God's Wind
The sermon emphasizes how facing life's challenges, likened to God's winds, can elevate and transform our spiritual journey.
Charles E. Cowman preaches about how God's contrary winds and sufferings in life can actually lift us to higher levels and bring us closer to God's heavens, just like birds facing the wind to rise higher. He compares sufferings to storms that cleanse the atmosphere and bring new life, changing the world. Cowman emphasizes that obstacles should not hinder us but rather set us singing, just like the wind finding its voice when hindered by obstacles.
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"I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth" (Isa. 58:14).
Those who fly through the air in airships tell us that one of the first rules they learn is to turn their ship toward the wind, and fly against it. The wind lifts the ship up to higher heights. Where did they learn that? They learned it from the birds. If a bird is flying for pleasure, it goes with the wind. But if the bird meets danger, it turns right around and faces the wind, in order that it may rise higher; and it flies away towards the very sun.
Sufferings are God's winds, His contrary winds, sometimes His strong winds. They are God's hurricanes, but, they take human life and lift it to higher levels and toward God's heavens.
You have seen in the summer time a day when the atmosphere was so oppressive that you could hardly breathe? But a cloud appeared on the western horizon and that cloud grew larger and threw out rich blessing for the world. The storm rose, lightning flashed and thunder pealed. The storm covered the world, and the atmosphere was cleansed; new life was in the air, and the world was changed.
Human life is worked out according to exactly the same principle. When the storm breaks the atmosphere is changed, clarified, filled with new life; and a part of heaven is brought down to earth. --Selected
Obstacles ought to set us singing. The wind finds voice, not when rushing across the open sea, but when hindered by the outstretched arms of the pine trees, or broken by the fine strings of an Aeolian harp. Then it has songs of power and beauty. Set your freed soul sweeping across the obstacles of life, through grim forests of pain, against even the tiny hindrances and frets that love uses, and it, too, will find its singing voice. --Selected
"Be like a bird that, halting in its flight,
Rests on a bough too slight.
And feeling it give way beneath him sings,
Knowing he hath wings."
Sermon Outline
- I points: - Introduction to God's Wind - The analogy of birds and airships - Facing challenges to rise higher
- II points: - Understanding sufferings as God's winds - The transformative power of storms - How adversity leads to spiritual elevation
- III points: - The cleansing effect of life's storms - Bringing heaven down to earth - The beauty found in obstacles
- IV points: - The voice of the wind through obstacles - Finding strength in struggles - Embracing life's challenges with joy
Key Quotes
“Sufferings are God's winds, His contrary winds, sometimes His strong winds.” — Charles E. Cowman
“When the storm breaks the atmosphere is changed, clarified, filled with new life; and a part of heaven is brought down to earth.” — Charles E. Cowman
“Set your freed soul sweeping across the obstacles of life, through grim forests of pain.” — Charles E. Cowman
Application Points
- Embrace challenges as opportunities for growth and elevation.
- Recognize that storms in life can lead to renewal and clarity.
- Find joy in the obstacles you face, as they can reveal your inner strength.