todd,
Powerful and clear Word, may i ask, Is that Word from your pen under the Leading of the Holy Spirit?

no matter, if that Word is cut and paste, OR if it is from pen, inked by the Finger of God, what a Precious forthtelling, stepping out, and speaking His Word,

That Scripture has ALWAYS been a carefully hoarded, and loved "red lettered" portion i keep close.

not off topic, but i never got the occasion to respond to something you posted to me in another thread, that made my heart leap. You spoke of how Fire on the Altar impacted you, and that the exhortation, "Holy Desperation" was one of the first on-line messages that lit the Fire for you...exactly the same for me. When i read that......JOY.

same Joy, i feel when i eat of that verse:

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.”

may i share, dear brother?

up here, on this ridge, high up, nothing stands between the vast plains west of the Great River, nor anything north up to the Artic, and when the winds REALLY blow, sustained, at speeds of 40 to 50 mph, the high and tough shagbark hickory trees that form a "U" shaped assemblage around this ranch house, many of them mature and tall, over a hundred feet, they will "sing" in power, the wind blows with power, and i lay up in my "nest", and quite frequently i hear those Words of Messiah Jesus you witnessed....my heart feels that Divine Comfort Jesus testifies to...lulling me to sleep..to the Rest.

and the hickory tree, which will warm me up here, when the temperature in winter frequently will go down to 25 below zero or MORE, it is a TOUGH, dense tree, and hence it has the most BTU's of any hardwood, 27 million BTU's per cord....BUT, there is a property about this seemingly steel tough tree, and it is this: let us say, you fell a mature hickory, but decide to let it lay on the ground , over the winter, ASSUMING that its "toughness" will allow you to process it when winter passes, and spring comes.

i did this once, and only once, because when i went out in late April, to cut the tree into "biscuits" suitable for the splitter, i found to my dismay, that this once steel tough and dense wood, in only one winter, had TURNED into a rotten, spongy and totally unusable as firewood, biomass.

and i worshipped, as i sat there pondering the Mind of God, Creator of All...what message Lord?...How Vast and Deep the Mind of God...i "harvested", but did not reap, when i SHOULD have, but only relying on appearance, and the assumption of that physical appearance and assumed "property" of that felled tree, i waited to reap, when the time was right FOR ME, and NOT for when the time was RIGHT.

"The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound..."

Bless the Name above all names.....and God love you for that Word, in Jesus love, neil

 2016/9/14 17:24









 Brother Tim

you wrote:

"I'm at a wit's end on several things right now"....

you are NOT alone, dear brother....me too.

and you concluded that sentence with:

" and this is like a wind of oxygen to my spirit."

me too.

The disciples asked of Jesus, "Increase our faith!"

Lets both pray that simple prayer tonight, when all is still, amen? much love, neil

 2016/9/14 17:34
Elibeth
Member



Joined: 2011/8/14
Posts: 1148


 Re: When the Wind Blows...

TMK,
Thank you for such a blessed Word.

Blessings,
------------------
elizabeth

 2016/9/14 17:46Profile
TMK
Member



Joined: 2012/2/8
Posts: 6650
NC, USA

 Re:

I wrote this several years ago when I had just started learning about the prophetic and what it meant, having spent all my time previously in decidedly non-charismatic churches. I came across it recently and wanted to post it here- I may have actually posted it here before- I cant remember.

The church where I began to learn of these prophetic things went cuckoo toward the Bethel type movement and threw major red flags up for me and my wife so we left, after having read an Art Katz article about the falseness of such movements as Toronto. We then went to a church that was extremely strong in the teaching of the Word but again very non-charismatic. I missed certain elements of the charismatic side of things but could not abide the nonsense that seemed to go with it.

Why oh why can there not be a responsible charismatic church? I am sure they are out there but thus far I have not found one. It seems they are destined for corruption.


_________________
Todd

 2016/9/14 20:53Profile
Blessedchild
Member



Joined: 2009/8/25
Posts: 18
Canada

 Re:

Such a timely and clear word! Praise God! Thank you and God bless your heart to share this gem here today brother. Powerful word. Thank you Lord.


_________________
Lois

 2016/9/14 22:57Profile





©2002-2024 SermonIndex.net
Promoting Revival to this Generation.
Privacy Policy