Run Before The Wind
I was busily researching on the internet one evening. As I moved from one website to another, I stumbled on a young man’s website designed for the purpose of sharing with others his trip around the world. He had done something quite radical. He decided to quit his job and travel from country to country, scuba dive, and take pictures of it all, posting both his experiences and photography as he traveled. On his home page was a nautical term I had never heard before: to bear away. Next to the term was the definition: to change the course of a ship, and make her run before the wind. I immediately thought, “That’s what we are meant to do—run before the wind of the Holy Spirit. What a picture I had of our life “in the Spirit”—moving in perfect harmony with the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit.
We, in fact, are on a journey much greater than a trip around the world. We are on a pilgrimage of the heart where we find our home in the Lord and live our brief stay on earth as aliens in a foreign land. The little craft of our life, our “ship,” is meant to be led and controlled by the wind of the Holy Spirit. I love the words of the psalmist, “Blessed are those whose strength is in you, who have set their hearts on pilgrimage” (Psalm 84:5). Here the psalmist speaks of both strength and journey and the integral relationship between the two. The unique and amazing journey you and I are on requires the strength God provides. And where does that strength come from? The Holy Spirit.
Just before Jesus ascended to heaven, He said to His disciples, “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth” (Acts 1:8). The word translated “power” is dunamis and means a power that makes you able and capable. Extraordinary and supernatural ability and capability are what we need every moment of our lives.
We need supernatural ability when we are weak. Paul discovered his need when a thorn in the flesh, perhap a physical ailment of some kind, would not go away no matter how much he prayed. He says, “Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:8-10). Do you know what I see here from the life and ministry of Paul? Nothing that threatens our well-being can stop the wind of the Holy Spirit. This truth is so encouraging to me, especially when something comes my way that causes me to think “it’s all over and there’s just no hope.” Just when I could be tempted to think my weakness is too much to overcome, I find fresh provision coming from an unexpected direction sent by the Holy Spirit.
Another way the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit blows through our lives is when He leads us in a new direction. One of the qualities of the Holy Spirit is His “leading” of us in the course and direction of God’s plans and purposes. Leading is what He does. Paul says in Romans 8:14, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” I like how Eugene Peterson has paraphrased these words in The Message, “God’s Spirit beckons. There are things to do and places to go!” The wind of the Holy Spirit blows in some strange and unusual directions that would never be our choice. The question is: will we set our sails to catch the wind? When we do, we “bear away” in life, changing the course of our ship, so we can run before the wind. May we all surrender the helm to Jesus to catch the wind of the Holy Spirit.
