“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
Recently, I was woken in the night by the noise of the wind. In fact, I wasn’t just hearing the wind, but I could feel it too, coming in from the vent above my bed. It is a legal requirement in Japan to have these vents, and you are meant to keep them open even in winter!
Jesus uses the image of the wind in John 3:8 to describe the work of the Holy Spirit in bringing new birth to people. Just as we can’t tell where the wind comes from or where it is going, so it is with the Spirit. In fact, this verse is a form of word play since the Greek words for wind and Spirit are the same – pneuma.
When David and I moved to the area of Hiragishi in Sapporo in 2009, we were tasked with planting a church from scratch. This meant no local believers, no building, and no money. That spring we attended a series of lectures at the local Bible College by a Japanese pastor who had been involved in church planting, keen to learn whatever we could from his experience. The main thing we took away was not a methodology but rather his emphasis on John 3:8. He reminded us that God’s Spirit blows where it wills, but we can hear its sound. This became our guiding principle as we started the church plant, to listen for the sound of the wind – seeking to find where God was already working in that area. And we found him working in some quite unexpected places.
Now in Sakata, a city of 96,000 with fewer than 180 known Christians in six churches, the challenges are real. Most church members are elderly. For the church to survive, there is an urgent need for revitalisation, to reach the next generations with the gospel. It is easy to become discouraged. Recently, the church advertised a service to welcome new people. The pastor worked hard to prepare a special message, but there were no newcomers to hear it. There are a couple of men who attend regularly, but even after studying the Bible for some time, they say they are not yet able to believe in Jesus. The only thing that has increased recently is the number of church members in hospital and the number of funerals.
Yet we trust that God’s Spirit is at work in this area. I think of Paul in Corinth. Every week, he reasoned in the synagogue, trying to persuade people that Jesus was the Messiah, but the Jews opposed and abused him. Then, “One night the Lord spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city.’ So Paul stayed in Corinth for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God.” (Acts 18:9-11).
At the church’s weekly Bible study, we have been looking at Ecclesiastes. Seven times, the Teacher talks about human activity being like “chasing after the wind”. As we seek to share our faith with others, as we seek to reach out to our local communities, we are not to be doing things out of human wisdom or strength, activity for activity’s sake. This is like chasing after the wind. Rather, we are to ask for spiritual discernment. Where is the sound of the wind? Where is the Spirit already moving and working? How does God want us to join in what he is doing?
For me, that means taking time to ask God to help me hear the sound of his Spirit. It means going prayer walking regularly, asking him to show me what he wants me to be involved in, what ministries he wants me to start. It means praying for each encounter I have with people locally, that I may be the fragrance of Christ to them, and asking God for opportunities to speak.
Perhaps this is what some of us need today: not chasing after the wind with more activity done in our strength, but ears to hear where the wind of the Spirit is moving, that we can join in with what God is already doing in our communities and among our friends and family, trusting that he does indeed have “many people” who will come to believe in him.
By Lorna Ferguson