WIND
WIND
WIND [NOTE: For the FULL text of what Eld. Bass has written please email him at hulbass@thrifty.net
John 3:8-“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and wither it goeth; so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” The first time wind is mentioned in God’s Holy Word (K.J.T.) is found inGenesis 8:1-“And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.”
Exegesis would require us to conclude that the wind is not sovereign nor independent, as God Himself caused the rules of the weather -meteorology -and thereby “caused the wind to pass over.” Wind is mentioned all through the O.T. and also in the N.T. The wind is not independent nor sovereign.
“The wind bloweth where it listeth.” Comment: The Holy Spirit, as the Voice of the Son of God, is directed by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the Will of His Father, and in the execution thereofJohn 3:8;John 4:34;John 5:25;John 6:37-39;John 6:63The wind is in the same stance.
WIND The following is my understanding of the “Wind” as it is used by Jesus to refer to the Spirit of God inJohn 3:8: The Wind- The Spirit of God
John 3:8“The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” In this verse, Jesus uses the wind metaphorically to refer to the Holy Spirit and to teach the functionality of this Person of the Holy Ghost in His act of regenerating an elect object of God’s love. Both “wind”and “Spirit”are translated from the same Greek word, pneuma SGreek: 4151. pneuma, and refer to the Third Person of the Triune Godhead. This Third Person in the Trinity, sometimes called in Scripture The Spirit, Holy Ghost, Spirit of God, Spirit of the Lord, My Spirit, Spirit of truth, and Spirit of Christ, is coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Son. The Spirit of God is sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes His personality and character (the Holy Spirit) and is sometimes referred to in a way which emphasizes his work and power (the Spirit of Truth). In Scripture, He is never referred to as a depersonalized force. The Person of the Holy Spirit, in His absolute sovereignty and power, is the vital force by which the soul of God’s elect is “animated”with Divine, Spiritual, and Eternal Life. It is by reason of this empowerment of spiritual life in a regenerate, that he or she is possessed with the power of knowing, desiring, deciding, and acting within the spiritual realm of godliness. The sovereign influence of the Spirit of God is that principle which fills and governs the inner-most soul of God’s child. In a word, the sovereign Spirit of God is the efficient and vital source of any spiritual power, spiritual affection, spiritual emotion, and spiritual desire that ruminates within the regenerated soul of an elect of God. The Spirit of God (this “Wind”of God, if you will) is as sovereign in His Personal work of effectually calling (regenerating, borning-again-from above, translating, etc.) one of God’s elect from the death-state in sin to the divine life in Christ as was God the Father in foreknowing, electing, and predestinating that object of God’s love, and as was God the Son in accomplishing eternal redemption (expiating sin) and propitiation (satisfying Divine wrath) in His death, burial, and resurrection. The eternal salvation of God’s people requires (in agreement with and in view of God’s will and purpose) the cooperative workings and efforts of the power and unity of all Three Persons in the Godhead. Eternal salvation cannot occur by any One of the Three without the Other Two Persons; that is to say that God is not a “Unit”,but a “Unity”.A “unit”would properly be described as one person with three personalities; whereas, a “unity”would properly be defined as three persons with one personality. The plurality of Persons in the Godhead is a “Unity”,not a “Unit”-[these Three are One]. {1 John 5:7}
InJohn 3:8, the words “bloweth”,“listeth”,“hearest”,and “goeth”are all in the present tense, active voice, and indicative mood. The word “cometh” is in the present tense, middle voice, and indicative mood. (Note that the middle voice is almost always translated as being in the active voice.) All these words agree with Jesus’ saying inJohn 5:25, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.”” The hour is coming, and now is...” In this verse, the “Voice”of the Son of God is referring to the Third Person in the Trinity, indicating the “Unity”of agreement in God’s will and purpose. The word “listeth” inJohn 3:8does not denote the condition of “where it is directed” as though the wind were “passive” in selecting its chosen course of action. That view would defy or challenge the “sovereign” activities that flow directly from the “wind’s attributes” and, thus, would disharmonize the otherwise sovereign “unity” of the Three Persons in the Trinity. The word “listeth,” as translated from the Greek thelo SGreek: 2309. thelo (in the active voice), carries the strength of “actively choosing to take for one’s self,” “to will with the determined intent of resolving and purposing in accord with his sovereign desire and purpose.”
I agree with John Gill when he says of the wind and the Spirit ofJohn 3:8: “... the Spirit of God is a free agent in regeneration; he works how, and where, and when he pleases; he acts freely in the first operation of his grace on the heart, and in all after influences of it; as well as in the donation of his gifts to men, for different purposes; see1 Corinthians 12:11; and this grace of the Spirit in regeneration, like the wind, is powerful and irresistible; it carries all before it; there is no withstanding it; it throws down Satan’s strong holds, demolishes the fortifications of sin; the whole posse of hell, and the corruptions of a man’s heart, are not a match for it; when the Spirit works, who can let?”
God the Father is sovereign. God the Son is sovereign. Likewise, God the Holy Spirit is sovereign. Each of the Three Persons is a Sovereign as He functions in His respective personal office work. Thus, all Three Persons are sovereign in the Unity of the Godhead and work in unison: in will, in purpose, in covenant, in wisdom, in power, in holiness, in justice, in truth, in mercy, and in love, as well as in all other attributes of the Trinity. So, in all the actions of the One, the Others eternally agree in unison.
WIND & HOW IT BLOWS
After having heard much good preaching on the experience that the apostle Paul had on the Damascus road, who was suddenly and dramatically changed from one who vehemently hated Christ and Christianity into one who ardently loved and served the Lord Jesus, the precious brother who baptized me on July 18, 1954, Elder E. C. Holder, had a similar experience. He had been a rough neck. He had been a brawler and drinker who cared nothing for the things of God. In his early twenties he had a dramatic experience of grace while plowing in a field. Suddenly he saw his sins, was granted repentance, and his life was immediately and drastically changed. He became an ardent lover and follower of the blessed Lord Jesus. When he would preach he would tell of this experience and just weep with tears of joy and thanksgiving. I enjoyed his telling this, but it began to bother me because I had not had such a dramatic experience of grace. I knew that I loved the Lord, or thought that I did, but I had not had a dramatic change in my life that I was aware of. One Sunday Brother Holder was preaching fromJohn 3:8about the wind blowing where it pleases. That Scripture says that “so is everyone that is born of the Spirit of God.” Brother Holder said, “Folks, sometimes the wind blows with hurricane force. That is the way it was with me and with the Apostle Paul. At other times the wind blows so gently it is almost imperceptible. That is the way it was with John the Baptist. However, it is the same wind.” That greatly relieved me. Some of you have had dramatic experiences of grace and some of you have had experiences of grace that were not so dramatic. The experience is not what we should focus attention on. The comfort comes from seeing the evidences of the Spirit of God working in our lives. Where are some good places in the Scriptures to go to look for these evidences? I would suggest several:
1. Look at the Beatitudes inMatthew 5:3-12. Those with these characteristics are pronounced “blessed” by our Lord Jesus Christ.
2. Look atGalatians 5:22-23. It is very comforting to us if we can see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives. If we see the fruit of the Holy Spirit in our lives we can be assured that we have been given spiritual life by this same precious Holy Spirit!
3. Do we enjoy the gospel? Does it come with power to us? Then, according to Paul in1 Thessalonians 1:4-5, we can be assured that we are in the number of God’s elect family.
4. The wonderful epistle of 1 John {1 John 1:1-10;1 John 2:1-29;1 John 3:1-24;1 John 4:1-21;1 John 5:1-21} abounds in evidences that identify God’s children. In fact, this book was specifically written that God’s people might gain assurance. What are some of the identifying marks of God’s people in this great letter?
A. Obedience to the commands of Christ-1 John 2:3, “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.”1 John 2:29, “If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.”
B. Loving the brethren “In this the children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil: whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his brother.”1 John 4:7, “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.”
C. Believing in Jesus Christ-1 John 5:10, “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.” May our dear Lord give us the great assurance of our salvation as we see the evidences of grace in our lives. I know that we will stumble and fall many times but even then He has made gracious provision that our fellowship with Him can be restored. One of my favorite and most often practiced Bible verses is1 John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” May God bless these thoughts to His glory and to the comfort of his people.