Icon, pt. 3—Waiting on the Wind

Acts 2:1-4 NIV
When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

John 3:8 NIV
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.

πνεύμα (pneuma)–
God’s Spirit, wind, breath.
Our inner being. The non-material faculty that can respond to God.

John 20:21 NIV
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”

Bart Wilcox

Genesis 1:2 NIV
Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God (rûwach) was hovering over the waters.

rûwach: wind, breath, God’s presence

The Holy Spirit is the Breath of

Genesis 2:7 NIV 
The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

Acts 17:24-28 NIV
The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of Heaven and earth…He is not served by human hands, because he himself gives all men life and breath… From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being.

“What is prayer but the breathing forth of that grace which is breathed  into the soul by the Holy Spirit? When God breathed into man the breath of life, he became a living soul. So, when God breathes into the creature thebreath of spiritual life, he becomes a praying soul… Praying is not a lesson got by forms and rules of art, but flowing from principles of new life itself”. – William Gurnall, 1662

“The prayers of God’s saints are the capital stock of heaven by which God carries on His great work on earth.” –E. M. Bounds

Melissa Bingtan

Psalm 150:6 NLT
Let everything that breathes sing praises to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

We don’t just breathe to exist; we breathe to life, to life, and to others.

1 John 4:11-12 NIV
Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

We were created to Him.

Question For Reflection:
This week, how can I use my breath— words, actions, encouragement— to speak life into someone else and praise God?

Jerry Huang

Philip the Evangelist—

Led by the

Acts 6 – Given Breath

            > Respected

            > Selected

Acts 8:4 – Renewed North

            > Believed

            > Followed

Acts 8:26 – Blew Southwest

            > Commanded

            > Hustled

Acts 9:39 – Blown West

            > Snatched

            > Blown

Acts 21 – Blown North (again)

            > Settled

            > Granted

Julia Curry

John 3:8 NIV
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.

Matthew 12:43-45 NKJV
When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first. So shall it also be with this wicked generation.

Proverbs 29:19 NKJV
A servant will not be corrected by mere words; For though he understands, he will not respond.

“I need forgiveness for my sins, but I need also deliverance from the power of sin… I appreciate the blessed fact of God’s forgiveness, but I want something more than that: I want deliverance. I need forgiveness for what I have done, but I need also deliverance from what I am.” –Watchman Nee

Closing

The Wind of the Holy Spirit—

1. Gives

2.

3.

4.

“You cannot make the wind blow, but you can raise your sails.” –Charles Finney